Are there marriages between African and Asian Ahmadis?

Yes, many. In America in particular, African American Ahmadi Muslims have married women from India and Pakistan, and many of these marriages are very happy.

The assumption that such marriages do not exist is mistaken. In the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat there are many marriages between people of African and Asian origin. They are especially common in America. There, African American Ahmadi Muslims have married women from Qadian in India, from Rabwah and from other places in Pakistan.

Many of these marriages are among the happiest one knows. They show that a shared faith and shared values are a stronger foundation than the same origin, language or skin colour.

This is exactly what Islam teaches. The first verse above says that God made people into nations and tribes so that they might come to know one another, not so that they would keep apart. Before God only a person’s righteousness counts, not their descent. The second verse even calls the diversity of languages and colours a sign of God. Diversity is therefore nothing to be overcome, but something to be respected.

That is why, when choosing a spouse, Islam advises looking above all at faith and character, as the hadith above shows. Origin must not stand in the way. Where marriages are made across continents, families grow together that would otherwise never have met.