[Applause]
[Music]
We make peace a symbol of ours. In the
name of peace, we gather here now. Oh
Lord, please make these days of ours on
this earth filled
with peaceful.
Peace the solution for
humanity.
[Music]
Prophet wasallam said whoever calls to
nationalism to tribalism is not of us
not a true Muslim. So Allah puts it on
the same level. There is nothing special
about people's
colors because it exists everywhere. In
fact, it is all from the greatness of
Allah's creation.
[Music]
[Applause]
Ladies and gentlemen, Dr. Abu Amina
Balal Phillips. He was born in Jamaica,
the West Indies, and grew up in Canada
where he accepted Islam in
1972. He completed a BA from the College
of Islamic Disciplines at the Islamic
University of Medina in 1979 and an MA
in Islamic Theology in 1985 at the
University of Rial College of
Education. In
1994, he completed a PhD in Islamic
theology in the department of Islamic
studies at the University of
Wales. From 1994 to the year 2001, Dr.
Balo Phillips founded and directed the
Islamic information center in Dubai,
United Arab Emirates and the foreign
language and the foreign literature
department of Darl Fata and the Islamic
press in charger again in the
UAE. In 2001, Dr. Dr. Bal Phillips
established the Islamic online
university, the first accredited Islamic
university on the internet. He was a
professor of Arabic and Islamic studies
at the American University in Dubai and
Amman University, head of department of
Arabic and Islamic studies at Preston
University in Amman again in the United
Arab Emirates. He is a lecturer and
director of dawa and education at
theqatar guest center in Dohaqatar and
is currently the dean of Islamic studies
academy again in Dhaqatar. Ladies and
gentlemen I would like to welcome Balo
Phillips and invite him to the podium to
begin his speech Islam and racism.
Alhamdulillah. All praise is due to
Allah. May Allah's peace and blessings
be on the last messenger of Allah. This
conference peace the solution of
humanity
has as a part of the
issues it must
address is that of racism.
being one of the major
problems that humanity
faces.
Racism as a term is relatively
modern. It wasn't known in the English
language more than few hundred years
ago.
It comes from the word
race and that word in
itself is a new
word. It refers to the major divisions
of
humanity based on particular physical
characteristics. This is according to
the Oxford dictionary. And Oxford goes
on to define racism as the belief that
each race has certain qualities or
abilities giving rise to the belief that
certain races are better than others. If
we look into human
history among the
ancients,
racism was not
really existent. You wouldn't find it in
the writings, the hieroglyphic writings
of ancient Egypt or in ancient China or
in ancient India.
Instead, what you found
was family, tribal or national
superiority
promoted. A nation or a tribe having
defeated other nations and tribes
considered themselves to be superior.
They look down on those people whom they
defeated and they would set up legal
systems where the defeated peoples would
be at the bottom levels of the
society. in India where the Aryans came
into
India and the Dravidians who were here
ended up on the bottom level of the cast
system, a religious, political,
uh, economic
system. They ended up on the bottom
because they were the defeated people.
It so happens that the Aryans were of
light complexion and the Dravidians were
of dark complexion.
So this is where there is an apparent
link between what may be called the cast
system and
racism. In China, for
example, the Chinese people, those
tribes or races which they
defeated and
subjugated, they were held on lower
levels in their society. They may have
inducted them into the
army and used them as a part of their
workforce, but they didn't have a
specific concept of color, for example,
as being a distinguishing characteristic
of race.
Similarly,
Egypt, the ancient
record shows that the Egyptian people
were a mixture, a blend of colors of
people. And those people who became the
slaves and the lower levels of the
society were the defeated people.
Whether they may have been light
complexion people like the people from
the Syrians, from Iraq area, etc., or
they were from the south from the area
we now know as Sudan, Ethiopia, these
areas. Uh so the people who they ruled
over were of varying
colors. They didn't themselves
uh identify themselves based on color.
So the rulers of ancient Egypt were of
different colors. So it was more an
issue
of nation. You being an Egyptian, a born
person of that nation from that family
or the tribes that created the Egyptian
nation, you are superior to those
nations that were defeated.
