![No Image](https://kuwaittimes.com/uploads/imported_images/uploads/2022/06/Dr.-K.-Al-Saleh.jpeg)
Stratification is a changeable social condition that made classes an accepted part of the formation of human societies. Heavenly and human legislations approved class distinctions and made it among the positive factors for the development of the human being and stimulate his abilities. Islam mentions class in the Holy Quran, as Almighty Allah says in Surah Al-Zukhruf: “Is it they who distribute your Lord’s mercy? We “alone” distributed their “very” livelihood among them in this worldly life and raised some of them in rank above others so that some may employ others in service.
“But” your Lord’s mercy is far better than whatever “wealth” they amass. (43:32). This is what justice requires, and its foundation is in having matters in their place. People are not equal in abilities and this calls for a difference in achievement. This requires acknowledgement of differences, so if class is a natural aspect of the human society, class discrimination, and the promotion of contempt culture among classes is a matter that confuses people because of their ignorance of the difference between class and class discrimination.
Class discrimination is not confronted correctly, particularly in our Arab societies. Many years ago, a Moroccan young girl took her own life after leaving a letter in which she complained against class contempt she faced in school. The e-magazine ‘Psychology’ published a scientific study, which is the first of its kind, that links physiological changes and class difference in youth. Dr Thomas Fuller Rowell from Wisconsin Maddison University said social-class discrimination contributes to poorer health. He said the study proved disorders, physiological conditions and decline in health in cases of lower classes.
So, class discrimination does not only have destructive psychological effects; rather it is different from other discriminations by being harmful to human health. So it is no wonder for diseases to spread among weaker classes in some of our Arab countries, who die younger, while previously we were blaming only poverty for being responsible for that, until we discovered that poverty has the smaller part while oppression has the larger part. Today, we see in some of our Arab countries class discrimination that was not known in history. There are classes that do not see or come in touch with others.
Even if they have to deal with lower classes, they create a psychological barrier that prevents them from communicating. There are Arab societies that are managed by classes that only see and hear themselves. We need to fight class discrimination, whose waves are getting wider, before a day comes when the poor disappear from the eyes of the rich, so they do not see them.
[email protected]