Allah Hafiz vs.

Khuda Hafiz Submitted by admin3 on 7 June 2011 - 9:29pm Articles Indian Muslim By Almas Kiran Shamim, I am a Muslim and I am an Indian. I was born and brought up in this country, spe aking Urdu/Hindi and using terms like Namaaz* and Roza**. I have no desire to sudden ly change my language because some people find it inappropriate. I absolutely hate the de-Indianization of Indian Muslims, saying, for example, Ramadan Kareem inste ad of Ramzaan Mubarak, and salaat instead of namaaz. Today, someone told me that Khuda hafiz*** is not the correct word to be used, and we should rather say Allah hafiz. The reason given was that Parsis also use Khuda hafiz. I have heard the same ridiculous notion earlier as well. I am very sure th at a lot of people reading this also have similar views. In any case, I make it clear to anyone and everyone reading this post, that I, Almas, will not stop say ing Khuda hafiz. An auto in Delhi street with "Khuda Hafiz" written in Hindi.

Firstly, for the benefit of the readers, Khuda is a word incorporated into Urdu fr om Persian (like many other Urdu words). If you do a thorough search, you will f ind that the word Khuda has a very elaborate meaning from the powerful one to the on to whom sacrifices are offered. To keep it simple, we shall use the commonest me aning for which the term Khuda is used, i.e., God. When I say Khuda, I mean my God, my Creator, the One to whom I shall return. Whe n I say Khuda, I mean my Allah. However, obviously, not everyone in the world sp eaks Urdu, and not everyone in the world calls Allah Khuda. Just like not everyone in the world speaks English, not everyone in the world would call Allah God. Howe ver, I am not everyone in the world, and I do call my God Khuda. It doesnt matter to me who uses this word for what other purposes. There are people who say that Khud a should not be used because a lot of other people use this term for their God. Urdu is a language, so is Persian, and anyone who speaks in this language can us e Khuda for his God. A Christian from Pakistan can use Khuda, a Zoroastrian from Ira n can use Khuda. This, by no means, implies that a Muslim from either Pakistan or Iran cannot use Khuda. When you say that Khuda can also mean the Christian God or the Parsi God or even t he Sikh or Hindu God, you are actually trying to say that there IS a Christian G od, a Parsi God, a Sikh God, a Hindu God besides a Muslim God Allah. Tell me, is this what you believe in? Does this make you a Muslim? Tell me, what is the most important thing to be a Muslim? The belief in one God. Allah. La ilaha illallah. There is no God but Allah. So, when anyone says God, what should come to your mind? Allah, because who is Allah but Allah?

There is one God who created us all, who provides for us all, whether we be Musl im or Hindu or Parsi or whatever. Then what exactly do you mean when you say tha t so and so people also call their God Khuda? Do you realize that a Christian Arab also uses the word Allah but for him Allah is the father of Jesus. So, now, shouldnt I stop using the term Allah too? Do you rea lize that when Huzur (Salallaho alaihe wasallam) became a Prophet, Arabs belongi ng to the Jahiliya also worshipped Allah, only that they also worshipped Uzza, L at, and Manat? So, doesnt this also mean that I should stop using Allah? A lot of Non-Muslims believe that Allah is some other God, i.e, a God other than t heir own God. So, doesnt Allah too conjure images other than what we, as Muslims, k now Allah means? Now, if Allah despite being used by other sects means Allah then I am sure Khuda too can mean Allah for me. When a Christian says Khuda hafiz, he might be leaving you in the protection of Go d the Father. However, when I, or any other Muslim, say Khuda hafiz, we are leavin g you in the protection of Al-Ilah The God. There are definitely reasons why you can tell me to use Allah hafiz instead of Khud a hafiz. The best being that Allah calls Himself Allah in the Quran. Also, that sa ying the word Allah itself brings blessings and that it binds the Ummati in a comm on thread. If you give me these reasons I will agree with you. However, if you g ive me the stupid reason that a Parsi also calls God khuda than you are going to g et a piece of my mind. Besides, Allah created us all differently there are Muslims with golden hair and blue eyes, Muslims with black skin and curly hair and Muslims with brown skin a nd black eyes. We eat different food, speak different languages and have differe nt cultures. We are united in our belief and our belief doesnt include us becomin g Arabs. No, I dont mean that Allah is for Arabs alone. What I mean is that this su dden need among Indian Muslims to switch over from namaaz to salaah and the like, an d also a sudden defilement of Khuda hafiz, have all arisen (I believe) from that s ame misconception that Muslim and Arab is synonymous. It is NOT.