In modern times when this term of race
and racism evolved in the English
language and other languages, we find
that it became a
justification for European colonization
of the
world as people spread out from Europe
into Africa and into
Asia and they met with other civiliz
izations and they defeated these
civilizations. They sought
to ideologically
identify these civilizations as being
inferior to their
own and to justify their enslavement of
these people and the destruction of
their
civilization. they developed this
concept of race
racism and supported it with the
evolutionary
theory. So if you see the writings in
the 19th century of the evolutionists or
those who were promoting evolutionary
theory especially in the 19th century
and you see the charts which they
created of human
evolution you'll see on the lower level
of the charts for example
um
apes monkeys chimpanzees baboons
And then after that you will see black
peoples, peoples whose skin complexion
were black. Then after that then there
were Chinese people. And then after that
were the urine people who were at the
top of the evolutionary tree. That's how
they portrayed it. So this was a part of
an ideology used to
justify the subjugation of these people
that they may be
elevated through that
subjugation. And in time, of course, it
produced some of the most worst
examples of racism in history, whether
in the United States of America, and I'm
sure you're all familiar with the
various images, etc. that are shown of
it, the civil rights movement response,
black American response, white American
response to it, to slavery.
Also in South Africa the apartheid
system. You know these are
obvious you could
say children of the early racism of the
colonial peoples. If we come from there
to the Islamic
view because when we're looking at Islam
and racism we have to look at the
Islamic view in this regard.
And the Islamic view first and
foremost comes from the
Quran. This is our major source of
understanding
or definition or
clarification as to what is the view of
Islam on anything. We start with the
Quran. What we find in the Quran are
general verses which talk about the
variety amongst
humankind in such a general way as
to make the reader or the listener
understand that it is just a part and
parcel of the greatness of Allah in his
creation.
There is nothing special about people's
colors because it exists everywhere. So
we find for
example in
surah the 30th chapter of the Quran
verse
22 and among his signs among Allah's
signs is the creation of the heavens and
the earth and the variations in your
language. languages and your colors.
Indeed, in that are signs for those who
know. In that are sign for the
knowledgeable, the
scholars. We also find in
surah the 35th chapter vers 27 and 28
[Music]
Can you not see that Allah sends down
rain from the sky and I produce from it
fruit of various
colors. and from the mountains red and
white streaks of various colors and jet
black. And likewise among people,
animals and cattle there is a variation
in color.
It is only the scholars, the
knowledgeable, those who know among his
slaves who truly fear
Allah. Indeed, Allah is almighty and
oftforgiving.
So in these verses as I said Allah
points out these variations in colors as
existing in the mountains. When you look
at the colors of the rocks of the
mountains there are various streaks of
colors in there. Sometimes reddish,
sometimes whitish and sometimes jet
black. And in the same time we also find
this kind of variation where among
people among animals and among
cattle we don't make special
distinctions among these the cattle and
the animals because of their colors. No,
we look at their characteristics and
their qualities not their colors.
We may favor one color over another
color, but we don't inherently say that
white cats are better than black cats.
No, that's something which varies from
place to place, people to people, etc.
in preference. So Allah puts it on the
same
level. It is nothing to be proud
of. In fact, it is all from the
greatness of Allah's creation. As he
said, he is the almighty capable of
doing whatever he wishes. Creating
similarities like this among people,
among all aspects of his creation, even
in the beetles, in the insects, in all
the various ranges of creation, we find
these color
differences. So this is not an issue for
which people should take positions of
superiority. Then if we look after that
because for Muslims again for us to
understand what is the position of Islam
we shift from there to what the prophet
sallall alaihi wasallam had to say
concerning these matters matters of
color etc. And what we find is some very
clear statements of the prophet sallall
alaihi wasallam in which he for example
on the farewell pilgrimage he states in
no uncertain terms that there is no
superiority of an Arab over a
non-Arab or of a black over a white or a
white over a black.
Indeed the superiority lies only
in the fearing of God. This is where
superiority lies. And the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam
also instructed people uh
saying with regards to their
ancestry, let people stop boasting about
their ancestors.
One is only a pious believer or a
miserable sinners. All men are sons of
Adam and Adam came from dust. That's the
bottom line. All human beings have a
common origin.
Also, we find the prophet wasallam
talking about the pride which people may
take in their ancestry or their race
etc. And he said, "Whoever has pride in
his heart equal to the weight of an atom
will not enter
paradise." Whoever has pride in his
heart in his or her heart equal to an
atom in some
narrations a mustard
seed will not enter paradise.
