M7
Dignity and diversity
"And We have certainly honored the children of Adam" (17:70): dignity belongs to every human being, not only to believers. Differences of people and tribe are "that you may know one another", and rank before God is by righteousness alone (49:13).
۞ وَلَقَدْ كَرَّمْنَا بَنِىٓ ءَادَمَ وَحَمَلْنَٰهُمْ فِى ٱلْبَرِّ وَٱلْبَحْرِ وَرَزَقْنَٰهُم مِّنَ ٱلطَّيِّبَٰتِ وَفَضَّلْنَٰهُمْ عَلَىٰ كَثِيرٍ مِّمَّنْ خَلَقْنَا تَفْضِيلًا٧٠
Transliteration: walaqad karramnā banī ādama waḥamalnāhum fī l-bari wal-baḥri warazaqnāhum mina l-ṭayibāti wafaḍḍalnāhum ʿalā kathīrin mimman khalaqnā tafḍīlan
And We have certainly honored the children of Adam and carried them on the land and sea and provided for them of the good things and preferred them over much of what We have created, with [definite] preference.
Translation: Saheeh International
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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. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted. 49:13
Arabic text and transliteration
يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلنَّاسُ إِنَّا خَلَقْنَٰكُم مِّن ذَكَرٍ وَأُنثَىٰ وَجَعَلْنَٰكُمْ شُعُوبًا وَقَبَآئِلَ لِتَعَارَفُوٓا۟ ۚ إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عِندَ ٱللَّهِ أَتْقَىٰكُمْ ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ عَلِيمٌ خَبِيرٌ
yāayyuhā l-nāsu innā khalaqnākum min dhakarin wa-unthā wajaʿalnākum shuʿūban waqabāila litaʿārafū inna akramakum ʿinda l-lahi atqākum inna l-laha ʿalīmun khabīrun
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Because of that, We decreed upon the Children of Israel that whoever kills a soul unless for a soul or for corruption [done] in the land - it is as if he had slain mankind entirely. And whoever saves one - it is as if he had saved mankind entirely. And our messengers had certainly come to them with clear proofs. Then indeed many of them, [even] after that, throughout the land, were transgressors. 5:32
Arabic text and transliteration
مِنْ أَجْلِ ذَٰلِكَ كَتَبْنَا عَلَىٰ بَنِىٓ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلَ أَنَّهُۥ مَن قَتَلَ نَفْسًۢا بِغَيْرِ نَفْسٍ أَوْ فَسَادٍ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ فَكَأَنَّمَا قَتَلَ ٱلنَّاسَ جَمِيعًا وَمَنْ أَحْيَاهَا فَكَأَنَّمَآ أَحْيَا ٱلنَّاسَ جَمِيعًا ۚ وَلَقَدْ جَآءَتْهُمْ رُسُلُنَا بِٱلْبَيِّنَٰتِ ثُمَّ إِنَّ كَثِيرًا مِّنْهُم بَعْدَ ذَٰلِكَ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ لَمُسْرِفُونَ
min ajli dhālika katabnā ʿalā banī is'rāīla annahu man qatala nafsan bighayri nafsin aw fasādin fī l-arḍi faka-annamā qatala l-nāsa jamīʿan waman aḥyāhā faka-annamā aḥyā l-nāsa jamīʿan walaqad jāathum rusulunā bil-bayināti thumma inna kathīran min'hum baʿda dhālika fī l-arḍi lamus'rifūna
If you want to go deeper
3min read
What it means
Karāma. Karrama (17:70) means "to honour, to ennoble". The dignity is given by God to "the children of Adam" — all humans — and so is not earned or lost by belief or behaviour.
What the Quran says
Honour for all humans (17:70). "And We have certainly honored the children of Adam and carried them on the land and sea and provided for them of the good things and preferred them over much of what We have created, with [definite] preference" (17:70), Meccan. The addressee is humanity, named through its common ancestor.
Difference for knowing one another (49:13). "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" (49:13), Medinan, addressed to all people. Ibn Kathir reads "that you may know one another" as knowing lineage, and adds that honour with God comes "on account of Taqwa, not family lineage".
