Re: If Islam is a source of knowledge…
Mujhe Desi honay pe garv hai.
Arabs are our brothers and despite some misunderstandings and odd occasions where we fall out I respect them but no Desi Muslim wants to be an Arab, we’re Muslim not Arab, Arabs don’t have monopoly over Islam, in Islam everyone is equal regardless of race, language and tribe, unlike in Hinduism we are not made slaves or masters based on what family we’re born into over (which we have no control), in our religion it’s our own conscious actions and beliefs which determine our status.
When Islam came it had a lot against parts of Arab culture as well and abolished a lot of the things which were in conflict with it, it abolished pagan ‘deities’, pagan festivals, anything even remotely related to Arab paganism, that was one of the reasons it met a lot of opposition from the polytheistic Arabs because they were intoxicated with the same heritage bull**** a lot of our people are.
How can you say I follow Arab culture? I’ve never eaten Arab food, worn Arab dress, had a conversation in Arabic or bought an Arabic music CD. I wear kurta pajama/dhoti, eat rass-malai, drink lassi, talk in Hindko & Hindi/Urdu, listen to north-Indian/eastern-Pakistani music…
The only thing I practice similar to Arab culture is the Arabic language in worship which is the lingua franca of Islam, I strongly believe Arabs do not have monopoly over this language just because they were born to it, this language belongs to every single Muslim not just the Arabs. If you and me can learn English for worldly reasons because it is the lingua franca of the world and we have nor probs using it more often than we do our mother tongues then what’s wrong with learning Arabic for the sake of worshipping literally the way my God and Prophet have taught me? Not that God doesn’t understand other languages, I mostly pray in Hindko, the sermons at my Mosque are at least partially Urdu/Hindi/Bengali, but ritual contact prayers, recitation, meditating on God’s name etc. are done in Arabic, our Arabic.