All these things being one and the same necessitates brotherhood, love, and unity. That  is  to  say,  being  divided  into  groups  and  tribes  should  lead  to  mutual acquaintance and mutual assistance, not to antipathy and mutual hostility.

Third Matter

The idea of nationalism has greatly advanced this century. The cunning European tyrants in particular  awaken this among Muslims  in negative  fashion so they may divide them up and devour them.

Furthermore, in the idea of nationalism is a thrill of the soul, a heedless pleasure, an inauspicious  power.  For  this reason people  involved  in social  life at this time cannot be told to give it up. However, nationalism is of two kinds: one is negative, inauspicious,  and  harmful;  it  is  nourished  by  devouring  others,  persists  through hostility to others, and is aware of what it is doing. It is the cause of enmity and disturbance.  This  is  the  reason  the  Hadith  states  that  Islam  has  abrogated  what preceded it and put an end to the tribalism of Ignorance.[1] And the Qur’an decrees:

While the unbelievers got up in their hearts, heat and cant – the heat and cant of Ignorance – God sent down His tranquillity to His Messenger and to the believers, and made them stick close to the command of self-restraint; and  well  were  they  entitled  to  it  and  worthy  of  it.  And  God  has  full knowledge of all things.(48:26)

The  above  Hadith  and  verse  reject  in  definite  terms  negative  nationalism  and racialism. For positive, sacred Islamic nationhood leaves no need for them.

What race has three hundred and fifty million members? Which racialism can gain for those who subscribe to it so many brothers – and eternal brothers at that – in place of Islam? Negative nationalism has caused untold harm in history.

I n   S h o r t :   The Umayyads combined  some nationalistic ideas with their politics, and vexed the World of Islam. They also brought down many calamities on themselves.   Also,  the  European   nations  have  promoted   the  idea  of  racialism enormously this century; the ghastly events of the Great War demonstrated just how harmful negative nationalism is, in addition to the perpetual, ill-omened enmity of the French and Germans. And with us, in the Second Constitutional  Period, – like the myriad tongues at the destruction of the Tower of Babel, known as the “ramification of peoples,”

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[1] See, Bukhari, Ahkam, 4; ‘Imara, 36, 37; Abu Da’ud, Sunna, 5; Tirmidhi, Jihad, 28; ‘Ilm, 16; Nasa’i, Bay’a, 26; Ibn Maja, Jihad, 39; Musnad, iv, 69, 70, 199, 204, 205; v, 381; vi, 402, 403.