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Why are black people currently oppressed, facing poverty, wars, and famines, similar to what happened to the Children of Israel previously? Is there a historical religious reason for this due to past corruption?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

It is not accepted that all Black people are oppressed. There is no firm religious or historical basis for this. What is narrated about the Jews in history books is not confirmed as true. This includes what Al-Tabari transmitted from Ibn Ishaq regarding Noah's supplication against his son Ham, that his descendants would be slaves due to his wrongdoing. Ibn al-Jawzi weakened this statement and said that colors were created as they are without any apparent reason. This is supported by the hadith of Abu Musa al-Ash'ari, narrated by Ahmad, Al-Tirmidhi, and others, and authenticated by Al-Albani: "Indeed, Allah created Adam from a handful that He took from all the earth, so the children of Adam came forth according to the earth; some came red, white, and black, and between that were the easy and the sorrowful, the wicked and the good." This hadith is the relied-upon explanation for the colors of humans, attributing them to the clay from which they were created. Anything else narrated about the reason for Noah's supplication against his son Ham is not authentic, and even if it were, it would be from the Isra'iliyyat (Judaic traditions) which are neither to be believed nor disbelieved.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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