That is a very forceful
statement. And
furthermore, what we find as another
supportive verse from the Quran, we find
the famous uh verse in surah
alat verse 13 wherein Allah lays down
the criteria for superiority which was
mentioned in some of the statements of
the prophetam. Allah said there
Oh
humankind, most certainly it is I who
have created you all from a single pair
of male and female.
And it is I who have made you into
nations and tribes that you may
recognize each
other, not despise each other. Indeed,
the noblest of you in the sight of Allah
is he who is most
pious. Indeed, Allah is all knowing, all
aware. So Allah here gave the
criterion the criterion of piety as the
means of superiority that any other
claim to superiority which is based on
color,
family, tribe etc. is rejected. As the
prophet sallallaihi wasallam said
regarding nationalistic and tribalistic
calls to rally for people to rally under
this call, he
said give it up. Leave it because it is
rotten. He
said, "Whoever calls to nationalism, to
tribalism is not of
us. Not a true Muslim. not a follower of
the message of Islam. So when we look at
that
verse which forms the basis of what
prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi
wasallam said regarding issues of race
and tribe etc. We see that Allah
addresses in this verse all of
humankind. It's not restricted only to
the believers. He says
So this is a
statement clarifying for humankind as a
whole with regards to Muslims and the
brotherhood of Muslims. That's what
known Allah said
elsewhere the believers are one
brotherhood. But this goes beyond the
issue of belief. It goes to the
realities of humankind. So Allah says
there, "Oh people, oh
humankind," and then he addresses their
origin to bring them back down to the
common
reality. We're all
from one parent. And modern anthropology
supports this. It
identifies to what degree we can say it
is accurate. It identifies the common
origin of humankind to a woman in West
Africa and to a male in East
Africa. Genetically those who study the
science of anthropology through genetics
etc. This is what they have concluded
and there are many programs which have
been produced on it showing how people
came from there and spread over the rest
of the world. So this is the fact of the
matter. And furthermore, when we even
look at the issues of race and
distinction that people try to make with
race, what we find is that Allah has
left in our midst a sign to us that we
are in fact one regardless of what we
look like on the outside. reality is
that if a
person from the north of
Europe, the whitest of white is
ill and they need a blood
transfusion and they
are O
negative, the rest of his family is O
positive.
his community. There's no O negatives
there. The blood of his own family and
his community can't save his life.
However, somebody who may be the
blackest of black from the south of
India, that person who looks the
complete opposite of that person from
the north of Europe, whitest of white,
but that person from the south of India,
blackest of
black, who is all negative, his blood
can save that man's life. Is this not a
sign from God?
Is this not an obvious sign for our
times? Obviously before this, it wasn't
known before the issues of blood
transfusion. This was not an issue.
Nobody knew about this
sign because before that time this sign
wasn't relevant, wasn't important. But
for our times where science is what we
use to determine right and wrong, here
is the sign Allah has left in our own
bodies. As he said, within yourselves,
the signs are there. if you seek it. So
Allah has left within us that sign to
confirm to us that we are one human
race. We are one human race.
Islam in practice has always taught
that. It has always conveyed that
message to
humankind because one may say okay the
Quran doesn't speak about race and
superiority etc but what about Muslims
in history from the first generations on
down what we find is in fact from among
the prophet's closest
companions people of varying backgrounds
Bilal
after whom my name comes. Bilal was an
Abbisinian slave who was
tortured and he became a Muslim whilst
he was a slave. Later he was freed. The
prophet elevated
him, elevated
him, had him climb on top of the Cabba
and make the call to prayer.
And he was known as the caller to prayer
of the prophet.
Furthermore, the prophet he had a slave
who was given to him by his wife by the
name of Zb
al-Harifa and
he was dark complexioned also black.
This slave who was with him, lived in
the house with
him, was treated so
well, so
fairly, so lovingly, and so kindly that
when his father tracked him down because
he had been captured and put into
slavery and his father finally tracked
him down and came to the prophet sallall
alaihi
wasallam and asked asked the prophet
sallallaihi wasallam if he could buy him
back buy back his freedom the prophet
sallall alaihi wasallam said take
him take him you don't have to pay for
him take
him and of course when the son
znala had uh found his father he was
overjoyed to have found his father and
they both wept in joy to having met each
other again after so many
years. So when the father told him okay
son come with me let us go now
Muhammad may God peace and bless be upon
him said you can go with me and he was a
non-Muslim Zed said to him
no father I would prefer to stay with
the
prophet father was a gasast what you
would prefer to remain a slave in this
man's household come with your own
father. He said
yes. The father
said
obviously he must be treating you like a
father. And truly he was. When the
father left him knowing that he was in
good hands, Prophet Muhammad, may God's
peace and blessings be upon him, freed
him.
