Islam and Racism
The "Unity" is the basis of Islamic theology: and therefore "Unity" is the ground of its philosophy of society. All humanity is one; a great unit. Its individuals are members of one society incorporate, which is so comprehensive that it includes all differences within its oneness. The many find within the one that brotherhood, affection, friendliness and human blood-relationship which is of the essence. Hence distinctions do not become differences -- not colour, nor culture, nor class, nor custom, nor conversational idiom. Mutual respect as fellow-humans in pursuit of the common good is the rule throughout the world-wide society of Islam, without superiority or inferiority, since all mankind were created in one human soul to start with, from whom man and woman, black and white, poor and rich, civilised and savage, all evolve, sharing one common humanity. Truly "God made of one flesh all the nations upon earth if haply they may feel after Him and find Him."
So it is written (Qur'an: Sura IV, Nisa'a ---- "The Women" 1st verse): "Reverence God Who created you all from one person", leaving no room for nationalistic divisions. Differences in skin and tongue are merely tokens of the Creator's power. They call on men to study the Holy Will and Might of Him Who from one elemental root created so many variations of colour, countenance and conversation: as it is written (Qur'an: Sura XXX "Rome" verse 21): "Signs of His Power are His creation of heaven and of earth, and the varieties of tongues and skins; in all of which are sermons for the wise."
It is further written (Qur'an: Sura II, Baciara —"The Heifer" verse 213): "Mankind was one single nation. Then we sent messengers to them to give them glad tidings and warnings; and with them we sent the Book in truth to judge between people in matters wherein they differed . . . and God by His grace guided believers to the common truth on points about which they differed; for God guides whom He will onto a path that is straight." This verse reveals that in the beginning mankind was one single nation without differences or splits or conflicts but enjoying unity, cooperation and harmony.
The martyred Imam Ali left us the priceless legacy of the Nahj-ul-Balaghê, amongst which is his historic address to Malek-iy Ashtar in which he expresses this truth as follows: "Make thine heart a throne of mercy towards thy people. Show them perfect love and care. Never treat them as a ravening beast that tears and rends their properties and their persons. For they are in one of two groups. Either they are thy brothers in the Faith -or they are thy fellow-human beings of one flesh
with thine own." This broad view embraces all races, all cultures, all -tongues.
Unity and union amongst individuals will subsist under the aegis of unity of thought and spirit, oneness of conviction and aim; nor can any unity obtain save under that orderliness. Should a society fall into division of thought and conviction, its bonds of affection will be loosened: and, when adversity arises, material needs will increase differences, conflicts and tensions. That is why the strongest tie of unity amongst nations is the religious bond.
It is in this bond of union that Islam has brought people and peoples together, freeing them from the trammels of division and difference, and calling them to establish the bases of accord and agreement in a society of brotherhood which is the natural state of man.
Islam treats mankind as one great family of brothers and sisters. In the human family the relationship of father and child is a stronger bond than that of brotherhood. But the qualities of respect and of difference of age deprive the father-child relationship of full equality. That is why it is brotherhood which Islam exalts as the expression of that perfect and heartfelt affection which should reign within the human family. It should reign on the surface and in the depths. Brotherhood is therefore the Qur'an's call. The sublimest levels of love and the most sincere of friendships are those which arise between Muslims. They are called brothers because of their brotherhood, because of the existence of the fact of this most tender and beautiful of manifestations of equality; it is not the command to be brothers which called the fact into existence. The command was uttered, but the natural upwelling of the spirit engendered by that surrender (tasleem) to God (which Islam is) issues in brotherhood.
This brotherhood is deeper and higher than mere natural brotherliness, for it is the unity of a shared aim, the unity of shared convictions, the unity of joint beliefs, the unity of hearts.
It is written (Qur'an: Sura XLIX, Hujurat —"The Inner Apartments" verse 10): "Believers are a single brotherhood. Make peace amongst your brothers and fear God that ye may receive mercy."
