Illuminating the Darkness: The Virtues of Blacks and Abyssinians

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Illuminating the Darkness: The Virtues of Blacks and Abyssinians

This is a classical book on the role of black people in Islam.

It is reported that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) delivered a sermon wherein he stated, “O people, indeed your Lord is one and your forefather is one. Indeed, there is no superiority for the Arab over the non-Arab nor the non-Arab over the Arab, and there is no superiority for the white over the black nor the black over the white. Have I conveyed the message?” The people replied, “The Messenger of Allah has conveyed the message.” [Musnad Aḥmad (23489, ṣaḥīḥ)]

Al-Dhahabī said about Ibn al-Jawzī, “He is the shaykh, the imām, the ʿallāmah, the ḥāfiẓ, the mufassir, shaykh al-Islām, the pride of Baghdād. […] Abu ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Dubaythī said about him in his Tārīkh, ‘Our shaykh Jamāl al-Dīn authored many works within the branches of the Islamic sciences, such as tafsīr, fiqh, ḥadīth, history and other than them. He had prowess in the knowledge of ḥadīth and its sciences, differentiating the authentic from the weak. He was the best of people in speech and eloquence. He was blessed in his life and knowledge.’ […] Al-Muwaffaq ʿAbd al-Laṭīf said, ‘Ibn al-Jawzī would not waste anything from his time, writing four booklets a day. He had a share in every branch of knowledge, however in tafsīr he was from the most remarkable, in ḥadīth he was a ḥāfiẓ, and his grasp of history was vast. He was competent in fiqh, and he had an amazing gift for preaching.’” [Extracts from his biography in Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalā (21/365-384)]

The author said, “I bore witness to a group of eminent Ḥabash who were disheartened due to the darkness of their skin colour. I thus clarified to them that the matter upon which consideration is placed is good deeds rather than one’s appearance, and I wrote this book for them to mention the virtue of many from amongst the Ḥabash and black people.”

About The Author

'Abu'l-Faraj Jamal al-Din Abdul Rahman ibn Ali Ibn Muhammad ibn Ali Ibn Ubayd Allah Ibn al-Jawzi al-Qurashi al Tamimi al Bakri al-Baghdadi al-Hanbali (509/510-597)

'Abu'l-Faraj Jamal al-Din Abdul Rahman ibn Ali Ibn Muhammad ibn Ali Ibn Ubayd Allah Ibn al-Jawzi al-Qurashi al Tamimi al Bakri al-Baghdadi al-Hanbali (509/510-597) was the Imam of the Hanbalis and foremost orator of kings and commoners in his time, whose gatherings reportedly reached one hundred thousand.

A hadith master, philologist, commentator of Qur'an, expert jurist, physician, and historian of superb character and exquisite manners.

Ibn al-Jawzi

Ibn al-Jawzi was a prolific author of over seven hundred books.

He was the author of a vast number of works of which several have been printed in recent times. He was famous as a preacher and the traveller Ibn Jubair gives an enthusiastic account of two of his sermons heard in Baghdad.

He was born in 509/510 AH in the city of Baghdad and grew up studying under the leading scholars of the time, He also was noted for his scholarship in the fields of history, linguistics, Tafseer and fiqh.

In fact, he became the leading scholar of the Hanbali Madhab of his time and played an important role in reviving and spreading it, especially after he become a favourite of the Abbasid Caliph, al Mustadi

Ibn al-Jawzi was severely tried towards the end of his life when his criticism of Shaykh `Abd al-Qadir al-Gilani - his senior of forty years - led to accusations made against him to the Sultan al-Nasir by the Shaykh's children and supporters.

He was taken from Baghdad to the city of Wasit where he remained imprisoned for five years.

Ibn al-Jawzi passed away in 597 AH, two years after his release from Imprisonment.