Biggest strength – Biggest weakness

A few months ago I was at the masjid (mosque) during spring break, enjoying a typical Friday Jummah. Nothing out of the ordinary, the khutbah (religious lecture) was good (I don’t remember what the topic was, sorry), my friends were present, and there was the usual food being sold. I started hearing some yelling. Not a good sort of Assalamualikum! Kaifa halak?? (Peace be upon you! How are you?) yelling, but an angry, belligerent yelling. I figured it was just some young kids fighting. It happens often and the parents or some other masjid elders come and break it up and it ends as quickly as it started. No, the yelling continued to get louder and after a few seconds I realized it was elders yelling, not little kids. I looked over and I saw two brothers, adults in their late 20′s to early 30′s, going at it on the ground. There were 4 or 5 other brothers trying to pry them apart, albeit unsuccessfully. These two just wouldn’t give up. Eventually they were separated. I was very disappointed seeing something like this. If the little kids are seeing these kinds of things among adults, especially on a friday RIGHT AFTER JUMMAH, then what on earth would they think? The worst part was yet to come. As the two were being held and led away, one of them was bragging about how he had 20 pounds of muscle or something (I’m assuming he’d gained 20 pounds of muscle since their last altercation, thats about all I could infer) and the other was calling him a cracker. Woah. Rewind a bit. Yes, the one bragging about his muscle is white, and it was pretty clear that he won the fight. The other guy was black, the one that lost. And yes, he just used a racist slur against his Muslim brother not 10 minutes after Jummah prayer ended.

Lets go back 1400 years. We all know about our beloved first muaddhin (prayer caller) Bilal (R). There was an incident between him and Abu Dharr (R). It is quite well known but I’ll quote it here.

“Once I was conversing with Bilal. Our conversation gave way to a dispute. Angry with him, the following insult burst from my mouth: ‘You cannot comprehend this, O son of a black woman!’

As Islam expressly forbade all kinds of racial, tribal and colour discrimination, Bilal was both upset and greatly angered.

A while later a man came and told me that the Messenger of God, upon him be peace and blessings, summoned me. I went to him immediately. He said to me:

‘I have been informed that you addressed Bilal as the son of a black woman.’

I was deeply ashamed and could say nothing. God’s Messenger continued his reprimand: ‘This means you still retain the standards and judgements of the pre-Islamic days of ignorance. Islam has eradicated all those false standards or measures judging people by blood, fame, colour or wealth. It has established that the best and most honourable of men is he who is the most pious and upright in conduct. Is it right to defame a believer just because he is black?’

Abu Dharr felt profound remorse. He went straight to Bilal’s house and, putting his head on the threshold, said: ‘This head will not rise from here until the blessed feet of Bilal tread on the face of foolish, impolite Abu Dharr.’

Bilal responded: ‘That face deserves to be kissed, not trodden upon’, and forgave Abu Dharr.”

From: http://www.thewaytotruth.org/stories/colorandrace.html

So yes, racism is not new in Islam. Yes, even the most pious of the Sahaba (Companions of Rasulullah (S)) made mistakes, even grave ones such as making racist comments. But let us take Rasulullah (S)’s message to heart. Racism is something that is alien to Islam. It is something that has its place in the Pre-Islamic days of ignorance. And yes, for my white brother and black brother, this lesson is very important.

Although this incident was one of the most disappointing things I have witnessed at a masjid, I saw something that gave me much hope. At the very end, when the black brother did use the offensive slur, other black brothers surrounding him soundly reproached him, and were very disgusted by his behavior. I was very happy that there are still many brothers who have taken Rasulullah (S)’s true message to heart and still judge people by their piety, not by race or notions of nobility.

As closing, I want to quote a few lines from Shaheed Malik Al-Shabazz’s (Malcolm X) letter from Makkah, when we went on Hajj.

“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 blue, whose hair was the blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of white. And in the words and in the actions 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.”

As American Muslims, our biggest strength is our diversity. Instead of using this, we have allowed it to become our biggest weakness, dividing ourselves by race, color, language, and so many other things that are really very trivial.

I hope Allah (God)  can make this message beneficial for you and me, and please forgive me for any mistakes I have made while writing this. Jazakallah Khayr (May Allah grant you good).

-Hassan Muhammad Ali Shah