Huruma ndiyo msingi wa mahusiano, sifa inayomwezesha mtu kuona kitu cha nafsi yake ndani ya mwingine, au kitu cha nafsi yake inayotarajiwa, au kitu kinachotarajiwa kwa mwingine, ndani ya nafsi yake mwenyewe. Kwa kuwa mifano ya kisa iliyowasilishwa katika kitabu hiki yote inalenga kupinga mgawanyo wa kinyume-nyume, mifano hiyo inakumbatia maadili si ya mwambatano wa kihisia wa huruma pekee, bali ya kutafuta utofauti wa wengine tunaoshirikiana nao na wakati mwingine tunaopingwa nao. Kiwango ambacho mtu anaweza kuhurumia mwingine kina athari ya moja kwa moja katika ustawi wa huyo 'Mwingine'. Inaweza kuwa suala la uhai na kifo, la jeraha na usalama. Huruma, ambayo inaweza kuchukuliwa kama hisia iliyotimia, haianzi kama kitendo, kizuizi cha kimwili au msaada. Kwa kweli huiweka katika mwendo kile kinachoweza kuwa kitendo kikubwa cha mtu mwingine. Haihitaji mabadiliko ya kiakili ya utambulisho kwa kiasi hicho, bali inatenda juu ya mabadiliko ya kianga na muingiliano wa kanuni za kibinadamu za utofautishaji.

Empathy is the building block of relationships, the determinant that enables one to see something of himself in another, or something of his expected self, or something expected in another, in himself. Since the case studies presented in this book all seek to determine a challenging of binary distinctions the examples embrace the ethos not entirely of the emotional contagion of compassion but of finding distinctness in others we interact with and are sometimes challenged by. The extent to which one can empathise with another has a causative bearing on the wellbeing of that ‘Other’. It can be a matter of life and death, of injury and safety. Empathy, what might be considered an actualised emotion, does not begin as an action, a physical deterrent or assistance. It actually puts into motion what might become a substantial action of another person. It does not call for a mental shifting of identities in as much as it acts on a spatial shifting and an overlapping of human codes of distinction.

Huruma ni kuweza kufikiria anavyoishi mtu mwingine kuhusiana na jinsi wakati wake unavyohama kati ya zamani na sasa, kati ya kutafakari kile kilichokuwepo mara moja na kile kinachoweza au kinachoweza kutokea katika maisha ya mtu huyo, kati ya kuunganisha nyuzi za uwepo wa binadamu wa mtu mwenyewe na kumzingatia 'Mwingine' kuwa yuko hatarini kwa nyakati zile zile na hivyo amefungwa katika 'fremu' ile ile ya wakati. Wakati mwingine kupinga utambulisho wa nafsi, wa rangi au wa kabila, ni wakati mwingine njia muhimu ya kuzalisha huruma. Kwa Wajerumani wengi, uasi wa Sophie Scholl (wa vuguvugu la White Rose) mbele ya vitisho vya Wanazi ulikuwa, kwa kutazama nyuma, jibu la kweli la 'Kijerumani'.175 Mfano wa mapema wa kufahamu kwa Sophie kuhusuUyahudi unaodaiwa kwa Wayahudi unatuhimiza kutafakari mkanganyiko katika miundo ya nafsi/mwingine na nyakati za mipaka ya kimwili. Wakati marafiki zake Wayahudi darasani, Anneliese Wallersteiner na Luise Nathaan, walipokataliwa kuingia BDM (Bund Deutscher Mädel), Ligi ya Wasichana Wajerumani, Scholl alisema, 'Kwa nini Luise, mwenye nywele za kimanjano na macho ya buluu, asiwe mwanachama, ilhali mimi mwenye nywele nyeusi na macho meusi ni mwanachama?'176 Pia tunajifunza kwamba mwalimu kijana maarufu wa kiume alipofukuzwa ghafla, Sophie alisema: 'Alifanya nini? Hakuna...Alikuwa tu si Mnazi, hivyo haikuwezekana kwake kuwa mwanachama. Hilo ndilo lilikuwa kosa lake.'177 Mifano yote miwili inaonyesha mtazamo mpana wa Sophie kuhusu utambulisho na mahali. Kuondolewa kwa marafiki zake na mwalimu kunapendekeza mgawanyo na kuhusika vinavyodhaniwa; Unazi kwake ulipinga hali ya kawaida ya nafasi kama ulivyowapinga wakaaji wa nafasi hiyo. Umbali wake ni kujichunguza kimaadili mwenyewe, maadili yake, jamii yake na uchaguzi wake; ni umbali unaochochea majibu ya kihisia na si kuyazuia.

