Notes from Makkah1: Equality of Mankind

‎‎In the Name of Allaah, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful.

"O mankind! We have created you from a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes that you may know one another. Verily, the most honorable of you with Allaah is that (believer) who has At-Taqwa. Verily, Allaah is All-Knowing, All-Aware." Q49:13

From Adam and Hawwa, Allaah made nations, tribes and subtribes with each sharing equal honor and some being more equal than others on the account of their obedience to the Orders of Allaah the Exalted and their adherence to the Sunnah of His Messenger and not through family lineage.

I'm writing this in the midst of hundreds of thousands of people from different nations, tribes and subtribes from all regions of the world cutting across all levels of social strata who have wittingly or unwittingly demonstrated their lowly nature in the presence of the Most Exalted Allaah proclaiming His Majesty in the city of Makkah, in the House of Allaah.

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Each one of these hundreds of thousands of people has naturally abandoned his/her worldly titles, wealth, status and family lineage because in reality just as Allaah doesn't care about these things, nobody really cares when the location is Makkah.

The atmosphere is spiritual, the occasion is humbling and the location is mind-boggling and this makes me reflect on the celebrated verdicts passed on Prophet Muhammad (Pbuh) by a non-Muslims regarding this feat he attained.

Sarojin Naidu who was a poet and a politician had this to say about the Islamic unity and brotherhood 

"It was the first religion that preached and practiced democracy; for, in the mosque, when the call for prayer is sounded and worshippers are gathered together, the democracy of Islam is embodied five times a day when the peasant and king kneel side by side and proclaim: 'God Alone is Great'... I have been struck over and over again by this indivisible unity of Islam that makes man instinctively a brother."

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Yet, in the words of Professor Hurgronje: "The league of nations founded by the prophet of Islam put the principle of international unity and human brotherhood on such universal foundations as to show candle to other nations." He continues, "the fact is that no nation of the world can show a parallel to what Islam has done towards the realization of the idea of the League of Nations."

Mixed feelings oscillating between happiness and sadness will surely dominate the mind of any Muslim reader nay even non-Muslims alike for the simple reason that these flowery words are coming from non-Muslims depicting the sacred values and ideals of Islam yet the Muslims of today are far from this reality and occassionaly when we meet in Makkah and Madinah we demonstrate what is supposed to be part and parcel of our everyday life and that is humility before the Creator and brotherhood before mankind.

We all were created with equal opportunities for spiritual, material, mental attainments with the ability to exceed our peers but the most celebrated attainment is indeed spiritual attainment.

There's a hadith in Bukhari on the strength of Abu Hurayrah (RA) that aptly position piety as the only legitimate yardstick for measuring honor. He said: "Some people asked the Prophet, 'Who is the most honorable among people' He replied "The most honorable among them with Allaah is the one who has the most Taqwa" They said, 'We did not ask you about this.' He said: "Then the most honorable person is Yusuf, Allaah's Prophet, the son of Allaah's Prophet, the son of Allaah's Prophet, the son of Allaah's Khalil." They said, 'We did not ask you about this.' He said,

"Those among you who were best in Jahiliyyah, are the best among you in Islam, if they attain religious understanding."

It can be deduced from above that Taqwa (fearing Allaah in seclusion and in public) defines honor while honor attached to family lineage still goes to a Prophet and finally religious understanding attracts the honor of Allaah.

My advice to one all is that we all should reorganize our thought-pattern and delete any traces of tribalism, pride, and self acclaimed honor and strive for the real honor which is not kept in wealth, power, position, lineage but on Taqwa.

May Allaah unite the hearts of the Muslims and bring an end to the plights of the Syrians, Yemenis, Nigerians especially the IDPs and all the Muslims across the globe.