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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Manifestations of the All-Merciful O Allāh, Return Every Stranger. أَللٌّهُمَّ رُدَّ كُلَّ غَرِيْبٍ Meaning of ‘Gharīb’ Due to an acquaintance with different cultures and languages some of us conjecture that the word ‘ gharīb ’ means ‘poor.’ In the Urdu language, however, this word when used in the absolute sense denotes the poverty of a person. But when it is particularized like ‘ gharību’l watan ’ the meaning changes.

In the Arabic, which appears also to be the source language of the word, ‘ gharīb ’ means ‘a remote entity.’ Its origin is the word ‘ ghurba ’ which means ‘remoteness.’ Any thing therefore which is gharīb is far. In his Commentary of Sahīfat al-Sajjādiyyah [^1], Sayyid ‘Alī Khān al-Husaynī, says: الْغُرْبَةُ بالضمّ: البُعْدُ والنَّوَى. “ Ghurbah (with the vowel damma over ghayn) denotes remoteness and distance.” Hence gharīb is anything that is far [in relation to something else].

In the Arabic language, unknown words are also known as gharīb. The pain of being a stranger can be well appreciated by only those who have experienced, or are experiencing the state of being far from their hometowns. Whosoever travels abroad, has hope of returning back to his hometown safe and sound. Obviously, he would not like to separate himself from his near ones or abandon his material assets of life.

Those who have left their hometowns and encountered calamities on their way or were stranded in a foreign country can understand how agonizing it is to be far from home.

The recent decades of contemporary history are full of examples that break the heart of every concerned listener: the Zionists, as has been their trend in the ancient past, continue harassing different parts of the weak nations of the world through terrorism and banishment, and thereby drive out scores of innocent men, women and children from their hometowns so that they should bear the painful torture of surviving in refugee camps. Such innocent victims are really in need of our support.

As mentioned earlier, we must try to study the areas where we can play an effective role to support them in any way. If donations are collected by reliable aid organizations, we should try to contribute as much as we can. If we can help a refugee who lives in poverty in our countries, we should strive to support him, so that he may adapt to the new situation he has been forced into.

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