
“I swear by
Allah that I do not fear poverty for you, but I fear the prospect of the
material world opening up for you.”—Muhammed Nabi
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In Kerala’s
Malabar region, the Gulf is the backdrop to almost everything. Indeed it’s been
the dominant influence on the social life of Malabar, expressed perfectly by
the following joke.
“Here
everyone is in Gulf, in four different ways; those who have gone to Gulf; those
preparing to go to Gulf; those who lament they cannot go to