Khutbah Racism in Our Society - Formatted Text

Khutbah: Racism in Our Society

By Shaykh Zahir Mahmood

Introduction

No Pakistani has any virtue over any Bengali, no Bengali has any virtue over any Indian, no Indian has any virtue over any Somalian or any Arab or any African, unless you have taqwa.

All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and blessings and peace be upon the master of the messengers, our master Muhammad, and upon his family and companions and those who follow them in goodness until the Day of Judgment. To proceed:

Respected brothers, elders, sisters (السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ - As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi). I thought we'll touch on a topic which really impacts all of us and that is the topic of racism. And what is the Islamic perspective on racism?

The Origin of Humanity

Out of the six billion plus people walking on the face of this earth, each one of those people, each one of those individuals emanates from one being or one person and that is Adam (عليه السلام - alayhis-salam)

Allah says in the Qur'an:

He said, O mankind, fear your Lord who created all of you. Every single one of you comes from one origin, one man and that is Adam (عليه السلام - alayhis-salam)

Allah's Signs in Human Diversity

And then in another verse, Allah goes slightly further and he speaks about people's language and he says, from his signs is:

So Allah says that from his signs is that he created the heavens and the earth, and the differences of your tongues and your languages, and your colors. So this is very interesting because see this is really what makes the world rich.

Not everybody speaks the same language, people actually speak a different language. Not only that, from the signs of Allah is that you can have every single person that you know in front of you and if they spoke and you had your eyes closed, you would recognize that person. So عجيب Allah not only has given people languages but he's given them such languages that when they speak and such, you know, you

can differentiate to the degree that if one of your friends was to speak, any of your friends were to speak and you had your eyes closed, you would know who that person was.

And then Allah says (وَأَلْوَانِكُمْ - wa alwanukum) and Allah has then given you (ألوان - alwan). He has given you different colors, different complexions. One is not better than the other, this is just for Allah to show, Allah to show his power and his (قدرة - qudra).

The True Criterion: Taqwa

And then in another verse Allah now goes slightly further. Allah says:

He says, oh man, we have created all of you. He doesn't speak to believers, he says to man, oh man, we have created all of you from one male, one female, Adam and Hawa (وَجَعَلْنَاكُمْ شُعُوبًا وَقَبَائِلَ - wa ja'alnakum shu'uban wa qaba'ila). And then we made you, we turned you, we created you, we made you into (شعوب - shu'ub), means large clans (وقبائل - wa qaba'il) you can have it as the meaning of sub-clans.

Why? Allah says (لِتَعَارَفُوا - lita'arafu) so you may recognize each other. You know, he's from my clan, you're from that clan, that is the only reason Allah has made you such. So let me give you an example, you have ten children, you name one Ali, you name one Muhammad, you name one Uthman, you name one Abu Bakr, why do you give them these names for? So that you may recognize them (لِتَعَارَفُوا - lita'arafu)

So when Allah has made you different clans, different tribes, the only reason he's done this is so that you recognize each other. Not that one clan is better than the other, or the other one is less, no, because you may recognize each other. And then Allah says right at the end of this verse:

But remember, Allah doesn't look at your bank balance, Allah doesn't look at the cars or the houses that you live in, or your looks, because these are all from Allah. Allah says إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عِندَ اللَّهِ أَتْقَاكُمْ . The most honorable in the eyes of Allah is the one who has the greatest taqwa.

The one who is the most God conscious, he is the most honorable in the eyes of Allah. You may not have a penny to your name, but in the eyes of Allah you are honorable because you are a person who is God fearing, God conscious.

The First Racist: Shaitaan

Now if you look into the history of racism, it's very interesting. Who was the first racist ever? The first racist ever was شیطان. When Allah created Adam (عليه السلام - alayhis-salam),and he said to (شيطان - Shaitan) he said (شيطان - Shaitan) bow to Adam (عليه السلام - alayhis-salam). What was his first (جملة - jumla), what was his first statement? He said:

He said I'm better than him.

He said I, look at this (سبحان الله - subhanAllah),his first statement is I am better than him, he's in (جنة - jannah) imagine this, imagine this, he's in (جنة - jannah), he's standing in front of Allah, and Allah is telling (شيطان - Shaitan) prostrate to Adam and he said nah I'm better than him. And this is the very interesting thing, why? Because see, every group, every tribe, every nation, every (قوم - qaum) has this amazing ability to justify to themselves that they're better than the other. Every single one.

You will see them sitting in groups and they are somehow the chosen people from Allah. So (شيطان - Shaitan) says I can't do it, the reason is because I'm better than, and it's very interesting. What's his second statement? He says (خَلَقْتَنِي مِن نَّارٍ وَخَلَقْتَهُ مِن طِينٍ - khalaqtani min narin wa khalaqtahu min tin) he's saying, look, you created me, so he's admitting Allah you're the one who created me, but somehow his warped perception of reality made him justify to himself that although Allah you made me, I'm still better than him.

I am still better than him. So they say that the first racist ever was (شيطان - Shaitan). There was no racist before . شيطان - Shaitan

The Plague of Racism in Our Ummah

And really, you know, you look at the evil nature of racism, (والله - wallah), I think it's the greatest plague which has ever, one of the greatest plagues which has plagued this ummah. Even if you don't move to racism, you look at this ethnicity, how people, they're the same ethnicity but how divided they are. So approximately, in the world today, there's approximately 366 million Arabs in the Arab countries.

366 million, all together they say there's approximately 384 million Arabs. 22 countries in the world are Arab countries. Same ethnicity, same language, same religion, and you look how they're divided. You speak the exactly same language, you have the same ethnicity, you have the same religion, but look how they're divided. From the Gulf states to North Africa, they all have stereotypes regarding each other. The Maghrebis, the Moroccans are like this, the Gulfies are like this, and this is (سبحان الله - subhanAllah) the E, and this is the same ethnicity.

