The only thing the critics are confused about, however, is that they think this term, too, was imported from the Arab world. It wasn’t. I have never heard any Arab use the greeting “Allah Hafiz”. It is a latter-day Pakistani invention and has nearly replaced the original “Khuda Hafiz”, a greeting that we shared with our Persian neighbours. In fact, even the greeting Assalamu Alaikum (which is Arabic) is used far more regularly in Pakistan than in the Arab world, where (Saudi Arabia included) often the more secular Merhaba is used to greet. In addition, Arabs use a number of other secular greetings such as Subah al khair or Masa al khair (meaning “good morning” and “good evening”) and though Urdu too has Subah bakhair and Shab bakhair, their use is becoming limited compared with Assalamu Alaikum and Allah Hafiz. What is particularly peculiar is that if it makes people feel closer to God to use the word “Allah” (though it is our belief that Allah has 3,000 names of which only 1,000 are revealed), then why not say Allah Nighiban, which is a far older Urdu idiom?
Posted on: Mon, 22 Jul 2013 19:20:50 +0000
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