How to Deal With Racism: Lessons From West African Scholars’ Tafsīr of Sūrah al-Ḥujurāt

Among the chapters of the Qur'an, Sūrat al-Ḥujurāt stands as the most concise and comprehensive with respect to conflict resolution and management. One of the socio-political conflicts it addresses is the proactive prevention of racism, which is understood here as an extension of blameworthy tribalism (ʿaṣabiyya). As discussions of racism have grown more frequent in Western public discourse and among Muslims, it is fitting that any Muslim analysis of this challenge begin with the Qur'an and with those Muslim communities possessing the most wisdom regarding it. To this end, attention is directed to the 11th and 13th verses of Sūrat al-Ḥujurāt as explained in the commentaries of two West African exegetes, whose insights bear directly upon how Muslims should mitigate racism within their communities. It is worth recalling that this chapter was revealed in Medina, a society that was at once deeply tribal yet diverse in lineage and phenotype—comprising Arabs of varied tribes as well as non-Arabs of Jewish, Abyssinian, and Persian ancestries—a setting markedly different from the more homogenous Makkah ruled by the Quraysh.

The two commentaries examined were first encountered during studies in West African scholarship in Mali and Senegal, including exegetical study under Shaykh Ali Sulaiman Ali of Ghana. No claim is made that these two works are superior to others or that they offer novel interpretations. Rather, their value lies in the position of their authors: surrounded, as we are today, by the dynamics of anti-Black racism, yet meeting that challenge as scholars free from the identity crises that afflict Muslims living as marginalized minorities.

The first exegete is Shaykh Abū Muḥammad ʿAbdullāhī ibn Fūdī (1180AH/1766CE–1245AH/1829CE), may Allah have mercy upon him, of the Fulani people, whose family settled in Hausaland. His brother, Shaykh ʿUthmān ibn Fūdī, established the Sokoto caliphate, in which Shaykh ʿAbdullāhī served as a senior minister. The era's struggles included purifying Muslim belief from pre-Islamic animism and combating corrupt Muslim chiefs who enslaved fellow Muslims—among them over three hundred memorizers (ḥuffāẓ) of the Qur'an. A ḥāfiẓ of the Qur'an, a master of hadith with over 100,000 narrations memorized, and a chief Mālikī jurist, he authored numerous works, including his exegesis Ḍiyāʾ al-taʾwīl fī maʿānī al-tanzīl, a second exegesis titled Kifāya ḍuʿafāʾ al-sūdān based upon the Warsh reading, and a versification (naẓm) of al-Suyūṭī's Al-Itqān fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān titled Sulālat al-tafsīr.

The second exegete is Shaykh Aḥmad Dem b. Muḥammad al-Amīn Dem, may Allah have mercy upon him, who died in 1973, also of Fulani origin, residing in Sokone, Senegal, and following the Mālikī madhhab. He was less prolific, perhaps for lacking the support of an Islamic government. He contended with two challenges: the influence of French colonial thought, spread through missionary-influenced public education under which up to five percent of the previously non-Christian population converted; and a theological dispute with Shaykh Ibrāhīm Niasse, may Allah have mercy upon him, whose exegesis Fī riyāḍ al-tafsīr argued that Allah ﷻ could be seen in dreams—a view Shaykh Dem opposed as departing from the Ashʿarī creed then unanimously held in Senegal, though the two later reconciled while still disagreeing. His twenty-volume exegesis, Ḍiyāʾ al-nayyirīn, is more comprehensive than Ibn Fūdī's four-volume work, treating the occasions of revelation, the abrogating and abrogated, and the Warsh and Qālūn recitations transmitted from Nāfiʿ al-Madanī, and drawing frequently upon al-Alūsī's Rūḥ al-Maʿānī.

On the 11th verse—"O you who believe, let not a qawm ridicule [another] qawm... nor let women ridicule [other] women... And do not insult one another nor call each other by [offensive] nicknames"—Shaykh Ibn Fūdī held that qawm here means specifically the men, since women are addressed separately. Shaykh Dem related three occasions of revelation. The first, from Ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with him), concerns Thābit b. Qays b. Shammās, who belittled a man by his mother's status in the manner of the pre-Islamic Era of Ignorance. The second, from al-Ḍaḥḥāk, concerns Banū Tamīm mocking poor companions including ʿAmmār (a Black Arab), Ibn Fuhayra (an African), Bilāl the Abyssinian, Ṣuhayb the Roman, and Salmān and Salīm the Persians. The third concerns Muslims calling ʿIkrima b. Abī Jahl "the son of the Pharaoh of this Nation," which he complained of to the Messenger ﷺ. Shaykh Dem concluded that the companion of one who mocks shares in the sin by failing to speak against it. In all three cases the mockery concerned lineage, though the second was also tied to socio-economic status—a connection then as now. He further cited that a man told Luqmān (peace be upon him), an Abyssinian, "What an ugly face you have!" to which Luqmān replied, "You find fault with what has been engraved or created [by Allah]?!"

