us to offer our loyal testimony. This means that the attributes necessary for
tolerance lie in the inherent ‘connectedness’ of every individual towards one
another. The momentous significance of this Qur’anic verse is, precisely, in
laying the foundation for understanding a key component in human nature
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and human beings’ intrinsic relationship towards one another.
From that point onwards, the Qur’an further develops the preceding philo-
sophical outlook by declaring, first, that every nation was sent a guide in their
own language;16 second, by stating: ‘And certainly We raised in every nation a messenger saying: Serve Allah and shun the Satan’; 17 and, third, in the manner in which the Qur’an refers to itself as the ‘Reminder’. 18 Collectively, these Qur’anic verses develop a narrative of an ‘interconnected’ humanity and
also share two implicit assumptions: the inherent togetherness in the human
family and a gradual, evolutionary process towards the perfection of faith. In
support of this, the Qur’an states: ‘This day have I perfected for you your
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religion and completed My favour on you and chosen for you Islam as a
religion … surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful’.19 Upon closer examination, one can only perfect something already created or already set in motion. This setting
in motion began with the spark of divinity from which every human soul began,
which planted the seed of spirituality in each one of us. That seed, then, was
watered and nurtured, through the ages, by a series of Prophets and Messengers,
ending, according to Islamic theology, with Prophet Muhammad.
From the beginnings of human life on earth this gradual development of faith
was initiated by Prophet Adam and would end with Prophet Muhammad. This
assertion, too, is an indispensable characteristic for nurturing tolerance and
mandating peaceful coexistence. It does so by pointing to the ‘unity of truth’
by declaring that all nations and their divinely ordained messengers were
essentially saying the same thing in different times and to different degrees.
This is clear when considering the importance of the Qur’an referring to itself
as the ‘Reminder’. After all, one can only remind someone of something they
have previously been told.
To put this in perspective, an Islamic theological articulation of this
dynamic process of faith could be understood in the following instance: Imagine
being in a room of complete darkness with your vision having become
accustomed to the obscurity. In that pitch darkness, you sit with your eyes
wide open but see nothing. Then, all of a sudden, bright lights are turned on.
Startled, your most natural instinct is to close your eyes. The intrusive light,
the conqueror of the shadows, leaves you sightless. You attempt to open your
eyes but find it difficult, though you persist. It takes time to adjust to the
light. Slowly, your eyes begin to adjust to the light, but only if you keep
trying. You could very well just turn away and keep your eyes closed, securing
the darkness. However, your instinct chooses to confront the intruding light,
refocus its energy, and eventually become accustomed to it. Clearly, too much
light at once blinds you. Similarly, too much information at once is over-
whelming. A sudden illumination of knowledge – without time to refocus and
adjust, makes one want to run for the security of ignorance. Confronted with
things that will remain forever, one needs to embrace them slowly.
The Qur’anic history of religion follows a certain pattern that is based on the
dynamic process of faith. First, Prophet Adam was given divinely sanctioned
knowledge. Then, this spiritual process of enlightenment slowly continued
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throughout the ages with the Prophets Abraham, Moses and Jesus until it
reached its climax with Prophet Muhammad. This continuous development of
faith, beginning with Prophet Adam and culminating with Prophet Muhammad,
included numerous other Messengers, Prophets and guides. In total, according
to Prophetic sayings, there were 124,000 Prophets and messengers who were
chosen to remind humanity of their purpose and were unanimously revealing the
unity of God, humanity, and truth.20 From this, it is plausible to extrapolate that Confucius, Buddha, Socrates, Zoroaster, and a host of others could be included
in this category of Messengers, as long as they came before Prophet Muhammad.
This is evidence of the inherent inclusive vision in Islamic sources of legitimacy.
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Granted, many Muslims may or may not accept this. However, the evidence is
striking and one may argue persuasively for this inherent ethic in Muslim
theology.
