By Professor Souleymane Bachir Diagne

 Sermon (khutba) delivered Friday, September 7, 2007, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. Professor Diagne holds simultaneous appointments in Religion, Philosophy and African Studies at Northwestern University, and teaches classes relating to, among other things, Islamic thought, African philosophy and Sufism. The following text has been adapted for the purposes of Islamamerica.

 In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

 Allah, exalted and majestic is He, has said in his noble Book: "O human beings! We have created you from male and female and we have made you into nations and tribes that you may know one another. The noblest among you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous. Verily Allah is all-knowing and well-aware" (Qur'an: 49:13).

 This passage points to differences among human beings. The first obvious difference Allah is pointing out here is the natural, biological distinction between male and female. Next, Allah mentions the social, constructed differences by which we constitute ourselves as nations and tribes. Here we might also mention our propensity, even within the Muslim community, to divide ourselves into religious sects.

 After mentioning such differences, Allah then says: the reason for difference is to know each other; for men and women to know each other, for tribes and nations to know each other. But difference is presented as a test, for we are indeed tested by those different from ourselves. What is at stake in this test, Allah says, is knowledge itself. And it is not only knowledge of the other that is at stake, knowing the other is what allows us to know ourselves. Thus for the man to know the woman allows him to more fully know himself, and vice-versa. The same is true for the various social constructions of difference. Nations and tribes are thus likewise invited to know each other, and so to know themselves, on the model of the biological, primordial distinction between male and female. Just as the full realization of the self in the coupling of the male and female leads to greater marital harmony, so too is harmony achieved between tribes and nations on the basis of knowing the self through the other.

 If difference is a test, then there is clearly the possibility of failing this test. Failing the test of difference is to establish hierarchies on the basis of difference, to construct out of difference social inequalities. For example, a person uses real or perceived difference to claim he is better or stronger than another. But Allah reminds us that to be "noble," to be kareem in His eyes, 'ind Allah ("in the presence of God"), the only prerequisite is righteousness. Of course, Allah tells us elsewhere that there are indeed degrees, daraja, among the believers. But these are degrees relating to individual taqwa or righteousness, not a hierarchy of groups or sects.

 Islam admits no tribal, ethnic or national hierarchy. Muslims should be striving to transcend the divisions of tribes and nations, of the qabila and sha'b. We are called on to create a new social reality established only on righteousness rather than origin. And this social reality is the ummah. Muslims constitute a community, an ummah, because we recognize righteousness as our ideal, because we share the same direction, the same qibla. This is what constitutes us as a community, and it is emphatically beyond the realm of sects and tribes, including the sectarian divides within Islam today such Sunnis and Shi'as. Such is the definition of ummah entrusted to us by the Prophet of Allah, and the creation of such a community is the task that remains for us.

 Allah has revealed concerning the Muslim community, "And thus We have made of you an ummah, well balanced, that you may be witness over humanity, and the Prophet a witness over yourselves" (Qur'an, 2:143). We, the Muslims, are witnesses over humanity by being a community, by being a model of unity working for righteousness, able to overlook the simple juxtaposition of differences.

 The hijrah from Mecca to Medina represents the flight from the primacy of the tribe and tribal law to the constitution of a new community founded on universal justice. This new definition of community created a new type of bond that transcended the world of competing tribes exalting in their own nobility. Indeed, it should create a new bond that transcends the world of competing sects, each exalting in their claims to be the sole sirât al-mustaqim, the only rightly guided way.

 The sirat al-nabbiy, the story of the Prophet Muhammad, is, among other things, the story of the continuous march from the tribe to ummah, the community of Islam. Indeed, the first thing the Meccan idol worshippers could not understand was that Allah, in choosing Muhammad as Prophet, was not obeying their tribal logic, was not making use of the force of tribes. They said, "Why is this Qur'an not sent down to some leading man in either of the two main cities [Mecca or Ta'if]" (43:31)? In other words, their protest to the Revelation to Muhammad was to say, "How is it that your God should not understand that it takes a big man, of a powerful tribe, to get things done?" Similar protestations were made by Pharaoh: he could not believe that if there was a God to send a message, He should not talk to him, Pharaoh, first. When Allah sent Moses to Pharaoh, he said, "Am I not better than this [Moses], who is an undignified and miserable person and who cannot even speak clearly" (Qur'an, 43:52)? Indeed, such an argument is the primordial protestation of Satan, who when confronted with Allah's selection of Adam, said, "I am better than he."