The Prophet decreed: "The members of the assembly of the believers are by love and affection one body, and any limb of that which is pained causes all the other limbs to suffer in sympathy. If any individual Muslim falls into a painful situation all the other members of the community must run to his help and share in his sorrow." (Safeenatu-l-Behar, Vol. I, p.13.)
Islam, Freedom, and Justice
Since all power and authority belongs to God, men in any office which confers authority must exercise their delegated power as stewards and ministers of God to men. Thus tyrants, imperialists, slavedrivers and exploiters of fellowmen are outlawed. Islam enhances each person's self-respect: it establishes that true and only equality open to man— the equality in surrender to God for His service amongst mankind. Such surrender enables each to find his place in the whole without faction, partisan rule or superiority. Each is his own master.
Islam champions and interprets human rights. It regulates every detail of personal and community life in equity. It is the trustee and guardian of freedom before the Lord. Its first and paramount thought is unity. It excludes no one—though some exclude themselves: it opposes no one- though some may oppose themselves to it: it makes no differences—though some may insist on being different. Muslim calls to Jew who calls to Mage who calls to Nazarene, saying: "Why stand apart? Let us join in our common creed that 'God is One'."
It is written: (Qur'an: Sura III, Al-i-Imran —"Imran's Family" verse 62): "Say: 0 Peoples of the Heavenly Books! Resort to that word which is common to us and you, which is that we worship none save GOD; that we associate no partners with HIM; that we exalt not from amongst ourselves any lord or patron other than GOD."
The peoples of today's world yearn for unity, justice and freedom. They long to be saved from exploitation and war. They wander lost, like -sheep gone astray. Let them turn to the sunshine of Islam's regulations of life and living. Under that common sun, all —black, white, red and yellow —are at one in justice, freedom and equality. For Islam, true excellence lies, not in the intellectual or manual attainments of people of differing gifts; but in the moral attainments of a pure heart. These are equally open to all whatever their other gifts. As it is written (Qur'an: Sura XLIX, Hujurat —"The Inner Apartments" verse 13): "0, Mankind: We created you from a male and a female; and made you into -tribes and nations that you may get to know each other : and verily, most honoured before God is the most virtuous."
The Prophet (on Whom be Peace!) explicitly affirmed: "Arab is not more privileged than non-Arab, nor white than black. Spiritual excellence and true piety is the only distinction amongst humans recognised by God."
After the Prophet's victory at Mecca, a proud self-seeking group of Arabs claimed privilege for their tongue and race. To them he said:
"Thanks be to God that by the sublime doctrines of Islam He has freed you from the times of ignorance, and stripped off pride, conceit and power-lust. Know now that in the Courts of God only two groups exist. -The group of the righteous who are precious in God's eyes: and the group of the sinful who hang their heads in shame."
A man said to the 8th Imam: "There exists no man on earth with an ancestry more noble than yours." To him the saint replied: "Their greatness and honour lay in their piety and zeal to do God's will." By these words the Imam rebuked the man who wished to flatter and aggrandise the Imam's pedigree; and turned his mind to thoughts of piety. Another said to the Imam: "By God! You're the best man alive." The Imam replied: "No oaths, man! There lives a man who is better whose piety is greater and obedience to God more complete. In God it is true that verse of the Qur'an has not yet been abrogated which says: 'Most honoured before God is the most virtuous'."
God's service is perfect freedom. It is neither restrictive nor limiting. Restrictions diminish a man's capacities and happiness. But to serve God clothes the soul in the whole armour of God, protects when evil attacks, and foils all the fiery darts of the wicked.
True, serving God means obeying His laws. But this obedience is the free choice of love. And His laws are those absolute moral standards which formulate the essence of man's true nature, as his Creator means him to be at his best.
No man who has bowed his neck beneath the yoke of money-grubbing or power-seeking can ever enjoy a free life in a free society. The Imam Ali said: "Piety is the key to honesty and purity and to the acquirement of merit in store against judgment-day. It is freedom from the chains of every bondage; salvation from the blows of every adversity. Piety puts a man's aim within his reach, wards off evil, his soul's foe, and assists him to attain his heart's desires." (Nahkul-Balaghé: 227.)
