In this exclusive extract from his forthcoming book, Islamic Metaphysics of Racism, Imam Dawud Walid outlines how arrogance is part of the root cause of the exceptionalism inherent in what we term racism today.

Arrogance (Kibr) is the first spiritual malady that undergirds expressions of racism at the individual level, which then expresses itself at the societal level through racial or ethnic stratifications that can lead to structural racism in society. In fact, according to Shaykh Ahmadou Bamba (may Allah have mercy upon him), ‘arrogance is the most grievous of all the spiritual maladies.’ one proof of this view is the prophetic saying that ‘None will enter Paradise who has in their heart a morsel of arrogance.’ Kibr, which begins in the spiritual heart, eventually expresses itself through outward arrogance (takabbur) in speech and actions. In the Qur’anic narrative, the first being to display arrogance – in which it could be stated was the original act of racism in creation – was Satan.

In the creation story of the human being, the Qur’an mentions the existence of creatures prior to the father of humankind, Adam (peace be upon him). Allah (mighty and sublime) states:

‘And remember when your Lord said to the angels, “Surely I am making a vicegerent in the earth.” They replied, “Will you make one in it that will make corruption and shed [different types of] blood while we glorify You with praise and extol Your holiness?” He said, “Surely I know what you do not know.”

He taught Adam the names of all things, then He presented them to the angels and said, “Tell Me the names of these, if what you say is true?”

They replied, “Glory be to You! We have no knowledge except what You have taught us. You are truly the All-Knowing, All-Wise.”

Allah said, “O Adam! Inform them of their names.” Then when Adam did, Allah said, “Did I not tell you that I know the secrets of the heavens and the earth, and I know what you reveal and what you conceal?”

And [remember] when We said to the angels [and those present with them], “Prostrate before Adam,” so they all did except Iblīs, who refused and acted arrogantly, and he became from among the unfaithful.’ (Qur’an, 2:30-34)

This narrative mentions three unique forms of creation – angels, Iblīs, and Adam (peace be upon him), who is the progenitor of the human race. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺstated, describing the different constitutions of the three, that ‘the angels were created from light, the jinn were created from a mixture of fire, and Adam was created as has been described for you.’ Allah (mighty and sublime) states regarding Iblīs:

‘And remember when We said to the angels [and those present with them], “Prostrate before Adam,” so they all did except Iblīs; he was from the jinn, so he rebelled against the command of His Lord. Will you, then, take him and his progeny as your guardians rather than Me although they are your open enemies? What an evil substitute for these wrongdoers.’ (Qur’an, 18:50)

Regarding the creation of Adam (peace be upon him), Allah (mighty and sublime) says: ‘And most certainly We created the human from clay of black mud moulded into shape.’ (Qur’an, 15:26)

Hence, it is presented in the Qur’an that prior to Adam (peace be upon him), who was fashioned from clay, there were distinct creatures other than humans, which were angels made from light and jinn made from fire.

Regarding Iblīs, who was from the jinn race, Allah (mighty and sublime) mentions, after his refusal to follow his command, that he acted arrogantly. Iblīs’ arrogance in action was also accompanied with conceitful speech: ‘He said, “I am better than him. You made me of fire, and You made him from clay.”’ (Qur’an, 38:76)

Imam ʿAlī bin abī Ṭālib (may Allah ennoble his countenance) said, regarding Iblīs’ statement: ‘He found pride in himself over Adam due to his creation, and showed prejudice towards him due to his origin. He is the leader of the tribalists and the predecessor of those who display arrogance. He set the foundations of tribalism/racism.’

Al-Ḥakīm al-tirmidhī (may Allah have mercy upon him) stated, regarding Iblīs’ speech:

‘He invoked his material being, fire having light, and light having honour and might. Thus, he was saying “I have more right that he [Adam] prostates to me.” He invoked the makeup of Adam that he was created from clay, clay is from dirt, dirt is from the earth, and saying “earth is my area that I walk upon and my homestead to own. thus, he should prostrate to me, and be under my feet, and submit to my desires.”

Therefore, Allah described him in the Revelation, and warned us to beware of his character. He said in sūrah al-Baqarah, ayah 168, “And do not follow the footsteps of the Satan. Surely, he is a clear enemy for you.”

Within this framework, the primary attribute of Iblīs, the father of racism, is arrogance – starting with the false judgement that outward traits can make one inherently superior over others. Moreover, anyone who makes such arrogant assessments of themselves while looking down at others is in fact treading on a satanic path.

