“Listen and obey, even if an Abyssinian is appointed over you, as if his head is a raisin”

proves racism in Islam.

The accusation collapses once the hadith is read alongside the Qur’an, the Prophet’s teachings on racial equality, and the actual meaning of obedience in Islamic law.

Muhammad bin Bashar narrated to us: Yahya narrated to us: Shu’bah narrated to us: Abu At-Tayyah narrated to me, on the authority of Anas, on the authority of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, who said:

“Listen and obey, even if an Abyssinian is appointed as governor, as if his head is a raisin.”

“Abyssinian” is in reference to the Abyssinians, a type of black people.

“His head is a raisin” is a dried grape, and the likeness is in terms of the blackness, short hair, intense curliness, smallness, and other things that are usually looked down upon by people.

The doubt claims that this wording belittles black people and proves racial discrimination in Islam.

The Abyssinian’s head was likened to a raisin because of its clustering and because his hair was black.

This is a metaphor for the insignificance and ugliness of the image and the lack of consideration for it.

Ibn Battal quoted al-Muhallab as saying:

His saying “listen and obey” does not require that the one who employs the slave be anyone other than a Qurayshite imam, as it was previously stated that the imamate is only in Quraysh, and the nation agreed that it is not in slaves.

I said: It is possible that he is called a slave in consideration of what was before emancipation, and all of this is only in what is by way of choice.

However, if a slave is truly overcome by way of force, then his obedience is obligatory in order to extinguish the sedition, unless he orders disobedience, as was previously stated.

It was said that what is meant is that if the greatest imam employs an Abyssinian slave in the emirate of a country, for example, then his obedience is obligatory, and it does not state that the Abyssinian slave is the greatest imam.

— Fath al-Bari, Explanation of Sahih al-Bukhari, by Imam Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, Book of Rulings, Chapter on Hearing and Obeying the Imam as Long as It Is Not a Disobedience

The point is the exact opposite:

Even if society looks down on someone because of race, appearance, slave-origin, or social status, Muslims are still commanded to obey him if he is lawfully placed in authority and does not command disobedience to Allah.

Do not reject lawful authority merely because the ruler is black, Abyssinian, formerly enslaved, physically unimpressive, or socially looked down upon.

“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 God is the most righteous of you. Indeed, God is Knowing and Acquainted.”

God Almighty says, informing people that He created them from one soul, and made from it its mate, namely Adam and Eve, and made them peoples, which is more general than tribes.

So all people are equal in honor in relation to Adam and Eve, but they are distinguished by religious matters, which are obedience to God and following His Messenger, may God bless him and grant him peace.

Meaning: so that acquaintance may occur between them, each one going back to his tribe.

Meaning: You are only distinguished before Allah by righteousness, not by lineage.

“Allah does not look at your appearance or your wealth, but He looks at your hearts and your deeds.”

The Prophet, may God bless him and peace, said to him:

“Look, for you are not better than a red or a black man unless you excel him in piety.”

“Muslims are brothers, and no one has any superiority over another except in piety.”

“You are all children of Adam. And Adam was created from dust. And let the people who boast about their fathers stop, or they will be more insignificant to Allah than the dung beetle.”

Then he recited:

“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 honorable of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted.”

Then he said:

“I say this and I ask forgiveness of Allah for myself and for you.”

“Indeed, your lineages are not a disgrace to anyone. You are all the children of Adam, a small saa’ which they did not fill. No one has any superiority over another except through religion and piety. It is sufficient for a man to be vulgar, miserly, and obscene.”

“People are from Adam and Eve. Allah will not ask you about your lineage or your ancestry on the Day of Resurrection. The most honorable of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you.”

O Messenger of Allah, who is the best of people?

He said:

“The best of people are those who recite the Qur’an the most, fear God the Almighty, command what is right, forbid what is wrong, and maintain ties of kinship.”

Nothing in this world pleased the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, and no one ever pleased him, except the pious.

“O people, beware that your Lord, the Almighty and Majestic, is one. Beware that your father is one. Beware that there is no superiority of an Arab over a non-Arab. Beware that there is no superiority of a black person over a red person except by piety. Have I not conveyed the message?”

They said: Yes.

He said:

“Let the witness inform the absent.”

Narrator: Whoever witnessed the sermon of the Prophet in Mina
Source: Ibn Taymiyyah, Iqtida’ al-Sirat al-Mustaqim
Summary of ruling: Its chain of transmission is authentic.

Superiority is only by piety.

If Islam were a racist religion, then the earliest oppressed people, slaves, and socially humiliated people would not have entered Islam in such numbers.

It distinguishes them by piety.

“Black people are inferior.”

Rather, it is saying:

“Even if the person appointed over you is someone whom arrogant people would normally look down upon, you must still listen and obey in what is lawful.”

Many of those who raise this doubt accuse Islam of racism while ignoring explicit texts in the Bible that create far more serious problems.

“And I say to you again, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

What is the rich man’s fault simply for being rich?

Was his provision given by someone other than God?

“And if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault… But if he refuses to listen to you, tell it to the church. And if he did not even listen to the church, let him be to you like a non-Jew or a tax collector.”

The text uses being treated like a non-Jew or a tax collector as a form of exclusion and rejection.

Then he rose from there and went to the borders of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house, and he wanted no one to know it, but he could not be hidden.

For a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about it, and she came and fell at his feet.

Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syro-Phoenician by race, and she asked him to cast out the demon out of her daughter.

But Jesus said to her:

“Let the children be filled first; for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”

She answered and said to him:

“Yes, Lord; but also the dogs under the table eat the crumbs of the children.”

Then he said to her:

“Because of this saying, go; the demon has gone out of your daughter.”

This is the kind of text the objector overlooks while trying to accuse Islam of racism.

“From the nations that are around you you shall acquire male and female slaves.”

“And you shall acquire them also from the sons of strangers who reside among you, and from their families who are with you, who were born in your land. These you shall take for yourselves.”

“And you shall inherit them as an inheritance for your sons after you, and they shall enslave them as long as they live. But as for your brothers, the children of Israel, they shall not rule one over another by force.”

“Servants, be subject to your masters with all reverence, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh.”

So before accusing Islam, the objector needs to explain why Biblical texts allow taking slaves from surrounding nations, inheriting them, and commanding servants to submit even to harsh masters.

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It proves the opposite.

It commands Muslims to obey lawful authority even if the appointed person belongs to a group that arrogant societies looked down upon.

The Qur’an declares that all humans come from Adam and Eve, and that superiority is only through taqwa.

The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, explicitly said that there is no superiority of Arab over non-Arab, nor of black over red, except through piety.

Therefore, the racism accusation collapses.

The hadith is not an insult to black people.

It is a humiliation of racist arrogance.