Remember that he gave this message in an epoch when violence, oppression, wrong, class wars and racial strife raged amongst men. Distinctions repugnant to reason, to virtue and to freedom were rife. The weak and the poor were bereft of every human right and social safeguard. With matchless moral courage the pioneer of Islam outlawed all those differences and conflicts, so illegitimate, so superstitious and so mistaken. He replaced them with the command that equality and perfect equity should be observed for all individuals. He ordained that, under the auspices of total submission to the will of God, every sort of reasonable freedom should be put within the possession of men; in such a way that the underprivileged classes of society, which had never before had any sort of power to express their desires but had merely provoked the reaction of violence and oppression if they dared to protest against the will of the powerful ruling classes, should now, under the lifegiving justice of Islamic laws, find the political and social power they lacked, and shoulder to shoulder move forward until they had their full and rightful share in the leadership of their nations.
Islam and Class
Anyone who thinks that other nations have raised up the under-privileged classes in society in a way in the least like that which Islam has successfully followed in its fight against tyranny and oppression misses the point and shows that he has not the faintest perception of the inner truth of Islam, and its humane social justice. No other system has hitherto been able to bring such an ideology so effectively into practice.
Even the Communists, who call themselves foes of religion, acknowledge the amazing renascence brought by the powerful and fundamental doctrines of Islam. The monthly "Mardum", organ of Iran's "Tudeh" (Marxist) party, (No. 2, Year 3), wrote: "The appearance of Islam at the beginning of the 7th century AD is a turning-point of history. It changed the face of community living. Its victorious progress, in the course of less than a century, from the Arab -homeland as far as the Loire in the West and as Sind and the Amu Darya in the East, forms a fascinating page. The Jezirat-ul-Arab provided the centre for the spread of the religious ideologies of Judaism and Christianity. Yet the Arabs and Bedouin were still idolaters. Mecca was a commercial centre run by the moneymakers, turning the nomad tribal way of life into feudalism: and it was here that Arab nationalism first began to be felt and to break out. Its people were money-grubbers and small farmers owning slaves. To this world Islam came as a revelation and as a democratic revolution against the money lending oligarchy, who drove the first Muslims out of Mecca. Islam possesses the idiosyncrasies of all moralistic religions, yet it has kept its feet firmly on the ground of this material world we live in. It eschewed monkery and concentrated its attention on the equality of human beings regardless of race and tribe, -the equal rights of women with men, the manumission of slaves, the care of the indigent; and provided so simple a set of principles that it is distinguished from all other religions. It was these qualities that enabled it to arouse a social renascence of lifegiving inspiration. It brought a heavy pressure to bear on the minds of the bloodthirsty arrogant ruling class: offered villagers and poor town-dwellers a road of salvation in this world, expelled the troops of Roman and Persian emperors and installed its own form of rule from the Himalayas to the Pyrenees."
Illustrations of Islamic Practice
When we weigh the conduct of the pioneers of Islam against the behaviour and system of the socialist countries and of those of the "free" world, we see a difference as great as chalk from cheese. Islam is against all class distinction and renounces the conceptions of "boss" and "underling". A report was brought to the Imam Ali that a banquet had been held in Basra in honour of the governor, Ali's representative, Uthman bin Hunaif. He was wrathful that his governor should allow himself to be drawn into a special relationship with Basra's "nobility", and be made the mark of particular distinctions by the powerful class. He therefore sent a stern letter to Uthman rebuking him, which letter is contained in the Nahj-ul-Balaghe.
After World War II all governments have had to occupy themselves with the clamour for freedom and equality. They produced the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights" to enshrine those ideas. Practice has been slower than precept. Developed countries find it hard to admit that differences of colour and race are not criteria for excellence but that only character counts. Islam has recognised this fact from the start. The Prophet's first Mu'azzen was an Ethiopian: and he gave his girl-cousin in marriage to Zaid bin Harethé, who was a slave.
One day the Prophet said to Juwaiber, a poor Negro of great piety : "How good it would be if you could take a wife to share your life with you and be a help in this world and the next!"
