"The Arabs have their own customs, and the Persians have theirs, and God knoweth which is best!"
The great Imam Al-Ghazzali in his The Alchemy of Happiness aptly describes the beautiful sunnah of Islam to respect and conform to local cultural practices that do not directly contravene the Shariah. In this context, the following words of wisdom by the great Imam left a deep impression on my bounded intellect. "It is true that the Companions were not in the habit of rising on the entrance of the Prophet, as they disliked this practice; but where it has become established, and abstaining from it would cause annoyance, it is better to conform to it. The Arabs have their own customs, and the Persians have theirs, and God knoweth which is best." This kept me wondering of how many local customs and linguistic terms we have deserted in the pretext of them being "unIslamic". One simple example is the abandonment of the term Khuda Hafiz (God protect you) by the Urdu speaking Indian Muslims. A few years back, Khuda Hafiz was the usual term for bidding adieu. It was grad