At a basic level, the attribute of arrogance afflicts the heart of the one carrying racist attitudes, manifesting through speech, such as name calling, racial slurs, or language that seeks to diminish others’ inherent dignity. An example of such racist arrogance is narrated about an event which took place in Khorasan, Persia, in which a sharīf  used vile racist language towards a Black shaykh. The sharīf was an open committer of moral indecency who showed animosity towards the shaykh, who had been previously enslaved but was emancipated by his master due to his noble character and obedience to Allah (mighty and sublime). One day, the sharīf left home while openly intoxicated and witnessed people seeking blessings (tabarruk) from the shaykh. He scolded, berated and physically hit the shaykh, then said, ‘You black son of a heathen, black chap! My grandfather is the messenger of Allah ﷺ, your grandfather is a heathen, yet you are praised and elevated by the people while I am put down and belittled?! This should not be!’

The shaykh responded: ‘Yes, I am a son of a disbeliever just as you said, and I am black just as you stated. However, my heart has been illuminated by faith in Allah (Blessed and most high) and regardfulness, so the people see the whiteness of my heart over the blackness of my face. They love me while I am the son of a disbeliever, because I left the path of my father and followed the way of your father, the messenger of Allah ﷺ. You left the path of the messenger of Allah ﷺ and followed the path of my father, so your heart has been blackened by corruption and recalcitrance, which has caused the people to see your blackened heart over your white cheeks. They loathe you because you are upon the path of my father, while they treat me like the sons of your father, because I am on the path of your father. Meanwhile, again, they treat you like the sons of my father, because you are on his path. Regarding your strikes, I pardon you for hitting me, though I necessitate the punishment for you being publicly drunk. I pardon your bad manners towards me for the sake of the sanctity of your grandfather.’

This story is connected to the meaning of Allah’s speech:

‘O humankind! Surely, We created you from a single male [Adam] and a single female [Eve] and made you into different nations and tribes in order that you know each other. Surely, the most honourable of you with Allah are you who have the most regardfulness. Surely, Allah is All-Knowing, All-Aware.’ (Qur’an, 49:13)

Slightly veiled aspects of racial arrogance also manifest when a person sees others as being beneath their racial or ethnic group, or considers that others are not authoritative nor fit to hold positions of prominence or religious authority. Such slights often take place without explicit slurs or physical confrontations. Such attitudes in Western societies, including among some Muslims, seems more pervasive in this current era rather than overt racial slurs. This phenomenon, however, is not a new one, and in fact existed among the earliest generations of Muslims; thus, such attitudes cannot exclusively be posited as by-products of European colonialism of Muslim lands.

Another instance of this type of racism in times of old was a slight which was made based upon the phenotypical appearance of one of the descendants of the Prophet ﷺ, known as Imam ʿAlī al-Riḍā27 (may Allah be pleased with him). While he temporarily resided in the city of Nishapur in Persia, he entered a bathhouse across from his domicile. When the servant of the bathhouse went to fetch water for the Imam’s bath, a Persian man came into the bathroom and began barking orders to the Imam, assuming that he was a servant or a slave due to the blackness of his skin colour.  The Persian man’s false perception was based on arrogance.

Also, a personal example of this relates to a meeting that I had in Detroit, Michigan, with a scholar who is a sayyid, and another scholar of Persian ancestry. The sayyid told the scholar as he entered the room I was in:

‘Brother Dawud is one of the most active brothers in the Muslim community. He is African American and from Detroit, but mā shā’ Allāh, he is intelligent, speaks Arabic and is eloquent.’

The Persian scholar gave a cringey smile in my direction, given that this comment not-so-subtly implied that African Americans from Detroit are not intelligent, nor do they speak proper English, these being common anti-Black stereotypical generalisations. I later spoke to the sayyid privately to get clarification of what he meant, before telling him that the comment which he considered to be complimentary was in fact an insult to Black people, especially to African American Muslims.

The arrogance of cultural supremacy fortifies societally normative racism, which imbeds itself into governmental institutions and policies. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺstated regarding arrogance which fuels racism, that it causes ‘rejection of truth, scorn and abasement of other people.’³⁰ The archetype of this mentioned in the Qur’an was the rule of Pharaoh, who was mostly likely a Black man, in ancient Egypt during the era of enslavement of the children of Israel. Allah (mighty and sublime) says: ‘Surely, Pharaoh arrogantly elevated himself on the earth and divided its people into castes. A group among them he oppressed, slaughtering their young males while sparing their ladies. Surely, he was among those who spread corruption.’ (Qur’an, 28:4)

Ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī (may Allah’s mercy be upon him) said, regarding this ayah: ‘Surely, Pharaoh ruled by force in the land of Egypt and exuded arrogance. He elevated his people while oppressing others until they established the institution of enslavement [of Israelites].’