 We should realize that this arrogance is not exclusive to the great villains -- the Meccan idolaters, Pharaoh and Satan -- recorded in the Qur'an. All of us face the test of difference every day. Many of us look down on others because of their difference, because of a different accent or different way of speaking, for example. In one story related of our pious ancestors, Hassan al-Basri came to visit a Persian convert to Islam, Habib Ajami. The name Ajami of course means "non-Arab," and Habib Ajami was unable to correctly pronounce Arabic despite his great piety. When Hassan al-Basri overheard Habib Ajami incorrectly pronouncing the Qur'an during his prayer, he made up his mind not to pray behind Ajami. Later, Hassan al-Basri was inspired by Allah that while he had perceived his friend only as "Ajami," he had not perceived the content of his heart, for which Allah considered him "Habib," the beloved:  'Know that in Our sight, he is habib.'

All of this is not to deny the reality of difference, even those differences which are socially constructed. The Prophet himself moved from the logic of clans and tribes towards that of the ummah. And Allah told him directly, "Warn your family who are your nearest of kin" (26:214). When this verse was revealed, the Prophet had a meal prepared and called all the Banu Hashim together to deliver the Message. But his uncle Abu Lahab interrupted the meeting before the Prophet could speak. The Prophet tried again, and this time, before Abu Lahab could speak, he said, "O sons of Abd al-Muttalib, I bring you the best of this world and the next. Who would be my helper, brother and khalifa in this?" The awkward silence that followed was only broken by Ali, then a thirteen year-old boy, who came forward and said, "O Prophet of God, I will be your helper in this." Notice the humility of Ali in this instance. He did not claim to be the Prophet's brother or khalifa, only that he would help. Even still, the Banu Hashim left the gathering laughing, saying that Muhammad wanted to put a small boy in authority over them, that he was asking Abu Talib to submit to his own son, Ali.

 The trust Ali took upon himself that day, and this was something that the others of his family did not understand, was not the biological connection of his cousin, foster-father and future father-in-law. What he was offered was founded in Allah alone. It was not family or clan, it was ummah. And this was the sort of community established in Medina. Significantly, even after the conquest of Mecca, the Prophet did not resettle in the city where he had spent most of his life. He returned to live in Medina where the ummah had been established.

 Of course ours is not a history of utopia. Very soon after the Prophet's death, we experienced a revenge of the tribal spirit. And with it, fitna or upheaval extended to the ummah. The Prophet, Allah's peace and blessing upon him, asked of Allah three things on behalf of the Muslim community: that the ummah would not be wiped out in one single defeat or disaster, that it would not be extinguished by drowning, and that his ummah should not fight each other. Allah granted the Prophet's first two requests, but out of His wisdom, refused the third. In other words, there is no easy way out for us, we are confronted with the unending necessity of coming to terms with difference in our community.

 Differences are inevitable, because usually they are perfectly well grounded. There are those who say that Ali's special relationship to the Prophet was not shared by anybody else among the Prophet's Companions, and that he was the true inheritor or khalifa of the Prophet. And they are right. There are those who say Abu Bakr's position as inheritor of the Prophet was indisputable, since the Prophet appointed him to lead the prayer in his absence and even prayed behind Abu Bakr himself. And they are also right.

 Multiplicity and differentiation is intrinsic to Allah's creation. What we must guard against, and what the Prophet prayed for us to be exempt from, is not that differences should not emerge, but that these differences should not lead to fitna, to war between us. It is simply deplorable that we should find ourselves today at each others' throats, while those from outside the ummah are the ones pulling us off each other.

 But let us not point the finger of blame for this present fitna. As it is happening now, it has happened many times before. Let us remain insisting on the oneness of the ummah, that we are a community of inclusion, not exclusion or excommunication. In the end, we are all ahl al-qibla, those who orient themselves in prayer towards the Holy House. We have all declared the shahada, "There is no diety except Allah, and Muhammad is His Messenger." And the supplication of Jonah inside the belly of the fish is our own supplication today, "O Lord, surely we have wronged our own selves, and if you should not forgive us and have mercy on us, we will indeed be among those who are lost."