The Other 'Ism': Colourism & Its Harm To Community

﷽

Abu Musa reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

إِنَّ اللَّهَ تَعَالَى خَلَقَ آدَمَ مِنْ قَبْضَةٍ قَبَضَهَا مِنْ جَمِيعِ الْأَرْضِ فَجَاءَ بَنُو آدَمَ عَلَى قَدْرِ الْأَرْضِ فَجَاءَ مِنْهُمْ الْأَحْمَرُ وَالْأَبْيَضُ وَالْأَسْوَدُ وَبَيْنَ ذَلِكَ وَالسَّهْلُ وَالْحَزْنُ وَالْخَبِيثُ وَالطَّيِّبُ

"Verily, Allah Almighty created Adam from a handful which He took from the earth, so the children of Adam come in accordance with the earth. Some come with red skin, white skin, or black skin, and whatever is in between: thin, thick, sullied and pure." (Sunan al-Tirmidhī 2955)

According to some scholars, the explanation of this ḥadīth is as follows. The Prophet ﷺ explains the manner in which Adam عليه السلام and his progeny were created. He said: “Indeed, Allah created Adam from a handful which He took from the entirety of the earth.”  That is, that the origin of human creation began from a handful taken by Allah, exalted is He. A “handful” (qabḍah) refers to that which is gathered and held within the palm. The phrase “from the entirety of the earth” signifies that it was taken from all its regions and constituents: from its pure and impure soils, and from its various colors and qualities. This accords with the Divine saying: ⁠“From it We created you, into it We shall return you, and from it We shall bring you forth once again.” (Qurʾān 20:55)

The Prophet ﷺ then said, “Thus the children of Adam came forth according to the nature of the earth.” By this he meant that they emerged differing in their forms, dispositions, and characteristics. ⁠“Among them are the red, the white; from its white soil came those of fair complexion.” That is, some correspond to the reddish hues, others to the white, and others to the black, each according to the soil from which his nature derives. From its soft and gentle terrain came those of gentle temperament; and so forth. "These constitute the principal colors, while all other shades are combinations and gradations thereof," and thus the statement ⁠“and those in between” refers to the intermediate colors composed from these primary types.

As for differences in temperament, among mankind are: ⁠“the gentle and the harsh,” meaning the mild, lenient, and approachable person, and the coarse, severe, and rough-natured individual. Likewise, among them are: ⁠“the wicked and the good,” that is, those whose dispositions and qualities are corrupt, whose soil resembles barren and saline land yielding only harm; and those whose inward character and virtues are wholesome, whose soil resembles fertile ground yielding only benefit.

And so, every person comes forth bearing something of the nature of his earthly origin. As Allah Most High says: “As for the good land, its vegetation emerges by the permission of its Lord; but that which is corrupt produces nothing except with difficulty and scantiness.” (Qurʾān 7:58) The phrase: ⁠“and those in between” also indicates those whose nature contains a mixture of praiseworthy and blameworthy qualities. Among them are those whose corrupt traits outweigh their virtues, and among them are those whose virtues prevail over their faults.

Accordingly, the ḥadīth teaches that the diversity found among human beings—in complexion, disposition, character, and moral inclination—is part of the Divine wisdom manifested in the varied substances and qualities from which the father of mankind, Adam عليه السلام, was first fashioned.

Colourism is another ‘ism’ that, like racism, is an act that tries to strip a person of their humanity and to make a person feel less worthy. It seeps into our various communities like a poison and it harms those that perpetrate and participate in it as much as it does its victim. A new mother was telling the story around her postpartum. What stayed with me was an anecdote she mentioned about her own mother’s reaction to her newborn daughter and that her mother was going to be ‘disappointed’ that the baby had a darker skin tone than the other grandchild that her sister had. 

“Who taught you to hate the texture of your hair? Who taught you to hate the color of your skin…to such extent you bleach, to get like the white man? Who taught you to hate the shape of your nose and the shape of your lips? Who taught you to hate yourself from the top of your head to the soles of your feet? Who taught you to hate your own kind? Who taught you to hate the race that you belong to, so much so that you don’t want to be around each other?”

— Malcolm X, “Who taught you to hate yourself” presentation in Los Angeles, May 5, 1962.

