The Eloquence of A‘la Hazrat

Question

Some Raza-Khanis (followers of Ahmad Raza Khan, i.e. Barelvis) say that Hazrat Mawlana Rashid Ahmad Gangohi ﵀ used the word “آہو” (“aho”, i.e. “yes”), which is a word of the language of the Gujjars (a pastoral and farming caste of North India), and that this is not eloquent, whereas A‘la Hazrat Mawlana Ahmad Raza Khan Barelvi never used any word of this kind — so Mawlana Ahmad Raza Khan turns out to be the more eloquent. Hazrat Wala is requested [to explain]: is using the word “aho” contrary to eloquence?

Answer

If some word is spoken in the language of the addressee and in his idiom, objecting to it is pointless. Likewise, if one or two words of another language are spoken, objecting to that is pointless too. In “Bustan al-‘Arifin” the faqih Abu al-Layth al-Samarqandi recorded some words which do not belong to the Arabic language yet occur in the noble hadith: “tamr yak yak, ‘inab do…

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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