I live in Kerala (at present) and the Muslims here use the term Niskkaram or Namask karam for Namaaz / Salaah. Yet, I dont find huge forums on the Internet debating the sage of the term. Nor do I find Keralite Muslims with any sense of shame in thei r usage of a word that is well known to have Hindu origins (if I can call them t hat) to refer to the second pillar of Islam. Yet, namaaz, roza, and khuda are so vehe ently opposed. The only explanation that I can find for this absurd phenomenon i s the huge population of Hindi/Urdu Muslims. Keralite Muslims form a small population and their terms are not so apparent to th e larger Muslim world, nor are they a threat. Urdu/Hindi Muslims are a huge grou p of people and since we have become part of a global community the Urdu/ Hindi Muslim terms have somehow stood as competitors to their Arabic counterparts. With an increasing Western Muslim population, due to an unprecedented rise in re versions, Arabic in its chaste form is being embraced as the sole language of Is lam. In such a scenario, naturally, the older Indian/Pakistani Muslims who use Urdu/H indi in its various forms, present the single largest alienation. Thus, there is t his need to extol the usage of Arabic terms, or rather deprecate the usage of Urdu /Hindi terms that the larger Muslim World cannot understand.

I feel that this is ridiculous. Trust me, my God can understand all the language s he created. He really does. The need to de-Indianize us (Urdu/Hindi Muslims) s tems from the belief that how can anything Muslim be non-Arab? It is very simila r to the Urdu/Hindi Muslim belief that how can anything Muslim be non-Urdu/Hindi (within India)? Since most Muslims in India know one or the other form of Urdu/Hindi, even if th eir mother tongue is something totally different (for example, Tamil), there is a common belief that all Indian Muslims speak Urdu. This is not true. I know Ker alite Muslims who dont know the alif of Urdu and yet they are beautiful Muslims. We need to realize that the pulse of the Ummati, the golden thread that binds us as Muslims, is our belief and not our language. We need to understand that your God and my God and his God and her God and that God and this God and their God is for people who believe that there can possibly be more than one God. What makes us Muslims is our proclamation: There is One God.

Now, whether I call him God, or Rabb or Khuda or Bhagwaan or Maalik or Parwar digh not of as much importance as that I call Him and Him alone. There is only One who can possibly be God Him Al-Ilah The God Wahadahu la shareek Allahu Akbar. *Regular prayers that Muslims are supposed to do five times a day

-Almas is a medical student in Kerala and blogs at http://almasshamim.blogspot.co m/ Share Comment viewing options Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to a ctivate your changes. Allah Hafiz vs Khuda Hafiz Submitted by Afzal Usmani (not verified) on 8 June 2011 - 10:30pm. Its better to use the word which Allah SWT had used for himself in Quran. He use d "Allah" in Quran and its unique so should be better. This is my personal opini on. I have no problem with Khuda Hafiz. A little bit problem Kaashif bhai with " Bhagwan Hafiz or Ishwar Hafiz". These words are identified with a specific relig ion which is different than Islam. So will prefer not to use. Second thing, ALLA H is a unique word and Allah SWT used in Quran for himself reply Share What is there in naming? Submitted by ABDUL KADER B (not verified) on 8 June 2011 - 9:22pm. Almas, why all this long humbug discussion. I called it Ahmed-Giri ! One Mr.Ahmed I kn ew was speaking too much , showing him more smarter as you are trying to prove y ourself!

**Fasting *** A common term used by Indian Muslims to say farwell

You yourself is admired calling God as Allah instead Khuda in one of your finest para. The religious litrature of Islam in subcontinent is basically in Urdu, Persian and Urdu are sister languages, Muslim period in India ruled by Moughals used Persian as their official language, hence they used Khuda instead of Allah and latter it is opted by Urdu speaking Muslims. Accordingly there is no harm or wrong calling Allah as Khuda. reply Share Mr. Abdul Kader quoting your Submitted by Almas Shamim (not verified) on 8 June 2011 - 10:38pm. Mr. Abdul Kader quoting your words "You yourself is admired calling God as Allah instead Khuda in one of your fines t para." and "Accordingly there is no harm or wrong calling Allah as Khuda." the exact message of my humbug discussion---- Allah and Khuda are the same. so, why stop me from using Khuda ? Thank you 2nd Mr. Ahmed.:) reply Share Khuda hi Hafiz Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on 8 June 2011 - 6:22pm. To, Almas Kiran Shamim : a hurried note, glanced yr subject effort.. encouraged to suggest : 1. These are very small things to engage in, ALLAH SWT knows before we utter wor ds. He is all knowing but His listening and speaking and seeing is beyond our ap prehension- systems.. that is why He is unique ( AHAD), no one is like Him. When we say I can see the wall, means I can see up to the wall and not beyond BUT wh en He looks at our requested wall: whole universe with all creations so far and beyond summons along with the wall ( in question). To tell you the truth, even t his explanation is so week that I am ashamed of even daring this explanation wit h human-sense perception..... To His reality, I can be 100% wrong. Why : It took ages for saints like Maulana Romi to understand this reality but some times it takes seconds as well, the condition is : ILLA-MASHA-ALLAH ! I quote Hazrat ALI rATa Jis nai Khud ko pehchana, us nai KHUDA ( ALLAH swt ) ko pehchana. 2. When you say Khuda Hafiz, you are using 50% Persian and 50% Arabic. 3. Its strange in our subcontinent along with Iran, majority of our great saints and Ulamas have used the word KHUDA, even in Quranic translations ? 4. We must use words and deeds based on the Sunnah only. M Jawed Shervani ================================================= reply Share Khuda Hafiz Almas Submitted by salafi (not verified) on 8 June 2011 - 3:56pm.

