By Imam Murtadha Gusau
Monday, October 12, 2026
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, who created humanity from a single soul and scattered us into countless nations and tribes, not that we may despise one another, but that we may know one another. I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah, unique in His Majesty, free from all partners. And I bear witness that Muhammad (Peace be upon him) is His servant and Final Messenger—the man who smashed the physical idols of Makkah, and the spiritual idols of arrogance, race, and tribalism from the human heart.
Dear brothers and sisters! Imagine standing on the burning sands of 7th-century Arabia. Before Islam, your life, your blood, and your worth were determined entirely by your tribe. If your kinsman committed a crime, you defended him, right or wrong. If another tribe looked at you incorrectly, generations would bleed in endless wars.
Then came a voice that shook the foundations of the world. A voice that did not call out to the Quraish, or to the Arabs, but cried out:
“O Mankind!”
Islam did not just gently correct tribalism; it declared total war upon it. Our beloved Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) called tribalism and racism Jahiliyyah—an ancient, rotting ignorance. When the great companion Abu Zarr al-Ghifari, in a moment of anger, insulted Bilal Ibn Rabah by calling him “the son of a black woman,” the Prophet’s face changed colour with rage. He did not let it slide. He did not call it “a slip of the tongue.”
He looked directly at Abu Zarr and said:
“You are a man in whom there is still the remnants of Jahiliyyah!”
Abu Zarr, devastated by the realisation that he had allowed the poison of racism back into his heart, placed his own cheek on the dirt and begged Bilal to step on it to humble his ego.
This is the activation we need today. Tribalism is a spiritual disease that rots the soul before it destroys society. When you look down on a brother or sister because of their passport, their accent, their skin colour, their region, or their family lineage, you are not acting like a follower of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him). You are acting like Abu Jahl. You are reviving the very carcass the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) told us to bury.
Let the Qur’an shatter every illusion of cultural superiority. Allah, the Exalted, exposes the true purpose of our diversity in one of the most powerful declarations ever revealed. Allah Almighty says:
“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.” [Qur’an, 49:13]
Respected brothers and sisters! Please, look closely at the following divine blueprint:
● The Root
We all share the exact same parents: Adam and Hauwa’u (Eve). No one’s clay is golden; no one’s clay is diamond. We are all made of dust.
● The Purpose
Diversity is an invitation to learn, grow, and connect—not a license to segregate, discriminate, or demean.
● The Scale
Allah looks neither at your lineage nor your wealth. On the Day of Judgment, your passport is weightless. Your tribal flag is invisible. The only currency that carries weight is Taqwa: Allah-consciousness and righteousness.
Dear brothers and sisters! On his final pilgrimage, standing before over 100,000 companions, the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) delivered his farewell address. Knowing his time on earth was short, he chose his words to echo through eternity. He declared:
“All mankind is from Adam and Eve. An Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab, nor does a non-Arab have any superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over a black, nor does a black have any superiority over a white except by piety and good action.”
He also left us with a warning so sharp it should make every heart tremble. He said:
“Leave it (tribalism), for it is filthy, it stinks!”
Racism and tribalism are described as a rotting, foul stench. When we engage in it—nepotism in our businesses, division in our Mosques, looking down on immigrants or different ethnic groups—we are breathing in and exhaling a spiritual odour that repels the angels and suffocates the Ummah.
When tribalism and racism take root in the Ummah, the consequences are immediate and devastating:
- The Destruction of Justice
You begin to support “your people” even when they are oppressors. The Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) said:
“He is not one of us who calls to tribalism, and he is not one of us who fights for the sake of tribalism.”
- The Splintering of the Ummah
We become an easy target for exploitation. Millions of Muslim believers are divided by artificial borders and ethnic pride, unable to stand as one brotherhood.
- The Loss of Barakah and Blessing
Allah withdraws His mercy from a people who prioritise the bonds of blood over the bonds of Iman (Faith).
Respected brothers and sisters! It is time to wake up. We cannot praise the multicultural brotherhood of Islam on Fridays but practice tribal segregation in our homes, our marriages, and our businesses on Saturdays.
