Editors note: Title changed
Source: Express Tribune
Brigadier (retd) Mehboob Qadir, who was Director General (SPAFO) of Pakistan Armed Forces deputationists to the Saudi Armed Forces from 1998 to 2002, noted in a recent article: “Pakistanis together with expatriates from India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Philippines, Indonesia, etc, are called ‘miskeen’ by the Saudis”. He thought, quite correctly, that the word was used to mean ‘the poor wretch’. We use the word for the ‘down and out’ in Pakistan too.
What hurts is that the Saudis address the white expats of Europe and America as ‘rafiq’ (friend). What of the concept of ‘ummah’, he asks, which means that all Muslims are one nation? He discovers that ‘ummah’ applies only to Saudis, Iraqis, Egyptians, Yemenis, Kuwaitis Bahrainis, Emiratis, etc., but not to others. Arabs only, it seems, qualify.
The Saudis abolished slavery only recently in 1974. Then why are we ‘miskeen’? Is it really abolished though? Arabia of the Bedouins by Marcel Kurpershoek (Saqi Books 2004), records that Saudi Arabia was still tribal and big tribal families employed lavishly opulent slaves riding Land Cruisers who made Pakistanis and Bangladeshis till the fields of their masters.
The dominant tribe is Oteiba that “accepted Islam at the hand of the Holy Prophet (pbuh), in 622 AD and remained fiercely faithful to him”. Lawrence of Arabia modelled himself on an Oteibi warrior.
For the poor, the Holy Quran has two words: ‘faqir’ and ‘miskeen’. ‘Faqir’ is ‘a man in need’ but ‘miskeen’ is ‘completely down and out’. ‘Faqir’ has less than what he needs; ‘miskeen’ has nothing. ‘Miskeen’ literally means, ‘brought to a standstill in one place’.
In Hebrew, the word for poor is ‘meesken’. The Arabic root ‘skn’ means that which has lost all movement. The Urdu word ‘saakin’ (static) is related. Hence, poor is someone who can hardly move.
But the ‘skn’ root otherwise yields positive words, like peace and tranquillity (sakoon), including the Quranic word sakina (peace) that explains the feeling inside the Ark of the Covenant, expressed in the Judaeo-Christian doctrine of shekinah.
Categories: Asia, Diversity in Islam, Salafi, Wahabi, Wahabism
It reminds me of an interseting discussion focussed on teachings of Islam with some Sunni friends who are doing P.hd. in Arabic, when one of them told me that Islam practised by the present day Arabs is not the Islam in reality. No comments!
What is the point of this discussion?
Arabs have money & Phakiristanis(PHKNIS) are willing to be their janitors, servants & drivers etc.
Overwhelming majority of beggers in Arab countries are PHKNIS.
British call all PHKNIS as BLACKS.
In Punjab,mirasis,jolahas,kumhars & other “LOWER” cast members can not even sit in the same charpai with a “CHAUDHRY”. They have to sit on the floor.
In Punjab,a village council(panchayat)ordered the gang-rape of a lower cast woman,because her brother had affair with a high cast woman.
Shame on PHKKNIS for complaining of others.
Human nature is human nature. In Germany Turks were imported as workers in large numbers and therefore any Turk that is not of this ‘working class’ will have to prove it every time. Ladies from Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia are automatically considered domestic workers in the Middle East until proven otherwise. The wife of the Ethiopian Ambassador to Lebanon was so fed-up to have to prove herself all the time that she went back home.
But yes, of course, Muslims should be better and remember the teachings of our beloved Prophet Mohammad (peace be on him).
Arabs belong to a noble race, the race of our most beloved master Prophet Hadhrat Muhammad (saw). But Allah says in the Holy Quran that it is taqwa and ones actions by what Allah judges any people. Arabs have lost the beautiful teachings and way of life that they inherited from Hadhrat Muhammad (saw) and thus are effectively tarnishing the nobility of their race.
However I am in doubt that this nobility will be restored once Arabs come to recognise and accept the truth of the Imam Mahdi/Masih maud Hadrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (peace be upon him). Because I for one moment cannot accept that Allah will not have listened and hence fulfill the deep heart rendering prayers of Prophet Muhammad (saw) for his Arab race and subsequent prayers of the promised Mesiah (peace be upon him) for them.
I find the whole concept of one people’s superiority (nobleness)disconcerting. You’ll remember that Hitler also thought his nation superior; as well as the white European colonisers, who considered themselves superior to people of colour, and still do to a large extent; the Jews are ‘the chosen people’. All in the name of God.Whilst such ideas exist there can be no equality and no peace.
“Whilst such ideas exist there can be no equality and no peace.”
How can there be peace when there is arrogance? How can arrogance and righteousness/taqwa co-exist?
“nobility will be restored once Arabs come to recognise and accept the truth of the Imam Mahdi/Masih maud”
Being a Muslim or Ahmadi in name has no real significance when divinely revealed guidance and admonition remain unheeded. We are taught the prayer for guidance along the path of the favoured ones [an3amta 3alayhim] because many do deviate [ad-daalleen], and many earn the wrath of God [al-maghdhoub] due to their injustices.
“Muslims should be better and remember the teachings of our beloved Prophet Mohammad (peace be on him)”
When many so-called ‘Muslims’ strenously strive to establish their own authority than the deen of Muhammad s.a., they join the ‘daalleen’. If all were to would consider the hypocrisy of our own leaders in this light …
Check out this website talking about racism against blacks from Muslims in history
http://www.facebook.com/illuminatingthedarkness
http://www.rabaah.com