Languages and colours as signs (30:22). "And of His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth and the diversity of your languages and your colors. Indeed in that are signs for those of knowledge" (30:22). Human diversity is placed alongside the heavens and the earth as a sign of God.
One life as all humanity (5:32). "Because of that, We decreed upon the Children of Israel that whoever kills a soul unless for a soul or for corruption [done] in the land — it is as if he had slain mankind entirely. And whoever saves one — it is as if he had saved mankind entirely" (5:32). The verse comes right after the story of Adam's two sons, one of whom killed the other (5:27–31); "Because of that" refers to that first murder. It states a law given to the Children of Israel, which the Quran repeats as a lesson. It contains two exceptions — killing "for a soul" (legal retaliation) and "for corruption in the land" — which should be quoted, not cut, when the verse is cited.
What the Prophet (pbuh) taught
No superiority except by piety. In a sermon reported by a Companion, the Prophet (pbuh) said: "there is no virtue of an Arab over a non-Arab, nor of a non-Arab over an Arab, nor of a red-skinned over a black-skinned, nor of a black-skinned over a red-skinned except through piety" (Musnad Ahmad 23489; chain graded ṣaḥīḥ by Shuʿayb al-Arnaʾut; al-Haythami: its narrators are those of the Ṣaḥīḥ).
How scholars have understood it
Inviolability through being human. None of these works was read.
History
The ideal and the record. Muslim history includes both the Prophet's (pbuh) words above and real racism and ethnic hierarchy — including slavery (see "Slavery") and prejudice against Black Muslims. No historical study was read, so no examples are given; they should be added from named sources.
What research shows
Contact between groups reduces prejudice. Established (.) Pettigrew and Tropp's 2006 meta-analysis covered "515 studies involving a quarter of a million participants in 38 nations" and found an average relationship between contact and lower prejudice of r = .21; "the more rigorous experimental studies yield a stronger mean effect of r = .33" (Pettigrew and Tropp, 2008, p. 922). Contact under Allport's "optimal conditions" — equal status, shared goals, cooperation, support from authorities — typically produced larger reductions. This fits 49:13's "that you may know one another": knowing people across groups reduces contempt.
In daily life
Know people unlike you. Make friends across ethnicity, language and class: eat together, work together, visit.
Check your words. Jokes and nicknames that demean a group are forbidden (49:11; see "Ethics of speech").
In the mosque. Notice who is not welcome or not seen — converts, Black Muslims, refugees — and change that.
For the heart and mind
If you have faced racism, including from Muslims, the Prophet's (pbuh) words are on your side: no one is above you by colour or origin. That some Muslims fail this teaching is their failure, not a flaw in your worth.
Questions readers ask next
Does 17:70 include non-Muslims?
Yes: it speaks of "the children of Adam", all humans.
What does "that you may know one another" mean?
Ibn Kathir: knowing lineage; honour with God comes by taqwa, not lineage. A wider reading — getting to know other peoples — is common today.
Is 5:32 a universal rule against killing?
It states a law given to the Children of Israel, with two exceptions (retaliation and "corruption in the land"), and the Quran presents it as a lesson.
Is the Farewell Sermon hadith authentic?
The version in Musnad Ahmad 23489 has a chain graded ṣaḥīḥ by al-Arnaʾut.
Why do Muslim societies still have racism?
Because people fail their ideals. The teaching condemns it; history shows it persisted.
Sources
- Saheeh International via the site's Tanzil data — 17:70, 49:13, 5:32, 30:22.
- Musnad Ahmad 23489 (via hadithunlocked.com, https://hadithunlocked.com/ahmad:23489), with grades.
- T. F. Pettigrew and L. R. Tropp, "How does intergroup contact reduce prejudice? Meta-analytic tests of three mediators", European Journal of Social Psychology (2008), p. 922 — summarising their 2006 meta-analysis (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology), https://courses.washington.edu/pbafhall/563/Readings/pettigrew.pdf.
- Ibn Kathir on 49:13 (as read for run 2).
- Musnad Aḥmad 23489
- Ibn ʿĀshūr; Jasser Auda