Tuesday, July 23

Wilful Ignorance – the case of Allah Hafiz

Note the usage of Allah hafiz son. Don't say anything to them but you know that they are people who don't know their culture and more importantly are suffering from an inferiority complex. The number of people who are more Arab than Arabs or claiming descent from the prophet are legion.  Fascinating. Heh. 

that said, the little I know of Urdu and Farsi leaves me constantly amazed. The amount of interactions we have had with Iran and its glorious culture is amazing. Speak to any Iranian and see how they react to Arabs but that’s just me being naughty. More seriously, I would say that a very significant part of the cultural history of India, specially with respect to the Mughal Empire, has a huge debt to pay to Iran and Farsi. Is that why India keeps on helping Iran with its sanctions? :)

Love

Baba. 

Wilful Ignorance | OPEN Magazine
http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/arts-letters/wilful-ignorance#.UeVg_5QfKpw.facebook


20 July 2013

Urdu originated as a mix of several languages spoken during the Sultanate era in Delhi. Those who reject the language now are rejecting their own legacy

BY Omair Ahmed EMAIL AUTHOR(S)

Tagged Under | Delhi | legacy | Urdu

LIFE & LETTERS 

Urdu was an eclectic mix of Turki, Farsi, Braj, Khadi Boli and other local dialects that emerged during the Sultanate era in Delhi and its environs from the 12th century onwards.

I know that it is a moral failing, but I have never been able to summon any sympathy for the ignorant. In this day and age there are so many ways and means of getting information that it takes a great deal of effort to stay ignorant. Those who stay without knowledge in today’s world are those who have made an effort not to know, and it is difficult to sympathise with this.

One example of such wilful ignorance is the increasing use of the term ‘Allah hafez’ among South Asian Muslims. This is a twisting of the Farsi term ‘Khudahafez’, which translates as ‘May God take care of you’ and is used as goodbye. In fact, ‘goodbye’ is itself a contraction of the old English term ‘God be with ye’, so it’s an almost exact translation. But for some people, ‘khudahafez’ no longer suffices, and instead of ‘May God take care of you’, they prefer to say, ‘May Allah take care of you’.

It is a distinction without a difference. ‘Khuda’ is Farsi for ‘God’ and the Arabic term ‘Allah’ is a contraction of the words ‘al ilah’—or ‘the god’. Insisting on ‘Allah, not khuda’, thus, is the equivalent of insisting on ‘God, not God’. At best, it signals a preference for Arabic instead of Farsi. What sounds silly is when an Arabic term ‘Allah’ is forced into a Farsi phrase, leaving it neither Farsi nor Arabic but a mockery of both.

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