Juwaiber replied: "May my mother and father be your sacrifice! What woman would be ready to become my wife? I have no health or wealth, no books or looks."
The Prophet replied: "Our God annulled any rights of one man to be owner of another as they were in the days of ignorance; and gave nobility to those who had been the underprivileged and downtrodden before the coming of Islam. Those who in the dark days of the night of ignorance were despised are shown in Islam to be precious to Him. Pride of place, face, race and grace ruled in the days of ignorance. Islam changed all that, and made everyone, white or black, Qureish, Arab or non-Arab, equal, as children of Adam, the man whom God made from dust. In God's thoughts, most beloved is the most obedient and chaste. 0 Juwaiber, we know no person superior to you, save anyone, if such there be, whose chastity and obedience excel yours. Go at once to Zeeyad bin Lubeid, most noble of the Bani Biyande, and say: 'God's Apostle sent me to you to ask your daughter's hand in marriage'."
Juwaiber went, and found Zeeyad sitting in his home with a group of
his fellow-tribesmen. He asked for an interview saying: "I am come from the Prophet to confirm a principle, bearing a message. Should I pronounce it in private or in public?"
Zeeyad replied: "Why not right here? A message from the Prophet is an honour."
"Very well", said Juwaiber, "His Eminence the Prophet sent me to bid you wed your daughter to me."
Zeeyad responded: "We Ansaris (i.e. the Prophet's helpers in his first days) only wed our daughters to our peers. Go! carry my excuses to His Blessedness."
While Juwaiber was returning, Zeeyad repented, and sent a man who caught up with Juwaiber and brought him back. Zeeyad said with the greatest courtesy: "Please be seated and wait here until I return." He then went off to see the Prophet, to whom he said: "May my father and mother be thy sacrifice! Juwaiber came from thee with a message to me to which I wished to bring the reply in person. It is this. We Ansaris only wed our daughters to our peers."
Islam's pioneer replied: "0 Zeeyad! Juwaiber is a man of faith and is thus the peer of a woman of faith; for a Muslim man is the peer of a Muslim woman. Therefore wed thy daughter to him, and think it no disgrace to have him as thy son-in-law."
Zeeyad went home and told his daughter what had befallen. She said: "Dear papa! what has seemed good to the Prophet, and his command that you make Juwaiber your son-in-law, is beyond price!" Zeeyad left his daughter's room, took Juwaiber's hand and led him to stand in the midst of the men of the tribe where he acknowledged him as his son-in-law and gave him his daughter in marriage. He himself provided his daughter's dowry and trousseau, and had a house made for them with all the furnishings and equipments required. It was thus that Zeeyad's daughter became the mother of one of the greatest of the Qureish tribe, and the black-skinned Juwaiber father of the same, a man whose hands in this world were empty but who was rich towards God and who has earned eternal fame for the beauty of his soul.
It is told that once upon a time three Muslims of three different racial stocks, to wit Salman the Irani, Saheeb the Byzantine and Balal the Ethiopian, were sitting together when an Arab called Qais joined them. This Arab, observing the precious sight of three Muslims of pure hearts and humble souls, said: "Aus and Khazraj were Arabs who stood by the Prophet in service and sacrifice. What have these three aliens to say? Who asked them to be amongst the Prophet's aides?" Qais' words reached the Prophet's ears. He rose and called his people to assemble in the mosque where he said to them in wrath: "God is one. Adam, common father of all, one. Your faith, one. Then Arabism, however proud you may be of it, comes neither from your father nor your mother—merely your tongue." The Prophet strove to crush racialism and promulgated a decree making equality the law and condemning any contrary reaction.
One day a Muslim whose father was a Negro was received by the Prophet. One Abu-Zar Ghaffari, who was nourishing a long-standing
grudge against him, said to him in the Prophet's presence : "0! son of a nigger!" Immediately the Prophet, hearing this objurgation, took him to task, saying: "Why is his mother's black skin a reason for despising him?" Abu-Zar fell on his knees, kissed the Prophet's feet and hands, repented in all humility and poured dust over his head until he received the Prophet's absolution.
