Allah the Exalted declares to mankind that He has created them all from a
single person, `Adam, and from that person He created his mate, Hawwa'. From
their offspring He made nations, comprised of tribe, which include subtribes of
all sizes. It was also said that `nations refers to non-Arabs, while `tribes
refers to Arabs. Various statements about this were collected in an individual
introduction from the book, Al-Inbah, by Abu `Amr Ibn `Abdul-Barr, and from the
book, Al-Qasad wal-Amam fi Ma`rifah Ansab Al-Arab wal-`Ajam. Therefore, all
people are the descendants of `Adam and Hawwa' and share this honor equally. The
only difference between them is in the religion that revolves around their
obedience to Allah the Exalted and their following of His Messenger . After He
forbade backbiting and belittling other people, alerting mankind that they are
all equal in their humanity. Allah said,
[يأَيُّهَا النَّاسُ
إِنَّا خَلَقْنَـكُم مِّن ذَكَرٍ وَأُنْثَى وَجَعَلْنَـكُمْ شُعُوباً وَقَبَآئِلَ
لِتَعَـرَفُواْ]
(O mankind! We have created you from a male and a female, and made you into
nations and tribes that you may know one another.) so that they get to know each
other by their nation or tribe. Mujahid said that Allah's statement,
[لِتَعَـرَفُواْ]
(that you may know one another.) refers to one's saying, "So-and-so the son
of so-and-so, from the tribe of so-and-so.'' Sufyan Ath-Thawri said, "The Himyar
(who resided in Yemen) dealt with each other according to their provinces, while
the Arabs in the Hijaz (Western Arabia) dealt with each other according to their
tribes.''
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