Almas has got it all wrong. its all due to ignorance about Tauheed(oneness in all aspects).She should contac t a salafi alim in her area to understand Aqqeday Tauheed. Allah is a proper noun.Allah is the personal name of our creator Allah(swt). for eg.I cannot change your name Almas kiran shamim by translating the meaning of these three words into other languages. llah is unique word.no one can play games with this word by adding suffixes to o ther langiage words like Goddess,gods,godfather,godmother etc. better for her to research in medical feild like gtnaecologist where muslims are being systematically targeted for Ceasarean operations by Govt backed RSS encouraged ethnic cleansing in the mothers womb. reply Share Allah Hafiz vs. Khuda Hafiz Submitted by md saifullah khalid (not verified) on 8 June 2011 - 2:16pm. assalamo alaikum, brother i agree vth ur saying dat allah doesnt require languages 2 understand hi s beleivers allah even not requires word he knows d heart and things going in on ce mind .he iz all hearer,all knower and there iz none comparable unto him.but f or d topic i want 2 say dat calling khuda iz not wrong but its better we call al mighty by word allah since dis word contains all attributes of d creator for exa mple if we call almighty by d word rabb it state only one attribute dat of a sus tainer and in same way d arabic word "rahman" and "rahim " translated "most grac ious" and "most merciful " are both intensive forms referring to different aspec ts of allah attribute of mercy. may allah bless us and guide us so dat we keep walking in light of allah s grace . reply Share Good point sister. I even Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on 8 June 2011 - 12:12pm. Good point sister. I even want to add that some of our Islamic scholar say dont say God because it will add as gods & godes etc. I feel every one who say god is refer to his GOD which he or she worship. We need to be open minded. Since my b usiness is translation I dont find any difference between God, Bhagwan & Allah i ts all depends to people who they worshiping. reply Share Word Allah used in Quraan 2698 times Submitted by Abdul Hannan Siwani Nadvi (not verified) on 8 June 2011 - 11:59am. Unnecessary article; without any reason, author says that he will says Khuda, so he has right to say Khuda. Word Allah is best than word Khuda, because word Allah selected by Allah Himself . Muslims in India can say Khuda, but saying Allah is more comprehensive. Word Allah used in Quraan 2698 times. Read whole Quraan and then say to me that which word selected by Allah himself, K huda or Allah.

Ulema in entire world agreed that Allah is best word to use for Allah, because t his name selected by Allah himself. reply Share appreciation Submitted by Md. Shafiur Rahman (not verified) on 8 June 2011 - 11:23am. Went through the POST and enjoyed the intellectual presentation. Congratulations ! It should also be borne in mind that advocates of using Allah , Salah/Salat or Saum instead of Khuda , Namaz or Roza(h) are also sincere in their b elief , but they haven t attained the intellectual sublimity already attained by Almas. May Allah (I mustn t be acused of not using Khuda) guide us! reply Share khuda hafiz Submitted by mridula (not verified) on 8 June 2011 - 8:26am. well expressed and i fully agree with you. reply Share allah hafis or khuda hafis Submitted by shahnawaz mohammed (not verified) on 8 June 2011 - 8:18am. Dear lamas beta assalam alaikum i read your complete email. and I would like to say here only one thing. please do not take any offensive or defensive on the subject of Allah hafis, and khuda hafis. Since you are medical student you should have very brought way of thinkin g. you are our future representative of Muslim Ummah. And we should be more stro ng and more flexible in practicing Islam. I would suggest here do continue what is very appropriate to you.But at the same time try to accommodate the values fr om the logical views. I hope my small suggestion will help you in future for you to solve lots of different small issues of Islamic school of thoughts. jazakallah khair. shahnawaz mohammed Toronto- Canada. reply Share Congratulations! Submitted by Hamza M Sheth (not verified) on 8 June 2011 - 8:00am. Very good article. I too had faced many people who tried to convince me on such verbal boundaries. Anyway, courageously written... Congratulations! reply Share

