The Qur'an: the basis of equality or otherness

The thirteenth verse of Surah Al-Hujurat is the most important Islamic teaching in denying racism, representing the unity of human beings and recognizing piety as the only indicator of human virtue over each other. Although this verse is the most important Islamic teaching on the unity of human existence and the denial of any kind of racism and immoral characteristics for the superiority of human beings over each other; but this verse is the basis of the efforts of various discourses and currents in the Islamic world for denationalization.This study, by examining the evolution of Islamic commentators' views on this verse, will try to show how the understanding of this verse has changed with the transition to the modern period and modern discourses in the Islamic world have influenced the interpretation of this verse. In the interpretations of this verse, one can find traces of four socio-intellectual discourses in the Islamic world: Iranian-Shiite nationalism, Arab-Sunni nationalism, Pan-Islamism and anti-Westernism, and Western scientism and modernism. Although all of these discourses are consistent in their denial of racism, in practice they use this verse as a pretext for denigrating each other, overtly or covertly, especially on the basis of "nationalism."