Imam Luqman Ahmad Mosque Without Borders

The Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم did not subscribe to racial prejudice. He was never a racist. This we know for a fact through his words and actions before and after his prophethood. His own adopted son, Zayd was a black slave who the Prophet freed and adopted as his own, this was years before he received revelation. In his farewell sermon, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم reiterated his opposition to racism in his statement; “there is no preference to a  Arab over a non-arab except by taqwa”. Despite the Prophet’s guidance on the matter, the Muslim ummah has continued to struggle with the issue of racial prejudice since the time of Rasoolillaah up to this very day.

Hundreds of years after the Prophet’s death, the  celebrated historian Ibn Khaldoun (D. 808 A.H.), thought by many to be the father of modern-sociology, established further premise for the subjugation of Blacks when he wrote; “Therefore, the Negroe nations are as a rule, submissive to slavery, because (Negroes) have little that is (essentially) human and possess attributes that are quite similar to those of dumb animals, as we have stated. [Al-Muqaddama by Ibn Khaldoun, d. 1406, p. 117].

Thus, even amongst the scholars of Islam, there was always a sociological basis, at least in the minds of some of them, for marginalizing Black Muslims. Racial prejudice was even codified into islamic law through books such as the Reliance of the Travler by Ahmad al-Misry.

In modern times, you can see racial bias in some of the fatwa issued by scholars targeting Black American Muslims and aspects of American culture. You can see it in the two Muslim Americas, one Black, and one the rest of the Muslims. The ignorance of racial prejudice still exists in the Ummah.

Overblown black pride is just as insidious as overblown White pride or overblown Arab pride. Black American Muslims who believe that they are entitled to some sort of spiritual preference or superiority because of their skin color, are just as deluded as White, Arab, African or Asian Muslims who believe that their skin color or ethnicity makes them better.

The religion of Islam is championed by people of all colors, ethnicities, and lineages, and the best of them are the ones who have the most taqwa.

Imam Luqman Ahmad