Many Western researchers and social historians usually present the origins of colourism as tied up with European chattel slavery and colonialism. Yet Islam addresses this scourge and warns against it. Racism and colourism’s roots do not derive from human characteristics. This type of thinking did not originate from our father Adam عليه السلام; it is a demonic characteristic and its origins are from Satan. It is this demonic force that taught you to hate yourself and to hate others based solely on skin complexions, hair textures and features. 

Colourism is deeply entwined with the perception of beauty. Standards of beauty change over time and are different in every culture, but what doesn’t seem to change is the perception that White skin and features are the most prized among human beings. Some people may argue, “Well what about my ‘preference’? Are we not allowed to have preferences?” If that preference creates an environment of harm and degradation and causes an entire group of people to be discriminated against, then one should re-examine where their preferences are stemming from. 

Colourism—the preferential treatment of lighter skin over darker skin—didn't emerge from personal prejudice. It is not about individual preference—it's about systemic hierarchy. And like every other system of oppression, it can and must be dismantled. Colourism thrives in silence. It hides behind euphemisms like "preference," "just joking," or "cultural norms." Dismantling colourism means confronting families, institutions, industries, and laws. It means measuring what we've avoided. And it means amplifying the people whose voices were silenced by design.

The main character, Pecola Breedlove, struggles with her self-image. She feels that she is ugly and that the only thing that can make her pretty is having blue eyes. Pecola idolized anything that depicts Shirley Temple: white, blonde hair, blue eyes. In an attempt to be accepted and loved by her friends, parents, and herself, Pecola finds herself subjected to the negative effects of colourism as she seeks to change herself.  

Each phase of my life, both as a non-Muslim and as a Muslim, came with its own challenges. I grew up in an all Black family, and I was not fully conscious that I was any different from them for being the the lightest; that was a blessing. When instances of colourism came up, especially as I got older, I usually thought it was ridiculous, out-dated thinking perpetrated by the elders. But when it negatively affected me or someone around me, it was very confusing. I often felt that sometimes others were given an unspoken permission to speak down to me because I was lighter skinned, yet I dared not return the favour.

Still navigating this balance with friends, colleagues and the wider Muslim community, I am now faced with a double whammy of the erasure of my own cultural identity. The other day in a store, a clerk whom I later found out was from Ghana, asked me if I was Egyptian. I am usually mistaken for North African or Malaysian. I used to take it in stride, but as I have settled in my faith and developed a deeper appreciation and love of my culture, this 'passing', this cultural invisibility, bothers me. 

When I was coming to Canada from the Bahamas, my mother sat me down and seriously asked me, “When people ask ‘what are you’, what will you say?”

I wasn’t sure how to answer this very monumental question. I instinctively knew the ‘right’ answer was to say, “I’m Black”. Yet I began to say, “I’m mixed because my father is Indo-Trinidadian.”

My mom immediately shut that train of conversation down and said, “No, you're Black, end of story!”

Since coming to Canada, I have had an uphill struggle in making and living with that claim. I can’t wear my Black identity on my sleeve, so to speak, and it doesn’t sit well with me. Yet when I am among my cousins, old classmates, and school friends on my visits back to the Caribbean, I find myself feeling more and more my true self. My guard is let down, my ‘masking’ slips, and my linguistic code switching is turned off. I am allowed to be who I am in the fullness of my identity. I do not have to prove that I am Black, nor defend my Blackness and dignity as a human being. I simply am.

Colourism is harmful, ugly and inhumane. It denies all of us the opportunity to truly benefit from each other, to find the good in one another, and to foster love and fellowship between us.

“During the past eleven days here in the Muslim world, I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass, and slept on the same rug, while praying to the same God, with fellow Muslims, whose eyes were the bluest of blue, whose hair was the blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of white. And in the words and in the deeds of the white Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan and Ghana.

We were truly all the same, because their belief in one God had removed the white from their minds, the white from their behavior, and the white from their attitude. I could see from this, that perhaps if white Americans could accept the Oneness of God, then perhaps, too, they could accept in reality the Oneness of Man, and cease to measure and hinder and harm others in terms of their differences in color.”

—Malcolm X's Letter from Mecca