Imagine when you go into wider (قوم - qaum) and wider nations, then imagine the sickness of racism.

The Prophet's Solution to Racism

And the amazing thing about the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) was that he brought this ummah together. There is no man in history who ever eradicated, last week I said there was no man in history who ever

eradicated alcohol besides the message of Allah, (والله - wallah) there was no man in history who eradicated racism like the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) did.

The Example of Aus and Khazraj

You had people of the same ethnicity in the time of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam)the Aus and the Khazraj who were from Medina. Aus was a brother and Khazraj was his, they were two brothers. Their children, they lived in Medina, their children ended up fighting and killing each other.

The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) came to Medina and he made the Aus and the Khazraj, he made them brothers. He brought their hearts together. Allah mentioned this in the Quran, for years, for decades these people had been killing each other.

And Allah recalled in the Quran, Allah says:

He says to the Aus and the Khazraj, he says remember the favor of Allah upon you. When you were enemies of each other and Allah brought your hearts together. And then Allah made you brothers.

This was amazing. He brought the Aus and the Khazraj together, not only that, those who were the lowest in society, who were nobodies in society.

The Elevation of Bilal

You know today, we have no slavery. There's no Muslims who are slaves. But we still look down on other people just because we somehow deem ourselves to be better than them for one reason. Oh, they're on a lower caste, they're of a lower (قوم - qaum) than us, therefore we look down upon them.

There was no, there's no slaves. The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam)'s miracle was that he made those people who were the slaves equal to those who were from the Quraysh. Bilal (رضي الله عنه - radi Allahu anhu) look at Bilal, slave.

You know in those times, if you were born a slave, you lived a slave, you died a slave. That's all it was. Bilal was a slave.

One of the things that the people, the (مشركين - mushrikeen) said to the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam)they said, look, we're ready to accept your message, we'll accept it. But one condition, we don't want to sit with these slaves. We don't want to sit with these people of lower caste.

But if you remove these people, then we will sit with you. Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) didn't accept it because Allah was not ready to accept it.

Bilal, the Messenger of Allah saw him being persecuted. And the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) went to the Sahaba (رضي الله عنهم - radi Allahu anhum) and he said, who will free Bilal for me? So Abu Bakr Ibn Abbas (رضي الله عنه - radi Allahu anhu) said (كان السباق - kana as-sabbaq) always the first to do good actions. So Abu Bakr (رضي الله عنه - radi Allahu anhu) said, me or the Message of Allah? So then he goes to Umayyah bin Khalaf and he says to Umayyah, sell me Bilal. So Umayyah bin Khalaf says, I'll sell him to you because you're the one who corrupted him in the first place.

So he says, how much? He says, ten gold coins. So Abu Bakr (رضي الله عنه - radi Allahu anhu) goes home, he brings ten gold coins, he gives it to Umayyah and Umayyah begins to laugh. So Abu Bakr (رضي الله عنه - radi Allahu anhu) said, what's making you laugh? He said, by Allah, if you had haggled with me and offered me one gold coin for Bilal, I would have sold him for one gold coin.

That's all he's worth. And Abu Bakr (رضي الله عنه - radi Allahu anhu) said, Umayyah, I swear by Allah, if you had haggled with me and asked me for a hundred gold coins for Bilal, I would have given you a hundred gold coins for Bilal. This is the best man to walk on the face of this earth after the (الأنبياء عليهم السلام - al-anbiya alayhim as-salam).

He is saying, after he buys Bilal, he would say (سيدي بلال - sayyidi Bilal) Bilal is my master. Umar ibn Khattab would say, the second best man after the (الأنبياء عليهم السلام - al-anbiya alayhim as-salam) to walk on the face of this earth, he would say (أبو بكر سيدنا وأعتق سيدنا - Abu Bakr sayyiduna wa a'taqa sayyiduna). Abu Bakr is our master and he freed our master.

Look, from where? From where? From being a slave, the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) made him to the . رضي الله عنهما - radi Allahu anhuma level of Abu Bakr and Umar

The Prophet's Zero Tolerance for Racism

The Messenger of Allah never tolerated any racism. I mean, there are so many narrations in this deen.

The Incident with Abu Dharr

When Abu Dharr, they were having a (مشورة - mashwara),they were having a discussion and Abu Dharr, Bilal (رضي الله عنه - radi Allahu anhu) said, I disagree with you Abu Dharr. Abu Dharr was an Arab, he looked at Bilal, Bilal was a slave and he said, (يا ابن السوداء - ya ibna as-sawda') oh you son of a black woman, you have the audacity to disagree with me? You were a slave yesterday? And he went to the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) and Bilal complained to the Messenger of Allah and the Messenger of Allah called Abu Dharr. Abu Dharr said, did you say that about his mother? Did you say that about his mother? He said, yes oh Messenger of Allah.

(Abu Dawud 5116)

He said,(إنك امرؤ فيك جاهلية - innaka imru'un fika jahiliyyah). He said, oh Abu Dharr, you are a man who still has the traits of ignorance (لا إله إلا الله - la ilaha illallah). You are a man who has the traits of ignorance, this is not Islam.

Abu Dharr walked out of there, he was crying. He went to Bilal, he lay in front of Bilal, he put his cheek on the floor and he said, By Allah, Bilal, I will not stand from here until you put your foot on my cheek because you are (کریم - kareem) and I am dishonourable. Bilal began to cry, Bilal bent down and he kissed him on the cheek and he raised him up.