This was the obvious
outward technical freedom. But already
he was free in his house. He just hadn't
thought about it as an issue. So when it
became an issue, he said, "You're free."
He declared his freedom. Not only did he
declare his freedom, he adopted him as
his own son.
Can we have a better
example? Can we have a better example of
a complete lack of
racism? That was the example of Prophet
Muhammad. May God's peace and blessings
be upon
him. And he made his son, Zed's son,
Usama Ibn Zed, he made him a general
over the armies of the Muslims.
while he was still a
teenager having under his
command the
califfs. Abu Bakr, Omar, Oman and Ali
were under his command. Can we have a
better
example? This is the example of the
prophet. May God's peace and blessings
be upon him. And we find in the
generations that came after him the same
attitude after the prophet died. May
God's peace and blessings be upon him.
And issues arose in
Arabia while Abu Bakr was the first
califf leading the
Muslims. And people started to grumble
about Usama being the leader of the
army because he was young. Actually,
they weren't arguing about or grumbling
about the fact that he was black. It was
about the fact that he was only about 17
years old.
He says
young but Abu Bakr said I would not
change anyone who has been appointed by
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
he wouldn't touch
it and during the caliphate of Omar
Katab after him the second
califf his own son Abdullahb
Omar questioned him why he was giving a
higher salary to
usb than to his own son
Abdullah.
Why? So Omar answered what? Omar
said, "My son, I do so because I know
well that Allah's messenger loved
Usama's father more than he loved your
father." You hear that? Because I know
well that Allah's
messenger loved us. That's Zadim
Nahara. He loved him more than he loved
me, your
father.
And he loved us more than he loved you.
So Omar
Katab didn't consider for a moment any
change in the status which prophet
Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam had
afforded
Zadiba and his son Usam Ib
Zed and on one occasion when uh people
were speaking about
Bilal he said Bilal this is Omar Again
speaking about Bilal Iben Rabbah saying
Bilal is our master and he was
emancipated by our master Abu Bakr. Abu
Bakr is the one first califf who freed
him and he referred to him as Bilal is
our
master. He didn't hesitate to do that.
But let me say at the same time that the
companions of the prophet may God's
peace and blessings be upon him were
human
beings and there were a rare few
occasions when some of them did express
some prejudice in this
regard. And on one occasion Abu Dar Ibn
al- Kafari who the prophet sallall
alaihi wasallam promised would be among
the people of paradise. Abu Dar in a fit
of anger he
called Bilal in a negative sense you son
of a black woman. in a negative sense.
He was the son of a black woman in
reality but he used the terms in a
negative
sense. When the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam heard
that he turned to Abu Dar and
[Music]
said you are a man in whom the beliefs
of the time of ignorance
remains. there is ignorance in
you and he was very
angry. These are the times when the
prophet sallallaihi wasallam was angry
and it was visible in his face anger
over injustice.
So when Abu Dar realized that realized
the error because these things happen
comes out of people's mouths without
thinking he immediately put his head on
the ground in front of
Bilal and said I will not lift my head
until you walk over it. And in those
days one might say what's the big deal
about walking over somebody's head. This
was a symbol of humility. You have been
humbled so much so that your master
those who are over you walk over your
head. Bilal said, "No, no, it's okay.
No, it's all right. You know, I know you
have made the error and you are
repentant. You know, I don't hold you
for it. You don't have to do that.
Please don't." In fact, Bilah refused to
step over his head. Abu Dar
refused. He said, "By Allah, I'm not
going to lift my head until you step
over
it." Meaning, if you don't, I'm going to
be lying here
for God knows how long. So, in order to
relieve him of that guilt, to help him
relieve himself of that guilt, Bilal
walked over his head. This happened
among the companions of the prophet. May
God's peace and blessings be upon him.
