The Sixth Argument

To make religious honor depend on lineage alone is to judge as the people of pre-Islamic ignorance did; the Rāfidah and other ignorant people like them have followed their example. For Allah Most High says:

“O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you.”

The Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said:

“An Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab, nor a non-Arab over an Arab, nor a black person over a white person, nor a white person over a black person, except through piety. All people descend from Adam, and Adam was created from dust.”

Thus, there is not a single verse in Allah’s Book in which He praises or condemns anyone for their lineage. Rather, He praises people for faith and piety and condemns them for disbelief, wickedness, and disobedience. It is also established in al-Sahīh that he—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said:

“There are four practices of pre-Islamic ignorance that my community will not abandon: boasting of ancestral distinction, disparaging people’s lineage, wailing over the dead, and seeking rain through the stars.”

He thus counted boasting of ancestral distinction among the practices of pre-Islamic ignorance. If a Muslim has no grounds to boast over another Muslim because his forefathers possessed noble standing, how can an unbeliever among the People of the Book have grounds to boast over another unbeliever among the People of the Book because his forefathers were believers?

If, when two groups profess the same religion, neither has any religious superiority over the other on account of lineage, then it follows that Jews and Christians whose forefathers were believers adhering to the original Scripture before its abrogation and alteration have no superiority over those whose fathers entered that religion after its abrogation and alteration. When their religion is the same, the religious ruling concerning them is likewise the same.