Just as trees vary in shapes, sizes and colors, so too people: they have been created varying in colors and nationalities. And He, the Exalted, has said in explaining that: “O mankind! Indeed, We created you from a male and a female, and made you nations and tribes that you may identify yourselves with one another” (Qurʾan 49:13). .
Is it not justice for human beings to be equal in material and moral terms, instead of there being distinctions among the members of a single nation?
There is wisdom in the difference in sizes and colors among trees, which is the difference of fruits, so that the human being may choose from them what is beneficial to him according to his bodily need.
Likewise, there is wisdom in Allah's making people nations and tribes, namely, that some complement others and that they stand together with one another. The minister, the doctor and the engineer are in need of those who work in the other professions, such as the carpenter, the blacksmith and other professions.
For Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, has made people different so that they may come to know one another and form a united nation; for coming to know one another means knowing at the start, and then acknowledging the rights of others.
But how can the nation unite? Is the nation not in need of a banner under which they unite?
Is this banner not embodied in Abu ʿAbd Allah al-Husayn (a), where everyone enters under this banner fluttering on the horizon of loftiness? You see the old man just as you see the small child, the gap of age between them having been demolished; you see the rich just as you see the poor, Imam al-Husayn (a) having demolished the material barrier between them; you see the official not distinguished from the subjects in the mourning (ʿazāʾ) processions.
Do you not see that ministers and princes arrange the shoes of the pilgrims of Imam al-Husayn (a) and massage their feet, and when they are asked about that, they answer that it is Imam al-Husayn (a) who drives them to it? They take pride in their work and wish for more.
Have you not heard of the great marajiʿ running in the mourning of Imam al-Husayn (a), barefoot and bareheaded, in the days of ʿAshura every year, beating their heads and chests?
All that is because Imam al-Husayn (a) is the banner of unity, and he is the lamp of guidance for everyone who wishes to be illuminated on the path of guidance, and the ark of salvation for everyone who wishes to reach the shore of peace.
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* A religious scholar from Iraq
