Hospitality is a cornerstone of Arab life. It is commonplace for Jordanian families, particularly desert dwellers, to welcome strangers into their home. The tradition developed from the harshness of desert life - without food, water and shelter from strangers, most desert travellers would die. Wherever you go in Jordan, you are likely to hear the word, 'Welcome', and you will frequently be invited into people's homes for food or a cup of tea even more.

Jordanians take the cultural values of  hospitality and generosity seriously and one frequently hears the Arabic greeting ahlan wa sahlan or “welcome” along with big smile, wherever one goes in the country. Often the greeting is put in the duel form ahlan wa sahlan meaning “the visitor is doubly welcome” or with marhabah (another word for welcome in Arabic) or even mi’t marhaba “one hundred welcomes” added to the phrase. Another traditional greeting is ya hala’ or ya hala’ bil - Dayf

(or greeting to our guest). When visiting a Jordanian home the guest will be frequently told he is welcome and urged to eat and have tea, coffee, or juices with Tafaddal or please partake. Jordan is known as the Land of Ahlan wa Sahlan.

Customs of hospitality and generosity are part of the duties of a good host in Arab culture that stretch far back into antiquity. Till the Present day hospitality and generosity are measured next to the legends of the past, such as those of the Bedouin boy Hatim al-Tayy who in order to feed guests slaughtered his father’s camels until not a one was left. Among the Bedouin, poverty of a family when linked to their generosity to guests is greatly admired and no Bedouin leader can maintain his position if he is not both position if he is not both hospitality and generous to whoever comes to his house. Bedouin who have reputations for Hatim al-Tayy like generosity are not only greatly admired, but will be pointed out to others during celebrations such as weddings.

Generosity can be taken to extremes by Jordanian who feel it is their responsibility for the guest to leave happy. If a guest admires something in the house, it will be immediately offered as a gift unless in the course of admiring it, the guest invokes the name of God by saying something like Ma Sha’ Allah (what God wills) and makes it clear that its place is in the house of the host. The Hospitality and generosity of many rural Jordanians, especially the Bedouin, is frequently abused by tourists who enjoy it without understanding or appreciating the costs they causing the family. Honor is such that no one will ask for compensation, though in placed where tourists have so greatly abused these social customs, people have aside honor and ask for money. The concepts of hospitality and generosity are reciprocal, that is, the host of today is the guest of tomorrow and the hospitality shown a guest will be repaid by someone in the future. If this is not possible, then it is both polite and customary to bring gifts for the host’s family. Such gifts can be candies or pastries (sometimes in brought in inlaid wooden boxes from Syria), sets of juice or tea glasses, or coffee cups for Arabic coffee. These will not be opened while the guest is still there, but will be opened later when if they are not liked, no one will know and be hurt.