In the generations to
come, what we find is a variety of
examples. When we look at the great
scholars of
Islam, those who studied under the
companions of the prophet, may God's
peace and blessings be upon him, known
as the Tabun, many of them were former
slaves who were
black slaves from varying other
backgrounds,
non-Arabs and they were narrators of the
traditions of the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam. They were the teachers
of Abu Hanifh, the teachers of Imam
Malik, the teachers of Ahmed Muhamm
Shafi, the great scholars of
Islam. They were their teachers and they
were their
students and on down through the
generations. And this is how Islam has
been. It showed
practically that there really is no
superiority based on color or race. The
leading scholars of
hadith for anyone who studies the
science of hadith which is the second
most noble science after the sciences of
the Quran for any Muslim to study. The
leading
narrators, compilers of hadith were
non-Arabs.
Maja and
Nahi,
Al-Buki and so on and so forth were
non-Arabs. And this has been the
tradition. And we can find in our
times people seeing that and being moved
by that to become Muslims. For example,
in the statements of Muhammad
Ali, Muhammad
Ali, formerly known as Casius Clay, the
boxer from
America, he said, "The pilgrimage to
Mecca was an exhilarating experience to
see people belonging to different
colors, races, and nationalities, kings,
heads of states, and ordinary men from
very poor countries, all clad in two
simple white sheets, praying to God
without any sense of either pride or
inferiority. It was a practical
manifestation of the concept of equality
in Islam. And after
him Malcolm X, actually before him,
Malcolm X, he had observed the same
thing when he went on Hajj.
He came back saying, "Never have I
witnessed such sincere
hospitality and the overwhelming spirit
of true brotherhood as is practiced by
people of all colors and races here in
this ancient holy land, the home of
Abraham, Muhammad, and all of the
prophets of the Holy Scriptures.
For the past week, I have been utterly
speechless and spellbound by the
graciousness I see displayed all around
me by people of all colors. And when he
returned to America and the press met
him and asked him about his opinions,
his changes that have taken place, if
there were any changes in his views. He
said, one of the key factors that he
said was that I can see that the only
solution for racism in America is
Islam. The only solution for racism, and
you're speaking about America, but it
was worldwide, is Islam. Because
Christianity had a tradition in America
of black churches and white churches.
And even in the white churches which
allowed blacks they would have to be in
the back somewhere off you know not
sitting with the white people this was
their tradition as in South Africa and
elsewhere. So even in the religion
Christian religion had no basis in its
teachings to deal with
this sickness this disease of racism. We
also find from
India Gandhi himself saying the
Europeans in South Africa dread the
advent of
Islam as they Muslims claim equality
with the white
races. They may well dread it. If
brotherhood is a sin, if it is equality
of the colored races that they dread,
then their dread is well founded because
that's what Islam calls to. We also have
one of the Indian freedom fighters, a
female by the name of Sarroini Naidu.
She said, "I have been struck over and
over again by this indivisible unity of
Islam that makes a man instinctively a
brother. When you meet an Egyptian, an
Algerian, an Indian, and a Turk in
London, what matters is that Egypt is
the motherland of one and India is the
motherland of
another. That's all. They are one."
So these are the
observations of those who have looked at
Islam from the outside as well as from
within. Islam has provided the solution.
And there is a story I'd like to relate
to you of an individual, an American,
white American by the name of
Cypes who was raised in a family of
white
supremists belonging to the Ku Klux
Clan, famous racist organization in
America. And he talked about having
joined that organization from he was 14
years till he was 21 and he became a
high ranking official in the clan.
was involved in recruiting etc for
it.
And when he was asked
about the reasons for his attitude, you
know, towards black Americans,
African-Americans, he said because
that's what everybody in his family
said. This is what he grew up with. They
were always referring to black people as
cockroaches, violent and bad, you know,
and they were just uh leeching off the
white
people. Eventually, he got involved in
crime and ended up in
jail. And while he was
there, he had joined up with one of the
racist groups in the jail because people
polarize in jails, Aryan
Nation. And um he at that time though he
had joined with this group for his own
self-p protection he had time to
read and he started to study about
racism and race and people and their
origins etc.
And he started to have some doubts about
what he had been raised
with. And the more he read, the more
doubts he started to
develop. Eventually, he came out of
jail and he met some Muslims. He ended
up being a roommate of a black who was
also a Muslim.
and
um through the behavior how that person
as a Muslim treated
him sharing with him whatever he had and
he just couldn't understand it why he
would be so forthcoming and so sharing
it eventually won him over and he became
a Muslim from a white supremist
belonging to the Kulux
clan being opened by reading of course
that's why Allah says in the Quran
that these differences in color and
tongues
etc are from the greatness of Allah and
have nothing to do with superiority or
pride. This is clear to those who have
knowledge to those who have knowledge. A
person without knowledge moves on
emotion. So they can't change. Difficult
to change when what you are reacting to
is a product of emotion and not
knowledge.
