Akbarbhai,
aaap to bade khayaalse sabh padhte hon! meri umar hain 58.
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*Originally posted by Arvind: *
In closing let me point out one thing. My Pakistani and Indian muslim friends would consider ignoring my salaam alekum the same as spitting in my face and no haddith has aksed them to do that.
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Arvind --- I apologize if I offended you, that was not the intent..
The point is if you greeted them with Islamic Greeting then they can/should greet you back the same way (Islamic Greeting) but if a Muslim was the initiator of the greeting then he can't greet a non-Muslim with Islamic Greeting, but he can use any other greeting... No one is denying that the greeting should be ignored or not initiated. Now using your scenario of going in front of clients .... imagine post 9/11 attitudes ... you go in front of a board to get budget approved and you start with "Assalam-o-Alykum" .... (this has no relevance to this discussion but I threw it in there since you used this scenario)
ChaChoo,
Thik hain bhai. I won't expect you to wish me salaam alekum if it bothers you that much. Just say hello.
In pakistan, due to the overwhelming islamization of society, all the non-muslims say assalaam alaikum and of course muslims reply back wa alaikum assalam. Non muslims even use muslim phrases like inshallah, mashallah and have incorporated allah's name for god. This is mostly true in urban cities, where interaction between muslims and non-muslims is very strong. I can not speak for rural areas.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Arvind: *
ChaChoo,
Thik hain bhai. I won't expect you to wish me salaam alekum if it bothers you that much. Just say hello.
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I appreciate your understanding.. if I am proven wrong (based on Quran and Hadith) I will be first one to greet you with the Islamic Greeting..
Imdad Ali,
Bro, my observation is exactly same as yours for India. I went to university where there were a lot of kids who were either muslim or from northern India. These people were very used to using Islamic greetings. I picked it up there and have used them regularly ever since with my muslim friends. When exceptionally, a Hindu friend of mine objected to my Khuda haafiz, I quickly changed it to SriRam hafiz. Matlab to vohi hain na?
BTW never has any muslim objected to my using islamic greetings.