Sunday, March 15, 2020

Acts17apologetics expose racism; Islam says Satan looks like a black man?

In answer to the video "What Color Is Satan? (Prophet Muhammad Answers!)"

In the account of creation, when Allah gave Iblis the opportunity to explain his disobedience, Iblis argued solely based on pride and a prejudiced rejection of God's creation, thus malevolently putting in question and challenging God's plan
38:75-76,7:12-13"He said: What hindered you so that you did not prostrate when I commanded YOU? He said: I am better than he: Thou hast created me of fire, while him Thou didst create of dust. He said: Then descend from it, for it does not befit you to behave proudly therein. Go forth, therefore, surely you are of the abject ones".
The fact that man could be favored spiritually despite his humble origins could not be reconciled with Iblis' pride and arrogance just as the disbelievers of all times could not reconcile their prejudiced worldly views with God's criteria for prophethood that are not bound by any ethnical, social or economic considerations. The angels on the other hand bowed down before man, despite the fact that they were purely celestial beings, demonstrating that honor lies in obedience and humility to God. The prophet David summed up this higher reality
Ps8:6"You have made him (man) slightly less than the angels, and You have crowned him with glory and majesty".
Man is of a lesser make than the angels but can achieve a much higher rank through spiritual merit. This also leads us to the Islamic concept that the worth of the human is not measured by his race, gender, ethnicity, tribal origins, or social achievements but through righteousness and spiritual awareness 4:1,25:77,34:37,25:27-8,42:23,49:13. The promotion of racism, nationalism, tribalism and sectarianism at the expense of morality and human brotherhood is in actuality, following the lead of Iblis and, by implication, rejecting the dignity of one's own self.

The prophet said
"O people, your Lord is one and your father Adam is one. There is no favor of an Arab over a foreigner, nor a foreigner over an Arab, and neither white skin over black skin, nor black skin over white skin, except by righteousness. Have I not delivered the message?"
Or
"Verily, you have no virtue over one with white skin or black skin, except by favor of righteousness".
That is besides all extra Quranic material speaking of some black people among the prophet's closest entourage, such as the ex-slave Bilal or the prophet's second wife Sawda. Bilal was the first caller to prayer, praised as one who is already in heaven despite still alive. He was selected among those who entered the Kaaba together with the prophet upon the conquest of Mecca for the first time. Elsewhere in the ahadith the prophet is depicted as supporting a black woman's testimony in a dispute with an Arab man, praying at the grave of a black man, forbidding a man from disowning his dark complexioned son, reprimanding a companion for mocking the skin color of a black man by pointing him to the famous verse about the value of a human being in his God-consciousness 49:13. 

Other hadith describe situations where he is confronting his racially prejudiced society, telling them that whoever a leader might be, even an "Ethiopian whose head is like a raisin", then they are to put their prejudice aside and obey him. Raisin is in reference to the black color. The prophet is using their own prejudice against them, pushing it to the extreme to explain there are no boundaries of race in legitimate leadership. 
He was always quick to correct his people's racial and societal prejudices 
"A black person, a male or a female used to clean the Mosque and then died. The Prophet did not know about it . One day the Prophet remembered him and said, "What happened to that person?" The people replied, "O Allah's Messenger! He died." He said, "Why did you not inform me?" They said, "His story was so and so (i.e. regarded him as insignificant)." He said, "Show me his grave." He then went to his grave and offered the funeral prayer". 
He respectfully stood at the funeral procession of a Jew, in a time of great enmity between Medinite Jews and Christians, demonstrating the principle that we are all equal in humanity 
"A funeral procession passed in front of the Prophet and he stood up. When he was told that it was the coffin of a Jew, he said, "Is it not a living being (soul)?"
Mahran, his black slave was a vehicle of impressive miracle of strength. As they were returning together from a tiresome trip, most probably a battle, in which he did not participate since slaves were exempted, the prophet who on the other hand did participate, progressively loaded Mahran with more and more heavy belongings of the travellers until, in his own words "i carried the load of six or seven donkeys without even feeling it". The last part of the quote is often omitted by polemicists. Following the incident, Mahran was nicknamed "the ship". The prophet knew what he was doing and how a miracle would ensue. He was not deliberately loading Mahran with more than what he would be able to bear
"Your slaves are your brethren, upon whom God has given you authority. So, if one has one’s brethren under one’s control, one should feed them with the like of what one eats and clothe them with the like of what one wears. You should not ask them to do things beyond their capacity, and if you do so, help them [with their hard job]".
The prophet would even tolerate black ethnic groups among the population of slaves, to play their instruments and display their cultural dances at occasions (that particular report is often distorted by polemicists arguing they were instead displayed for sale). If the prophet compared Iblis to a specific contemporaneous black man, who not only had ugly monstrous looks but also evil and sinful behavior, it isnt necessarily for the color of his skin. Only a polemicists whose self and society diabolizes black people for the color of their skin may think so. The prophet, let alone the Quran as depicted in introduction, was far from such lowly morality and prejudice. In another similar narration he compares Satan to an Arab. Further there are statements of the Prophet where he compared the end times arch-evil figure (dajjal) to Abdul Uzza b. Qatan who was an Arab and not black.

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