Empathy is imagining what another person is in relation to the shifting of his or her time between the past and present, between considering what once was and what can or might transpire in the life of that person, between drawing together of the strands of one’s own human existence and considering the ‘Other’ as vulnerable to the same temporalities and thus bound in the same ‘frame’ of time. Sometimes the challenging of self-identity, racial or ethnic, is at times a necessary medium for generating empathy. For many Germans, Sophie Scholl’s (of the White Rose Movement) defiance in the face of Nazi intimidation was, in retrospection, a quintessentially ‘German’ response.175 An early example of Sophie’s consciousness of the Otherness ascribed to Jews challenges us to consider the paradox in self/other constructs and the temporalities of physical boundaries. When Jewish friends from her class, Anneliese Wallersteiner and Luise Nathaan, were refused entry into the BDM (Bund Deutscher Mädel), the League of German Girls, Scholl remarked, ‘Why can’t Luise, with her blonde hair and blue eyes [not] be a member, while I with my dark hair and dark eyes am a member?’176 We also learn that when a popular young male teacher was suddenly dismissed Sophie commented: ‘What did he do? Nothing…He just wasn’t a Nazi, so it was impossible for him to belong. That was his crime.’177 Both examples speak of Sophie’s broader construct of identity and place. The removal of her friends and teacher suggest a presumed allocation and belonging; Nazism for her challenged the normality of space as it did the occupants of that space. Her distance is an ethical self-examination of herself, her morals, her society and her choice-making; it is a distance which activates and does not prevent emotional response.

Ulimwengu wetu unabadilika kwa kasi. Zaidi ya watu milioni 300 wanaishi nje ya nchi zao za asili, na mtu wa kawaida leo ni mwangalifu zaidi kwa ulimwengu wake kuliko wakati wowote uliopita. Uhusiano wa pande mbili kati ya Mimi na Mwingine, wakati mwingine kati ya mtazamaji na anayetazamwa, umekuwa wa wazi zaidi. Mgogoro wa wakimbizi wa Rohingya nchini Myanmar, au Wasyria wanaohama kwa wingi kutoka nchi yao kukimbia mzozo unaoendelea; mashambulizi ya kigaidi na mauaji yasiyo na ubaguzi yanayofanywa na ISIS, na wazungu wa itikadi kali ya ubaguzi wa rangi (neo-Nazi) au na wazalendo wa Kihindu, vinaleta wasiwasi duniani, na wakati mwingine ukosefu wa usalama tunaohisi huzaa hisia zinazoweza kuanzia wasiwasi, kutojiamini hadi chuki kubwa. Katika nyakati hizi, binadamu hujikusanya pamoja, tunakuwa waoga na hatuaminiani. Hisia hizi za hofu, kutoaminiana, kujumlisha kupita kiasi, shinikizo la kundi la kujipatanisha na chuki dhidi ya mwingine, hisia za kusalitiwa na ubaguzi unaojirudia katika jumuiya zenye uhasama, huwa vikwazo vinavyoweza kuzuia huruma.

Our world is rapidly changing. More than 300 million people live outside of their native homelands and the average person is today more alert to his world than ever before. The dichotomous relationship between Self and Other, sometimes between spectator and spectated, has become more pronounced. The crisis of refugees of the Rohingya in Myanmar or Syrians in their mass exodus out of their country to escape the ongoing conflict; terrorist attacks and indiscriminate killings committed by ISIS, by neo-Nazi white supremacists or by Hindu nationalists create anxiety in our world and sometimes the insecurity we feel generates feelings that can range from anxiety, insecurity and abhorrence. At these junctions, humans group together, we become fearful and untrusting. These feelings of fear, mistrust, generalisations, in-group pressure to conform to prejudices of the other, feelings of betrayal and recurrent discrimination in hostile communities become potential barriers to empathy.