And this is why from the Islamic
perspective, back to the Quran again, we
find in the Quran where Allah
identifies there the beginning of
racism
where in the creation of
Adam. When Adam was created, the
angels and El Satan, a leader among the
jin, were instructed to bow in
recognition of Adam's special place with
Allah.
El refused. Satan refused. And when he
was questioned as to why, he said,
Who? I am better than him.
Adam, that man that you want me to bow
before, I am better than him because you
created me from fire. The jin are
created from
fire and you created him from clay. That
is that expression of racism. You see
there it is in the Quran as something
evil which led to God's curse, God's
eternal curse on
Satan.
Pride based on racial tribal origin is a
cursed
state displeasing and hated by
God. And that is how it is mentioned in
the Quran.
And that is why Islam has this great
message to offer to
humankind to help them to achieve peace
in this area to bring them to the
realities of humankind and human
existence. Human
beings are one human
race and there is only one
God and as such God
created for human beings only one
message. He did not want confusion
amongst
people. So he didn't create a variety of
messages. He created with the first
human being on the
earth one
religion, one
God, one human
race and one religion. And that
religion, the religion of Adam, was
submission to the will of
God, obedience to God's command. And
that is what in Arabic is referred to as
[Applause]
Islam. Brothers and sisters, we will now
move into the question and answer
session. We encourage non-Muslims,
brothers and sisters both to ask
questions and we will give them
precedence at the microphone. So if any
non-Muslims are here, you will be given
preference at the microphones. Please
state your name and your profession
before you ask your
question. Thank you. You may begin, sir.
My name is Ludovik. I'm French. I am not
Muslim and I am traveling 8 months in
India. I am studying in France, but
actually I take a year for me. And um
maybe you you said the answer of my
question but forgive me if I make you
repeat but um how in the Quran Allah
explains the different uh the origin of
the different kind of human you know
black white I don't like the word race
but uh the we are all different and how
is it possible that from one uh one
first man common first
there were all the this difference uh uh
in the humanity.
Okay. Our friends question basically is
how is it
possible that the variety that we see
amongst us here today in terms of
colors, shapes, sizes, you know, colors
of eyes and everything we see all this
variety. How can it come from one
person? That's a good question. Well,
the
geneticists, those who specialize in
genetics, modern scientists, in the
science of genetics, they explain it
very
easily. Every human being has in his or
her genes the ability to produce every
other human being.
Every human being, not just Adam the
first, but even you today have the
ability to produce children of varying
colors and shapes and sizes etc. It's
just a matter of factors which lead to
the turning on of some genes, turning
off of other genes. And who controls
that? God. And one of the signs that he
leaves amongst us are who? The
albinos. You know the albino or albino.
You'll see somebody from Africa. You
know from a tribe. I there's one friend
of mine a Sudanese. You know his parents
are black. His grandparents are black.
His wife is black and he is white as
snow. So much so his eyelashes are
white.
You see this is how this is this is
genetic. It has to do with the genes. So
Adam when Allah created him and this is
something that the prophet sallallaihi
wasallam alluded to when he said that
when Adam was being made and he was made
from clay the angels gathered from all
over the earth
different amounts of dirt. Some of it
white, some of it brown, some of it
black. as we have all this variation in
the colors of the earth in the earth
itself that was all brought together in
the creation of Adam
[Applause]
pleasure I hope that answered your
question now I'll go to the microphone
in the back
my name is Nawashatilkar and I'm a
electronic engineer working at cement uh
my question is here in India we have a
concept of sayads They claim the
ancestry to Muhammad sallallahu alaihi
wasallam and they
says marry only sayyads or the other
concept is like the says never has to be
given zakar. So please throw some light
on this. Okay. Our brother has asked
about a concept amongst Muslims
especially in the
subcontinent regarding people who are
given the label of
says with the claim that they are
descendants of prophet
Muhammad's family. This is the claim. Of
course any such claim first and foremost
we say must be supported by evidence.
