Islam sees mankind as a large garden, in which there are flowers of many colours, but no one colour is superior to any other. That is the meaning of the following remark ascribed by tradition to the prophet : 'I am the forerunner of the Arabs, Suhaib of the Greek, Salman of the Persians, and Bilal of the Ethiopians.'1"For these men were the first among their own people to embrace Islam, and so the prophet gathered them, together with himself, into a faithful gathered them, together with himself, into a faithful garland.