By Imam Halim Mustafa El-Bey Indigenous Muslim American Muur Society (IMAMS)

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

The Qur’an First Approach reminds us that the Word of Allah is the supreme criterion — not the textbooks, theories, or propaganda of men. When we return to the Qur’an, we find a divine order that is rooted in tawḥīd (Oneness), fiṭrah (natural balance), and mīzān (justice).

In contrast, the European colonial project — especially through figures like Carolus Linnaeus, author of Systema Naturae (1735) — imposed a false classification system on creation. Linnaeus began by categorizing plants and animals, but soon extended his so-called “science” to human beings, labeling them by continent and skin color, and assigning traits of intelligence, morality, and civility.

This became the seed of scientific racism — a man-made doctrine of white supremacist terrorism that replaced divine truth with human arrogance.