Batman,
You are gem. What about shedding a tear or two for the lower castes of muslims in Pakistan and India ? Want to bury it under the carpet ?
Caste system among South Asian Muslims - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In some parts of South Asia, the Muslims are divided as Ashrafs and Ajlafs.[7] Ashrafs claim a superior status derived from their foreign ancestry[5][8]. The non-Ashrafs are assumed to be converts from Hinduism, and are therefore drawn from the indigenous population. They, in turn, are divided into a number of occupational castes.[8]
Sections of the ulema (scholars of Islamic jurisprudence) provide religious legitimacy to caste with the help of the concept of kafa'a. A classical example of scholarly declaration of the Muslim caste system is the Fatawa-i Jahandari, written by the fourteenth century Turkish scholar, Ziauddin Barani, a member of the court of Muhammad bin Tughlaq, of the Tughlaq dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate. Barani was known for his intensely casteist views, and regarded the Ashraf Muslims as racially superior to the Ajlaf Muslims. He divided the Muslims into grades and sub-grades. In his scheme, all high positions and privileges were to be a monopoly of the high born Turks, not the Indian Muslims. Even in his interpretation of the Koranic verse "Indeed, the pious amongst you are most honored by Allah", he considered piety to be associated with noble birth. Barrani was specific in his recommendation that the "sons of Mohamed" [i.e. Ashrafs] "be given a higher social status than the low-born [i.e. Ajlaf][9].His most significant contribution in the fatwa was his analysis of the castes with respect to Islam.[
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