Today during discussion with a brother about Umrah, I just started to say that I didn't like Saudi Arabia's activities because they indulged themselves in extravagance, they follow commands of USA etc. He responded in the way as if I was saying "does Allaah really exist?" type of thing. He instantly said that Rasulullaah
forbade to speak ill of Arabs and terminated the whole discussion.
Definitely there are some Ahadith on the virtues of Arabs. My questions are-
- What are real explanations of these Ahadith? (Because superiority on the basis of race/tribe/nation isn't what Islam teaches, I guess.)
- In Ahadith what was meant by "Arab"? Does it mean people of the whole Arabian peninsula? Or Saudi Arabia only?
- Is it a great sin to criticize their activities (which are contradictory to Islam)?
- Is there really such superiority of them over other nations because they are "people of Prophet's country?"
- Is there any scholarly article on this issue?

