_Civility as an index to harmony between nationalities_ _Captain Mohammed Hassan Al-Tahir_

Date: October 20, 2026

We begin first with the result by defining harmony. Harmony is not that we are similar, but it means that we are different and we can play together without dissonance.

Harmony is the dynamics of ideas between two nationalities whose state of tongue says I am from you, you are from me, you are me (is there such a feeling) a question that needs a clear answer without hypocrisy (dahnasah in Arabic) and it is a question that begets another question which is what happens

If harmony dies,

And the answer is that if harmony is absent, divorce comes between nationalities.

Every civil war in its origin is an intellectual divorce, a failure in joint playing, often due to lack of civility among the masters of people, for people follow the religion of their kings: if they are guided, they are guided, and if they transgress, they transgress.

Opposite harmony is an old disease called _al-fahlawa as movement without blessing and it is claiming intelligence without ethics or it is

– To believe that you are smarter than the other, so you take his right and think you are clever.

Al-fahlawa says: I can cheat, I can twist and turn, I can take the right of others with a word.

And the fahlawi thinks himself an artist, while in reality he is a dissonant player, spoiling the whole tune to take momentary applause.

From here the question is born which in philosophy is more important than the answer

– So what happens if we put relations of peoples on a line whose beginning is _embrace_, and at its end is _separation_.

So where does fahlawa begin?

Fahlawa begins in embracing a small lie: “I am cleverer than you”, and ends with a big catastrophic separation that may be correctly described practically as repulsion of opposites.

Evaluate with me:

– The more fahlawa increases, the closer we get to separation.

The fahlawi merchant cheats the customer from another nationality,

So the customer says: All these are cheaters.

The fahlawi employee obstructs the transaction of another nationality,

So the owner of the transaction says: The state is not my state.

The fahlawi politician promises and does not fulfill,

So the people say: These are not from us.

Fahlawa does not build a homeland, it builds walls. Every fahlawa is a brick in the wall of divorce between nationalities.

And here comes _civility_ as its opposite, so what is civility?

First, civility is not weakness, and is not empty flattery, but it is movement seeking blessing, it is

_Intelligence with ethics._ That you know your right and know the right of others, and give everyone who has a right his right with kindness.

Civility is to say no, in a yes way. And to say you are wrong, in a way of I respect you.

– If fahlawa wants to take more than it deserves,

– Then civility wants to give more than expected.

That is why civility was the _true indicator of harmony_. Do not measure the harmony of two peoples by the number of their agreements, but measure it by the civility of their individuals in the street, in the market, in disagreement, and from here the question about relations of civility is born.

_1. Civility between nature and nurture:_

Is civility a nature we are born with or a nurture we learn?

And the answer is both.

There is a person by nature civility, soft. And there is a person by nature rough. But nurture is what refines nature.

Perhaps we say in the science of ideas: that reason is the most justly divided thing among people, but civility is the thing that most suits with nurture among people.

The people who raise their children on civility, raise them on harmony.

And the people who raise them on fahlawa, raise them on divorce.

_2. Civility between familiarity and strangeness:_

Man by nature is familiar with who resembles him, and estranged from who differs from him. This is an instinct:

– Like is attracted to like.

Fahlawa invests in strangeness:

– This is strange, therefore it is permissible to cheat him.

Civility invests in familiarity:

– This is strange, therefore I must honor him until he becomes familiar.

Civility turns the stranger into familiar, and estrangement into familiarity.

Between nationalities, there is no stranger, there is a brother we have not yet become familiar with. And civility is the art of crafting familiarity with harmony.

That is why we say civility is the safety valve.

_3. Civility and harmony between nationalities:*

If you want to know whether two nationalities are harmonious, do not ask about politics, ask about civility:

– Does the driver in the street respect the traffic light when a man from another nationality passes?

– Does the seller smile to the strange customer as he smiles to his relative?

– Does the employee have patience with the citizen who does not speak his language?

These small details are the true harmony.

The people of Sudan for the people of Sudan is the safety valve, it is not achieved by slogans, but by civility.

When we leave fahlawa, and embrace civility, we prevent the big divorce: to say to each other, despite different tongues and colors, we resemble each other, and Sudan is our country, and we are all brothers as something implanted in conscience and does not need a fireman.