⦗13⦘ “O mankind, indeed We created you from a male and a female and made you peoples and tribes so that you may come to know one another. Surely the most honorable of you in the sight of Allah is the most pious among you. Indeed, Allah is All-Knowing, All-Aware.”

Allah Most High informs us that He created the children of Adam from a single origin and of a single kind. They all descend from a male and a female, and all trace their origin back to Adam and Eve. Yet Allah [Most High] spread forth from them many men and women, dispersed them, and made them into peoples and tribes—that is, tribes both large and small—so that they might come to know one another. Had every person lived independently, this mutual recognition would not have been possible, nor would the mutual support, cooperation, inheritance, fulfillment of relatives’ rights, and other matters that depend upon people knowing one another and tracing their lineages.

True honor, however, is attained through piety. The most honorable of them in the sight of Allah is the most pious: the one who is most obedient to Him and most restrained from sin. It is not the one with the most numerous relatives or the largest people, nor the one of the noblest lineage. Allah Most High is All-Knowing, All-Aware. He knows who among them fears Allah both outwardly and inwardly and who does so outwardly but not inwardly, and He will recompense each according to what he deserves.

This verse also shows that knowing one’s lineage is desirable and sanctioned, for it was for this purpose that Allah made people into peoples and tribes.