"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 gradually replaced by Allah Hafiz, promoted and fueled by the "Saudi-return" biddah busters. We can identify many such cases of cultural rejections among Indian Muslims. 

The confusion and lack of understanding about this beautiful principle has made us ignorant about our own geographical roots. The need of the hour is to start thinking about this and educate ourselves about the true spirit of Islam.

Until then, Khuda Hafiz !!!

Comments

  1. Mudassir Razvi15 January 2022 at 21:52

    Thought provoking!!! This small snippet really is a food for thought...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Omar Ibrahim Hussain M15 January 2022 at 22:35

    Nice short read. Quote worthy was the term - 'Biddah busters' like Ghost Busters! 😶

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Shoaib Mohammed15 January 2022 at 22:46

      Yes, we have "biddah busters", " kufr busters", "taghoot busters", etc etc here... 😉

      Delete
  3. mohammed ali15 January 2022 at 23:05

    Nice one..

    ReplyDelete
  4. Unknown16 January 2022 at 01:13

    Keep writing bro.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Dr Ali16 January 2022 at 03:32

    Perseverance is persistence

    ReplyDelete
  6. Qais Alhasan16 January 2022 at 08:32

    A short writing with a lot of meaning.

    ReplyDelete
  7. zahoor ahmed kazi16 January 2022 at 10:48

    Good one.. but I think more than biddah, people think its modern and trendy. Like Ramdan Kareem is something new and attractive than Ramzan Mubarak.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Shoaib Mohammed16 January 2022 at 11:29

      Thank you, Zahoor bhai. The replacment of Khuda Hafiz with Allah Hafiz isn't anything about a modern and trendy name. It involves unnecessary religious arguments and there is of course the Arab-Persian cultural and political conflict involved as well.

      Delete
  8. MyVoice16 January 2022 at 10:59

    A good snippet on valuing and retaining what's originally ours - culturally/ethnically/racially/topographically while encompassing other alien cultural/unique practices without compromising that which is ours.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Yusha Kareem23 January 2022 at 05:37

    JazakAllah Khair for sharing the thought provoking piece Shoaib Bhai.
    Indeed 'busting' of each other over such matters is something we as Muslim brothers (having different languages and dialects) must avoid.
    By the way, your piece reminded me of a verse in the Quran (in Surah Ibrahim verse number 4) ... your piece got me into re-reading this verse again and contemplating on it.

    ReplyDelete

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