Assalamoailakum Submitted by Waseem Raja (not verified) on 8 June 2011 - 5:45am. I want that you should know that nowdays some muslims are urging fellow muslims to use the word Allah instead of kudha because Allah is the name of our Creator described in Quran, so it is better to call the creator by the name that Quran t ells us. So its better to use the Quranic word for religious terminology. reply Share no harms ... thanks... Submitted by Almas Shamim (not verified) on 8 June 2011 - 10:55pm. no harms ... thanks... reply Share Khuda bless you and all Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on 8 June 2011 - 3:07am. Khuda bless you and all Indians - Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Jews & Others reply Share You re free to refer to your Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on 8 June 2011 - 3:00am. You re free to refer to your deity however - but wouldn t you want to call Him u sing one of the Names He has given us? Khuda is not one of those names. I m not saying that delegitimizes the use of "Khuda Hafiz" but if someone is encouraging people to call on Allah by His Names (as we are commanded to in Surat A raaf) w hat s wrong with that? reply Share Allah hafiz vs Khuda Hafiz Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on 8 June 2011 - 12:36am. Very correct. Iagree totally. By the way in arabic bible God is Always called Al lah because Allah is the word for that one singular being who created all that i s even the quarks and neons the particls of neutron and proton in an atom. there are are so many languages and people and in Quran God states that He has sent a messenger to all of them some say 124000 not all were arabic therefore in every language and place and people there has to be aword for the Omnipotent,Almighty Creator and as they are the different names of the same ONE and ONLY ONE WITHOU T PARTNERS, they have to be good as Allah says in quran "Lahul Asmaaul Hasna"mea ning all names of Allah are good. reply Share y to use ALLAH! Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on 8 June 2011 - 12:04am.

aslmlkm though i hv the doubt over the writer s sincerity!"i.e he clearly says "i m gonn a use this only "that means this article is written with a stubborn mind !and in a mood of never listening! i suspect even ahadith will also b thrown away by wr iter if they go against this article! but! i will do my duty as a muslim!! using khuda is not haram!niether makrooh!! its just unpleasent! reason!! 1. the GOD "ALLAH" has several names! but his most renowned and personal is ALLA H! next is REHMAN then next is RAHEEM! when we hav 99names for him! why use a na me borrowed from som other community!????? 2. USE of arabic with the intention dat its the languag of ALLAH and his APOSTLE ! will enhance the bi-directional love! so why use the name borrowed frm some ot her religion??? 3.ALLAH is the word used many times in quran! now using that u get 40VIRTUE(NEKI S ) AS U read a quranic word! 4. THE term used by ALLAH s APOSTLE is ALLAH not khuda so why showing anger in f ollowing him?? is this all ur ISLAM IS all about?? reply Share walaykum assalam Submitted by Almas Shamim (not verified) on 8 June 2011 - 10:49pm. Had you read this part of my article... "There are definitely reasons why you can tell me to use Allah hafiz instead of Khu da hafiz. The best being that Allah calls Himself Allah in the Quran. Also, that s aying the word Allah itself brings blessings and that it binds the Ummati in a com mon thread. If you give me these reasons I will agree with you. However, if you give me the stupid reason that a Parsi also calls God khuda than you are going to get a piece of my mind.""" I have clearly stated that i conform with the virtues of using "Allah" and only disagree where pp; say that Khuda can mean "OTHER GODS". I agree with you that we should preferably be using words used by Huzur S.A.W Hi mself.but, you mention about borrowing words from other communities and religions ... which community my friend? THIS is my community. besides, i wonder what English is..... and when did Huzur S.A.W speak in Engli sh that we do not consider it unpleasant to be used. Thanks... reply Share Nice article! Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on 7 June 2011 - 9:36pm. Nice article!

reply Share Thanks .... Submitted by Almas Shamim (not verified) on 8 June 2011 - 10:58pm. Thanks .... reply Share We should learn arabic try to Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on 8 June 2011 - 12:53pm. We should learn arabic try to correct our mistakes if we or doing mistakes by si nce long time why we correct at this stage So that we must under stand the what islamic teaching says. reply Share