Islam and Racism
إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ ,نَحْمَدُهُ ,وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ , وَنَعُوذُ بِاللهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَمِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا ,مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ , وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ , وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ وَأَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُ
All praise is due to Allah. We praise him, we seek His help, we seek His forgiveness, and we seek refuge in Allah from the evil within ourselves and our evil deeds. Whoever Allah guides, there is none to misguide him. Whoever Allah leads astray, there is none to guide him. I testify there is no God but Allah alone, without any partners, and that Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, is His servant and His messenger.
قال الله عز وجل في القرآن الكريم
يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ ٱتَّقُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ حَقَّ تُقَاتِهِۦ وَلَا تَمُوتُنَّ إِلَّا وَأَنتُم مُّسْلِمُونَ
Allahu Azzawajal said in the Holy Qur’an, “O you who have faith, fear Allah as it is His right to be feared and do not die unless you are Muslims,”
وقال الله سبحانه وتعالى
يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلنَّاسُ ٱتَّقُوا۟ رَبَّكُمُ ٱلَّذِى خَلَقَكُم مِّن نَّفْسٍۢ وَٰحِدَةٍۢ وَخَلَقَ مِنْهَا زَوْجَهَا وَبَثَّ مِنْهُمَا رِجَالًۭا كَثِيرًۭا وَنِسَآءًۭ ۚ وَٱتَّقُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ ٱلَّذِى تَسَآءَلُونَ بِهِۦ وَٱلْأَرْحَامَ ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ كَانَ عَلَيْكُمْ رَقِيبًۭا
And Allahu Subhanahu wa ta’ala said, “Fear Allah, from whom you ask each other, and in your family ties, for Allah is ever watchful over you,”
وقال الله
يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ ٱتَّقُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ وَقُولُوا۟ قَوْلًۭا سَدِيدًۭا يُصْلِحْ لَكُمْ أَعْمَـٰلَكُمْ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ ۗ وَمَن يُطِعِ ٱللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُۥ فَقَدْ فَازَ فَوْزًا عَظِيمًا
And Allah said, “Fear Allah and speak words as befitting. He will amend your deeds for you and forgive your sins. Whoever obeys Allah and His messenger has achieved a great triumph.”
وقال رسوله صلى الله عليه وسلم
إِنَّ أَصْدَقَ الْحَدِيثِ كِتَابُ اللَّهِ وَأَحْسَنَ الْهَدْيِ هَدْيُ مُحَمَّدٍ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ
وَشَرُّ الْأُمُورِ مُحْدَثَاتُهَا وَكُلُّ مُحْدَثَةٍ بِدْعَةٌ وَكُلُّ بِدْعَةٍ ضَلَالَةٌ وَكُلُّ ضَلَالَةٍ فِي النَّار
And His Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “The truest word is the Book of Allah and the best guidance is the guidance of Muhammad, peace be upon him. The most evil matters are those that are newly invented, for every newly invented matter is an bid’ah. Every bid’ah is misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Hellfire.”
My dear brothers and sisters in Islam,
One of the greatest foundations for the unity of the Muslim Ummah is the fact that we were all created from our father Adam (عليه السلام). In the Khutbah Hajah that the Prophet (ﷺ) placed at the beginning of his addresses to the people, he quoted the first verse of surah an-Nisa which addresses this matter in its opening:
يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلنَّاسُ ٱتَّقُوا۟ رَبَّكُمُ ٱلَّذِى خَلَقَكُم مِّن نَّفْسٍۢ وَٰحِدَةٍۢ وَخَلَقَ مِنْهَا زَوْجَهَا وَبَثَّ مِنْهُمَا رِجَالًۭا كَثِيرًۭا وَنِسَآءًۭ ۚ وَٱتَّقُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ ٱلَّذِى تَسَآءَلُونَ بِهِۦ وَٱلْأَرْحَامَ ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ كَانَ عَلَيْكُمْ رَقِيبًۭا
“O mankind, fear your Lord, who created you from one soul and created from it its mate and dispersed from both of them many men and women. And fear Allah, through whom you ask one another, and the wombs. Indeed Allah is ever, over you, an Observer.” (4:1)
Our common source is established as one of the great favours of Allah to us for which we should have taqwa of Him. This is reiterated in verse 13 of surah Hujurat which Allah follows with the lesson we should take from this concept:
يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلنَّاسُ إِنَّا خَلَقْنَـٰكُم مِّن ذَكَرٍۢ وَأُنثَىٰ وَجَعَلْنَـٰكُمْ شُعُوبًۭا وَقَبَآئِلَ لِتَعَارَفُوٓا۟ ۚ إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عِندَ ٱللَّهِ أَتْقَىٰكُمْ ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ عَلِيمٌ خَبِيرٌۭ
“O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allāh is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allāh is Knowing and Aware.” (49:13)
October in the UK is marked as black history month, a month of learning about and celebrating the contributions of black people in society as well as recognising the struggle against racism, the major figures involved in battling discrimination in history and evaluating the current state of affairs to understand what work remains to dismantle racism in our society. My intention in bringing up this topic is not to say that it is from Islam to mark this as a special occasion or take part in celebrating it and so on, but it's as good a time as any to reflect on the measures Islam takes against racism and discrimination in any form, and to evaluate how well we're applying these measures as an ummah.