Please trace your ancestry right back to
the prophet sallall alaihi wasallam for
me. Most of these people in fact
99.99% of these people cannot do
that. They can't trace it back. It's
just a claim which was made a few
generations back and people accepted it
and it was handed down. That's the first
point.
Really it is false in most cases.
Secondly, the idea that only says marry
says, that is also
false. Even if we accept them as being
from the family of the prophet,
descendants of the prophet's family, the
idea that they only marry amongst each
other, that is false. Islam doesn't
support that at all. That is tribalism.
And that's what the prophet wasallam
said. Whoever calls to tribalism to only
my family is not of
us. So even the practice among some
Muslims today in
ignorance where they say you cannot
marry outside of our family. You know as
an Indian you can't marry a Pakistani or
even within from Hyderabad you can't
marry people from Tamil Nadu you this is
nonsense this is completely outside of
Islam Islam is innocent from these kinds
of beliefs and ideas completely false
prophet Muhammad demonstrated that when
he married Zadimn Hara a former black
slave to Zanab
his own cousin who was from top families
of
Mecca. He did it to demonstrate that
those kinds of feelings and attitudes
have no place in Islam. Third
point, there are people who are from the
family of the prophet, may God's peace
and blessings be upon him. among his
very
uncles who Allah said are people of
hell. Among his own uncles much closer
to him than any of the sades today could
possibly
be are people who have been designated
as people of
hell. So what does that tell us?
Being a relative of the prophet has no
value before God. It has no
value. You can be a disbeliever or a
disbeliever. And truly this is what
happened. So this practice or this
belief is a part of the ignorance of
Muslims. As Muslims drift away from the
Islamic teachings, then these kind of
racialist, tribalist, nationalistic
feelings and ideas
arise. This has historically been the
way. When Islam is strong, the teachings
are wellnown, people know it, then these
feelings go down. They're
satanic. No. As I gave the example from
El Satan refusing to bow at his claim,
know that the origin of racism is from
Satan. It is a satanic
belief and tribalism is
satanic. Human beings are
[Applause]
one. I believe we have a question from
the sister side. Sister, would you
please state your question and your name
please and profession? Assalamu alaykum.
My name is Mariam Shik. I'm student of
Al-Mina school. You mentioned in your
talk that Zad Pro Anu Anu's name was
changed to Zedna Muhammad after Muhammad
sallallahu alaihi wasallam adopted him.
Muslims generally say that adoption is
not allowed in Islam. Please clarify.
Okay. As I
mentioned, when Prophet Muhammad, may
God's peace and bless be upon him, freed
Zed and adopted him as his son
officially by changing his name to Zaden
Muhammad. That
remained so until Muslims reached
Medina. When the prophet reached Medina
and the legal system of Islam was
revealed, then Allah corrected that and
said, "Call them by their father's
names that is more just in the sight of
Allah." So his name was recorrected and
changed back to Zed Ibh Harifa the name
of his father. So according to Islamic
law a person's family name cannot be
changed even if he converts to Islam.
For example my name often times Muslims
ask me your name is Bilal Phillips.
Sounds like you have a piece of this and
a piece of that. You know half and half.
If you want to be a Muslim, you should
be Bal Muhammad or something. You
know why not? Well, the reality is that
according to the Sharia, according to
Islamic law, it is forbidden for anyone
to change the names of their fathers
because the father's names indicates
their
genealogy. And when a person converts to
Islam, he doesn't change his genealogy.
His father is still his father.
So he's not allowed to change his
father's name. His given name he may
change. If the meaning
is unislamic, if it involves some aspect
of idolatry, for example, you know, then
that name should be changed. Like my
previous uh given name, what they call
Christian name or first name was Dennis.
Dennis comes from the Greek god
Dionius, the god of wine and bakanal.
