Picnic and barbecue celebrates Eid al-Adha

For the second time in as many years, Quba Islamic Center of Chaska hosted a picnic and barbecue in celebration of Eid al-Adha. The young faith community includes several residents of Eden Prairie among its members.

Faraz Currimbhoy, a 2003 Eden Prairie High School graduate who now lives in Chaska, was among those who helped start the community. “Our community is growing, and we want to be together,” he said. “It’s not always about prayer and things; it’s about being regular people.”

Having a space for prayer does factor into the community’s desire for a permanent location. Quba is currently meeting in rented space in downtown Chaska, with about 100 people regularly attending, Currimbhoy said, but a prayer service at Chaska’s Pioneer Ridge Middle School about two weeks before the June 30 picnic drew around 600 people. Imam Asad Zaman said the community is still looking for a new space.

When there’s a permanent location, Zaman said, Quba will receive a permanent imam; right now, the community is receiving shared services from the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, of which Zaman is the executive director. “It’s a vibrant, young community,” of about 40-50 families, with an average age of 14 or 15, Zaman said.

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Several of those families live in Eden Prairie or have ties to EP, but find it an easy commute to Chaska. For instance, the barbecue’s head chef, Nazir Bagha, is an Eden Prairie resident. “I love to cook,” Bagha said, noting he is “no stranger” to cooking and grilling at home.

Bagha volunteered to marinate all of the chicken needed for last year’s picnic to maintain a consistent flavor and retained his grill chef duties for 2024. Although he recently retired from New York Life Insurance, Bagha said he’s maintained his passion for cooking after early-career jobs flipping burgers at Red Barn restaurant and in the kitchens of Minneapolis’ Fair Oaks hotel and the Bloomington Marriott. He was a crepe chef in Bloomington, among other duties, before leaving for the U.S. Marine Corps.

At the Eid picnic, Bagha was in charge of grilling burgers, hot dogs, sweet corn and chicken. The chicken’s marinade, he said, was a chef’s secret, but did let on that it includes “some masala, salt, peppers, things like that.”

Other foods available at the picnic included watermelon, rice, chocolate chip cookies, ice cream, baklava, and more, with lettuce, tomatoes, and onions available as burger toppings. Activities included playing at the nearby softball fields, a cricket game, badminton, sidewalk chalk drawings, and visiting with friends and family. For children’s story time, Eden Prairie’s Francesca Pagan-Umar read the picture books “Amira’s Totally Chocolate World” and “Zak and His Little Lies,” both by J. Samia Mair.

A soccer activity, said Islam Atayev, was a bit more organized than last year. Atayev, a Minnetonka High School graduate and former soccer player, said he and some others informally started some soccer play among children last year so their parents had a chance to visit without interruptions. “This year, we were a bit more organized. We brought balls and cones,” Atayev said. Fourteen-year-old Naim, a certified soccer referee, helped as 17 children, ranging in age from 8 to nearly 16, kicked the balls around the cones in soccer drills.

Prior to Quba’s 2023 and 2024 picnics in Chaska parks, said Abdul Khan, who is retired from a 13-year career at Eden Prairie’s Target store, community members used to get together for Eid celebrations with barbecues at each other’s houses.

Now, said Farmoona Khatoon of Chaska, it’s nice to have a larger gathering. “People get together and see each other, share their problems and joy and just enjoy being together,” she said. “It’s a very auspicious occasion for us.”

Eid al-Adha commemorates the prophet Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son at God’s request. Although Abraham was willing, God replaced the son at the last minute with a sheep. The story is cited in the Quran’s 37th surah (chapter), verses 101-111 and also appears in the 22nd chapter of Genesis, a component of both the Christian Bible and the Jewish Torah.

“Allah has provided so many blessings,” said Khatoon, with the picnic and barbecue celebration providing “a sense of community.”