To begin with, in the ayah we mentioned previously Allah establishes the purpose of creating us differently, in tribes and nations, effectively ruling out making use of those differences to discriminate against one another- (re-read the second line), "and made you peoples and tribes so that you may know one another" Ibn Kathir explains in his tafsir of this ayah that "peoples" refers to distinctions between Arabs and non-Arabs, while tribes refer to distinctions within Arabs. He goes on to further explain that Allah swt declares that all these tribes and peoples have the shared honour of being descended from Adam and Hawa. The only difference between them is in the religion that revolves around their obedience to Allah and their following of His Messenger (ﷺ). In this set of verses, after He forbade backbiting and belittling other people, He alerted mankind that they are all equal in their humanity.
Speaking out against discrimination and against abusing one another based on these distinctions between peoples is a sunnah of the Prophet (ﷺ). He would speak against these abuses whether they be based on someone's race, or even their status in society as a slave. Al Ma'rur reported that he met the Sahabi, Abu Dharr, who was accompanied by a slave he owned, and they were both wearing a similar cloak to one another. He was asked why and he said it was because he had abused a man by insulting his mother. The scholar Ibn Hajar explains in his commentary on Sahih Bukhari that there are reports that the man he abused was Bilal ibn Rabah, and he abused him by referring to him as the "son of a black woman", and in other narrations, he berated Bilal's mother for being a foreigner not proficient in Arabic.
The Prophet (ﷺ) responded to this by saying,
“O Abu Dhar! Did you abuse him by calling his mother with bad names? You still have some characteristics of ignorance. Your slaves are your brothers and Allah has put them under your command. So whoever has a brother under his command should feed him of what he eats and dress him of what he wears. Do not ask them (slaves) to do things beyond their capacity (power) and if you do so, then help them.” (Sahih Bukhari 30)
If this is the status that the Prophet (ﷺ) afforded to slaves then what of our own brothers and sisters in Islam today?
My dear brothers and sisters in Islam,
Whenever the topic of racism in the Muslim community is brought up, it is often quickly dismissed with people mentioning that there is no racism in Islam. This is most certainly correct, however, we can learn from this hadith that elements of jahiliyyah from culture and upbringing can remain in a person independent of their status as a Muslim. We find that discrimination, tribalism and racism are aspects of the filth of ignorance that Islam was sent down to us to cleanse - can we then say that we are true Muslims if we allow this to persist in our communities?
In 2020, the Muslim census published the results of a survey shedding light on the racism that is targeted at the Black Muslim community. They surveyed 250 non-black Muslims to understand their perception of anti-black racism in the Muslim community. Of the 250 responders, 82% of them cited having witnessed racism against black people from within their own family and friends, and 60% reported regularly hearing them using racial slurs in their speech. A small but concerning 13% reported being told to cut ties with their black friends as children for no reason other than the colour of their skin. We are indeed correct when we say that racism does not exist in Islam, which makes it even worse that we as Muslims have failed to take heed of this and allowed even an ounce of racism to take place in our communities.
