Islam Has Declared Equality Amongst The People

Courtesy of Essential Islam --> www.essentialislam.co.uk

Allah جل جلاله states in Surah al-Hujurat:

“O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female, and made you nations and tribes, that you may know one another. Indeed, the most honourable of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allah is All-Knowing and All-Aware.”

Islam is a religion of equality, which teaches respect between all humans and does not distinguish between different races or groups.

The Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم, during the farewell pilgrimage, stated:

“O People! Your Lord is One and your father is one. An Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab; nor does a non-Arab have any superiority over an Arab; nor does a white-skinned person have any superiority over a black-skinned person and nor does a black-skinned person have any superiority over a white-skinned person.”

Allah جل جلاله states in Surah ar-Rum:

“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.”

With 1.6 billion Muslims worldwide, there is no other religion as diverse as Islam, which is a magnificent sign from our Creator. We as Muslims demonstrate an amazing unity in our faith.

Islam not only emphasises equality amongst the people from a theoretical and spiritual aspect, but it also emphasises this from a practical aspect. We stand together in prayer, shoulder to shoulder, irrespective of who is at the front or the back. Our direction and movement is one, as we stand in front of our Lord. During Hajj and Umrah, when we wear the ihram, we demonstrate a total equality amongst each other. Dressed in two simple unstitched cloths, we are all equal and any worldly differences of race, age, nationality, class and culture do not apply.

Islamic rulings of law and regulations are applicable to all Muslims. Any action that has been made obligatory is compulsory for all; any action which is allowed is permissible for all; and any action which is forbidden is prohibited for all.

These are just some of the principles behind the value of equality in Islam. When this Divine ordinance is implemented then there will be no place for oppression, suppression, prejudice or persecution. Concepts of chosen people, words such as privileged and condemned races, expressions such as social castes and second-class citizens will all become meaningless and obsolete.

We finish this article with an extract from a letter that Malcom X wrote in 1964:

“There were tens of thousands of pilgrims, from all over the world. They were of all

colours, from blue-eyed blondes to black-skinned Africans. But we were all participating

in the same ritual, displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood that my experiences in

America had led me to believe never could exist between the white and the non-white.

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. This was not too

difficult for me. Despite my firm convictions, I have been always a man who tries to face

facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfolds it. I

have always kept an open mind, which is necessary to the flexibility that must go hand

in hand with every form of intelligent search for truth.

During the past eleven days here in the Muslim world, I have eaten from the same plate,

drunk from the same glass and slept in the same bed (or on the same rug) - while

praying to the same God with fellow Muslims, whose eyes were the bluest of the blue,

whose hair was the blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of white. And in

the words and in the actions and in the deeds of the ‘white' Muslims, I felt the same

sincerity that I felt among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan and Ghana.

We are truly all the same-brothers.”