Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| What are your views on the Caste System? |
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| Zara |
| 04/12/01 at 10:44:23 |
| [slm] What are your views on the caste system? [wlm] Zara |
| Re: What are your views on the Caste System? |
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| pakiprncess |
| 04/12/01 at 12:22:20 |
| asalaam alaikum friends - well, i had to think and think and finally do some research about your question (which, btw, is the best part of this board, it instills a desire within the human heart to inquire deeply about that which is still unknown to one). obviously, from an islamic viewpoint, all people are considered equal and the caste should not make a difference in ones worth nor ones acceptance. differentiation between two people based on caste is actually a huge err on the part of the person doing the classification. i think theres a story about prophet musa (pbuh) in which he had to deal with such a problem - and please correct me if im wrong here - when prophet musa (pbuh) entered his city at a time of carelessness of its folk, he found two men fighting; one of his own caste, and the other of his enemies'. the man who was of his caste asked him for help against the man who was of his enemies'. so prophet musa (pbuh) struck the man of his <i>own</i> caste down with his fist and killed him. he said, "this is of the devil's doing. lo! he is an enemy, a mere misleader." i hope that story justifies the idea that caste doesnt matter...nothing should matter, other than the spread of Allah (swt)'s word in the manner as prescribed in the Quran Majeed and the Prophet (saw)'s hadith Allah hafiz ;) |
| Re: What are your views on the Caste System? |
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| BrKhalid |
| 04/12/01 at 14:54:20 |
| Asalaamu Alaikum ;-) [quote]What are your views on the caste system?[/quote] What caste system??? Is this a cultural thing??? |
| Re: What are your views on the Caste System? |
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| pakiprncess |
| 04/16/01 at 12:15:22 |
| asalaam alaikum - brother khalid, not neccessarily. like i know that they have this type of thing in india, where the brahmans are intellectuals at the top of the caste (which is like a social heirarchy of sorts, in which social status and ranking is determined based on birth) and the sudras - the manual laborers and lower class - are at the bottom of this heirarchy. basically, a brahman cant have, nor would ever desire, a relationship with a sudra. its derived from the hindu religion, which states that is a natural system of social organization which can bring about a peaceful society where everyone is happy (which i dont understand, because why would the sudra be happy if he knows he cant change his status and hes considered an "untouchable?") however, i think this kind of categorization exists in other places in the world as well...like england with the whole prince charles and princess diana thing...and even in the united states, although social acceptance has emerged, there are some people who persist in their own circles primarily because of their social standing. hope this helped and i didnt confuse you ;) Allah hafiz |
| Re: What are your views on the Caste System? |
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| meraj |
| 04/16/01 at 17:15:24 |
| slm, someone correct me if im wrong, but i believe the caste system has been officially abolished in india, but it is still sorta de facto. |
| Re: What are your views on the Caste System? |
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| Zara |
| 04/19/01 at 10:05:24 |
| [slm] [quote] Br.Khalid: What caste system??? Is this a cultural thing??? [/quote] Firstly I would like to say that my opinion of caste is that it is interesting to learn about your ancestral lineage. However being a certain caste does not make you any better or worse than the next person. The following link includes an article which explains the concept of marriage in AKFA (meaning equal or alike) http://www.jannah.org/sisters/akfa.html Caste is not necessarily a cultural thing. It is a system which exists in Pakistan whereby people are not allowed to marry someone of a different caste. For instance a sister from with moghul ancestral lineage cannot marry someone from the choudary caste. The justification for this is that the majority of the jurists require equality in four things-religion, freedom, descent and profession. It's just that these days the caste system does not really apply because people have immigrated and their caste no longer reflects their profession. Also caste is some times adhered to with such stubborness as if it were a part of Islam. When it is clearly not as demonstrated by the following verse: "O mankind, surely We have created you from a male and female, and made you tribes and families that you may know each other. Surely the noblest of you with Allah is the most dutiful of you" (49:13). [wlm] Zara |
| Re: What are your views on the Caste System? |
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| BrKhalid |
| 04/19/01 at 11:35:33 |
| Asalaamu Alaikum ;-) Jazakhallah Khair Sr Zara for the answer. The concept of caste tends to be a bit foreign for those of us who don't originate from the subcontinent. In respect to the UK though, I wonder how many men from the upper classes marry working class women? Even in Western culture I would say it's still a hurdle. |
| Re: What are your views on the Caste System? |
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| eleanor |
| 04/19/01 at 14:28:28 |
| slm I saw something on TV about this. It was in India however. It was really extreme...the lowest people were known as the "Untouchables" and literally they were. I can't remember anything else unfortunately. But this system exists subconciously the world over. I have experienced it first hand here in Germany. I used to work in McDonalds (as some of you know), and the abuse I had to put up with sometimes was unreal. The customers (the professional types, students etc) really looked down their noses at me like I was the last piece of filth.You'd hear them muttering in the queues about how I probably didn't even speak german or how I couldn't understand the simplest things. the reason I had to ask twice what they ordered was because of the noise! Now at the same time I was giving english lessons in the evening in a private language school. So I had these same professional types who had to learn english in order to keep or get a job and literally they were on their knees with respect for me because I was the "english teacher". I never felt happy in either working environment and gladly I've given up both. Maybe it's just in Germany but I've often heard of people marrying "beneath their station" etc. wasalaam eleanor |
| Re: What are your views on the Caste System? |
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| momineqbal |
| 04/19/01 at 21:22:18 |
| [slm], I wasn't finding time to reply to this, but well just some short pieces of information. In India there used to be a caste system(it still is practiced in some areas, and of course there is a refined version of it followed in the educated class as well). In this caste system to which a man belonged to by birth there were four castes in hierarchial order, Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaisya and Shudra. Brahmins were the elite class, the people of the God who performed all the religious rituals and were responsible for education etc. Then came the Kshatriyas which mainly comprised of the kings and soldiers. Vaisya were the class I think mainly doing manual labour like farming etc. Shudra class were the lowest of them and I dont remember what they were supposed to do in the society. But all I remember is that this hierarchy was strictly followed. Brahmin and Kshatriyas to an extent were equal and vaisyas were also allowed in the village system. But the Shudras were "untouchables", and had to live on the outskirts of the villages. If a shudra came even in the way of a Brahmin then the brahmin would curse him and he would be severely taken to task and beaten, and of course the brahmin would have to purify himself by taking bath in Ganga Jal (water from river ganga). Also the religious scriptures were supposed to be read only by brahmins and others could listen to it except the shudras. If by accident a shudra happened to listen to the chantings then he would be rounded up and molten lead would be poured in to his ears so his hearing ability would go forever! Although this kind of ignorant practice is no longer practiced but there is a deep sense of belonging to a particular caste even today. I once heard in a news that a judge who happenned to be a brahmin when took over from another judge who happenned to be of a different caste, he got all his office washed by Ganga Jal (water from river ganga) before he stepped into it, and this was just about a year ago! Some of the caste system also crept into the muslims unfortunately, but its definitely not as bad as among the hindus. Anyways, just a few things I knew. Wassalam Eqbal |
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