EnglishIsWesternCivilizationUniversalPage42

41 Islam did not present its conception of the equality of man as an idle philosophy. It actually established a society based on that concept:

In that society, it united the different races, and discrimination based on colour, language and nationality were eradicated. Not only that, it also established a world state on the basis of this same ideology and worked it successfully. The entire Muslim world was governed by the same law. All Muslims formed one family.

If a person, irrespective of whether he came from the East or West, accepted Islam, he immediately became a member of the Islamic society and enjoyed the same rights and privileges. Whether one was a Negro, an Iranian, a Copt, or a Berber, he stood on the same footing in Muslim society after accepting Islam as did the kith and kin of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) and his Arab followers. His social status was equal to theirs. He could acquire the greatest eminence in the Ummah (Muslim community) on the basis of his moral qualities and character. The believer in Islam, whatever his racial links, place of origin, mother tongue or colour, is a brother to every other Muslim and wherever he moves in a Muslim society, he enjoys the same privileges as other Muslims do. A Muslim from any part of the world could go to any Muslim land without any restrictions, move freely in that country, stay there as long as he wished, engage in any trade, secure the highest government post in that country and marry without difficulty.

Islamic history is replete with instances where a Muslim went out of his country and lived in other Muslim lands for decades. He might have studied in one country, engaged in business in another, become a minister or commander-in-chief of the army in a third one, and then he might even go over to yet another country, settle there and get married. A well-known example is Ibn Batuta who, during the 15th century of the Christian era, travelled through all the Muslim countries for twenty-seven years. He did not need a passport or a visa to go to any of these countries. Nowhere 42 was he questioned about his nationality. Nowhere did he find any difficulty in earning his living. He needed no permit to visit any place nor was any period fixed by the authorities for his stay. If he sought employment under any government, he was appointed without difficulty. From his native Morocco, he reached India during the reign of Sultan Muhammad Tughlaq. The fact that he had travelled from the farthest corner of north-west Africa never came in the way of his appointment as a magistrate in India. Afterwards the Indian Sultan sent him to China as his ambassador. That proves that nothing barred his entering into diplomatic service. It clearly shows that at this time not only the idea of commonwealth but also common citizenship of the Ummah was fully operative. The manpower of the entire Islamic world was available to any Muslim country. The defence and protection of the world of Islam was the common responsibility of all Muslims. Until the beginning of the 19th century, these conditions prevailed in the Muslim world. What greater proof could there be of the fact that Islam not only furnished the theoretical and ideological basis of a world state and a world government that leading Western thinkers have been yearning for since World War II! In fact it brought such a state into being and worked it effectively for centuries.¹

And here is the honest confession of one American who for the first time in his life, experienced during the Haj, the exhilaration of genuine universal human brotherhood: “I only knew what I had left in America and how it contrasted with what I found in the Muslim world. About twenty of us Muslims who had completed the Haj were sitting crosslegged together in a huge tent on Mount Arafat. As a Muslim from America, I was the centre of attention. They asked me