English Committee for Dialogue and Communication

Many of the norms people are used to were a set of abnormal beliefs and practices. The tendency to hold power, status, and fame was and is still one of the most predominant triggers of society’s irrational mind. The later becomes tangible via the normalization of the abnormal on the account of the norms, which must be determined by heavenly standards out of time and place: revelation. Yet, the norms of the earth have managed to betray people’s conceptions and prompt them to shape truth in accordance with their doubts and surmises. The chief drive of these mentalities is the interest in its earthly and narrow version. Yet, such mentalities may resort to revelation in case it serves their greed, overlooking any sense of reasonableness and rationality. This is to say that norms have no just standards or rational criteria to refer to, yet the manifold myths and illusions they make up are so numerous. One of which is the notion of “nobility”, referred to in Arabic as “Charaff”. As for The common and prevailing myth among our norms, a person is known to be “Chariff” if only if he traces back, biological speaking, to the family of the prophet (PBUH) or his companions, may Allah bless them all. Regardless of whether this belonging is possible to trace or not, it’s definitely deceptive and astray to believe that biological belonging does make a value difference between people, and so make some of them “noble”/superior and others “slaves”/inferior. Have blood, heredity and other biological traits ever been a standard of “Charaff” in Islam? Sure, they will when pigs fly! The fact is that all people are equal like the teeth of the comb, or as the prophet Mohamed (PBUH) stated. The approved standard that makes the difference between people is never biological belonging, language, race, culture, status, might or money; it is how closed and obedient you are to the Almighty Allah and his messenger peace be upon him. Hereby, the truth of “Charaff” has something to do with your spiritual knowledge, ethics and religious belonging rather than your family tree, social status, norms, history, and reputation. Otherwise, “nobility”/Charaff will ever remain one of the socio-historical myths that all truth seekers will ever fight against.
By: Abdelouahed OULGOUT
Forum: www.4truth.ecoleforum.com