Sara Ali Khan Faces Fatwa Over Kedarnath Temple Visit

For Sara Ali Khan, Kedarnath has long been both a personal pilgrimage and a public talking point. Her latest darshan on Sunday, October 25, has pulled the actor back into a religious controversy after a Uttar Pradesh-based Islamic cleric issued a fatwa over her worship at the Hindu shrine.

A darshan becomes a headline

In a video statement, Maulana Mufti Shahabuddin Razvi Barelvi said worshipping according to another religion was “impermissible and haram under Sharia” and urged Sara to seek forgiveness from Allah and repent “like a guilty person”.

The actor was seen standing in a queue for darshan before offering prayers and leaving the temple with folded hands. The fatwa arrived after that visit, renewing an old argument around a star’s personal faith.

Why the Kedarnath connection runs deep

Sara, daughter of Amrita Singh and Saif Ali Khan, has visited Kedarnath regularly for the past four years. Her connection is also cinematic: her 2018 debut film Kedarnath, opposite the late Sushant Singh Rajput, faced opposition from right-wing groups in Uttarakhand before its release.

A fatwa is an Islamic legal opinion or ruling issued by a qualified scholar, not a legal decree. It carries community weight but does not override Indian law. For fans, the clash between Sara’s visible devotion and the cleric’s interpretation of Sharia is where the story becomes complicated.

• October 25: Sara stands in queue and offers prayers at Kedarnath.
• The response: A UP cleric issues a video fatwa, calls the act haram and asks for repentance.
• The context: She has visited Kedarnath for four years and this is not the first religious pushback.

The temple’s rulebook

The Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee (BKTC) has made it mandatory for non-Hindu visitors who wish to offer prayers at either shrine to submit an affidavit. BKTC Chief Executive Officer Sohan Singh Rangar confirmed that Sara’s team had filed the required document before the visit.

That affidavit is the practical layer in this dust-up. It shows the temple was not caught off guard and that protocols were followed. The religious objection, however, is not about paperwork; it is about whether a Muslim public figure should participate in another faith’s rituals.

What this means for fans

The moment is less about law than about visibility. Because Sara is a Bollywood star, a private act of prayer becomes a public Rorschach test. Some fans will see a young woman honouring a place she loves; others will debate the religious lines drawn around her.

For the audience, the takeaway is simple: the temple committee accepted her visit under its rules, and the fatwa remains a religious opinion, not a state action. What follows is a wider conversation about faith, celebrity and the right to pray in a deeply plural country.

Source: The Times of India