Shaykh ʿabd al-Qādir Jīlānī (may Allah have mercy upon him) reportedly stated that the children of Israel were expelled from their homes before they were burned down, then Pharaoh commanded Egyptian law enforcement (al-sharṭah) to slaughter the young Israelite males. Hence, in this situation, the issue was a political leader who bred a culture of ethnic superiority into his people, which led to land dispossession, property damage, and enslavement of the children of Israel. This was an expression of the systematic racism that permeated every socioeconomic structure in ancient Egyptian society. More contemporary examples of such systematic racism include the establishment of the United States of America and apartheid South Africa, where state power, based in the false ideology of white supremacy, dispossessed indigenous people’s lands, exploited their labour as well as the labour of swathes of non-white migrants, and barred equal access to economic and political opportunities.

Before trying to remedy societal racism, every Muslim is spiritually required to purify his or her own inward state, which includes working on ridding their heart of arrogance. In particular, for the activist or community organiser, attempting to change the world without holding oneself or one’s own ethnic or racial group to the highest standards is an ethical dilemma. Allah (mighty and sublime) says: ‘Do you enjoin good conduct upon other people yet forget it for yourselves while you recite the scripture? Do you not have intelligence?’ (Qur’an, 2:44)

It is narrated that Qatādah (may Allah be pleased with him), who was from the second generation of Muslims, stated about this ayah that it firstly relates to the children of Israel, who enjoined upon people to obey and be regardful of Allah (mighty and sublime) and to have good conduct, yet their own actions in society differed from that ideal. Hence, the first and greatest struggle in “anti-racism” work is the inward struggle against arrogance per the prophetic statement that “the most adversarial of your enemies is your own self which is in between your two sides.” This is necessary for a person to not possess spiritual incongruency through calling others to not be arrogant against other racial and ethnic groups without that individual firstly holding themselves accountable.

Imam Fode Drame (may Allah preserve him) holds the opinion that the spiritually opposite trait of arrogance is repentance (tawbah), which consists of reversion (inābah) and self-surrender (taslīm). This first step consists of spiritual actualisation, in which a person realises that he or she has been arrogant or needs improvement in their inward state or outward actions. The Prophet ﷺsaid, ‘Remorse is repentance’  – in relation to racism, this means that a person must firstly recognise that their heart has in fact carried self-aggrandisement, which requires change. To recognise such means that the spiritual heart cannot be completely dead or darkened, for a spiritual heart void of light shall feel virtually no remorse. In regards to this, the Prophet ﷺsaid, ‘Beware! There is a component in the body if it becomes good, the whole body becomes good but if it gets spoilt, the whole body gets spoilt, and that is the heart.’ A non-repentant soul is an attribute of Iblīs as well.

After remorse, sincere repentance also requires seeking forgiveness from Allah (mighty and sublime), then firmly turning to Allah (mighty and sublime), which means turning away from that which was displeasing to him. Sincere repentance carries with it truthfulness in resolve, for truthfulness in resolve comes before truthfulness in actions and speech. Lack of resolve to truly repent leads to laziness in working to truly change one’s behaviours and speech, much less one’s worldview. There is more, however, that is required in terms of repentance when harm has been afflicted upon people due to racial or ethnic discrimination fuelled by arrogance.

Shaykh Usman Dan Fodio (may Allah have mercy upon him) stated that the cure to arrogance is in two portions, which are the ‘knowledge-cure’ and the ‘action-cure.’ The shaykh stated: ‘the knowledge cure is to know and recognise yourself and to know and recognise your Lord.’ This relates to the concisely profound statement of Imam ʿAlī bin abī Ṭālib (may Allah ennoble his countenance) who stated, ‘Whoever knows himself, knows his Lord.’ Those who know that they have a beginning and end recognise that Allah (mighty and sublime) has no beginning nor end. Moreover, they recognise that they are dependent upon someone other than themselves to survive in this world, while knowing that he is free of any need. Allah (mighty and sublime) mentions this reality when he says:

‘Perish man! How thankless he is! Of what did He create him? Of a sperm-drop, He created him, and determined him, and then made the way easy for him. Then He makes him die, buries him, and then, when He wills, raises him.’ (Qur’an, 80:17-22)

Commenting on this reality in relation to its knowledge-cure of the arrogance of racism, Shaykh Ahmadou Bamba waxed:

‘Certainly, you were before a despicable sperm-drop and afterwards a carrier of faeces.

Then you will become a rotting corpse, odious, despicable looking and stinky.

You are all the children of Adam regarding that, and it was from the dust and clay that you were created.’

All people come from smelly, sticky sperm which has no outward merit, and become skeletons with maggots feasting on their previous flesh – an inescapable beginning and ending, which are equally lacking in any sort of outward superiority. According to Shaykh Usman Dan Fodio, internalising this reality should suffice as a knowledge-cure for arrogance.

