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From: majeed@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam
Subject: Re: Ahadith dilemma: # of prayers/day
Message-ID: <1991Jun10.015316.30124@wpi.WPI.EDU>
Date: 10 Jun 91 01:53:16 GMT
References: <1991Jun6.010816.3944@nntp-server.caltech.edu> <1991Jun7.132518.13476@wpi.WPI.EDU>
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In article <1991Jun7.132518.13476@wpi.WPI.EDU> jamal@caen.engin.umich.edu (Jamal Mubarak) writes:

[quoted stuff deleted]

>
>I agree with you fully, Behnam.  However, let me point out a practice of the
>Ismailis, who are an offshoot of the Shia sect but perhaps can be 
>referred to as one of the "more or less extremist sects" (Britannica).
>They often say "Ya Ali, madad."  In fact this is something of a greeting
>amongst them, I am given to believe.  I may be wrong about this but at times
>they use it instead of saying salaam.  Needless to say I am quite opposed to
>this.  Can anyone confirm?
>
>Wassalaam,
>
>Jamal

	In spring '90, my new roommate answered the phone one day.  The voice
on the other end shouted "Ya Ali Madad." Needless to say my roommate was taken
aback. He said something to the effect "excuse me?" And the caller realized
that he had dialed someone other than he intended.

	The caller said he was calling from Canada and asked if there were any
Aga Khanis there. My roommate said that no Aga Khani lived at this number but
he gave him the number for one in Austin.

	When my roommate told me this story, we wondered why would a person
scream so impassionedly as an introduction. We constructed some scenarios in
which the person was in trouble and used the invocation as a signal or that he
was calling a friend for whom this cry had special meaning. But until I read
the above post I did not have a reasonable conjecture.

	I'll try to verify this hypothesis from some Ismaili.

	By the way, he called me probably because at that time I was involved
with the local Pakistani Students Association.


ztm