While the Qur’an recognizes the legitimacy of other faiths, it reserves for itself
the designation of the ‘perfection of faith’. Still, as Khaled Abou El Fadl affirms, this does not exclude the possibility of other frames of thought.21 Throughout the Qur’anic discourse, the people of Judaic and Christian religious backgrounds
are granted a special rank: ‘People of the Book’ – ‘ahl al-kitab’. Others, too,
were accepted in this tolerant vision, with particular titles of being ‘protected
people’ – ‘dhimmi’.22 In addition, the Qur’an clearly accepts the reality of diversity and peaceful coexistence by stating, ‘O humankind, God has created
you from a male and a female and made you into diverse nations and tribes so
that you may know each other. Verily, the most honoured of you in the Sight of
God is he who is the most righteous’. 23 From this verse, the Qur’an asserts diversity as part of the Divine intent and purpose of creation. Supporting that,
the Qur’an further declares: ‘If the Lord had willed, He would have made
humankind into a single nation but they will not cease to be diverse … And for
this God created humanity’.24
That obvious endorsement of human diversity is further strengthened by the
following verse specifying the notion of plurality of religious beliefs and laws: ‘To each of you God has prescribed a Law and a Way. If God would have willed, He
would have made you a single people. But God’s purpose is to test you in
what He has given each of you. So strive in the pursuit of virtue and know
that you will all return to God in the hereafter, and He will resolve all the
matters in which you disagree’.25 Here is an explicit endorsement of human diversity – racial, cultural and religious. The emphasis is on ‘the pursuit of
virtue’ – deeds, not verbal professions, or in other words, you are what you do,
not what you say. Then, to further reinforce this embracing perspective, the
Qur’an declares: ‘Those who believe, those who follow the Jewish Scriptures,
the Christians, the Sabians, and any who believe in God and the final Day,
and do good, all shall have their reward with their Lord and they will not come
to fear or grief ’.26 Taken together, these sacred verses indisputably indicate tolerance, plurality, peaceful coexistence and acceptance of the existence of
other faiths as a reality. Granted, the Qur’an clearly claims that Islam is the
perfection of faith, though
in my view this does not necessarily exclude the
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possibility that God would accept other paths to salvation. The Qur’an insists
on God’s absolute right to bestow His Mercy on whomever He wishes. 27
The myth of the ‘Other’
At variance with an interconnected humanity, with each individual being innately
good, is the prevalent idea of self-image being a dissociative construction of an
opposing alter-image. In simpler words, ‘I am who I am, precisely because
I am not you’. Whether in social anthropology or social psychology, analysis
is on uniqueness vis-à-vis others, or group identification leading to a sense of
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‘belonging’, which then leads to objectifying the ‘Other’. 28 Be it a narcissistic cult of authenticity, which, in its quest for uniqueness, develops exclusion, or
analyzing others prior to distinct formation of self-identity, it is clear; there
is always the ‘Other’ – those who exist outside the realm of all-inclusive
acceptability. This propensity to define ourselves in opposition to something
else is a fearful phenomenon in the social sciences. G.W.F. Hegel (d. 1831)
states: ‘On approaching the other it has lost its own self, since it finds itself as another being; secondly, it has thereby subdued that other, for it does not
regard the other as essentially real, but sees its own self in the other’. 29 Here, Hegel argues that identity formation results in a clash of self-consciousness,
between two or more people, that often requires debasing the other. Similarly,
the pioneering literary masterworks of Simone de Beauvoir took the idea of
the ‘Other’ and applied it to the manner in which men made women the
‘Other’ in order to establish patriarchy.30 Edward Said (d. 2003), too, in his monumental and impacting work Orientalism, eloquently articulates the
manner in which Arabs and Muslims are denigrated in the construction of a
European self-identity.31 Collectively, these reputable scholars, while diverging on what constitutes the ‘Other’, converge in describing a tendency to craft
self-identity by denying, debasing or, in its most menacing manifestation,
demonizing the ‘Other’.
Quite the opposite, this article argues that Islamic civic culture, even while
acknowledging diversity, does not endorse the concept of the ‘Other’ as a
dialectical clash between ‘in’ and ‘out’ individuals or groups premised on race,
culture or religion. Plainly, Islam encourages the development of ‘identity’ on
love of God, through the Qur’an and Prophet Muhammad – manifested
through faith and adherence to principles – and opposes identity premised on
hatred of a concrete, tangible other. Rather, it emphasizes commonality and
‘interconnectedness’. It is noted that there needs to be a contextual analysis of
why some Muslims, both of the past and in the present, may articulate a
sharply different viewpoint. However, my aim here is to establish from the main
Islamic sources a clear and coherent picture of coexistence. Hence, self-identity
in Islam does not require the construction of a heathen alter-image in a
sweeping tangible form – be it race, culture or religious persuasion. Granted,
the Qur’an and the Prophetic sayings arguably mention the oppression,
ignorance and insulting ‘mocking’ behavior of the ‘disbelievers’. 32 Yet they Downloaded by [University of Connecticut] at 18:26 09 January 2017
remain an abstraction without form; the emphasis is on what one does. For
instance, the Qur’an mentions that there are ‘disbelievers’ from ‘among the
People of the Book’ but it does not lay a sweeping indictment on all of them. 33 It specifies. Disbelievers are described as such based on their behavior of duplicity, 34
spreading corruption and mischief throughout the earth35 and usurping the rights of orphans,36 not simply because they happen to be non-Muslims.
