Not very long ago ...
Or was it once upon a time that one had the liberty to be more liberal with words and thoughts , as in there was no "curfew" on expression in most places.
Or was it once upon a time that one had the liberty to be more liberal with words and thoughts , as in there was no "curfew" on expression in most places.
My Amma used to go shopping for groceries for the week and often carry the loaded cloth bags for some distance herself.
On her return she would sit down , relaxing , a cup of tea in her hand , she would remark with a slight smile :
"Bhai jihaad kar ke aa rahey haiN 😀!!!"
The shopping bags were made of cloth , and the language was made up of healthy humour and sensitivity often laced with poetry that was pleasantly sufi in character.
So , to us children , "Jihaad" was just a word that meant some kind of "hard work"
And I can say with certainty that for our elders too it meant only that much
Who could have ever imagined back then that Jihad was to become such a terrorizing word in times to come
Chatting with a cousin the other day our conversation , as usual drifted to the achche-achche puraane din , we both having lost our parents in the last couple of years , now get nostalgic more often 😔
In response to my above memory she narrated one of her friend's story
This girl had taught her toddler that if he had to do potty , he would say :
"Amma jihad karna hai !!!"
(I guess the child must have been severely constipated 😉😀😀)
But , that apart , what is interesting to note is the humour and class in language
Lekin this was years ago ... ab aaj ke daur ke hawaale se zara gehraai meiN sochtey haiN ...
Why didn't the word " Jihaad" frighten us back then ?
Why and who allowed some outsiders to snatch away the beauty and humour from our language ?
How , when and who chained our feet , tied our tongues and caged our minds ?
How many of us grudged the throwing out of "Z" from Ramzaan ?
Did we make enough noise when our "Khuda Hafiz " was being replaced by "Allah Hafiz " ?
On her return she would sit down , relaxing , a cup of tea in her hand , she would remark with a slight smile :
"Bhai jihaad kar ke aa rahey haiN 😀!!!"
The shopping bags were made of cloth , and the language was made up of healthy humour and sensitivity often laced with poetry that was pleasantly sufi in character.
So , to us children , "Jihaad" was just a word that meant some kind of "hard work"
And I can say with certainty that for our elders too it meant only that much
Who could have ever imagined back then that Jihad was to become such a terrorizing word in times to come
Chatting with a cousin the other day our conversation , as usual drifted to the achche-achche puraane din , we both having lost our parents in the last couple of years , now get nostalgic more often 😔
In response to my above memory she narrated one of her friend's story
This girl had taught her toddler that if he had to do potty , he would say :
"Amma jihad karna hai !!!"
(I guess the child must have been severely constipated 😉😀😀)
But , that apart , what is interesting to note is the humour and class in language
Lekin this was years ago ... ab aaj ke daur ke hawaale se zara gehraai meiN sochtey haiN ...
Why didn't the word " Jihaad" frighten us back then ?
Why and who allowed some outsiders to snatch away the beauty and humour from our language ?
How , when and who chained our feet , tied our tongues and caged our minds ?
How many of us grudged the throwing out of "Z" from Ramzaan ?
Did we make enough noise when our "Khuda Hafiz " was being replaced by "Allah Hafiz " ?
Do we even realize that most of us don't say "Allah / Khuda ka shukr hai " any more ...
It has been replace by "Alhamdolillah , Subhanallah " and more of such Arabic stuff , often trying to copy the Arabic accent too 😞
Does this change ever alarm us ?
It should have , but it never has ...
Honestly as believing Muslims it is not enough to take the easy way out saying that Jihad was just another word that we thought meant "hard work" and that we are shocked to note that today it is being used in such horrendous terms.
It has been replace by "Alhamdolillah , Subhanallah " and more of such Arabic stuff , often trying to copy the Arabic accent too 😞
Does this change ever alarm us ?
It should have , but it never has ...
Honestly as believing Muslims it is not enough to take the easy way out saying that Jihad was just another word that we thought meant "hard work" and that we are shocked to note that today it is being used in such horrendous terms.
When will the believers start to see their
contribution ( and take responsibility ) in how the politics of the
community they claim membership of , has changed so devastatingly ?
Because these seemingly trivial changes penetrated in our daily parlance rather innocuously through the well-to-do middle and upper class Muslim NRIs , both from the US and Arab Countries
And were as eagerly lapped up by the desi Muslims as that joke called "hijaab" which only covers the hair of an otherwise very stylish and invitingly fashionable female.
Because these seemingly trivial changes penetrated in our daily parlance rather innocuously through the well-to-do middle and upper class Muslim NRIs , both from the US and Arab Countries
And were as eagerly lapped up by the desi Muslims as that joke called "hijaab" which only covers the hair of an otherwise very stylish and invitingly fashionable female.
And soon the new words became a prestigious addition to the vocabulary of the "modern" Muslim community
Either way - whether we actively contributed to it or stood by the wayside minding our own business , believers are complicit in how the "barbaric others" ( like these terrorist groups ) have been using religious discourse to legitimize their actions and building organizations geared towards destruction.
Looking back I feel that language is among the most powerful medium of controlling peoples' thinking.
And it is also the first to fall prey to the heinous agendas of vested interests
The beginning is apparently harmless.
But builds up gradually and the pitiable irony is that the victim never realizes what went wrong and where
Coming back to what I have said initially in this article ... back then shopping bags were made of cloth , and the language was made up of healthy humour and sensitivity often laced with poetry that was pleasantly sufi in character.
Plastic took over the world as gradually and as dangerously as the right wing across religions is taking over the human race
The World is just about waking up to the menace of plastic ...
Either way - whether we actively contributed to it or stood by the wayside minding our own business , believers are complicit in how the "barbaric others" ( like these terrorist groups ) have been using religious discourse to legitimize their actions and building organizations geared towards destruction.
Looking back I feel that language is among the most powerful medium of controlling peoples' thinking.
And it is also the first to fall prey to the heinous agendas of vested interests
The beginning is apparently harmless.
But builds up gradually and the pitiable irony is that the victim never realizes what went wrong and where
Coming back to what I have said initially in this article ... back then shopping bags were made of cloth , and the language was made up of healthy humour and sensitivity often laced with poetry that was pleasantly sufi in character.
Plastic took over the world as gradually and as dangerously as the right wing across religions is taking over the human race
The World is just about waking up to the menace of plastic ...