The institution of the Hajj, or annual pilgrimage to Mecca, incumbent on all Muslims everywhere at least once in a lifetime, has also been a profound influence for unification and equality above colour and class. In the words of the Lebanese professor Philip Hitti in his book on "The History of the Arabs": "At the Ka'aba, to which the Lord of all men calls them to assembly, Ethiopian, Berber, Chinese, Irani, Indian, Syrian, and Arab, rich and poor, high and low, give each other the hand of brotherhood and together pronounce the double creed that, 'there is no God but God: Muhammad is His Prophet.' Thus for Islam the only distinction that exists between people is that between belief and unbelief. And the Hajj has done the greatest service in making equality and brotherhood the rule of life for millions in every clime."
It is sad to have to admit that slogans of class or race-ideologies have in recent years penetrated certain Islamic states, with the tragic result of producing similar racial and class divisions to those in less privileged lands. Our task is to restore the sound ideology of Islam and make it worldwide within one generation.
Equality Before the Law
The equality which obtains in Islamic law courts should be taken as a world model. Haroun-al-Rasheed, the Abbasid Caliph, had to testify on oath in a court before a judge, and his servant Fazl bin Rabee' witnessed font-family:mso-bidi-font-family: in his favour. The judge refused to accept Fazl's testimony. The Caliph demanded to know why. The judge replied: "FazI himself says he is your servant. If he is telling the truth, the Islamic court does not accept a servant's testimony to the advantage of his master. If he was lying, his testimony is void on that account."
The next Abbasid Caliph, Mansour, hired numbers of camels to make the Hajj. On his return he made a series of excuses as pretexts for not repaying the hire. The cameldrivers took the Caliph into the courts. The judge summoned him and sat him alongside the cameldrivers. When he had heard the evidence he judged against the Caliph, who was compelled to pay the cameldrivers what he owed them before he was allowed to leave the court.
This immediate verdict and execution of sentence is recognised by Western jurists as one of the greatest advantages of Islamic law courts.It saves a great deal of time and expense, for plaintiff, defendant and judge alike. Dr. Gustave Le Bon relates his own personal observation from a court he attended in Marrakesh in Morocco. Plaintiff and defendant with their lawyers and papers entered the court. The judge entered. All rose. Straightaway each side presented its case. The judge summed up. The verdict was given. Sentence was pronounced and immediately executed, to the great benefit of all concerned. "If only Western courts with their long delays would learn this art of dispensing justice fairly, swiftly and economically!" he comments.
When litigants are all secure in the knowledge that the laws by which their case will be judged are based on eternal principles revealed by God Himself, and that therefore the powerful cannot swing judgment in their own favour; and when the judge has principles of judgment to go on which enable him with a detached impartiality to seek his guidance from the law of God in total freedom from any emotional bias; the law is observed and respected, injustices are cut out, certainty and security reign in society and bring trust and confidence in their train.
Islam does not aim to level men down, but to level them up to an equality on the highest level, where true affection and the real love of one's fellowmen call the tune— a unity of heart based on a unity of faith in the one God, Who is Maker of all and Judge of all, and Who makes no distinctions save those of obedience between one of His creatures and
another. This is made plain by the Qur'anic verse 10 from the Sura Hujurat already quoted where it is written: "We made you into nations and tribes that you might learn to know each other." It is the practice of this creed which has produced that marvellous hospitality which so many -Western travellers have noticed among Muslims and of which they bewail the absence in the materialistic civilisation which has grown up in the West. One traveller commented: "I found in Iran that if I walked into a village and knocked on any door, and introduced myself as a stranger within their gates to whoever addressed me through the lattice, the door was at once opened and I was welcomed in as one of the family. They sat me down to share whatever meal they were having, however frugal, gave me a palliasse and lehaf for a comfortable sleep through the night, and sent me on my way rejoicing after a breakfast of sweet tea, fresh-made bread and sour milk (mast) next morning."
