Islam and Universal Equality

Any system that assumes universal applicability should appreciate its followers' potentials and recognize their achievements, regardless of their ethnic, racial, geographical or socioeconomic backgrounds. In other words, such a system should only evaluate their potential (or their accomplishment), and not what they have naturally been endowed with in terms of such as, their color, race, country of origin, etc. Islam views people as equal. In fact, in Islam inherent differences have a greater wisdom that is worthy of appreciation. The religion, which views that all people are equal in the eyes of their Creator, is Islam: “And of His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the diversity of your languages and colors. Indeed, in that are signs for those of knowledge.” (The Qur'an, Surah Ar-Rum, 30:22)

Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) said: “No Arab has any superiority over a non-Arab, nor does a white man have any superiority over a black man, or the black man any superiority over the white man. You are all the children of Adam, and Adam was created from dust/earth.”[1]

Islam rejects all forms of superiority complex based on racial, geographical, economical, linguistic or other inherent factors. It considers righteousness and good conduct as the basis for recognition. In relation to this principle, Allah The Almighty says: “O Mankind! We have created you from male and female and made you nations and tribes that you may appreciate one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the Sight of Allah is the most righteous [i.e., conscious of him]. Indeed, Allah is knowing and [all] Acquainted.” (The Qur'an, Surah Al-Hujurat, 49:13)

On the Plains of Arafat more than fourteen hundred years ago, Prophet Mohammed (Peace be upon him) declared the Islamic eternal principles of equality to a gathering of more than one hundred thousand. Therefore, every listener would pass what he had heard to those who were not present: O’ People! Your Lord is one. Your father is one. All of you came from Adam and Adam was created from dust. The noblest among you before Allah is the most righteous. No Arab has any superiority over a non-Arab, nor does a non-Arab over an Arab. A white man has no superiority over a black man, nor does a black man over a white man but with righteousness. Have I clearly conveyed the message? O’ Allah you are the Witness. Let the one who is present deliver the message to the absent ones. Prof. Ramakrishna Rao, a professing Hindu.[2] quoted Sarojini Naidu, the greatest Indian poetess, who spoke about how equality has been practiced in Islam by saying: It was the first religion that preached and practiced democracy; for, in the mosque, when the adhan (the Muslim call to prayer) is sounded and the worshippers are gathered together, the equality of Islam is embodied five times a day when the peasant and the king kneel side by side and proclaim, God alone is great. The great poetess of India continues: I have been struck over and 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, Egypt is the motherland for one and India is the motherland for another[3].

Equality as an uncompromised Islamic principle is not recognized as a mere slogan to aspire for. It is practiced on a daily basis through the five daily prayers, where Muslims submit to God standing on straight lines with no distinction between them. The ultimate universal nature of Islam is exemplified during the Hajj (Pilgrimage) where about three million Muslims from more than 70 countries gather in one place with the same dress for the sake of pleasing God and glorifying Him. All barriers including that of race, color, language and status collapse. As some systems promote religious exclusiveness and discrimination (Judaism, Hinduism, Christianity) and yet others encourage economic; consequently social, inequality (capitalism, communism and socialism), only Islam is an all-embracing and equalitarian system. This leads us to a second comparison between Islam and other existing ideological systems in relation to tolerance, the second condition for any proposed World Order.