Dear servants of Allah! Stop the casual jokes about other nationalities, tribes, or races. Eliminate the words that belittle another group. Let your children marry based on character and religion, not on tribal lineages or geographic origins. Do not let cultural pride block a blessed union. If you see someone being marginalised because of their tribe, race, region or status, be the Bilal of your time. Speak up. Silence in the face of racism is a betrayal of the Prophetic legacy.
Remember, we entered this world the same way, and we will enter the grave wrapped in the exact same white pieces of cloth. No titles, no flags, no tribes. Just you and your deeds.
Respected brothers and sisters! Know that nations do not fall merely because of economic collapse or foreign invasions. Nations rot from within. And there is no rot more corrosive, no poison more lethal to a society, than the disease of tribalism, racism, and selective justice.
Over fourteen hundred years ago, the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) stood in the burning sands of Arabia, a society completely consumed by tribal warfare, where poetry was used to weaponise bloodlines, and where a person’s worth was dictated entirely by their lineage. In that dark era, the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) declared a revolution of human dignity. He looked at the ugly pride of tribalism and racism and commanded:
“Leave it, for it is rotten (stinking)!” [Sahih al-Bukhari]
Yet today, the Muslim Ummah and nations across the world have dug up this buried corpse. We have breathed life back into this “stinking” ideology. We look at our brothers and sisters through the lens of passport colours, ethnic accents, tribal names, and skin tones.
Allah Almighty shatters this arrogance in the noble Qur’an with a single, unyielding verse.
Allah Almighty did not say He made tribes so we could build walls. He did not create nations so we could look down upon others. Diversity is a sign of Allah’s creative majesty, not a tool for human tyranny! When you look down on another race or tribe, you are not just insulting a human being; you are criticising the design of the Creator who made them.
Dear brothers and sisters! Why does tribalism destroy nations? Because tribalism kills justice.
When a society becomes tribalistic, truth is no longer absolute. Truth becomes selective. If a member of my tribe commits a crime, we hide it, excuse it, and defend it. But if a member of their tribe commits the same crime, we demand blood, execution, and collective punishment.
The Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) warned us intensely about this blind allegiance. He said:
“He is not one of us who calls to Asabiyyah (tribal partisanship), and he is not one of us who fights for Asabiyyah, and he is not one of us who dies on Asabiyyah.” [Sunan Abi Dawud]
When justice dies, stability dies. When stability dies, the nation collapses. Allah commands us to stand for justice, even if it is against our own flesh and blood. He the Most High says:
“O you who have believed, be persistently standing firm in justice, witnesses for Allah, even if it be against yourselves or parents and relatives…” [Qur’an, 4:135]
Have you ever wondered who the first racist in existence was? It wasn’t a politician, a colonialist, or a modern dictator. The first racist was Iblis, the Satan.
When Allah commanded all the angels and Iblis to bow down to Adam, Iblis (Satan) refused. What was his justification? He said:
“I am better than him. You created me from fire and created him from clay.” [Qur’an, 7:12]
This is the exact genetic code of tribalism and racism. It is the arrogant belief that “My material origin makes me superior to your material origin.”
- “I am better than you because of my passport.”
- “I am better than you because of my lineage.”
- “I am better than you because my skin has more melanin, or less.”
Every time you harbour tribal supremacy, you are reciting the Sunnah of Satan. You are pulling down the fabric of your Ummah and building a society based on a demonic premise.
Dear servants of Allah! Nations do not destroy themselves overnight. They crumble when citizens tolerate the slow, quiet degradation of human dignity. They fall when the pain of an “outsider” or a minority group no longer stirs the conscience of the majority.
Let us wake up and stop using derogatory slurs against other ethnicities or nationalities. Do not let your children grow up hearing jokes that belittle other tribes. Break down the un-Islamic barriers of tribalism that reject righteous spouses simply because they come from a different tribe, city or region. Stand up for the worker, the immigrant, and the stranger.
If we want to build strong, unbreakable nations, we must replace the fragile ties of blood and soil with the indestructible bonds of justice, righteousness, and universal human brotherhood.
