The Abolition of Jāhiliyyah-Based Pride and Racism

ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (d. 73 AH / 692 CE) narrated that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ delivered a sermon to the people on the day of the Conquest of Makkah (8 AH / 630 CE), in which he said:

“O people. Verily, Allah has removed from you the arrogance of al-Jāhiliyyah and its pride in forefathers. Indeed, there are only two kinds of people: a righteous person who possesses taqwā and is noble in the sight of Allah, and a wicked person who is miserable and insignificant to Allah. All people are the children of Ādam, and Allah created Ādam from the earth.”

Then he recited the saying of Allah ﷻ:

يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ إِنَّا خَلَقْنَاكُم مِّن ذَكَرٍ وَأُنثَىٰ وَجَعَلْنَاكُمْ شُعُوبًا وَقَبَائِلَ لِتَعَارَفُوا ۚ إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عِندَ اللَّهِ أَتْقَاكُمْ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلِيمٌ خَبِيرٌ

“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 honourable of you with Allah is the one who has the most taqwā. Verily, Allah is All-Knowing, All-Aware.” (Sūrat al-Ḥujurāt 49:13, trans. Taqī al-Dīn al-Hilālī)

Commentary of Ibn al-ʿArabī

Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-ʿArabī al-Mālikī (d. 543 AH / 1148 CE), in his commentary on this narration, stated:

“During the period of al-Jāhiliyyah, nobility was determined by specific attributes rather than by taqwā. Allah therefore invalidated every form of pride and nobility that was based upon innate or inherited characteristics, and He retained only that nobility which is connected to taqwā, namely obedience to Allah and adherence to His legislation. This is because the origin of mankind is one, created from clay, and their father is one, Ādam, from whom humanity originated, along with Ḥawwāʾ.”

This explanation highlights that Islam dismantled all claims of superiority rooted in lineage, ethnicity, or ancestry, and established taqwā as the sole, divinely recognised criterion of honour and distinction.

Reference

Ibn al-ʿArabī, Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh (d. 543 AH / 1148 CE). ʿĀriḍat al-Aḥwadhī bi-Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ al-Tirmidhī. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah, 1997. Vol. 6, p. 112. Chapter: Tafsīr Sūrat al-Ḥujurāt.