[[ Ruby’s note – Since verse 51 is addressing all the Messengers then the ‘umma’ or people mentioned in the next verse 52 must mean all the people or humankind or humanity.]]

Sura-23 [Al-Muminun mecca 74]

O YOU APOSTLES! Partake of the good things of life, 27 and do righteous deeds: verily, I have full knowledge of all that you do.

The Quranic text and Ali’s version

يَا أَيُّهَا الرُّسُلُ كُلُوا مِنَ الطَّيِّبَاتِ وَاعْمَلُوا صَالِحًا..

.

23:51. O ye Messengers! enjoy (all) things good and pure, and work righteousness:

C2908. Literally, "eat". See n. 776 to 5:66.

The prophets of Allah do not pose as ascetics, but receive gratefully all Allah's gifts, and show their gratitude by their righteous lives. (R).

...إِنِّي بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ عَلِيمٌ ﴿٥١﴾

for I am well-acquainted with (all) that ye do.

وَإِنَّ هَذِهِ أُمَّتُكُمْ أُمَّةً وَاحِدَةً...

23:52. And verily this Brotherhood of yours is a single Brotherhood,

C2909. Cf. 21:92-93.

All prophets form one Brotherhood: their message is one, and their religion and teaching are one; they serve the One True God, Who loves and cherishes them; and they owe their duty to Him and Him alone.

...وَأَنَا رَبُّكُمْ فَاتَّقُونِ ﴿٥٢﴾

waana rabbukum faittaqooni

and I am your Lord and Cherisher: therefore fear Me (and no other).

فَتَقَطَّعُوا أَمْرَهُم بَيْنَهُمْ زُبُرًا...

23:53. But people have cut off their affair (of unity), between them, into sects:

...كُلُّ حِزْبٍ بِمَا لَدَيْهِمْ فَرِحُونَ ﴿٥٣﴾

each party rejoices in that which is with itself.

C2910. The people who began to trade on the names of the prophets cut off that unity and made sects; and each sect rejoices in its own narrow doctrine, instead of taking the universal teaching of Unity from Allah. But this sectarian confusion is of man's making. It will last for a time, but the rays of Truth and Unity will finally dissipate it.

(23:52) And, verily, this community of yours is one

single community, since I am the Sustainer of you all: remain, then, conscious of Me! 28

In his famous farewell sermon at 'Arafat on his final pilgrimage/al- khutbat-al- wida, just before his death, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) summed up the essence of the social message of the Islam as anti-racism when he proclaimed:

"All human beings are descendent from the prototype Adam, and Adam has been created from the earth. There is no superiority for an Arab over a non-Arab, nor for a non-Arab over an Arab. Neither is there superiority for a white person over a black person, nor for a black person over a white person, except the superiority gained through God-consciousness/ taqwa. Indeed the noblest of you in the sight of God is the one with the most righteous conduct/taqwa. "

This famous prophetic tradition/hadith is further reinforced by a verse in the Glorious Quran in Surah al-Rum, Chapter 30, Verse 22 in which differences in languages and pigmentations of skin among human beings are described as signs of the existence of God, which need to be celebrated.

And of the Signs of Allah, is the creation of the heavens and the earth and in the variations of your languages and skin color

Third, Islam has made the alleviation of human suffering through acts of charity/zakat, one of the five pillars/arkan al-Islam on which it is built. This is established on a prophetic tradition/hadith reported on the authority of Ibn Umar, the son of Umar bin al-Khattab, May Allah be pleased with both, who said: I heard the messenger of Allah say:

"Islam has been built on five [pillars]: testifying that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah, performing the prayers, paying the zakat, making the pilgrimage to the House, and fasting in Ramadan." (the tradition was related by Bukhari and Muslim)

The categories of zakat recipients have been clearly outlined by Allah, the Sublime, in Chapter 9, verse 60, of the Glorious Quran as follows;

Alms are for the poor and needy, for its administration, for the promotion of goodwill towards Islam, for liberation struggles, for debtors, for all beneficial causes, and for refugees.

Fourth, the Islamic concept of peace does not merely aspire for a cessation of war, known in the literature as negative peace. The Islamic concept of peace is a positive one that seeks to build long-year sustainable relationships and reconciliation based on justice known in the Quran as adl and qist. This is clearly enunciated in the following verse from the Glorious Quran:

If two parties among the Believers fall into a quarrel, make peace between them; but if one of them transgressors beyond all bounds against the other, then fight you all against the transgressor until it complies with the command of Allah; but if it complies then make peace between them with JUSTICE and be FAIR; for Allah loves those who are fair and just (Surah-al-Hujurat, Chapter 49, Verse 9).

[[Asad’s note - 27 This rhetorical apostrophe to all of God's apostles is meant to stress their humanness and mortality, and thus to refute the argument of the unbelievers that God could not have chosen "a mortal like ourselves" to be His message-bearer: an argument which overlooks the fact that only human beings who themselves "partake of the good things of life" are able to understand the needs and motives of their fellow-men and, thus, to guide them in their spiritual and social concerns. ]]