Islam and Human Dignity
From the very
beginning, Islam has strongly condemned racial discrimination and has done
everything possible to remove the artificial barriers between tribes and
between nations. For the first time in the history of humanity, a new standard
for judging the qualities of man was stated in the Holy Quran in these solemn
words:
“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 Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allah is Knowing
and Acquainted.” (49: 14)
This statement sounded the death knell for all kinds of aristocracies, whether
of birth, caste or wealth. The black people found themselves on the same level
as the white people. Suddenly and forever, the colour of such abominable
prejudice was rejected.
Even today, with the passage of time, incidents such as those of Little Rock are hardly heard in the Islamic countries and the problems of discrimination
law as before what is happening in South Africa have neither arisen in the
Middle East nor the Far East.
“An Arab has no superiority over a
non-Arab and a non-Arab has no superiority to an Arab, you are all the children
of Adam, and Adam was created from clay.”
Those are the memorable words of the Holy Prophet (pbuh) in the valley of Mina
during the Farewell Pilgrimage (his first and last one). What was the result?
At these solemn
words, the social pride of the Arabs was driven away. The difference between
Arabs and non-Arabs, similar to that which existed between Jews and pagans,
Greeks and barbarians, patricians and plebeians was brutally stripped of the
halo of old antiquity. The weak and the oppressed ceased to receive alms
according to the whims of the wealthy. Religion had now given them legitimate
rights to the property of the rich as well as in politics. The woman, who
suffered because of the weakness of her physical stature and who was simply
considered as mere commodity, was put on the same footing as man.