Dear brothers and sisters! In the grand tapestry of human existence, there is no force more constructive than unity, and no disease more destructive than division. For a nation to thrive, its citizens must breathe as one body, heartbeat to heartbeat, bound by a purpose higher than their individual selves. Allah Almighty says:
“And hold firmly to the rope of Allah all together and do not become divided.” [Qur’an, 3:103]
Imagine a single brick. Alone, it is vulnerable. It can be chipped, moved, or shattered by a single blow. But when bound by mortar to thousands of other bricks, it becomes an impenetrable fortress.
The Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) gave us the ultimate psychological and emotional blueprint for citizenship and Ummah. He said:
“The parable of the believers in their affection, mercy, and compassion for each other is that of a single body. When any limb aches, the whole body reacts with sleeplessness and fever.”
When one citizen suffers, the entire nation should feel the pain. When one neighborhood falls into poverty, the wealthy neighborhoods should feel the restlessness. Unity is not a passive agreement to coexist; it is an active emotional investment in your neighbour’s well-being.
An old wise leader called his children to his bedside as his life was fading. He handed his eldest son a single arrow and said, “Break it.” The son snapped it with ease. The father then handed him a bundle of a dozen arrows tightly bound together. “Now, break it.”
The son strained, used all his might, but the bundle would not bend.
The father looked into the eyes of his children and said:
“Separately, you are weak and easily broken by the trials of life and the malice of your enemies. But together, tightly bound by love and brotherhood, nothing on earth can break you.”
This is the reality of a nation. Factions, tribalism, racism, and dangerous political bigotry are tools that snap citizens one by one. Unity binds the arrows.
Dear servants of Allah! Let us look closely at what tears societies apart, as follows:
- Small disputes over non-essentials.
- Regional pride and tribal superiority.
- Selfish political gain at the cost of collective peace.
The noble Qur’an issues a fierce warning against this self-sabotage. Allah the Most High says:
“And obey Allah and His Messenger, and do not dispute and [thus] lose courage and your strength depart…” [Qur’an, 8:46]
Disunity does not just make us unhappy; it drains our power. It makes a nation a ghost of its potential. Look around the world—the wealthiest, most resource-rich lands are often broken not by external armies, but by the internal rot of citizens fighting citizens.
To build a powerhouse of a nation, every citizen must practice three non-negotiables:
- The Shield of Mercy
Protect the honour of your fellow citizen behind their back. Stop the gossip, the stereotyping, and the hate speech.
- The Bridge of Justice
Give others their rights before demanding your own. A society built on mutual justice never fractures.
- The Bond of Sacrifice
True unity means being willing to compromise your personal preference for the greater peace and stability of the Ummah.
Remember, change does not start in the parliament; it starts in the mirror. Do not wait for a leader to unite your country. Be the unifier. Smile at your neighbour, help the citizen who looks different from you, speak words that heal rather than words that ignite fire, and remember that we walk under the same sky, stand on the same earth, and return to the same Creator, Allah!
Let us be the generation that heals the fractures. Let us hold the rope together, break the chains of division, and build a fortress of peace!
Finally, the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) described the Muslim believers as a single body—if one part suffers, the whole body responds with sleeplessness and fever. When we divide ourselves by tribe or race, we sever the limbs of our own Ummah. Let us return to the Prophetic model: one brotherhood, one humanity, united under one Creator, Allah!
Ya Allah! Purify our hearts from arrogance, protect our tongues from racism, and unite this Ummah under the banner of La ilaha illallah Muhammadur Rasulullah, ameen Ya Hayyu Ya Qayyum!
All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. May the peace, blessings and salutations of Allah be upon our noble Messenger, Muhammad, and upon his family, his Companions and his true followers.
Murtadha Muhammad Gusau is the Chief Imam of Nagazi-Uvete Jumu’ah and the late Alhaji Abdur-Rahman Okene’s Mosques, Okene, Kogi State, Nigeria. He can be reached via: gusauimam@gmail.com or +2348038289761 or +2348024192217.