Hifazat

Hifazat is a term used in Urdu, Hindi, and Bengali that means protection, safeguarding, or preservation. It derives from the Arabic verb حفظ (ḥifaẓ), meaning to protect or preserve, and appears in everyday language as well as in formal policy language. The word can refer to safeguarding people, property, or traditions, as well as to measures designed to prevent harm.

In Islamic contexts, hifz denotes memorization and preservation of religious texts. The act of memorizing the Qur’an is called hifz, and a person who has completed this memorization is known as a hafiz (male) or hafiza (female). Hifz also appears in discussions of safeguarding religious knowledge and practices within communities.

In broader social and political discourse, hifazat is used to describe protection-related initiatives, such as national security, disaster response, or public safety programs. It can denote formal government protections as well as community-based efforts to keep people safe.

The term also serves as the name of organized movements in some South Asian contexts. In Bangladesh, Hifazat-e-Islam is a religious-political movement formed by Sunni clerics and madrasa networks in the 2010s. It mobilized large public gatherings to advocate for stricter application of Islamic norms and to defend perceived religious interests, influencing public debate over secular and religious policy. The use of hifazat in these contexts reflects broader tensions around security, religion, and governance in the region.