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As students, we are all guests in some way. We are away from our homes and entrusted to the care of our universities and fellow students. From this vantage point, the magnitude of hospitality’s significance becomes strikingly clear. A lesson in hospitality is present in Middle Eastern culture, one that reveals a profound, unparalleled embrace of the soul.

The tradition of welcoming guests into one’s home is most familiarized with Abrahahmic traditions, with Abraham being a symbol of hospitality. As the majority of the globe’s cultures are influenced by one of the three Abrahamic religions — Judaism, Christianity and Islam — the concept of welcoming “the stranger” has seeped into the fabric of societies far and wide, and holds just as true for our campus.

Growing up in a hospitable household, it was customary for neighbors, lacking their own accommodations, to ask for their guest to stay with me instead. I would always accommodate these requests. This carried over to my neighbors at Syracuse University who may have been more unfamiliar with such hospitality, and would ask with embarrassment if I had room for their guest. With this idea being so familiar to me, I always obliged.

But nations of the Middle East hold steadfast to their cultural heritage. The virtue of hospitality is no exception to this rule; it is not merely a “good deed” but an obligation, a duty known as “hakhnasat orkhim” or “karam.” These duties echo the ancient Abrahamic tradition of welcoming guests in the desert.
These quintessential principles in religion are based on making a guest feel honored and part of your family. While this may seem familiar to Western tradition, the variance comes with the fact that oftentimes these guests are complete strangers.

The obligation of welcoming guests does not define family as guests but deliberately asks that you allow your home to be a dwelling for those who eat alone or have nowhere to go; you allow them to be comfortable as if it is their own home.

Omar Alami, an SU sophomore, recalls where he was grateful for this obligation, “There have been times where I visited different cities on holidays and was left with no table to eat or too far from places of worship. Luckily I come from a Middle Eastern background and was able to find someone who was allowing guests to stay at their house. I was served a great meal and slept in a bed more comfortable than my own.”

The remarkable nature of this culture is that not only was a stranger allowed to sleep in their house but that the stranger felt comfortable enough to do so, as well. That is the essence of welcoming in Middle Eastern culture: feeling like you are family.

Middle Eastern countries have allowed their traditions and religiousness to be preserved. These ever important, “antiquated” hospitality ideals still remain because of this. Devout hospitality is one of many traditions in Middle Eastern culture that sustains because of this preservation.

Although we may not all be of the same culture or creed, there are lessons to be learned from the treatment of strangers, let alone fellow students, that we can learn from in these times.

Max Lancer is a sophomore Chemistry major. His column appears bi-weekly. He can be reached at mlancer@syr.edu.

Published on October 31, 2023 at 11:57 pm