Prophet Muhammad And Bilal Ibn Rabah; Anti-Racist Politics Is A Part of Islam
The
Patheos
July 2,
2020
The Fourth
of July is typically a time for reflective celebration, or perhaps celebrative
reflection.
Year after
year, Americans celebrate how far we have come since the Independence movement
which birthed the nation. We reflect on our present moment and consider how far
we must still strive if we are to realize the ideals which the Enlightenment
thinkers first sketched, and which anti-colonial and abolitionist struggles
re-asserted in the subsequent decades. The Haitian revolutionaries reminded the
world of the French colonialists’ incomplete application of Enlightenment
universalism. American abolitionists did the same for this nation’s
slaveholding aristocracy.
On this
particular Fourth of July, our yearly ritual has taken a decidedly different
tone amid a resurgent global pandemic and civilian uprisings. Both these events
as well as the insufficient government response has made it clear that our
egalitarian society still suffers under the yoke of racism, whether it be
racist ideology or racist politics. As has been the case throughout history,
the civilian uprisings which emanated from Minneapolis, before spreading
throughout and beyond this country, have clarified what must be done.
There is
now a bipartisan consensus: we must strive for anti-racism, as both an ideal as
well as a concrete practice and politics.
As Muslims,
we have a keen understanding of this demand. The Prophet Muhammad was one of
the first to articulate anti-racism as a moral ideal and political goal. Dr.
Craig Considine, a sociologist at Rice University, reminds us of Islam’s
egalitarian roots. Dr. Considine conveys this through a story regarding the
Prophet Muhammad and Bilal ibn Rabah, a man born into slavery and one of the Prophet’s
first followers.
Bilal was
repeatedly subject to racist slights and dimunuitions as a result of his
enslavement and commitment to Islam. Yet neither Bilal nor his faith suffered
as a result. The Prophet Muhammad was so impressed by Bilal’s commitment to
Islam that he bought Bilal’s freedom and elevated him to a prominent position
in the early Muslim community. Racism was part and parcel with what is commonly
understood as Jahiliyyah, the Age of Ignorance which characterized pre-Islamic
Mecca.
In light of
this ignorance, the Prophet Muhammad’s anti-racism appears even more
impressive. In his Last Sermon, delivered in 632 A.D. on Mount Arafat, the
Prophet said that “all mankind is descended from Adam and Eve. An Arab has no
superiority over a non-Arab. And a non-Arab has no superiority over an Arab. A
white person has no superiority over a black person, nor a black person has any
superiority over a white person, except by piety and good action.”
In our
current moment, racism is similarly understood as an expression of Jahiliyyah,
or ignorance. Dr. Considine credits the Prophet for his diagnosis of racism as
a symptom of arrogance in the heart and of the resultant ignorance of
humanity’s fundamental equality.
However,
the story of the Prophet Muhammad tells far more than just the endurance of
racist societies and anti-racist correctives.
Ignorance
was not some disease of the mind in need of some prophetic elixir, but a
description of the social decay in pre-Islamic Mecca. Of course, the Prophet
addressed these conditions through his message. However, he also addressed
this, more importantly, through the more difficult work of winning adherents to
a new political project to move beyond the old, ignorant social order.
There was a
social contradiction within pre-Islamic Mecca: while political power was
centralized within the oligarchic classes, the social fabric which bonded all
the social classes within dominant-dependent relationships were thin, decentralized,
and increasingly delegitimizing. The growth of Meccan trade society only
exacerbated this contradiction and tended the whole of society toward crisis.
Idol worship was an expression of this decay, as was racism. Both were evidence
of the absurdity of tribalism in its later stages. In the absence of religious
and spiritual leadership, Meccans worshipped idols. In the presence of
debilitating social relations, racism stabilized trade and tribal boundaries.
In this
way, we can see how the very conditions which brought Meccan society toward
crisis also laid the groundwork for the emergence of Islam. The economic
development of trade in Mecca was simultaneously creating a class of
disenfranchised laborers who became amenable to the Prophet Muhammad’s alternative
vision. As has been widely reported in the literature, many of the first
converts to Islam and followers of the Prophet Muhammad came from this class of
clients and slaves.
The
emergence of Islam did not come with a clean break from the old ways of doing
things. It came by way of a long political process through which the Prophet
and his companions played on existing social tensions in order to bring to bear
a different way of ordering the society. The Prophet Muhammad preached an end
to oligarchy and “pride in noble ancestry”. He said that all humans are
descended from Adam, and Adam from dust. As such, no earthly factors contribute
to nobility; the noblest are merely the most pious, and the most pious. Muslims
expressed their piety through their commitment to a truly egalitarian state
structure.
The example
of pre- and post-Islamic Mecca demonstrates: racism is a product of social and
political factors, and the success or acceptance of anti-racism depends upon
one’s ability to address those factors. It also makes clear that an egalitarian
anti-racism is a truly transnational vision. It was at play in Islamic Mecca,
and was expanded upon through Enlightenment universalism. Subsequent world
history makes clear that this vision has yet to be realized, whether in Islamic
societies or America.
As Muslims
in America, we recognize the unique chance to make good on this moment. Doing
so would be the culmination of an egalitarian vision that transcends person,
place, or creed.
We also
heed the lessons of the Prophet, peace be upon him, who demonstrated that
anti-racist politics cannot just be a moral exhortation, but also an anchor for
political action.
This
Independence Day, our faith commits us to seriously reckon with the social
factors which make racism a reality. Our unique historical moment demands that
we move beyond them through a collective political struggle.
Original
Headline: Anti-Racist Politics are a Part of Islam. We Need That Now More Than
Ever
Source: The Patheos
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