Feeding friends, guests, and the poor

One day in the life of a Sufi 

Feeding friends, guests, and the poor (ta'am / langar)

Raziuddin Aquil 

The guests visiting home, Sufi khanqah, or jama’atkhana (hospice) must be offered something to eat, at least a glass of water if there is nothing else to serve immediately, else it would appear that the visitor had gone to a graveyard to visit the dead, where the dead person cannot serve anything to the visitor.

Therefore, the norm at Hazrat Nizam-ud-Din’s hospice for the visitor was: salam, ta’am, and kalam. The visitor would enter saying salam, he would be asked to be seated and, straightaway offered food (ta’am), and then would start the kalam (conversation). 

In all this, no caste and creed distinctions, no untouchability, no ritual pollution, just pure respect for a fellow human being, friend or guest, no matter what was inside his heart; and, there were provisions for the benefit of the hearts, pure as well as wicked. Feeding the hungry - poor man or stray dog - was especially considered a meritorious act.