The Qur’an and Race Relations

Obviously, Qur’anic teachings can give lead to the rest of the world on the question of race relations. Islam has the best record of racial tolerance. Its mosque and pilgrimage gatherings have known no racial discrimination. The message of Islam has completely rejected racial prejudice or superiority of one race over the other. Even the western non-Muslim scholars admit this, the historian Arnold Toynbee among them. He writes:

“The extinction of race consciousness as between Muslims is one of the outstanding moral achievements of Islam, and in the contemporary world there is, as it happens, a crying need for the propagation of this Islamic virtue. The forces of racial toleration, which at present seem to be fighting a losing battle in a spiritual struggle of immense importance to mankind, might still regain the upper hand if any strong influence militating against racial consciousness were now to be thrown into the scales. It is conceivable that the spirit of Islam might be the timely reinforcement which would decide this issue in favor of tolerance and peace.”

(A. J. Toynbee, Civilization an Trial, Oxford university Press, 1948, pp. 205-6)

The disregard of color and race in the Muslim world is expressed by Malcolm X in a moving account of his experiences in Makkah. He wrote:

“For the past week, I have been utterly speechless and spellbound by the graciousness I see displayed at around me by people of all colors…. You may be shocked by these words coming from me. But on this pilgrimage, what I have seen and experienced, has forced me to rearrange much of my thought patterns previously held, and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions…. Perhaps if White Americans could accept in reality the Oneness of mankind - and cease to measure and hinder and harm others in terms of their “differences” in color, …. Each hour here in the Holy Land enables me to have greater spiritual insight into what is happening in American between black and white.”

(The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcom X)

It is most unfortunate that, to the total neglect of such magnificent teachings of universal brotherhood, Muslims themselves are taking to various secular slogans for uniting cross-sections of the world population on the basis of racial and national loyalties. It is height of insanity that people who produced the finest examples of human equality and brotherhood in their past on the basis of their faith alone are now adopting racial and ethnic nationalism as a panacea for their social and political ills. To give an historical example, Omar Ibn Al-Khattab (RAA) who belonged to the respectable Arab tribe of Quraish and was the head of the then largest Muslim State of his time, used to address Bilal (RAA) — a black Muslim and a former slave of humble means — as Sayyidina (our master).

The upshot of my discussion is that the truth which is essential for the happiness and peace (of both individual as well as social at the widest level) is all there and complete in the Qur’an and the Sunnah (i.e., the tradition and practice of the Prophet SAAW). Whoever amongst Muslims studies the Holy Qur’an and the life of Prophet of Islam (SAAW) in earnest must face the question: “Are you ready to follow the heights that Allah (SWT) shows you and be a witness to this unto the world?” I believe that the need of the hour is to explain and spread the teachings and wisdom of the Holy Qur’an, first among the Muslims themselves and then among the entire humankind. This can be achieved only through sincere and tireless efforts of those young men who decide to dedicate their lives for learning and teaching the Book of Allah (SWT).

Ref: An excerpt from the English translation of the Book قرآن اور امن عالم byDr Israr Ahmad (RAA); “The Qur’an and World Peace” [Translated by Dr. Absar Ahmad]