ISLAMS GIFTS TO THE WORLD [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Illustrations of Islamic
Practice

By Sayyid Mujtaba Musavi Lari

When we weigh the conduct of the pioneers of Islam
against the behaviour and system of the socialist
countries and of those of the free world, we
see a difference as great as chalk from cheese. Islam is
against all class distinction and renounces the
conceptions of boss and
underling. A report was brought to the Imam
Ali that a banquet had been held in Basra in honour of
the governor, Ali's representative, Uthman bin Hunaif He
was wrathful that his governor should allow himself to be
drawn into a special relationship with Basra's
nobility, and be made the mark of particular
distinctions by the powerful class. He therefore sent a
stern letter to Uthman rebuking him, which letter is
contained in the Nahj-ul-Balaghe.

After World War II all governments have had to occupy
themselves with the clamour for freedom and equality.
They produced the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights to enshrine those ideas. Practice has been
slower than precept. Developed countries find it hard to
admit that differences of colour and race are not
criteria for excellence but that only character counts.
Islam has recognised this fact from the start. The
Prophet's first Mu'azzen was an Ethiopian: and he
gave his girl-cousin in marriage to Zaid bin Harethe, who
was a slave.

One day the Prophet said to Juwaiber, a poor Negro of
great piety. How good it would be if you could take
a wife to share your life with you and be a help in this
world and the next!

Juwaiber replied: May my mother and father be
your sacrifice! What woman would be ready to become my
wife? I have no health or wealth, no books or
looks.

The Prophet replied: Our God annulled any rights
of one man to be owner of another as they were in the
days of ignorance; and gave nobility to those who had
been the underprivileged and downtrodden before the
coming of Islam. Those who in the dark days of the night
of ignorance were despised are shown in Islam to be
precious to Him. Pride of place, face, race and grace
ruled in the days of ignorance. Islam changed all that,
and made everyone, white or black, Qureish, Arab or
non-Arab, equal, as children of Adam, the man whom God
made from dust. In God's thoughts, most beloved is the
most obedient and chaste. O Juwaiber, we know no person
superior to you, save anyone, if such there be, whose
chastity and obedience excel yours. Go at once to Zeeyad
bin Lubeid, most noble of the Bani Biyahde, and say.
God's Apostle sent me to you to ask your daughter's
hand in marriage'.

Juwaiber went, and found Zeeyad sitting in his home
with a group of his fellow-tribesmen. He asked for an
interview saying: I am come from the Prophet to
confirm a principle, bearing a message. Should I
pronounce it in private or in public?

Zeeyad replied: Why not right here? A message
from the Prophet is an honour.

Very well, said Juwaiber, .His
Eminence the Prophet sent me to bid you wed your daughter
to me.

Zeeyad responded: We Ansaris (i.e. the Prophet's
helpers in his first days) only wed our daughters to our
peers. Go! carry my excuses to His Blessedness.

While Juwaiber was returning, Zeeyad repented, and
sent a man who caught up with Juwaiber and brought him
back. Zeeyad said with the greatest courtesy:
Please be seated and wait here until I
return. He then went off to see the Prophet, to
whom he said: ay my father and mother be thy
sacrifice! Juwaiber came from thee with a message to me
to which Iwished to bring the reply in person. It is
this. We Ansaris only wed our daughters to our
peers.

Islam's pioneer replied: O Zeeyad! Juwaiber is a
man of faith and is thus the peer of a woman of faith;
for a Muslim man is the peer of a Muslim woman. Therefore
wed thy daughter to him, and think it no disgrace to have
him as thy son-in-law

Zeeyad went home and told his daughter what had
befallen. She said: Dear papa! what has seemed good
to the Prophet, and his command that you make Juwaiber
your son-in-law, is beyond price! Zeeyad left his
daughter's room, took Juwaiber's hand and led him to
stand in the midst of the men of the tribe where he
acknowledged him as his son-in-law and gave him his
daughter in marriage. He himself provided his daughter's
dowry and trousseau, and had a house made for them with
all the furnishings and equipments required. It was thus
that Zeeyad's daughter became the mother of one of the
greatest of the Qureish tribe, and the black-skinned
Juwaiber father of the same, a man whose hands in this
world were empty but who was rich towards God and who has
earned eternal fame for the beauty of his soul.

It is told that once upon a time three Muslims of
three different racial stocks, to wit Salman the Irani,
Saheeb the Byzantine and Balal the Ethiopian. were
sitting together when an Arab called Qais joined them.
This Arab, observing the precious sight of three Muslims
of pure hearts and humble souls, said: Aus and
Khazraj were Arabs who stood by the Prophet in service
and sacrifice. What have these three aliens to say? Who
asked them to be amongst the Prophet's aides? Qais'
words reached the Prophet's ears. He rose and called his
people to assemble in the mosque where he said to them in
wrath : God is one. Adam. common father of all,
one. Your faith, one. Then Arabism, however proud you may
be of it, comes neither from your father nor your
mother-merely your tongue. The Prophet strove to
crush racialism and promulgated a decree making equality
the law and condemning any contrary reaction.

One day a Muslim whose father was a Negro was received
by the Prophet. One Abu-Zar Ghaffari, who was nourishing
a long-standing

grudge against him, said to him in the Prophet's
presence: O! son of a nigger! Immediately the
Prophet, hearing this objurgation, took him to task,
saying: Why is his mother's black skin a reason for
despising him? Abu-Zar fell on his knees, kissed
the Prophet's feet and hands, repented in all humility
and poured dust over his head until he received the
Prophet's absolution.

The institution of the Hajj, or annual pilgrimage to
Mecca, incumbent on all Muslims everywhere at least once
in a lifetime, has also been a profound influence for
unification and equality above colour and class. In the
words of the Lebanese professor Philip Hitti in his book
on The History of the Arabs. At the
Ka'aba, to which the Lord of all men calls them to
assembly, Ethiopian, Berber, Chinese, Irani, Indian,
Syrian, and Arab, rich and poor, high and low, give each
other the hand of brotherhood and together pronounce the
double creed that, 'there is no God but God: Muhammad is
His Prophet.' Thus for Islam the only distinction that
exists between people is that between belief and
unbelief. And the Hajj has done the greatest service in
making equality and brotherhood the rule of life for
millions in every clime.

It is sad to have to admit that slogans of class or
race-ideologies have in recent years penetrated certain
Islamic states, with the tragic result of producing
similar racial and class divisions to those in less
privileged lands. Our task is to restore the sound
ideology of Islam and make it worldwide within one
generation.