Defination of Syed

Society Religion & Philosophy
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What is defination of Syed ? Is calling some one syyidina same as calling them syed ? Is Sadqa haram on syeds ? Where do syeds start and who ammong sahaba is considered syed.

I am mostly intrested in a defination per hananfi (sunni) school of thought. So please mention in ur post that the defination is according to hanafi, jafri or another school of thought; because i am very sure the deifnations will vary.

Wasalam
Aqeel.

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Re: Defination of Syed

**i do NOT believe in zaat paat. in islam, there is no zaat paat [caste system]. ALL muslims are brothers and sisters in islaam. 'allaama Iqbal said it beautifully:

yuN to saiyad bhii ho, mirzaa bhii ho, afGhaan bhii ho
tum sabhii kuchh ho, bataao k musalmaan bhii ho!

kia zamaane men panapne kii yehii baateN haiN?**

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Re: Defination of Syed

إِنَّ اللَّهَ اصْطَفَىٰ آدَمَ وَنُوحًا وَآلَ إِبْرَاهِيمَ وَآلَ عِمْرَانَ عَلَى الْعَالَمِينَ
[Shakir 3:33] Surely Allah chose Adam and Nuh and the descendants of Ibrahim and the descendants of Imran above the nations.
[Pickthal 3:33] Lo! Allah preferred Adam and Noah and the Family of Abraham and the Family of 'Imran above (all His) creatures.
[Yusufali 3:33] Allah did choose Adam and Noah, the family of Abraham, and the family of 'Imran above all people

I know it will ruin my thread but Quran has chosen some nations above others. It is important to know your cast becoz Sadqa is Haram on syeds. (only deserving syeds can take sadqa from other syeds).

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Re: Defination of Syed

I don't believe in caste system either. I don't believe in discriminations even if someone is "syed" or not. BUT "syed" is not "caste" .. .. "syeds" are normally those who are descendants of prophet mohammed (s.a.w). Now, its another topic who are true syed and who are not. we should not go into such debate.

and yes thats true, sadqa/zakat is not applicable on syed.

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Re: Defination of Syed

^ Does being a Syed make a person any different from any other random muslim bloke? And does it matter if one is a true syed or a fake one? And why are they exempt from sadqa/zakat, unless they themselves are poor and deserving? Aren't all men created equal, the better one being who has a better ikhlaq? I really don't understand the whole syed drama.

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Re: Defination of Syed

i think it was better Taqwaa too.....

anyways coming to sayyid.....a genetic scientist or something did some research in pakistan.....and he selected blood samples from random 'syeds'......

when they did Gene marking.......only 3% had the 'arab' gene...which only shows whether they are descendents of arabs or not.....let alone the prophet's family....

I don't buy that syed are above other muslims.....if you do that you are basically promoting the 'brahmin vs shooder' thing...its just a gimmic for the 'shah gees' to make fool out of people

even there were something to it.......it is impossible to determine whether someone is a 'true' syed or not...

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Re: Defination of Syed

u mean most of the syed frm pak r “do number” :cb: i totally agree with you … Taqwa should b standard rather thn ths discrminiation over the family nam bla bla bla
I have alot of frdzzzz who dont even pray n call themselves as syed … :smack2:

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Re: Defination of Syed

^ Yeh something along those lines man. Better character I would say. I hear this Syed this Syed that BS so much from our desi people that it gets really annoying. Oh and if only arabs were the benchmark for taqwa!

Not to offend anyone here, but in my college days the guy who sold us weed was a syed. How awesome is that.

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Re: Defination of Syed

being syed does not give some "superiority" over anyone else .. but it is listed in "ahadeeth" books that you can't give zakat to syed.

I agree 100% with you at only 3% had the arab gene. Could you please share that news .. or give me the exact reference .. .. I have lots of "syed" friends .. :p ..

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Re: Defination of Syed

Everyone knows, you start out a Nai, if you gain some wealth you become a Mughal and if you manage to pray 5 times a day and have money you turn into a Syed.

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Re: Defination of Syed

It was a technical forum where muslim genetecists were talking about the issue....the guy said his professor couldn't publish the paper because it would cause a lot of trouble for them...

Syeds don't have to pray 5 times a day.....they are exempt from everything.......and wealth comes by acting as 'syed' and 'shah' ...... the 'nazraana'......i hear crazy stories about how much money poor/uneducated/jaahil people give to these &^&^%..

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Re: Defination of Syed

I have never heard or saw anything like that .. .. there are not exemptions for syed or whoever he is when it comes to islam. the only thing that i know is that no one can give them "sadqa/zakat".

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Re: Defination of Syed

i was being sarcastic........:D

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Re: Defination of Syed

my bad :) - I wasnt expecting sarcasm in this thread .. :p nvm ..

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Re: Defination of Syed

I was being sarcastic too, sorry. I was just making the point that labels like Syed and Mughal are quite superificial and usually used by people who came from lower castes who gained money/influence and therefore changed their identities to fit in with the "upper classes".

People actually related to the Prophet Muhammad(saw) in South Asia are a very tiny population, probably less than a 100. There are significant number of populations in Pakistan related to Arab soldiers however...

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Re: Defination of Syed

I doubt even that … every second caste (zaat) claims to be descendents of Arabs…it might be true for very very very very small number of people…

and all these names make me go :omg:

Quraishi, Bukhaari, Haashimi, Hejaazi ..like are these people even serious?

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Re: Defination of Syed

Actually arab soldiers were widely disseminated around the sindh and south punjab areas, and married into local Hindu populations, it's seen in DNA surveys of these areas.

I don't know about the people who carry names like Quraishis, Bukhaaris or w/e

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Re: Defination of Syed

What he said^^. It doesn't matter one bit who's Syed or who's not. The vast Syed population of Pakistan would be hard pressed to try and prove their lineage. I have seen relationships and potential marriages break down because of the Syed BS that some people profess (not marrying their daughters to non-Syeds, etc).

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Re: Defination of Syed

Oh well hopefully natural selection will take out these people who claim to be Syed and exploit the status, I've heard they like to marry their cousins a lot more than mirpuris...

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Re: Defination of Syed

Intersting Sufi perspective:

The search for the rightly guided line to the Mahdi (AS) ... if you see a Syed claimant and his actions are bad then not only him, but his family are ruled out from being the ones who we should expect the Mahdi (AS) to be born to. But if we see righteous Syeds then we should protect them and serve them because they suddenly become amongst those people who have a strong chance of being ancestors of the Mahdi and decendents of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW), by serving such people we can gain in some of the reward for helping the Mahdi, in turn Muhammad (SAW) and in turn helping Islam. Remember helping the pious is a great reward, helping the rightly guided is the greatest opportunity all of us have by serving those who could be the ancestors of the rightly guided.
Not all Syeds are in the chain of parentage to Mahdi obviously and those which definitely are not are those who are bad examples of Muslims, because it is the Sufi understanding that the line of prophets, the family of prophets, and scholars related to them and awliyya related to them are the candidates for the line only if their persona seems like it is sublime and protected, i.e. they are very pious.