Hospitality is a word pregnant with meaning but at its simplest level, it is regarded as a virtue in all three monotheistic religions and has been a central feature of Islamic cultures with precedents rooted in both Byzantine and Sasanian traditions. A powerful motif in all three religions, is the scriptural figure of Abraham, the father of the Semites. It is Abraham who responds as a host to three visitors, feeding them and giving them shelter, unaware that they were angels in guise. By this act, Abraham inspired a theology of hospitality often echoed in Jewish, Christian and Islamic literature and used as a framework for interreligious dialogue.
Despite such references, in Islamic thought the concept of stranger, an unknown identity, seems relatively less problematic and discussions on hospitality focus largely on the host/guest relationship and host/traveller rather than that of host/stranger. Islam holds hospitality as a virtue that lies at the very basis of the Islamic ethical system, a concept rooted in the pre-Islamic Bedouin virtues of welcome and generosity in the harsh desert environment. The concept can be found in the Arabic root dayafa. The Prophet is reported to have said, "There is no good in the one who is not hospitable."
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