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Dear brothers and sisters in Islam, I am a student of religion currently living in Iran. I have lived in Pakistan for many many years. Thus I am acquainted with both Farsi and Urdu languages. I have noticed a lot of my Pakistani and Indian brothers asking questions about zanjir-zani. They keep wondering whether zanjir-zani is permissible or impermissible. The term "zanjir-zani" is used both in Persian and Urdu but they have different meanings and significations in both languages. This term is originally Persian but it it signifies "qama-zani" in Urdu. When a Pakistani Shia Muslim asks a religious authority about whether or not "zanjir-zani" is allowed, he wants to get a reply about "qama-zani" (zanjir attached to knives) while the Marja (religious authority) who speaks Farsi or Arabic and has no idea about its Urdu meaning answers what he understands from this compound word (zanjir-zani). He says, "It is permissible." And he means to say that hitting oneself during Muharram using chains (zanjir) only is allowed. There is nothing in the word "zanjir" to indicate that it is attached to knives. Thus, we see there are two cultural settings and two significations for one word. The mujtahid means one thing and the recipient of the answer who comes from the Indian sub-continent understands something else. Here the duty-bound (mukallaf) should suffice to the literal and original meaning of the term "zanjir" which means chain only. He cannot take it for knives, blades, daggers and swords. That is what I want my Indian and Pakistani brothers to take notice of. Allah Hafiz.