CASTS? I am interested!

[buddy1]

Hi all, been a long time since I logged on so i thought i would make my presence known! :D no doubt the Wise Woodrow can help! :) and i apologise if im in the wrong place!

Ok, so i am friends with ALOT of people from pakistan, and they all speak about their "casts"? for exaple, raj, Shiekh (excuse the spelling!) Jatt etc?

can someone explain? what does this mean?

thanks!

[newBro]

Assalamualaikum,

Surah Hujurat(49):
[يأَيُّهَا النَّاسُ إِنَّا خَلَقْنَـكُم مِّن ذَكَرٍ وَأُنْثَى وَجَعَلْنَـكُمْ شُعُوباً وَقَبَآئِلَ لِتَعَـرَفُواْ]

(O mankind! We have created you from a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes that you may know one another.) so that they get to know each other by their nation or tribe. Mujahid said that Allah's statement,

[لِتَعَـرَفُواْ]

(that you may know one another.) refers to one's saying, "So-and-so the son of so-and-so, from the tribe of so-and-so.'' Sufyan Ath-Thawri said, "The Himyar (who resided in Yemen) dealt with each other according to their provinces, while the Arabs in the Hijaz (Western Arabia) dealt with each other according to their tribes.''

Wassalam