Friday, May 29, 2009

Apnay wala

"Tammay jamnagri choo" na "tu mavai choo" ohh “African khoja choo”!

Got puzzled? No need, these r just routine questions asked and discussed frequently when two strangers meet in our khoja society.

The entire concept of social community begins as (i) Human, then it is bifurcated down to (ii) Religion, further on we have different school of thoughts in our religion so it is divided into (iii) Sect, also we have geographical boundaries in this world thus we are separated with (iv) Nationality, of course we speak different languages so we are estranged by (v) Language

Is that it??

No it’s not, if someone meets above five criterias then we give the title "Apni Biradari Ka" to the person but the distance from "Apni Biradari Ka" to "Apnay Wala" has some more criteria.

Syed or Non Syed, ohh if non-syed then, Khoja? Great! Khoja, which khoja? Katchi, Katihyawari, Panitali, Mavai, Jamnagri or Sindhi khoja?

Cool now he is "Apnay Wala"

Give me a break sir!

Why is so that when our ladies start searching for the spouse for their child the most emphasis is on the katchi/kathiyawari stuff. People today are talking about global village, inter-marriages between different nationality and different cultures are so common now and we are still stuck up on the areas of Gujrat we belong to.

"saw (100) qasai ek taraf aur ek (1) mavai ek taraf"

“Sanp (snake) chooro aur pehle sindhi maroo”

What the hell is all this.

When we all are Muslims and all of us believe in “Ali-un-wali-ullah”, we belong to same culture and same geographical location then why are we so nosy about this whole cast in its own cast thing?

I was astonished to hear some similar statements from few elder Khoja ladies, lemme quote some phrases

“My father advised me not to ever marry any of our family members to people who belong to Panitali”

“I can marry my child to anyone but not Jamnagri”

Oh Allah, where are we in this 21st century, still the racism on its peak. If this racism would be something like not marrying to Jew or Hindu or any other school of thought in Muslims, it could be justified but not marrying our children to someone who just not belong to the area which I am from, that’s the limit man.

When I get in more detail of this “cast in a cast” issue, believe me, I discovered people giving preferences to their neighbors in sending “Ramzan Iftari” and “Shab-e-Barat” nayaz just because of difference in “cast in a cast”.

Can we stop this racism or it’s really necessary for us as a Khoja to be divided into more sub groups?

Think !

14 comments:

  1. very well said .its all soo true...believe me this is a curse which is grasping our community dangerously...it is time that we the young generation should bring a change!

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  2. Assalaam
    mashallah so well said.. and so true.
    and also sara hussain you also so right.
    all the differences are made due to lack of knowledge as many or elders have never read Quran with its meaning .just tilawat ..and so never understand what GOD says to us and what HE wants us to become.
    clearly Quran says that all human being are equal and one who are on His right path are mutaqeen..
    so differenciate among yourself according to who are bad and who are good according to Quran.
    May all the shias and sunnis read Quran with meaning in their language and understand it..
    it will be a different world after that.and you all will start respecting all humans.
    person who is good in another person's eyes when he is humble and not lazy.
    so please get up and do good for others and start helping in the house chores..and make a home happy by helping your children and wife at home.and love them and read translation of QURAN everyday at home infront of your family. do it.
    May GOD give you all hidayat .
    and for all ladies in muslim society i must say start reading the meaning of Quran and start working in your house yourself and dont put everything on masi and house boy..you will gain weight and deseases...thats what we see all over today.its a shame.
    help ypur husband in good things. and make a healthy family with good understanding of the way of Quran.
    start doing that, maybe then allah will help us if he sees good in us..otherwise whats happening is because of all this ignorance.and dirt.
    salaam n duain.

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  3. Conclusion is that culprits are always ladies, men doesn't bother abt these differences at all

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  4. I do not agree with u hasan. Read the article once again and particularly the following sentence
    “My father advised me not to ever marry any of our family members to people who belong to Panitali”

    "My Father" means a male person.

