Imagine living, in this day and age, in a world in which
people were not judged on the content
of their character, but on the color of their skin! Sounds
pretty awful, right?
To think that in the 21st century, with all our progress as
a civilization, we could still be so primitive in our beliefs.
No! That must be a thing of the past. To believe that in the
year 2007, a good portion of our society could still be so
uneducated as to think that the color of one’s skin or the
nationality of an individual, could really equate to one being
lesser of a person than another. Well that is what I thought.
But to my dismay, I realized that a good percentage of our
population still, to this day, judges an individual not by
their merits, but indeed by the color of their skin.
In America, we have in our history encountered our own fair
share of racism. However in our society today, we have strived
to educate our people that it is wrong to judge someone based
on where he or she comes from. Over the years our society has
made a great improvement in their thinking. Now however with a
new global civilization, we have a whole new set of problems
to deal with in regards to racism. We can now through
technology, with the touch of a button, communicate with
someone clear across the world. In just a half of day’s
time, we can find ourselves walking on foreign soil we could
only have read about in the past. With these amazing
improvements in technology, we have opened the door to a world
of options, but also a world of struggle. It is now, that we
can find ourselves socializing with people from other
countries. Here is where the problem lies. In a world in which
the children of this generation, will grow up socializing with
people from all over the world, it is inevitable that these
young adults will be educated enough to be able to see past
the color of one’s skin. With this education, new light will
be shed when it comes to the prospect of marriage. Now it has
become very accessible for young men and women, from other
countries, to be able to meet and find many qualities in which
they admire in one another. Even to the point in which they
would consider one another for marriage.
I believe that this is a blessing from Allah. To
think that Allah has now opened the doors for us to actually
be able to meet someone from another country that could make
us feel complete. We are no longer limited to the city or
country in which we live to find our companions for life. We
now have a whole world of options. What a blessing Allah has
given us to be able to marry someone in which each of you
could bring to the marriage the best parts of each culture, in
which you other wise would not have been able to
experience.
All I can say to this is Humdillilah.
The struggle: However, many Muslim families from all over the world, are
every day making it impossible on their children to enjoy this
blessing that Allah has given us. These Muslim families allow
the children to go abroad, whether it be for studies, holiday,
or business, but yet expect them never to marry anyone from
another country, even if he or she is Muslim. This is not
Allah’s will. Islam says that we should come together as a
Muslim community and leave behind our cultural differences
(Surat.6 A. 159; Surat 21 A.92-93).
[Shakir
6:159] Surely they who divided their religion into parts and
became sects, you have no concern with them; their affair is
only with Allah, then He will inform them of what they did.
[Shakir 21:92] Surely this Islam is your religion, one
religion (only), and I am your Lord, therefore serve Me.
[Shakir 21:93] And they broke their religion (into sects)
between them: to Us shall all come back.
Furthermore, Islam also says that a Muslim can marry with a
Muslim, Christian, or a Jew. Also Allah says it is wrong to
discourage your children, who are of age, from marrying.
Myself being of the Muslim faith, I first and foremost submit
to the will of Allah. When I have any question on what is
right and what is wrong, I turn to the Holly Quran or the
hadiths for wisdom. And just as Allah promised, there it is.
The words of wisdom on how one should live and advise others
on how to live their lives.
So tell me then my fellow Muslims, which do you put first,
your God or your culture and traditions?
Furthermore, anyone who professes to be a Muslim should
really stop to think about this question. Because if your
answer is God, then you must think twice
before you forbid your son or daughter to marry someone based
on the color of their skin, and not on their character.
I write this article for myself and for all the men and
women out there in the world, whose families has either made
it impossible, or almost impossible for them to marry with
someone from another country, even though both of them are
Muslims. I ask of my fellow Muslim brother and sister, from
this day forward, as parents and as a Muslim society, to stop
putting your children and fellow Muslims through agony and
heartache simply because they choose to marry with someone
from another country. Be open minded enough to realize that
just because it wasn’t done in your culture in the past,
doesn’t mean that it is wrong.
So the next time your son or daughter comes to you with the
proposition of marriage, be fair enough to judge your son or
daughter’s future spouse not on the country in which they
were born, but on the person in which they are. My fellow
Muslims, the next time your striving to be the best Muslim you
can be by performing salat, giving zakat, fasting, and doing
all these other duties that makes us good Muslims, lets not
forget that being a good Muslim is just that, Being a good
Muslim. So lets recognize that no matter what country we come
from, or what color of skin Allah may have given us, that we
are all Muslims.
We should stop segregating ourselves based on our culture
and come together as a Muslim community. We need to help each
other live a righteous life and set a good example for other
non-Muslims as well. If helping each other live the righteous
life of Islam happens to mean your son or daughter may want to
marry some one from another county, then this is Allah’s
will, and who are you to say that Allah is wrong.
So my final plea to my fellow Muslims is that this life is
hard enough, please, InshaAllah, don’t make it any harder on
ourselves by letting race get in the way of us uniting.
One day we will all have to answer to our maker. Do you really
want to have one more, bad thing written down about your life,
all because you were too loyal to your cultural traditions to
change? In shaAllah I hope not. In shaAllah, we can all unite
as Muslims all over the world, and put our cultural
differences aside, and really accept each other in all aspects
of life, even when it comes to interracial marriage. You be
surprised what you can learn and gain from someone from
another culture. If we could only truly put our cultural
difference aside and first and foremost be Muslims, we would
set an example for everyone across the world, who are not
Muslims, and then Islam would really begin to flourish.
