As we know, Allah (SWT) repeatedly asks us to use our intellect to ponder upon His signs in this World. God commands us to use our understanding and logic to find the lessons within His creation and it is the duty of Muslims to study and reflect upon His words.
In my opinion, one of the most beautiful things about the Ummah today is the variety of backgrounds from which we come. I've caught myself on several occasions, marveling at the diversity of the people present for Friday prayers at any given masjid in America. Apart from the obvious differences in appearance, one can hear an array of languages being spoken. In the times before and after prayer, countless languages from Arabic, Urdu, Turkish, Somali to Yoruba, Malay and (obviously) English can be heard. Though Muslims yield from just about every part of the World -- the beauty of the Muslim identity in America is that many of us, although from different ancestral backgrounds, can be united under the shared identity of Muslim Americans.
In his last sermon the Prophet Muhammad (Peace and Blessings be upon him) stated:
"All mankind is from Adam and Eve. An Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab and a non-Arab has no superiority over an Arab; also, a white has no superiority of a black and a black has no superiority over a white except by piety and good action. Learn that every Muslim is a brother to every other Muslim and that Muslims constitute one brotherhood."
We have a duty, as American Muslims, to ensure that this brotherhood is maintained within our community. A common, and unfortunate, trend that is often seen in our masajid is separation based on cultural identity. Some masajid are primarly Arab, while others are primarily South Asian, Bosnian or Indonesian. By creating this separation within our community, we often alienate other possible contributing members of our community. We should also be careful not to alienate new Muslims by invalidating those Americans whose families have been in the country for a greater period of time. The cultures of Irish-American Muslims or African-American Muslims (not to be confused with those who recently migrated from Africa) are just as legitimately "Muslim cultures" as an Arab or Pakistani Muslim American, and they should not be made to feel otherwise.
Understandably, it must have been much more comfortable for preceding generations, and recent immigrants, to associate primarily with those of shared background. The natural comfort of common language and cultural practices undeniably caused the split in the community we see today. Alhamdulillah, however, our new generation of American-Muslim adults is mostly fluent and comfortable in English, and therefore able to effectively communicate across subcultural lines. Thus, we should be able to easily avoid separation from one another based on culture or heritage. There is much to be learned from Muslims of different backgrounds. One can hope that by creating these diverse communities it will be easier to differentiate between legitimate Islamic practices and purely cultural traditions.
The creation of Humankind by God into several different cultures and races speaking many languages is a lesson to humanity on the acceptance of one another regardless of differences. We must look to our diversity as a beautiful feature of the Ummah, celebrate our unique backgrounds and learn from one another.
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