More importantly, the Qur’an refers to disbelievers as those who ‘reject faith’37
and ‘faith’ may be translated in the Qur’anic lexicon as ‘din’ – which, interestingly enough, means ‘binding-together’ or ‘that which binds’.38 In other words, those that are characterized as disbelievers are rejecting that which binds
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humanity together – those who wish to unbind, separate, exclude or isolate
people from one another. There is profound symbolism in the word din itself,
in that it is meant to bring people together with the aspiration of cohesion.
Note that the Qur’anic emphasis on the ‘interconnectedness’ or ‘unity’ of
God, truth and humanity is consistent with this definition of ‘din’ as binding
together. Granted, some may argue that defining ‘din’ as binding is imaginative;
nevertheless, this definition does correspond with the overall Qur’anic message
that aims to establish justice, peace and togetherness on earth, which can only
be accomplished with a corresponding vision.
Further emphasizing that, the ‘Pact of the Virtuous’ – a historic event in
which Prophet Muhammad participated – is singled out for its importance in
dismissing the conflicting concept of the ‘Other’. This alliance, known in Arabic
as ‘Hilf al-Fudul’ or, simply, the ‘Pact of the Virtuous’ [Hilf al-muhayyibin],
was the result of ‘Abd Allah ibn Jud’an, chief of the Taym tribe, who decided to
invite to his home all those seeking an end to chronic conflicts and the con-
sequent oppression’. 39 Tariq Ramadan, commenting on this monumental pact, states: ‘Chiefs and members of numerous tribes thus pledged their collective
duty to intervene in conflicts and side with the oppressed against the oppressors,
whoever they might be and whatever alliances might link them to other tribes.
This alliance … was special in that it placed respect for the principles of justice
and support of the oppressed above all other considerations of kinship or
power’.40 From it, Ramadan, rightly, deduces a primary lesson and quotes Prophet Muhammad, who recalls the incident: ‘I was present in Abd Allah
ibn Judan’s house when a pact was concluded, so excellent that I would not
exchange my part in it even for a herd of red camels; and, if now, in Islam, I was
asked to take part in it, I would be glad to accept it’.41 Here it is striking to note the manner in which Prophet Muhammad acknowledges the legitimacy of
principles, specifically those of justice and ending oppression, above and beyond
where they are initiated. Emphasis is on whether the act is in accordance with
the overall Islamic vision, as it is, in this case, to ending oppression. After all, Prophet Muhammad was praising the motivation and outcome of an alliance
that had begun prior to him receiving Divine revelation. Ramadan elaborates
further by suggesting that:
the message of Islam is by no means a closed value system at variance or
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conflicting with other value systems. From the very start, the Prophet did
not conceive the content of his message as the expression of pure otherness
versus what the Arabs or the other societies of his time were producing.
Islam does not establish a closed universe of reference but rather relies on
a set of univers
al principles that can coincide with the fundamentals and
values of other beliefs and religious traditions (even those produced by a
polytheistic society such as that of Makkah at the time).42
This, too, is a clear and outright rejection of an exclusivist and isolationist
philosophy.
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To further emphasize the Islamic spirit of peaceful coexistence and pluralism,
which naturally delegitimizes the concept of the ‘Other’, the following seven
examples will be offered. First, when Muslims were being persecuted in the
early days of the Prophet’s mission, he was informed by God to tell his
Companions to seek refuge with a pious Christian king in Abyssinia. Upon
arriving in Abyssinia, this small, weak, and persecuted group of Muslims was
granted asylum. This historical event, well documented in Muslim history,
remarkably displays the ability of Muslims of the time to positively interact
with others. It offers a powerful and approving symbol for interreligious
interaction. More importantly, this incident took place in the formative phase
of Islam’s growth and development. At this juncture, the Christian King of
Abyssinia, by providing sanctuary to the Muslims, saved them from imminent
annihilation. As a consequence one may reasonably presume that racial, religious
and cultural interaction is normal for Muslims, both on a theoretical and
on a practical level. Likewise, Prophet Muhammad, solely by virtue of sending
the persecuted Muslims to Abyssinia, establishes a premise of not viewing
Christians as the ‘Other’. Conversely, where a particular Muslim society feels
the pressures of intimidation and threat, then that would naturally lead to
inwardness and isolation.
Second, inclusiveness was displayed by Prophet Muhammad when he entered
Makkah under the protection of a pagan Arab, al-Mut’im ibn ‘Udayy: “Finally,
the Prophet sent a man from the tribe of Khuza’ah to al-Mut’im ibn Udayy, the
leader of the Banu Nawfal ibn Abd Manaf, asking for his protection. Al-Mut’im
agreed, immediately called his people and told them to put on their armour
and place themselves at the corners of the Ka’bah to provide protection to
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