As a result...

As a result, although the members of a nation have the feeling of fraternity among themselves, they tend to regard other peoples -who are treated as `things' and not as human beings-with hostility; to them the outsiders are mere means whose value lies only in their practical utility.

This is the reason why Islam abrogated tribal and national diversity of men (which divides humanity into sections), and laid the foundation of human society on conviction and belief (in which the opportunity to discover the truth is equal for every individual), and not on race, nationality, or native soil. Even in affairs of matrimony and inheritance, Islam made common belief and conviction the criterion for human relations.

[^11] In the same book, under the title "The Religion of Truth is Ultimately Victorious", `Allamah Tabataba'i says: Mankind, which has been endowed by nature with an urge to attain self­perfection and true felicity, strives collectively to achieve the highest stages of material and spiritual evolution, which it would, positively, achieve some day. Islam, the religion of tawhid (monotheism), is in fact a programme of attain­ment of such an end or summum bonum (sa`adah).

The diviations that hinder man from traversing his long path, should not lead us to a negation of his nature and of his humanity. It is the sole natural law that actually governs human nature. The deviations and faults should be considered as a kind of error in application of the natural law. The objective of attaining perfection for which man aspires, is directed by his restless, perfection-loving nature itself-an end which he is likely to attain sooner or later one day.

Some verses in Surat al-Rum (30-41), which start with the verse: and end with lead us to the same conclusion that the demand of the law shall ultimately be fulfilled, and man, after wandering in different directions and experimenting with different ways, shall finally discover his own path and adhere to it.

One should not pay any attention to the opinions of those who say that Islam, like other cultural movements, has fulfilled its function as a phase in the development of human culture and is now an out­dated part of history. Islam, as we know it and as we have already discussed it, aims at the ultimate perfection of man, which in accordance with the laws of nature, has to be achieved one day.

[^12] Contrarily, some people claim that Islam has never favoured the unity and unification of human culture and human societies.