THE QURʾĀNIC CONCEPT OF HUMAN EQUALITY: AN ANALYSIS AGAINST RACISM AND ETHNIC DISCRIMINATION IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETIES
Keywords:
Anti-Racism, Human Dignity , Islamic Ethics , Qurʾānic Equality , Racial Justice , Theological ReeducationAbstract
The research investigates both the Qurʾān’s message about human equality and its potential to fight racism and ethnic discrimination in present-day societies. The research examines Islam’s doctrinal foundation regarding equality by studying major Qurʾānic verses which stress universal human dignity and humanity’s common ancestry. The research demonstrates Islam’s anti-racism approach through an analysis of Bilāl ibn Rabāḥ’s story and the Farewell Sermon alongside the Prophetic teachings. Current racial and ethnic issues demonstrate that secular approaches lack the appropriate means to address equality’s ethical aspects. Current studies show racial and ethnic discrimination remains a problem in Muslim-majority communities, so the author recommends Qurʾān-focused religious education programs as the solution. According to the research, the Qurʾānic perspective of equality provides both a compelling alternative to racial discrimination and establishes foundational guidelines for Islamic activism against racism, which depend on Qurʾānic teachings.
Downloads
References
Farid Esack. Qur'an, Liberation and Pluralism: An Islamic Perspective of Interreligious Solidarity Against Oppression (Oxford: Oneworld, 1997), p.78.
Qurʾān 4:1
Qurʾān 49:13
al-Ṭabarī, Muḥammad ibn Jarīr. Jāmiʿ al-bayān ʿan taʾwīl āy al-Qurʾān (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risālah, 2000), v.26, p.86.
al-Rāzī, Fakhr al-Dīn. Tafsīr al-Kabīr (Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1999), v.28, p.111.
Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. Musnad Aḥmad (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risālah, 2001), v.5, p.411.
al-Bukhārī, Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī (Cairo: Dār ibn Kathīr, 2002), v.30, p.10.
Sayyid Quṭb. Milestones (Indianapolis: American Trust Publications, 2001), p.81.
Khaled Abou El Fadl. The Place of Tolerance in Islam (Boston: Beacon Press, 2004), p.102.
Qurʾān 4:1
Qurʾān 2:30
Qurʾān 17:70
al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī. Mufradāt Alfāẓ al-Qurʾān (Damascus: Dār al-Qalam, 2009), p.692.
Qurʾān 49:13
al-Qurṭubī, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad. Al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān (Cairo: Dār al-Kutub al-Miṣriyyah, 2006), v.19, p.296.
Qurʾān 30:22
al-Ālūsī, Shihāb al-Dīn. Rūḥ al-Maʿānī fī Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm (Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1994), v.21, p.41.
Qurʾān 80:1–10
Qurʾān 74:38
Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. Musnad Aḥmad, v.5, p.411.
Qurʾān 49:13
al-Ṭabarī. Jāmiʿ al-bayān ʿan taʾwīl āy al-Qurʾān, v.26, p.85.
al-Shawkānī, Muḥammad. Fatḥ al-Qadīr (Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifah, 1993), v.5, p.90.
Ibn al-Jawzī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān. Ṣayd al-Khāṭir (Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifah, 2001), v.2, p.36.
Qurʾān 7:12
al-Rāzī. Tafsīr al-Kabīr, v.14, p.57.
Ibn Kathīr, Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUmar. Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah, 1998), v.2, p.270.
al-Suyūṭī, Jalāl al-Dīn. Tārīkh al-Khulafāʾ (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah, 2004), v.1, p.408.
Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. Musnad Aḥmad, v.5, p.411.
al-Shahrastānī, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm. Al-Milal wa al-Niḥal (Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifah, 1992), v.2, p.210.
al-Bukhārī. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, v.30, p.10.
Ibn Hishām, ʿAbd al-Malik. Sīrah al-Nabawiyyah (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah, 1995), v.2, p.198.
Qurʾān 31:12
al-Qushayrī, ʿAbd al-Karīm. Laṭāʾif al-Ishārāt (Cairo: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah, 2002), v.3, p.204.
al-Ghazālī, Abū Ḥāmid. Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn (Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifah, 2005), v.3, p.87.
Qurʾān 6:164
Muslim, Ibn al-Ḥajjāj. Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim (Cairo: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Kutub al-ʿArabiyya, 2008), v.15, p.17.
Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo. Racism Without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2017), p.64.
Qurʾān 49:13
al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī, Muḥammad Ḥusayn. al-Mīzān fī Tafsīr al-Qurʾān (Qum: Mu’assasat al-Nashr al-Islāmī, 1996), v.18, p.319.
Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. Musnad Aḥmad, v.5, p.411.
Yasir Qadhi. “The Reality of Racism in Modern Discourse”. Lecture at (ISNA Convention, 2020), p.22.
Qurʾān 90:13
Ibn Kathīr. Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, v.4, p.489.
al-Raḥmānī, ʿAbd Allāh Nāṣir. ʿIlāj al-ʿUnṣuriyyah fī Ḍawʾ al-Islām (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Rushd, 2012), p.57.
Ibn Khaldūn, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān. al-Muqaddimah (Cairo: Dār al-Fikr, 2004), p.104.
Qurʾān 4:135
Qurʾān 49:13
Qurʾān 17:70
Qurʾān 58:10
Qurʾān 49:13
Qurʾān 5:32
Qurʾān 9:6; 49:10
Qurʾān 30:22
Qurʾān 16:90
Qurʾān 49:13
al-Rāzī. Tafsīr al-Kabīr, v.29, p.114.
Qurʾān 4:1
Ibn al-Jawzī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān. Ṣifat al-Ṣafwa (Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifah, 1984), v.1, p.145.
Gabriel Warburg. Islam, Sectarianism and Politics in Sudan Since the Mahdiyya (London: Hurst, 2010), p.92.
al-Ghazālī, Muḥammad. Fī Fiqh al-Sīrah (Cairo: Dār al-Shurūq, 2006), p.127.
Abū Zayd, Naṣr Ḥāmid. Mafhūm al-Naṣṣ: Dirāsah fī ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān (Beirut: al-Markaz al-Thaqāfī al-ʿArabī, 1990), p.43.
Qurʾān 49:11
Qurʾān 53:32
Sherman Jackson. Islam and the Blackamerican: Looking toward the Third Resurrection (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), p.78.
Qurʾān 17:70
al-Rāzī. Tafsīr al-Kabīr, v.21, p.85.
Qurʾān 49:13
Ibn ʿĀshūr, Muḥammad al-Ṭāhir. al-Taḥrīr wa al-Tanwīr (Tunis: Dār Sahnūn, 1984), v.26, p.307.
al-Bukhārī. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, v.30, p.45.
Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. Musnad Aḥmad, v.5, p.411.
Ibn Kathīr. Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, v.4, p.342.
Qurʾān 4:135
Kamali, Mohammad Hashim. Freedom, Equality and Justice in Islam (Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 2002), p.134
Qurʾān 7:12
al-Qurṭubī. Al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, v.7, p.214.
Muslim. Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, h. 119.
Muslim. Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, h. 1661.
al-Qaraḍāwī, Yūsuf. Madkhal li Taʾṣīl ʿIlm al-Maqāṣid (Cairo: Dār al-Shurūq, 2012), p.198.
Qurʾān 30:31–32
Qurʾān 21:107
Qurʾān 91:9
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Dr. Jamil Akhtar (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