Regarding the mockery of women, Shaykh Ibn Fūdī noted that some of the Prophet's Arab wives mocked Ṣafiyya (may Allah be pleased with her) by calling her "O Jew, daughter of a Jew." Shaykh Dem, citing the narration from al-Tirmidhī (may Allah have mercy upon him), related that the Prophet ﷺ consoled her: "Surely you are the daughter of a prophet, your uncle was a prophet, and you are under the guardianship of a Prophet, so how can one take pride over you?" Ibn Fūdī explained the prohibition as meaning, "Do not find fault with one another, for the believers are like one body." Shaykh Dem concurred, citing the glad tidings for one preoccupied with his own faults over those of others, and observing that no human is entirely free of faults—yet lineage and skin color are not faults, being the decree of Allah, Mighty and Sublime, and neither mistakes nor errors. He added that offensive naming includes belittling converts as "O Jew" or "O Christian," while praiseworthy nicknames remain permissible, as with ʿUmar being called al-Fārūq, ʿUthmān Dhū al-Nūrayn, and ʿAlī Abū Turāb. Finally, he warned that those refusing to repent walk the accursed path of Iblīs, who deemed himself better than Adam (peace be upon him), citing Sūrat Hūd (11:18): "Surely the curse of Allah is upon the wrongdoers."

On the 13th verse—"O humankind, surely We created you from a single male and female, and We made you into different nations and tribes in order that you may know one another. Surely the most honorable of you with Allah are those of you who are most pious"—Shaykh Ibn Fūdī explained that all are created from Adam and Eve, equal in origin, so there is no pride to be sought in lineage. Shaykh Dem noted differing reports on its occasion. Ibn ʿAbbās held it was revealed at the Conquest of Makkah when Bilāl (may Allah be pleased with him) called the adhān atop the Kaʿbah and someone sneered, "Could Muhammad find no caller other than this Black crow?" Another report ties it to the tribe of Banī Bayāḍa refusing to marry a woman to Abū Hind (may Allah be pleased with him), an ex-slave. In a further account, when Thābit b. Qays refused a man a seat over his lineage, the Prophet ﷺ said, "Surely you have no merit over them except in piety (taqwā)."

Shaykh Dem affirmed that one may know lineages without seeking pride through them; honor lies solely in piety, meaning praiseworthy elevation above disbelief through leaving shirk and adhering to Islam. The most noble before Allah is the most pious, "even if a Black Abyssinian slave like Bilāl." He cited the Prophet's words, "I am the master of the Children of Adam but I have no pride," understanding his honor to lie in servitude—hence "I witness that Muhammad is His slave and His messenger" places servanthood before messengership. He further cited the narration, "There is no virtue of the Arab over the non-Arab... nor the White over the Black... except in piety," and, "Surely Allah does not look to your forms nor your outward actions, but He looks to your hearts and your intentions." Since Allah ﷻ alone knows the inward, none may claim another is more beloved to Him. Narrations praising Quraysh do not render every Qurashī superior, nor is Quraysh a phenotypic group: ʿAlī (may Allah ennoble his countenance) was described as very dark (adam shadīd al-udmah), while his son al-Ḥasan (may Allah be pleased with him) was light—both of Quraysh.

Taken together, these commentaries indicate that Muslims must shun racism within themselves and their communities. The 11th verse forbids rhetorical racism in four ways, and the unrepentant assumes the attribute of Iblīs, the original unrepentant one. The 13th verse establishes a single Creator and common ancestry, with true honor in humble servitude rather than lineage or phenotype. Both scholars imply that Muslims of every ethnicity deserve a space safe from mockery, opportunity based on merit of character, and freedom to marry without lineage or phenotype as automatic disqualifiers. Racialized mockery is disavowed for its destructive consequences: it can breed self-loathing—an affliction that moved Ibn al-Jawzī (may Allah have mercy upon him) to write Tanwīr al-ghabash fī faḍl al-sūdān wa al-ḥabash—and, wielded by the powerful, can marginalize people from livelihood, education, and marriage, and at worst lead to violence or ethnic cleansing.

Though composed in Africa long ago, these commentaries offer guidance to Muslims in the West, who must act more decisively against racial conflict: inviting trained scholars of differing backgrounds beyond Black History Month or the commemoration of Malcolm X, and not awaiting tragedies such as the deaths of Eric Garner and George Floyd. Just as the Prophet ﷺ appointed Bilāl (may Allah be pleased with him) as both muʾadhdhin and dispenser of charity, and paired the natives of Medina with the immigrants after the hijra, so too must communities pair youth across divides, since experiential knowledge is the antidote to racial ignorance—as ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib said, "People are adversaries of what they are ignorant of." Sūrat al-Ḥujurāt should be taught regularly, even in annual seminars across cities and countries, with preference given to the exegetes' commentaries, for the Qur'an is healing for every spiritual and social malady, and our discourse on racism must be rooted in it rather than in postmodern or secular critical theory. The aim is a communal intolerance for derogatory name-calling based on phenotype and ethnicity, following the example of the Prophet ﷺ. May Allah ﷻ have mercy upon Shaykh ʿAbdullāhī ibn Fūdī and Shaykh Aḥmad Dem, and grant us the implementation of the lessons of these two verses.