Human Beings are All One
Human beings, in view of their origin, are all one. The basis for distinction, if any, between them is as to who are God-fearing and who are not. And this is known only to God.
Chapter 49 of the Quran states: “Mankind! We have created you from a male and female, and made you into peoples and tribes, so that you might come to know each other. The noblest of you in God’s sight is the one who fears God most. God is all-knowing and all-aware.” (49:13)
Men apparently appear to be different from one another, but all of them initially are the children of the same Father and Mother, Adam and Eve. When God decided to create a human being, He initially created the first pair, one man and one woman. It was from this initial pair that the human race originated. Gradually, the number of human beings began to spread to various parts of the land until, after a long period of time, the entire earth became populated with men and women.
Geographical conditions on the earth are not uniform everywhere. This lack of uniformity is found in different places. For instance, in some parts of the earth there is extremely hot weather while in other parts there is cold weather. In some parts, the staple food is non-vegetarian, while in other parts, the main source of food is vegetarian.
Human beings differ from each other in many ways, notably in terms of race and place of origin—some are black, some are white, some are from the rain forests, some are from the tundra. But all these differences are for the purpose of identification—not for the making of distinctions. Indeed, many evils have stemmed from these differences being used to discriminate between one person and another, between one community and another, between one nation and another. Humanity has been repeatedly torn asunder by such prejudice.
Human beings, in view of their origin, are all one. Among them, if at all there is any basis for distinction, it is as to who is fearful of God and who is not. Even this is known only to God and not to any human being.