Katika riwaya ya Harper Lee ya *To Kill a Mockingbird*, Kaunti ya Maycomb, ikiishi na athari za Mdororo Mkuu wa Uchumi, inazidi kuwa na wasiwasi na kutoaminiana kwa wengine, kama vile Boo Radley wa ajabu na Tom Robinson mweusi aliyefanywa mhalifu.178 Kesi ya Tom Robinson inaimarisha na kuongeza mgawanyiko kati ya wakazi wengi wazungu, na inazidisha hofu na kutokuwa na usalama kwa wakazi weusi wa Kaunti ya Maycomb. Jamii inapopitia mabadiliko makubwa na ya haraka, watu hukosa shida kufafanua kwa upana kundi la ndani ni nani, nani ni mwanachama wa kweli wa jamii, raia wa kweli, na mzalendo. Wakati huo huo, kuna mkondo mwingine ambao pia unaweza kujitokeza katika jamii kama hizo wakati wa namna hiyo, lakini mkondo huu unahitaji huruma, uvumilivu na kuelewana. Mkondo huu huzalisha majibu ya kawaida zaidi, kama vile hisia ya kuhusika na kujenga madaraja, badala ya kuwatenga na kuwabagua wengine.

In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Maycomb County, living with the effects of the Great Depression grows in anxiety and distrust of others like the enigmatic Boo Radley and the criminalised black character, Tom Robinson.178 The trial of Tom Robinson furthers and heightens the in-grouping between predominantly white inhabitants and exacerbates fear and insecurity of Maycomb County’s black inhabitants. When big and rapid changes are experienced in society, it becomes all too easy for people to narrowly define who belongs to the in-group, who is a true member of society, a true citizen, and patriot. Simultaneously there is another current that can also operate in such societies during such times, but this one requires empathy, forbearance and understanding. This generates more normative responses, such as a sense of belonging and bridging as opposed to Othering and ostracising.

Kwa kuwanyanyapaa watu, wanajikuta wakiibuka kama "Wengine" wa jamii, washenzi, wale waliowekwa pembezoni mwa ubinadamu. Kati yao na wale wanaotawala, kuna pembezoni inayodhaniwa tu.

By stigmatising people, they come to emerge as society’s Others, barbarians, those on the margins of humanity. Between them and the dominants, there exists a supposed marginality.

Kwa Waisraeli, ukuta wa kutenganisha, unaowakatenga mamia ya maelfu ya Wapalestina na maisha ya kila siku, kazi, usafiri, mashamba yao, na unaofanya safari kwenda kwa familia, vituo vya afya na shule kuwa ngumu, unamaanisha kwamba Wapalestina wamefungwa na miundo ya kimaeneo. Hili linaruhusu upinzani kati ya Sisi na Wengine kuzidi. Hawa Wengine walio mbali wamezuiwa, si hasa katika mipaka ya mandhari, bali katika kanuni nyingine za tabia ambazo kwazo walio mbali kimwili hawawezi kufanywa kuwa karibu, kiutamaduni au vinginevyo. Kati yao na watawala kuna kile kinachodhaniwa kuwa ukingo.

For Israelis, the separation wall, cutting off hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from everyday life, work, travel, from their farmlands and making strenuous the journey to families, medical facilities and schools mean the Palestinians are bound by territorial constructions. This allows the opposition between the Self and Other to be aggravated. These distant Others are restricted, not so much in frames of landscaping, but in other codes of behaviourism by which the physically distant cannot be rendered close, culturally or otherwise. Between them and the dominants there exists a supposed marginality.

Yale hali ambayo wengine wanavyojiona wenyewe na jinsi wanavyofikiria kwamba wanavyoonekana na wengine vina mchango katika utambulisho wa pamoja wa kijamii, na mahusiano kati ya nafsi na Mwingine yanaweza kuwepo katika mfumo wa pande mbili, au mitazamo ya huruma inaweza kupinga mielekeo hiyo. Tunaangalia shairi la I. Dharker, ‘The Right Word’.179 Kutoka katika muundo wa mshambuliaji mwenye uhasama anajitokeza mwathirika mnyonge. Tunakabiliwa na utambuzi wa mstari mmoja katika shairi lake kuhusu mvulana ambaye maelezo yake katika sauti ya kishairi bado hayajaeleweka kikamilifu, “I see his face. No words can help me now / Just outside the door, / lost in shadows, / is a child who looks like mine.” Kinachofuata ni utambuzi, kukubali. Ingawa taswira ya mtoto inabadilika kutoka kuwa gaidi, mpigania uhuru, mpiganaji mwenye uadui hadi mpiganaji wa msituni, mtoto ambaye ‘alipotea gizani’ anapewa utu kupitia msimbo wa utambuzi, yaani mfanano wa kimwili. Ni kutengana huku kutoka taswira iliyowekwa juu ya mvulana hadi taswira ya nafsi yake iliyoonekana kwa mvulana ndiko kulikomwezesha msemaji kutafakari upya chuki zake za awali kuhusu mvulana na ulimwengu ambao anatoka. Mshairi anafundisha kwamba kama tungekuwa wepesi mdogo wa kuhukumu, pengine watu wasingelazimika kuishi kulingana na lebo tunazowapa, “I open the door. / Come in, I say. / Come in and eat with us. / The child steps in / and carefully, at my door, / takes off his shoes.” Kuondoa utu (dehumanisation) ni kufifisha tofauti, kuwafanya Wengine wasiwe na sura, na tofauti na sisi wenyewe. Kama ilivyojadiliwa, kuongezeka kwa vita vya ndege zisizo na rubani angani mwetu leo, vya vita vya angani vinavyodhibitiwa kwa mbali, kumezaa aina mpya ya mauaji yasiyo na utu, ya kuondoa utu, umbali na kutojali. Chamayou katika Drone Theory alieleza: “Maelfu ya maili sasa yanaweza kuwekwa kati ya kifyatulio ambacho kidole cha mtu kinakikalia na kanuni ambayo mpira wa kanuni utarushwa kutoka humo.”180 Utaratibu wa kuondoa utu na jinsi unavyoisaliti hali halisi ya dhamiri ya binadamu katika kujipinga kwa nguvu ili ‘kuangalia pembeni’ kile kinachoilaza ‘yenyewe’ mbele ya yenyewe. Hili linaonekana katika kambi ya wafungwa wa Kijapani wakati wa Vita vya Pili vya Dunia.

