Indian takeaway owners donate food to homeless people in Portsmouth to celebrate Eid al-Adha

Jakir and Lynsey Hussain, who run the Indian Summer takeaway in Park Gate, dished up lamb biryani and samosas to people being supported by Helping Hands Portsmouth, as part of their charitable giving during the Islamic festival.

During the festival of Eid al-Adha, Muslims celebrate Ibrahim, who was willing to sacrifice his son Ismail to God - who replaced Ismail with a lamb which was sacrificed instead.

Traditionally, Muslims at this time will separate an animal into three parts, giving one part to their family, one for neighbours and one for poorer people.

Jakir, who has owned the takeaway for seven years, said: ‘It’s a hard time at the moment all over the world. Normally we do it in Bangladesh and this year I wanted to do it here.

‘I cooked it in my takeaway, I really enjoyed it. I liked to do something for this community and those people who can’t even eat. They were so nice, they were really excited. You can see they’re happy.’

This kind of giving is not unusual for the takeaway, which offered 50 per cent off food for NHS workers during lockdown, and donated meals for 70 people to NHS staff.

Shipa Ahmed Khan, who linked Jakir with Helping Hands, said: ‘People really enjoyed the food and Jakir loved cooking.

‘There’s a lot going on that people don’t shout about because people are humble about it. A lot of Muslim people will donate and keep it very quiet.’

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Lynsey Hussain, Jakir’s wife, created the semolina dessert firni which went down well - despite the fact she dropped it and had to remake the whole thing.

Lynsey added: ‘It was really nice, they’re really appreciative and they loved it. It was really nice to see everyone so happy and it was so humbling. We do this kind of thing all the time and we have never told anyone.

‘We do face quite a lot of discrimination so we thought we should talk about what we do. By telling people, it might change some people’s opinions - we’re just normal people.’

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