Amongst his many jobs, my father used to work as an interpreter for south yorkshire police. He used to tell us stories about how he was dragged out of bed in the middle of the night because some kid had been arrested, and refused to speak English.
My dad, fluent in Arabic, Swahili, English, Urdu, Punjabi and Gujarati(1), could usually manage to communicate with the ‘generic non-white ruffian’ bought before the police. I think Bengali was the only major subcontinental language he didn’t have an ear for, but that was due to accident rather than design. He was the imam of a Bengali mosque for a while on the Staniforth road.
Anyway, one day, he is in court, interpreting for someone, and the judge calls up the lawyers to the bench
“The dress of that man is inappropriate”.
My father, was in his usual elegant shalwar kameez and topi, with long beard. No wishy-washy liberal suit for him, he was dignified and traditional. My father informed the judge, quite steadily, that he did not wish to insult or disrespect anybody, but these were the clothes of his faith, long robes worn in the tradition of the Prophet.
The judge instructed a memo be sent round the inns of court of South Yorkshire, that Mr Bora would be allowed to dress as he pleased as long as he was working on behalf of Her Majesty’s Government. I have never tried to verify this, but if my dad spoke to the judge with the same tone as he related the story to us, I could see why the judge would have sent that memo round.
Symbols and dress, whether cultural, religious or both, are important. They are often a mark of piety, not politics.
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(1) Oh, he also had a smattering of Marathi and Pathwari.
Perhaps the judge — himself wearing symbolic dress (gown and wig) — understood better than others once your father made it plain.
as salaam alaikum
MashAllah a beautiful story.Your father may Allah SWT have mercy on him sounds like a remarkable man. Its a real lesson for us in standing our ground in a polite manner and not leaving what Islam says to “fit in”. In fact doing so ends up with us being respected more by non Muslims.
May Allah SWT make you worthy of being his son and following him example.
Assalamu alaikum
Jazak Allah Khair for that post. Your dad sounds really awesome. Muslims need to realize how much more people would be receptive to their message if all they did was be polite, in the manner of the Prophet when he counseled the man who urinated in the masjid.