اقول قولي هذا واستغفر الله لي ولكم ولسائر المسلمين فاستغفروه انه هو الغفور الرحيم
(I say this and ask forgiveness from God for me and for you and for the rest of the Muslims, so seek forgiveness from Him, for He is the Forgiving, the Merciful)
[Pause between first and second Khutbah]
بِسْمِ ٱللَّٰه , وَالحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ , وَالصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَى رَسُولِ اللهِ , وَ أَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَاْ إِلَهَ إِلَّاْ اَللهُ وَحْدَهُ لَاْشَرِيْكَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدَاً عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُوْلُهُ
(In the name of Allah, praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon Allah’s Messenger, and I bear witness that there is nothing worthy of worship but Allah and that Muhammad is his servant and messenger.)
My dear brothers and sisters in Islam,
The diversity within the Muslim community is a testament to the universality of our way of life, and it's from among the signs of Allah. In Surah Ar-Rum, Allah says:
وَمِنْ ءَايَـٰتِهِۦ خَلْقُ ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ وَٱخْتِلَـٰفُ أَلْسِنَتِكُمْ وَأَلْوَٰنِكُمْ ۚ إِنَّ فِى ذَٰلِكَ لَـَٔايَـٰتٍۢ لِّلْعَـٰلِمِينَ
“And of His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth and the diversity of your languages and your colours. Indeed in that are signs for those of knowledge.” (30:22)
Islam is a religion which welcomes everyone towards the path of Allah, one where even those who were at the bottom rung of society, those who were scorned and looked down upon by the culture of their time, became among those most beloved to our Prophet (ﷺ). We need not look further than the ranks of the companions to see this, most obviously in his chosen mu'adhhin Bilal ibn Rabah. Originally a slave of Umayyah ibn Khalaf, he was among those who suffered the most for their religion at the hands of his master but his steadfastness resulted in him enduring this abuse until he was freed by Abu Bakr. In the years following he famously became one of the most trusted and loyal companions of the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ).
Lesser known perhaps is the woman who helped raise the Prophet for a part of his youth, Um Ayman, the Ethiopian woman who was freed from slavery by the Prophet (ﷺ) himself. As someone whom the Prophet (ﷺ) saw as a mother figure following the death of his own mother, she was an integral member of his household for the remainder of his life. Anas ibn Malik reported in a narration that emphasises the importance she held to the Prophet, after his death, Abu Bakr said to Umar,
“Let us visit Umm Aiman as Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) used to visit her. As we came to her, she wept. They (Abu Bakr and Umar) said to her: What makes you weep? What is in store (in the next world) for Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) is better than (this worldly life). She said: I weep not because I am ignorant of the fact that what is in store for Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) (in the next world) is better than (this world), but I weep because the revelation which came from the Heaven has ceased to come. This moved both of them to tears and they began to weep along with her.” (Sahih Muslim 2454)
Another member of the Sahabah of African origin* is the son of Umm Ayman, Usamah ibn Zayd, one of the great commanders of the early Muslims who gained a high status among the sahabah at a very young age, leading an expedition into Byzantine Syria at the age of 20 years or so. His importance to the Prophet (ﷺ) can be seen from the fact that he was entrusted with the campaign to avenge the death of his adopted son
Zayd ibn Harithah. A number of sahih hadith were narrated by him as well. The list continues, and knowledge of the diversity that existed within the entourage of the Prophet (ﷺ) himself is a key aspect towards dismantling the appearance of racism within our community. But many people know of Bilal, and of the hijrah to Abyssinia and so on yet statistics like those mentioned earlier in the khutbah continue to exist - so what can we do ourselves to prevent this?
The first thing we can do is tackle the acceptability of racist comments and remarks by bringing attention to and identifying them - namely calling out these instances. Secondly holding programmes and khutbahs on the condemnation of racism within Islam can be a means of appealing to older generations through sources that they trust, and through education from scholars far more qualified to speak on this topic than me. Namely spreading education on the contributions to Islamic history as well as the modern history that many notable black Muslims have made. And lastly, we should introspect and evaluate ourselves to truly understand the impact we are having on the situation, are we sincerely internalising the concept that we are all born of one soul? Are we turning a deaf ear to discriminatory comments made by those around us? Are we personally being inconsiderate of the impact that our words have on our brothers and sisters?