What others see of themselves and how they imagine themselves being seen have a bearing on collective self-identity and relationships between self and Other can exist in a binary, or empathic outlooks can challenge those tendencies. We look upon I. Dharker’s poem, ‘The Right Word’.179 Out of a frame of a hostile aggressor emerges a vulnerable victim. We are confronted with a linear realisation in her poem concerning a boy whose description in the oetic voice has not been fully discerned, “I see his face. No words can help me now/Just outside the door,/lost in shadows,/is a child who looks like mine.” What follows is a realisation, an acceptance. Though the image of the child traverses from a terrorist, a freedom-fighter, a hostile militant to a guerrilla warrior, the child who was ‘lost in shadows’ is humanised through a code of recognition, a physical similarity. It is this separation from an image imputed onto the boy to an image of oneself found in the boy that enabled the speaker to reconsider her previous prejudices about the boy and the world from which he arises. The poet teaches that if we were less quick to judge perhaps people would not have to live up to the labels that we give them, “I open the door./Come in, I say./Come in and eat with us./The child steps in/and carefully, at my door,/takes off his shoes.” Dehumanisation is a blurring of distinctions, a rendering of Others as faceless, and unlike ourselves. As discussed, the rise of drone warfare in our skies today, of remote-controlled air war, has generated a new mode of depersonalised killings, of dehumanisation, distance and detachment. Chamayou in Drone Theory explained: “Thousands of miles can now be interposed between the trigger on which one’s finger rests and the cannon from which the cannonball will fly.”180 The mechanism of dehumanisation and the way it betrays the trueness of human conscience in its forcible self-antagonising to ‘look away’ from what lies of ‘itself’ before itself. The latter is reflected here in a Japanese prison camp during World War II:

Wajapani walionyesha kusita ghafla kutazamana nasi wakati wa mawasiliano yetu ya kila siku. Tulijua kwamba walikuwa wakichukua tahadhari ili kuhakikisha kwamba hata kidokezo kimoja cha ubinadamu wa mtu, ulio wazi na usio na kinga, hakipenyi kupitia ulinzi wao na kupingana na taswira ya kikatuni ambayo picha ya kishetani ya awali ilikuwa imetuchorea ndani yao. Dhoruba ilipokaribia, ndivyo utendaji wa utaratibu huu ulivyozidi kuwa mkali. Nilikuwa nimeona udhihirisho wake wa kushangaza zaidi machoni mwa afisa mmoja wa Kijapani ambaye, akiwa mbele yake askari mmoja wa Ambon aliyehukumiwa kifo, ilimbidi kuinama mbele na kupangua nywele ndefu nyeusi zilizokuwa shingoni, zikifunika kichwa na macho ya yule mtu aliyehukumiwa, kabla ya kuchomoa upanga wake na kukata kichwa cha mtu huyo. Kabla pigo halijatua, ilimlazimu kutazama moja kwa moja mbele, juu ya kichwa kilichokuwa kinakaribia kifo, bila kukiona wala kutuona sisi tuliosimama kwa safu ndefu isiyo nadhifu mbele yake.181