    What I think is that these racism is in ones nature, it does not make any difference that its a male or female. there are many females also who do not bother abt it while several men do.

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  5. Excellent article. Keep it up.

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  6. awesome thoroughly enjoyed this one .. its all so real

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  7. Are you kidding me !!

    You all approve this writer's thought for "Selective Racism" !!

    What the hell is wrong with you all !!

    the writer writes ... "If this racism would be something like not marrying to Jew or Hindu or any other school of thought in Muslims, it could be justified"

    How can something unislamic be acceptibly justified !?

    On the other hand, (lets justify this), this is done since the mindset of different casts are different. Why would someone want to give their girl or boy in a different cast when they know their girl/boy has not been brought up with the same ideas, opinions, practices. It is a recipe for disaster. For divorce.

    Solution!? Let the couple get to know each other. Over time. Let THEM decide who they want to be with. Bibi Khadija chose Prohphet herself. Imam Ali desired to marry Bibi Fatime and thus took his proposal to Prophet himself.

    Ugh !

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  8. Nice reply Anonymous but you did not get the essence of this blog. You are 100% correct that when girl/guy is brought up in one society he shld get married in his/her respective society BUT the article is talking about similar society, kathiyawair or kachi etc. are from same society, same culture, same state etc. but then too ppl have racism among themselves.

    Further on with that hindu and jew thing, what is wrong with that, what made u think that I am in favor of marrying a jew or hindu?

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  9. I do not even know the difference in castes around us, apologetically, but I am sure this is done to marry within caste, else it makes no sense. Kathiawari and Kachi have to have some difference else they wouldn't be called by two different names, would they ? :)

    As for the jew hindu comment, I did not think of you being in favor of anything, rather I was stating that either reject all racism and stick to Quran to define who one can marry (Ahl-e-Kitab etc.) or let socities follow their norm and not make an issue out of nothing.

    While studying in US, i saw black students having most of their friends and hanging mostly with other black students. Same for Arabs, Persians, Indians, Pakistanis. Allah in Quran also proclaims that He did indeed create us all with differences so that we may recognize each other. As long as one does not claim to be superior to the other, it should be ok, as all human beings are created equal.

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  10. This blog is for Khoja Shia Isna Asheri Community known as Twelver Khojas also.
    why this blog is not for all Shia Isna Asheri ?
    this is also called racism. I hope you will take it positively.

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  11. Its rightly said that 'A community is uplifted by the education recieved by its people'. This can be proved by this example: that Memon community opened a study centre/library many years back for its youth, which is 24 HOURS Open for Memons..where the entry is Restricted ONLY to 'MEMON students!' The result of this is the professionals being produced in All fields by Memon community. I am a student of 3rd year in a University and like me many of my friends and other students DIRELY feel the BASIC NEED for a study Library..we dont even have a singele full time library in our heavily / densely populated area SOLDIER BAZAR. Previously we used to have Library..but now its services are closed also since four years . I dont know Why ???
    Its high time that our ELECTED leaders put an eye over this Really CRITICAL Issue..Our KPSIAJ should do some thing about it !!!

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  12. hahahah .. my dear "voice of people" if this blog would be for "Shia Isna Asheri" your comment would be that "why this is not for ummat-e-muslimah" and the story will go on ... i dont think that having a khoja blog is something which can be called racism

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  13. i can not stop laughing but you are right it was really a big issue till late 90's and early 2000. By the grace of Allah it is now decreasing.
    "saw (100) qasai ek taraf aur ek (1) mavai ek taraf"
    hahahahaha .. interesting

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  14. salamalykum, I do not know why people send message by name Anonymous.It is but natural that we all first love our relatives, friends and jamaat so starting any group activity is not wrong but a good in so many ways.
    But if it comes to islamic activities like helping poor, needy, supporting our brother is Islam then we all comes in a same category. Holy prophet(s.a.w) never issued any instruction that only arab are brother of eachother or only ajam are brother of each other. We all shia ithnashree are brother of eachother and have right on eachother.

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