Racial Traits and Spiritual Elevation

There  is no such thing as spiritual superiority on the basis of racial traits. Racial traits are neutral in their essence; they can be used both for the good or for the bad. There is no single human trait which can be used for the good only or for the bad only. Human traits may be superior or inferior in terms of attaining worldly achievements, but they cannot be superior or inferior in terms of spiritual achievements. All human traits may be used  to attain equal but distinct spiritual elevation or spiritual degradation. No doubt Allah determines every thing to be faced by human beings;  Allah  determines spiritual elevation/degradation on the basis of human deeds or Allah's will but not on the basis of races.

We know that human being is granted with various kinds of traits/emotions- pleasures and sorrows, liking and disliking, excitements and shocks, sadness and happiness, love and hate, affection and aversion, hope and frustration, trust and distrust, self-respect and lack of self-respect, courage and cowardliness, patience and impatience, resilience  and lack of resilience, meanness and charity, mercy and cruelty, anger and joy, shallowness and profoundness etc. Out of these traits, every individual is granted by Allah with a fixed   composition/set of traits in terms of kind and magnitude/degree, which may vary from person to person. This fixed composition of traits/emotions is called ‘shakilah’. 

 Allah says: "Everyone acts according to his own disposition/ ‘shaakilah’: But your Lord knows best who it is that is best guided on the Way" (Isra-84).

 Once granted to human being, fixed composition of traits is never changed. (plz see my article ' Determined Psyche of Human Being'). Every person acts in his/her life according to this composition of traits he/she is bestowed upon. Actually traits are the basic tool through which a person is judged by Allah in this worldly life.  These human traits are neither good nor bad in their essence; it is the human choice of the situations, and kind and magnitude of these traits to manifest in those situations, which makes a human deed good or bad. A human deed based on each kind of traits (e.g. love or hate, anger or lack of anger, lust or lack of lust, courage or cowardliness etc) may be either good or bad, depending upon the situation chosen and the magnitude of trait to display in such situation. For instance lack of anger shown in a situation which requires anger to be shown would be a bad act; similarly showing anger in a situation which requires lack of anger to be shown would be a bad act. Similarly lesser degree of charity shown in a situation which requires greater degree of charity to be displayed would be a bad act; similarly greater degree of charity in a situation which requires lesser degree of charity to be shown would be a bad deed. (e.g. a Muslim cannot bequeath more than one third of his property through his will). 

Whatever is presented to an individual in his/her life by Allah is actually to test how he/she utilizes his/her traits, capabilities, knowledge and environment. Because a person is granted with fixed set of traits in terms of kind and magnitude/degree, it means person is liable to utilize his/her traits only to the extent he/she is granted with them. In other words, no person is liable to utilize a trait he/she is not granted with; similarly no person is liable to utilize a trait with a degree greater than he/she is granted with. That is why every human attains distinct achievements. This is what has been mentioned in Quran: “No person is charged with more than his capacity” (al-baqra-233).   In other words every person is liable to choose the degree of traits to be utilized  upto the extent of degree he/she is granted with such traits.  It means determined human psyche does not mean human personality cannot grow and develop; human personality can grow and develop positively depending upon how much natural traits are tamed positively to be displayed rightly in kind and magnitude in the right situation, and how much knowledge, skills and conducive environment have been provided and utilized positively.

One implication of foregoing is that spiritual elevation is not linked with specific racial traits. Because each trait/emotion can be used for the good or the bad, no set/composition of racial traits/emotions  can be considered as better than any other set/composition of racial traits for the purpose of spiritual elevation. However it may be noted that  spiritual elevations attained by different persons may be equal but such spiritual elevations have to be distinct because no two persons can be similar in traits composition. Two persons may possess equal levels of spiritual elevation, but such spiritual elevation has to be distinct; for instance two persons may be 'saleheen' of equal levels, but they will not be similar in terms of  their apparent and hidden virtues on the basis of which they have attained equal levels of 'saleheen'- one may have excelled in one apparent or hidden virtue, and the other one in another apparent or hidden virtue, but making equal the total scores obtained by the both. (for details plz see my articles" Patterns of Spiritual Elevations" ; " Concept of Muslim", and " Rebuttal of Qadyaniat")

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In other words, likelihood and capability of spiritual elevation is not linked with specific genetic set up of a human race; every man/human race is equally capable to achieve equal spiritual elevation likely to be achieved by any other man/human race though spiritual elevation attained by every man/race is distinct from that one attained by any other man/race.  There is no such thing as hereditary spiritual capability; spiritual capability is not something to be inherited by any individual/human race. The human traits are neither good nor bad in their essence; it is the human choice of the situation, and kind and magnitude of the traits to manifest in the situation, which makes a human deed good or bad. A human deed based on each kind of traits (e.g. love or hate, anger or lack of anger, lust or lack of lust, courage or cowardliness etc) may be either good or bad, depending upon the situation chosen and the magnitude of trait to display in such situation. Spiritual elevation of an individual/human race, in terms of level, does not depend upon specific  racial traits he/she inherits; rather it depends upon the  choice of that individual/human race to choose right kind and magnitude of trait (out of traits he/she is inherited with) to manifest in the right situation.

Allah says: “O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you nations 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” (al-hujurat-13). " O you who have believed, let not a nation/tribe ridicule [another] nation/tribe; perhaps they may be better than them......" (al-hujurat-11).

From these verses it is inferred that various nations and tribes have been made to know about each other; otherwise there is no spiritual preference assigned to any nation/tribe.  Spiritual elevation all depends upon the righteous deeds. 

It does not mean that all human races have been bestowed with equally good traits for worldly achievements; definitely some individuals/races are blessed with better traits than the other individuals/races. But such superiority of racial traits impacts only worldly achievements; it has nothing to do with level of spiritual elevations. As long as spiritual elevations are concerned, equal but distinct spiritual elevations may be achieved on the basis of every set of racial traits/emotions (every individual is distinct in his/her spiritual achievements because every individual is bestowed with distinct traits/emotions which provide the basis for spiritual elevation). All kinds of traits/emotions (whether superior/inferior for worldly achievements) can be used to do the good or the bad deeds. There is no single human trait/emotion which can be used only for the good or only for the bad deed. 

Therefore we may conclude that human traits may be superior or inferior in terms of worldly achievements, but such superiority or inferiority has nothing to do with superior or inferior capability of spiritual elevation. All kinds/sets of human traits bestowed upon various individuals/races may lead to equal but distinct spiritual elevations or spiritual degradations. Therefore there are no such racial traits which may lead  any person/nation to such higher spiritual elevations which cannot be achieved by any other person/nation. Allah determines every thing to be faced by human beings; spiritual elevation/degradation is also determined on the basis of Allah's Will or  human deeds, but NOT on the basis of races. If spiritual elevation had been determined on the basis of races, such racial traits would never be used for the bad deeds. As there exists no human trait which cannot be used for bad deeds, spiritual elevation on the basis of races is a false idea, having no basis at all.