“The Japanese showed a sudden reluctance to meet our eyes in the course of our daily contacts. We knew that they were taking precautions to ensure that not a single glimpse of one’s obvious and defenceless humanity should slip through their defences and contradict the caricature some demoniac a priori image had made of us within them. The nearer the storm came the more intense the working of this mechanism became. I had seen its most striking manifestation in the eyes of a Japanese officer who, with a condemned Ambonese soldier before him, had had to lean forward and brush the long black hair from the back of the neck over the head and eyes of the condemned man before he could draw his sword and cut off the man’s head. Before the blow fell he had been compelled to look straight ahead over the doomed head seeing neither it nor us who stood, raggedly, in a long line in front of him.”181

Haijulikani wazi ni nani hao "Wengine" tunaowafanya kuwa "wengine", na kitendawili hiki ndicho kinachoendeleza hali ya kuwatenga. "Mwengine" ni matokeo ya hofu ya "nafsi" kuhusu mtu ambaye ameongozwa kumwogopa na kumshuku, jambo ambalo mara nyingi huchochewa na wanasiasa na vyombo vya habari, badala ya mawasiliano ya moja kwa moja ya kibinafsi. Wakati mwingine wanasiasa, jambo linaloonekana sana wakati wa kampeni za uchaguzi za Rais Trump, huwatenga makundi ya kikabila au kidini kwa njia ya msimbo, na hivyo kuamsha hisia za wasiwasi na woga kwa watu. Marufuku ya kusafiri ya mwaka 2017 dhidi ya Waislamu wote ilikuwa dalili ya kuwachora kwa ujumla Waislamu wote kama wagaidi watarajiwa bila kubagua. Hili lilisaidia sana kuchochea mitazamo na uaminifu wa kundi la ndani, jambo lililofungua nafasi ambapo watu wangeweza kueleza waziwazi hisia dhidi ya Waislamu.

It is not clear who the Othered we are otherising are, and this paradox is precisely what sustains the Othering. An ‘Other’ is a result of a ‘self’s paranoia about someone he has been led to fear and suspect, which is usually driven by politicians and the media as opposed to personal contact. Sometimes politicians, very noticeable during President Trump’s election campaigns, Otherise ethnic or religious groups in a coded way and therefore activate people’s sense of anxiety and fear. Trump’s 2017 travel ban on all Muslims was symptomatic of an indiscriminate caricaturing of all Muslims as potential terrorists. This did much to harness in-group attitudes and loyalties, which opened up a space where people could be more explicit in expressing anti-Muslim sentiments.

Mbinu za maneno zilizotumika kuwafanya Wameksiko waonekane kama wabakaji na wauzaji wa dawa za kulevya zilisaidia kuifanya tabia ya Kuwatenga (Othering) kuwa ya kawaida, na hivyo kufanya iwe rahisi kukubalika, hata kuonekana ya kuhitajika, kuunga mkono wito wa kuwafukuza nchini na wa kujengwa kwa ukuta. Cha kushangaza, ukuta ndio hasa kile ambacho Kuwatenga hufanya. Hugawanya na kututenganisha sisi kwa sisi. Kuwatenga kwa hiyo kunaundwa kijamii na kiutamaduni, na hufikia kilele wakati wa nyakati za wasiwasi. Hata hivyo, mikutano ya kibinadamu inaweza kuwa na athari ya ajabu, si tu kubadilisha dhana potofu bali pia kuziba tofauti kati ya watu, ili tofauti zetu zitazamwe kwa mwanga wa ubinadamu wa pamoja na kama ishara ya uumbaji mzuri wa Allah (SWT).

The rhetoric employed to caricature Mexicans as rapists and drug dealers furthered the normalising of Othering, making it more acceptable and even desirable to support calls for their deportation and for a building of a wall. Ironically, the wall is precisely what Othering does. It divides and separates us. Othering is thus both socially and culturally created and peaks at moments of unease. Human encounters, however, can have a remarkable effect of not only reversing stereotypes but also to bridge the distinctions between people so that our differences are viewed in light of a shared humanity and a sign of the amazing creation of Allāh.