May Allah remove the filth of prejudice rooted in jahiliyya from our communities. May He reward those believers who struggled against the injustices of society to allow us to experience the rights we take for granted today; and may He allow us to unite as an ummah regardless of race, tribe or origin, under the unifying banner of “la ilaha ilallah.”
إِنَّ اللَّهَ وَمَلَائِكَتَهُ يُصَلُّونَ عَلَى النَّبِيِّ ۚ يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا صَلُّوا عَلَيْهِ وَسَلِّمُواتَسْلِيم
(Indeed, Allah confers blessing upon the Prophet, and His angels [ask Him to do so]. O you who have believed, ask [Allah to confer] blessing upon him and ask [Allah to grant him] peace)
اللّٰهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلَى مُحَمَّدٍ، وَعَلَى آلِ مُحَمَّدٍ، كَمَا صَلَّيْتَ عَلَى إِبْرَاهِيْمَ، وَعَلَى آلِ إِبْرَاهِيْمَ، إِنَّكَ حَمِيْدٌ مَجِيْدٌ، اللّٰهُمَّ بَارِكْ عَلَى مُحَمَّدٍ وَّعَلَى آلِ مُحَمَّدٍ، كَمَا بَارَكْتَ عَلَى إِبْرَاهِيْمَ وَعَلَى آلِ إِبْرَاهِيْمَ، إِنَّكَ حَمِيْدٌ مَجِيْدٌ
(O Allah, confer Your blessings on Muhammad and on the family of Muhammad as You have confered Your blessings on Ibrahim and on the family of Ibrahim, You are Praiseworthy, Most Glorious. O Allah, bless Muhammad and the family of Muhammad as You have blessed Ibrahim and the family of Ibrahim, You are Praiseworthy, Most Glorious.)
رَبَّنَآ ءَاتِنَا فِى ٱلدُّنْيَا حَسَنَةًۭ وَفِى ٱلْـَٔاخِرَةِ حَسَنَةًۭ وَقِنَا عَذَابَ ٱلنَّارِ
اللهُمَّ أَعِزَّ الإِسْلامَ وَالمُسْلِمِينَ
وَأَذِلَّ الشِّرْكَ وَالمُشْرِكِينَ
رَبَّنَا وَلَا تُحَمِّلْنَا مَا لَا طَاقَةَ لَنَا بِهِۦ ۖ وَٱعْفُ عَنَّا وَٱغْفِرْ لَنَا وَٱرْحَمْنَآ ۚ أَنتَ مَوْلَىٰنَا فَٱنصُرْنَا عَلَى ٱلْقَوْمِ ٱلْكَـٰفِرِينَ
عِبَادَ اللّهِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَأْمُرُ بِالْعَدْلِ وَالْإِحْسَانِ وَإِيتَاءِ ذِي الْقُرْبَىٰ وَيَنْهَىٰ عَنِ الْفَحْشَاءِ وَالْمُنكَرِ وَالْبَغْيِ يَعِظُكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَذَكَّرُونَ
Oh Servants of Allah, Indeed, Allah orders justice and good conduct and giving [help] to relatives and forbids immorality and bad conduct and oppression. He admonishes you that perhaps you will be reminded.
اُذْكُرُوا اللَّهَ الْعَظِيمَ يَذْكُرْكُمْ واشْكُرُوهُ يَزِدْكُمْ واسْتَغْفِرُوهُ يَغْفِرْ لكُمْ واتّقُوهُ يَجْعَلْ لَكُمْ مِنْ أَمْرِكُمْ مَخْرَج
(Remember Allah, the Great and He will remember you, and thank Him, He will increase you, and ask His forgiveness, and He will forgive you, and fear Him, He will make for you a way out of your affairs.)
وَأَقِمِ الصّلَاة
[Time for Prayer]
EXTRA NOTES FOR ANYONE READING
*By definition in the Arab lineage system, the origin of the father defines the origin of the child, and so by his father being Arab he would be considered ethnically Arab. However he was known to be dark skinned and faced discrimination for this from individuals who called his lineage into question as a result
Delivered during Black History Month
Often when this conversation comes up people jump to say we aren't in need of discussing anti-racism in Islam. Given Islam's role, if applied correctly this should in fact be the case. Then why is it that these statistics occur?
What can we do to play our part?
Call out instances of racism, promote education on black Muslim history, reflect on our own internal prejudices