You know, this is so that is definitely
not an acceptable name. Like Diana, the
goddess of love. Uh-uh. If you become a
Muslim, you have to change Diana, you
know, or Apollo or any of these names of
gods, etc. These names have to be
changed, you You know or if the name has
a bad meaning also the prophet sallallah
wasallam used to change people's given
names not their family names even if the
family name was has a bad
meaning all right he would not touch it
like Abu Hurera very famous companion of
the prophet may God's peace and
blessings be upon him who narrated more
hadiths than any other
companion his original
name was uh Sakar Iben
Abdishams Sakar means
rock the son of the sun worshipper his
father's name
was sun worshipper or slave of the
sun now the prophet sallallaihi wasallam
changed his name his given name to Abdul
Rahman and he was given the nickname Abu
Herrera the man who loved the cat he
used to carry a little cat around with
him he liked
kittens but his name was changed only
his first name was changed to Abdul
Rahman from
rocky you have a name like Rocky and we
say better you change it get some name
which is you know more attractive
something uh of better meaning etc
otherwise names family names should not
be touched so in answer to the question
is there adoption in Islam yes you may
adopt somebody but you can't change
their name adopting means looking after
them, taking care of them, raising them,
spending money on them, you know,
providing for them. Of course, Islam
encourages that especially for orphans.
Prophet Muhammad wasallam
praised praised those who looked after
orphans saying that they will be like
this with me on the day of judgment in
paradise. So looking after orphans is
something highly encouraged in Islam.
Adopting them is a wonderful thing but
don't change their names.
Thank you Dr. Phillips. Brother, go
ahead. Now
my name is Lim Jisun from Malaysia. I
have a simple questions to brother
Philips. The Jew claim that they are the
most superior human beings on earth
better than any other races. What the
Quran speak about this? What say about
the Jew? The Jew claim they are the most
superior human being on earth. Okay,
speak talk about that. You see, to
answer that question, we would have to
establish that this is a
fact that the Jews claim that they are
the most superior people on earth. So
unless you can quote from me from the
Talmud or from the Torah where the Jews
actually say that then for me to answer
your question is to accept your premise
without evidence. Right? That is to
accept your premise without evidence.
But let me go on. If it were that they
did say that, okay, we just take it. If
they did say
it, does it have any
weight from the Quranic
perspective? No, it has no
weight. Allah has already stated as I
mentioned the verse in surah al hat 49th
chapter verse 13. Allah says there very
clearly indeed the best of you, the most
superior of
you are those who fear God the
most. So that is the only criterion that
we have and only Allah knows who fears
him the most.
He knows what is in the heart because
obviously fear of God. Fear of God
meaning fear of his
displeasure which leads one to do what
he
commands. Who knows that best? Allah.
Because he knows what's in the
hearts. Thank you for your question.
I'll take the question from the brother
here. My name is
Jadgri. I am a Hindu.
you quoted that arians are
superior race. According to
uh my
knowledge arians are not a superior
race. It is quality they develop
uh in their
life for generation that is
uh for
quality represent poor
quality not race.
Well, I am not quite clear exactly the
point you're trying to make. What I did
say and I didn't say that aryans or
Aryans are superior. I just said that
they according to history, you know,
came into India and conquered it and
they came from the north. They were not
original Indians. The original Indians
are the
Dravidians. So when they came and they
conquered, they set up a system with
themselves on top, which is natural. Any
conqueror, if he conquers, this is the
normal course of history. Whenever you
conquer a people, you put them under
you. They're your subjects. So that's
what they did. And the cast system you
know evolved out of that relationship
which had to do with organization for
economics and variety of other reasons.
This is all I was saying but now it has
become related or appears related to
race or
color. This will be the last question
brother
please. My name is Fere. I'm in the
field of uh marketing. There's a group
of people I've come across among Muslims
who strongly adhere to the Quran and the
Sunnah. Uh they say that uh the kilafa
or a ruler in Islam or amongst Muslims
in the future should be from amongst the
quresh. Uh I went on to read uh some
references in sahim muslim. The I didn't
get any proper explanations on that. it
the hadith kept saying that the ruler
should be from the Quraysh. Could you
please throw some light on that?
Okay. Uh this issue of
uh that the imams
uh the leaders should be chosen from the
Quresh. This was a recommendation
attributed to Prophet Muhammad
sallallahu alaihi wasallam based on the
fact that the Qur tribe was the leading
tribe of Arabia and that for
organizational
purposes if the other tribes would not
submit except to one from the Quresh. So
uh scholars looking at that you know
have concluded different uh conclusions
regarding it uh whether it is forever or
whether it is just for the first
generation where that issue of the
Quraysh and the other tribes of Arabia
was relevant because after that period
of time we know in Muslim history they
weren't right they weren't. So uh it is
a a point which seemed to be for
political organization in the first few
generations only and not a general
statement until yama.
Okay. Thank you. That was the last
question inshallah.
[Music]
Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat.