# The Ummah or the Nation? | Imam Tom Weekly

**Author:** Tom Facchine
**Series:** Imam Tom Live
**Published:** 2025-04-30
**YouTube:** https://youtu.be/dwtkADB8lzs
**URL:** https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/the-ummah-or-the-natio-imam-tom-weekly
**Topics:** Culture, Family & Community, General Psychology, Psychology & Mental Health

## Description
In this episode, Imam Tom explores the growing tension between Islamic values and nationalism. What does Islam say about national loyalty, cultural identity, and allegiance to the Ummah? Can Muslims take pride in their heritage without compromising their faith? Discover how Islam guides us in...

## Transcript
**[0:00]** If you were educated in a public school anywhere in the world, you've pretty much seen the political map of the world that divides the world into nation-states. And for the last good while, the only show in town when it comes to governments is the nation-state.

**[0:18]** There is this idea of the nation of people, and supposedly the people are sovereign, and the government is supposed to be a representation of those people. Of course, if you live in a dictatorship, you know that this is a farce. If you live in a western democracy, it's a little bit less clear that it's a farce, but I digress.

**[0:34]** The point is that where does nationalism come in with Islam? Nationalism, I think, is really an extension of tribalism, because nationalism is about supporting your nation, right or wrong. And this is condemned in Islam. Islam is for the truth.

**[0:50]** Now, we want to wall that off from pride in one's people, which is acceptable in Islam. And the Prophet (ﷺ) had pride in his lineage and his people and where he came from. And it's natural that people have pride in their ancestors to a certain degree, as long as it doesn't transgress what is right and truthful.

**[1:09]** You're allowed to have pride in your country, in your land, in your people, your traditions, your culture. This is fine. But where it crosses the line is where you think that you just are going to support your nation, right or wrong. Your idol is your flag, your nation's flag, and that you're going to be willing to obey your nation no matter what it says, right or wrong.

**[1:31]** This is something that not just Muslims, but all people of faith have to reject this. If your nation tells you to do one thing and Allah tells you to do something else, then you go with Allah. That's very, very clear. The government's not going to be there on the Day of Judgment to put you into hellfire. Allah will. The Creator will.

**[1:49]** So that is something that I think all people of faith share, and that is precisely the danger of nationalism. Some people say like it's become its own religion, and there's elements of truth to that. But I think maybe more directly that it becomes the highest priority and the absolute unquestioned truth or allegiance.

**[2:11]** We need to be critically engaged with our governments and critically engaged with our own people. Our people can be wrong. Our nation can be wrong. Our ethnicity or our race or our people who speak our language or people who share the same passport as us can be wrong.

**[2:28]** And our duty to Allah is actually to hold them accountable when they are, and to point it out and to try to correct them. We don't want to fall into the same mistake that Musa (عليه السلام) fell into before he was made a prophet. When he was called to intervene in a fight, and there was someone from his nation and someone from Pharaoh's nation in the fight.

**[2:47]** And he intervenes on the side of the guy from his nation, assuming that he's in the right, and he accidentally kills a man. And later comes to discover that the person from his nation was wrong. That Islam is for the truth. No matter who says it, no matter who does it, no matter who is calling for it, Islam is for the truth.

**[3:06]** And our allegiance to the truth, and our allegiance to what the Creator wants from us, is more important than anything else.

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