Regarding the action-cure, Shaykh Usman Dan Fodio stated, ‘It is to humble yourself to people in a constrained unnatural manner until it becomes natural for you.’ The operational opposition of outward arrogance is humility (tawāḍuʿ). The Prophet ﷺsaid, ‘None humbles himself except that Allah (Mighty and Sublime) raises him up.’ ʿĪsā (peace be upon him) reportedly preached, ‘Glad tidings to the humble in the world, for they are the companions of lofty pulpits on the Day of Resurrection.’ So after praying to Allah (mighty and sublime) for refuge from arrogance, the action-cure for racial arrogance is to be a servant to those who are looked down upon. Even if one begins offering such service (khidmah) with shades of paternalism, as if the served are being done a favour, this tendency should be struggled against through consistent service. In reality, those humbling themselves to others for the sake of Allah (mighty and sublime) to correct their inward selves are the ones receiving favour, far more so than those being served.

Such is the case of a white man I know who came from an upper-middle class background and converted to Islam in the 1970s. Understanding that he came from a societal context of anti-Blackness, and that his growing up in suburban America had caused him to absorb a white exceptionalist framework, he took on a black African as a shaykh whom he served, not just learning from him, but also serving him food and drink and carrying his bags. Even after having been Muslim for decades by the time his shaykh died, he was self-aware enough to take on another black shaykh, except that this second shaykh was young enough to be his son. This is an example of real self-awareness, as it is societally unusual for a white man of means to not only take on a black African shaykh, but to submit to take one as a spiritual guide who is twenty-six years his junior.

The attempt to make others – or an entire social class of people – humble, when they deem themselves to be superior, is a tremendously difficult task indeed. Given that long-lasting change comes from within, the likelihood is slim that such humility can be imposed upon others. Allah (mighty and sublime) says: ‘Let there be no compulsion in the dīn, for certainly right-guidance stands out clearly from error.’ (Qur’an, 2:256)

The word ‘compulsion’ (ikrāh) in this ayah has an etymological connection to the word ‘to hate or loathe’ (kurh). As it relates to this ayah, I heard Imam Warith Deen Mohammed (may Allah be pleased with him) state that it is a natural response for people in general to hate whatever they are being forced or compelled to do against their wills. This can be easily seen in American history, in the millions of whites who despised efforts to force racial integration in public schools and neighbourhoods. Some vehemently protested such efforts with hateful rhetoric and violence, while others more quietly resisted what was being forced upon them through ‘white flight’ or voting with their resentment at the ballot boxes. As was stated before, racial arrogance cannot simply be legislated and adjudicated away, as hearts do not change for the better through compulsion, even if something is being pushed for the greater good.

Allah (mighty and sublime) says:

‘I will turn away from My signs those who are arrogant upon the earth without right; and if they see every sign, they will not believe in it. And if they see the way of consciousness, they will not adopt it as a way; but if they see the way of error, they will adopt it as a way. That is because they have denied Our signs and they were heedless of them.’ (Qur’an, 7:146)

The arrogance of Pharaoh and his hosts caused them not to repent, even when clear signs of their misguidance manifested before their eyes. Ultimately, they were doomed by their own hubris. In relation to this ayah, however, al-Ālūsī (may Allah have mercy upon him) stated that ‘displaying arrogance upon the arrogant is charity,’ meaning the appearance of swagger, not genuine inward arrogance. One of the meanings derived from this is that when there are people who have the gravitas or stature to put arrogant people in their place, they should do it, and this action is deemed meritorious as long as it is not done with arrogance in the hearts of those doing it. They should start off giving general counsel before escalating to stern admonition.

Within the action-cure for Muslims are the obligatory prayers at their appointed times, along with the supererogatory prayers in the last third of the night. Fāṭimah al-Zahrā’ (may Allah be pleased with her) stated that Allah (mighty and sublime) made ‘prayer (ṣalāh) as a purifier from arrogance.’⁵⁶  The Prophet ﷺsaid, ‘The servant is closest incumbent ‘to his Lord during prostration, so increase your supplications therein.’ It is reported that ʿAlī Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn (may Allah be pleased with him) was heard supplicating in prayer while in prostration, ‘I am your servant by annihilation in you, your weakling by annihilation in you, your beggar by annihilation in you, and your impoverished by annihilation in you.’ Thus, those who sincerely reflect on the reality of their prayers, both obligatory and supererogatory, in which their face touches the earth – both their origin and their eventual ending place – become more humble before their lord.

Dawud Walid is the author of various books and essays including, Futuwwah and Raising Males Into Sacred Manhood, Blackness and Islam, and Towards Sacred Activism as well as co-author of the books Centering Black Narrative: Black Muslim Nobles. He is currently the Executive Director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI), member of the Imams Council of Michigan, and advisory board member of Muslim Endorsement Council (MEC) which is a national endorsement and support organization for Islamic chaplaincy. 

Islamic Metaphysics of Racism is published by Algorithm.  Pre-order a copy here.  Use the code LVDW at checkout for a 15% discount on this and other books by the author at the IHRC Bookshop online.