Assalamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullah,
What we have witnessed in Al-Fashir, Sudan the massacre of innocent women, children and civilians by the secular Arab supremacist militias driven by tribal and racial hatred with estimates of the death toll exceding 2500 as of now is not a distant isolated tragedy. It’s a reflection of one of the greatest spiritual diseases of our Ummah: Asabiyyah (Tribalism, Racism and Nationalism).
The scholars define Asabiyyah as to side with one’s people in falsehood, or to boast of one’s lineage as if it grants superiority. It is the disease that blinds the heart to justice and poisons the soul with arrogance. The Prophet condemened Asabiyyah and said:
Whoever fights under the banner of Asabiyyah, becoming angry for Asabiyyah, or calling to it, or supporting it, and is killed, then he dies the death of ignorance (Jahiliyyah).
— Sahih Muslim (1850)
When some Quraysh boasted of their noble ancestry, the Prophet PBUH said: “Tell them to bite their father’s male organ, and do not use a euphemism.” (Musnad Aḥmad 5/343; ***al-***Silsilah al-sahihah no. 1355). This Hadith was not vulgarity but a command to crush the arrogance of lineage. Today, this same arrogance appears in new forms: we hear men boast of their “great nation,” their “pure tribe,” or silly trivial things such as “pure genes” that makes them sound like Nazis without utter shame. The Prophet reminds us *“*Allah does not look at your forms or your lineage, but at your hearts and deeds.” When Muslims replace Taqwa and humlity with tribal and nationalist banners, they trade the honor of Islam for the dust of ignorance and arrogance.
We may not even realise sometimes that we face the disease of Asabiyyah in it´s microdose forms such as when we use people´s demonyms as slurs, something very common in the Gulf where phrases such as ¨Ya Hindi¨ are used to demean people and weaponized or to rile up to take one´s side. A prophetic example of such form of Asabiyyah is the instance of a arguement between a Immigrant (Muhajir) and a helper (Ansari) where they started calling the slogans of ¨Ya Muhajirun¨ and ¨Ya Ansar¨, which was noticed by the Prophet and he exclaimed “Leave it (ʿasabiyyah), for it is rotten (filthy)!” Sahih al-Bukhari (4905), Sahih Muslim (2584).
Much of the current state of the Muslim Ummah comes from the devasting impacts of Asabiyyah (Nationalism, Racism and Tribalism) and can be evidenced by the words of Umar RA who said “We were the most humiliated people on earth, and Allah gave us honour through Islam. If we seek honour through anything else, Allah will humiliate us again.” The great Tabiʿ al-Tabiʿīn scholar Sufyan Al-Thawri said “Whoever calls to Asabiyyah, Allah will make his disgrace in both worlds.” Al-Bayhaqī, Shuʿab al-Īmān (6/293). He further went on to say “Beware of Asabiyyah, for it was the rope of Shaytan by which nations before you were strangled.”
The scholars of the Salaf such as Sheikh Al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (Rahimahumullah) writes on this “The believers are one nation. Whosoever calls to nationalism, lineage, or allegiance other than to Islam and the Sunnah is among the callers to Hell.” Iqtidha Sirat-al-Mustaqim (1/157*).* and further writing “The believers are one nation, distinct from others. The foundation of their alliance and enmity is religion, not lineage or homeland.”
(Majmu‘ al-Fatawa, 28/208) Imam Ibn Al-Qayyim (Rahimullah) mentions that “From the signs of the disease of the heart is showing partisanship for a group, loving them due to their lineage or tribe, and hating others for that, even if they are upon the truth.” — Iʿlām al-Muwaqqiʿīn (1/84)
The call to Nationalism and patriotism is a great disease that the Ummah faces and we must strive in the way of Allah to extinguish this call to the fire of hell-fire. In response to the many Muslims who argue that nationalism for their nations is a way of preserving their Islamic idenities,the contemporary seniors scholars of the Ummah such as Sheikh Ibn Baz (Rahimahullah) said that “This call [to nationalism] is ignorance and it is not to ascribe oneself to it, nor to encourage those who call to it. … Islam necessitates the view that calling to Arab nationalism or any other kind of nationalism is a false message and a great error, and a clear abomination, loathsome ignorance, and a plot against Islam and its people.”
Sheikh Ibn Uthaymeen (rahimahum Allah) said in regards to the issue of fighting in the name of defending one´s national identity “The fighting mentioned in the Qur’an … is the one qualified with “in the path of Allāh”. However, fighting for nationhood, nationalism, national pride and passion … all of that is futile … The scholars upon the Sunnah warn from tribalism and nationalism, because they are a path to defeat and humiliation.”
Shaykh Salih al-Fawzan (rahimahullah) in his Fatwa on nationalism said “If a person elevates his country, tribe, or nation above Islam, then he has made it an idol in his heart, which is forbidden and leads to the corruption of the Ummah”
As we reflect upon the horrors in Al-Fashir and the countless other tragedies born of tribalism and racial arrogance across Islamic history, we must look within ourselves and our communities. How often do we allow pride of lineage, nationality, or tribe to cloud our judgment, to diminish the rights of others, or to blind us to injustice?
Let us not allow the blood of our innocent brothers and sisters in Al‑Fashir to be shed in vain. Let it awaken our hearts and compel us to fight, truly fight, in the way of Allah, not with slogans or performative outrage, but by uprooting the sickness of the heart: hatred, resentment, contempt and arrogance. Let us pledge to forgo those feelings, to leave the ways of ignorance (Jahiliyyah), and to rebuild our communities on love, mercy and taqa. Let us honour the memory of the innocent women and children who were killed mercilessly by returning to the path of Islam and the ways of our righteous predecessors and be the a light of brotherhood and mercy to mankind.
And never think that Allah is unaware of what the wrongdoers do. He only delays them for a Day when eyes will stare [in horror]. (14:42)
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In the loving memory of the innocent women, children and civilians who were killed by the oppressors. May Allah forgive them and grant them highest ranks of paradise, Ameen.
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