“Man, We created you all from a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another. Verily the noblest of you in the sight of Allah is the most God-fearing of you. Surely Allah is All-Knowing, All-Aware.”
(The Qur’an, 49:13)
This ayah addresses mankind to reform it of the great evil that has always been causing disruption in the world, i.e., the prejudices due to race, colour, language, country, and nationality. On account of these prejudices man has been discarding humanity and drawing around himself small circles and regarding those born within those circles as his own and those outside them as others. These circles have been drawn on the basis of accidental birth, not on rational and moral grounds.
Human beings have been made from one and the same substance. They have been created in one and the same way. And they are the offspring of the same parents.With the spread of the race it was inevitable that countless families should arise, and then tribes and nations should emerge from the families. Similarly, after settling in different regions of the earth, there should be differences of colours, features, languages and ways of living among the people.
The only basis of superiority and excellence that there is, or can be, between man and man is that of moral excellence. The real thing that makes one person superior to others is that one should be more God-conscious, a greater avoider of evils, and a follower of the way of piety and righteousness.