It is disconcerting to see the proliferation of idiotic arguments against Islam on the internet. To state plainly, the internet is the bane of intellectual research.
One particularly silly argument that keeps being used by morons is one that was popularized by the likes of Darth Hammer (David Wood), namely, that Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was a “racist” who thought Satan was a “black man”.
Just some research would be enough to refute this idiotic claim, but sadly, most Islamophobes prefer to lazily & blindly accept any claim about Islam, as long as it goes against it. Anyway, the story that they cherry-pick is from Ibn Ishaq’s Seerah (surprise, surprise).
Even if we don’t check the authenticity of this report, when we actually read the particular section, it becomes immediately clear as to the context of the story. The person who was called “Satan” was Nabtal Ibn Al-Harith, who was described as a “study black man”.
But as we can see, the REASON he was called “Satan” was for his HYPOCRISY, not because he was a “black man” & not because he was literally Satan (i.e., Iblis). It’s like when Jesus said to Peter “Get behind me Satan!” It doesn’t mean that Satan was literally a Jewish man!
But there is more. The ignorant Islamophobes think that when the Arabs used words like “black” or “white” to describe a person, they had the same meanings as in modern English. Of course, this is idiotic.
As any scholar of the Arabic language would tell you, such words could be used even for ARABS! In other words, an Arab with a particular complexion (dark or light) could be called “black” or “white”.
For example, the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) had a light complexion, so in a hadith in Abu Dawud, he was called a “white (abyad) man”. That did not mean he was European or something! It just meant he was an Arab with a light complexion!
As Islamic scholar Habeeb Akande explains in his book “Illuminating the Darkness” (p. 13), even people with darker skin could be metaphorically called “white”.
In fact, in Arabic, the word to use for someone who was literally a “white” person was not “abyad” but rather “ahmar”, which meant “red” (Akande, p. 12). Clearly, we can see that this is a more complicated matter than the Islamophobes let on.
Most importantly, Nabtal Ibn Al-Harith was not a “black” (i.e., African) man, but rather an ARAB! Al-Tabari stated in his tafsir on Surah 9:61 (the verse was revealed regarding the hypocrites), that Nabtal was a member of the Banu Amr Ibn Auf, which was an Arab tribe!
Also, Ibn Hajar noted that that Nabtal may actually have REPENTED and became a Muslim! Thus, he was considered to be a “Companion” (Sahabi) of Muhammad (pbuh).
muslimscholars.info
So, not only was Nabtal an Arab with a dark complexion (hence he was called a “black man”), but the reason he was called “Satan” was b/c of his sinful deeds. He pretended to be a Muslim but would then talk behind the Prophet’s back to the idolaters, but probably repented.
Finally, to further refute the “racism” nonsense that the idiotic Islamophobes repeat ad nauseum, consider the following hadith from Sahih Muslim.
In this beautiful hadith, we see how non-Arabs like Salman (the Persian) and Bilal (the Abyssinian) were so respected that annoying them would annoy Allah (swt), even though it was Abu Bakr (ra), an Arab, who spoke to them.
Even though Abu Bakr was an Arab, he was told by the Prophet that he may have annoyed the non-Arab companions by criticizing them for talking about Abu Sufyan, chief of the (Arab) Quraysh. Abu Bakr promptly apologized & they reconciled. This is the brotherhood of Islam.
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