Sisi, binadamu, ni juhudi ya pamoja. Majaribio ya kuharibu na kufuta wengine katika fremu ya kibinadamu yanatulazimu sote kufikiana na kujenga madaraja. Tunapaswa kuwapa sauti wengine: waathirika wa vita, mauaji ya kimbari, waliotengwa kijamii, na wale walionyimwa haki kimuundo. Tunapaswa pia kukumbuka kwamba gharama ya vita haipimwi tu kwa uharibifu wa kimwili wa nyumba na miundombinu ya nchi, bali pia kwa maisha yaliyopotea, kwa madhara ya kisaikolojia na kiroho, na kwa kuumbwa kwa "wengine" wengi. Lazima tupinge kuibuka kwa mielekeo ya mauaji ya kimbari duniani. Theodor Adorno, katika insha yake maarufu "Education After Auschwitz" (1966), alijitahidi kusisitiza wajibu wa elimu na walimu katika kuchochea mielekeo ya huruma kwa vijana, mielekeo inayopinga mitazamo ya kuwatenga wengine. Hata hivyo, mfululizo wa mauaji ya kimbari, vita na mauaji ya halaiki tangu Auschwitz unathibitisha kwamba bado kuna mengi ya kufanya. Lazima tupinge simulizi na taswira za vyombo vya habari vya kimataifa zinazowatenga au kuwaondoa wenzetu wanadamu katika hali ya pamoja ya kustahili heshima, zinazowaelekeza wengine kwenye unyanyapaa wa utambulisho uliodharauliwa na kufanywa wa kibinadamu kidogo. Ni wajibu wetu kucheza nafasi muhimu katika kujenga jamii zinazowaunganisha watu, zinazojenga madaraja. Kujenga madaraja hutuwezesha kufungua nafasi, kukuza uelewano, mawasiliano, na kuimarisha roho ya pamoja ya binadamu.

We, us, humanity, are a collective effort. Attempts at disfiguring and erasing of others from the human frame requires us all to reach across and bridge. We are to give a voice unto others - victims of war, genocide, social outcasts, the structurally dispossessed. We are to remember that the cost of war is measured not only in terms of physical destruction of homes and state infrastructure but of lives that have been lost, of psychological and spiritual damage, of the creating of countless ‘others’. We must push back against the emergence of genocidal tendencies in our world. Theodor Adorno attempted in his seminal essay ‘Education After Auschwitz’ (1966) to stress the responsibility of education and educators to herald empathic tendencies in young people who challenge attitudes of otherness. The sequence of genocides, however, wars and mass killings, since Auschwitz are a testament that there is so much more for us to do. We must challenge global media narratives, and representations that otherise or exclude fellow humans from a collective state of worthiness, that unleash on others the stigma of devalued, dehumanised, identities. It is upon us to play important roles in building societies that connect people, that bridge. Bridging allows us to open spaces, to foster understanding, communication and an enhancing of the collective human spirit.

Tukumbushane kwamba ni kinyume cha ubinadamu wetu kuwadhalilisha wengine; ni kinyume cha kile Allāh alichoumba ndani yetu kwa asili, ambacho ni kuonana, kuthamini na kuheshimiana. Kabila za North Natal nchini Afrika Kusini zina salamu nzuri sana, “Sawu bona”, ambayo kwa tafsiri halisi humaanisha “Nakuona.” Mwanakabila mwingine hujibu “Sikhona”, ambayo kwa tafsiri halisi humaanisha “Nipo hapa.” Maana ya salamu kama hii imo katika wazo kwamba mpaka unione, mimi sipo. Kujaribu kuonana bila dhana potofu, bila kuta, bila umbali wa kimwili na wa kitamaduni, ambao huharibu mitazamo yetu kwa kila mmoja, imekuwa mojawapo ya malengo ya kitabu hiki. Kama Waislamu tumeagizwa kuishi kwa kanuni ya juu zaidi ya mwenendo, ile inayojumuisha ufahamu wa kina kuhusu kila mmoja na dunia ambayo kwa pamoja tunaishi. Na hakika Allāh amesema:

Let us remind ourselves that it is against our humanness to dehumanise others, it is against what Allāh created naturally within us, which is to see, admire and respect each other. The South African North Natal tribes have a beautiful greeting phrase, “Sawu bona” which literally means “I see you.” Another member of the tribe would reply “Sikhona” which literally means “I am here.” The implication of such a greeting is encapsulated in the idea that until you see me I do not exist. Attempting to see each other without the stereotypes, the walls, the distance both physical and cultural, that mar our perceptions of each other has been one of the goals of this book. As Muslims we are instructed to live by a higher code of conduct, one that embodies a deep consciousness about each other and the world which we collectively inhabit. And Allāh indeed said:

Kisha akawa miongoni mwa wale walioamini na kuusiana subira, na kuusiana huruma.17

“Then he was among those who believed and advised one another to patience and advised one another to mercy.” The Quran Chapter ‘The City’ 90:17