Reasons for the Lack of Unity and Ways to Unite Muslim Ummah

By Aadil Farook, New Age Islam 10 December 2021 Unity Is Living With Love, Peace, Compassion, Brotherhood And Goodwill Despite Intellectual Differences Main Points: 1. All Islamic institutes should call themselves only Muslims - no further label at all 2. The target should not be to finish intellectual differences but to teach people how to live with mutual respect. 3. No ideology has any special privilege towards Ultimate Truth. ----- The biggest root cause of Muslim downfall is the lack of unity in the Ummah. Everyone knows it already but no one has understood the reasons for the lack of unity. Thus, no one can provide a solution as well. Most people have this huge misconception that unity means uniting everyone on the same opinions, same views & same beliefs. That is humanly impossible and not the definition of unity at all. Unity is living with love, peace, compassion, brotherhood & goodwill despite intellectual differences. The target is not to finish intellectual differences but to teach people how to live with intellectual differences with mutual respect. Right now, why there is so much disunity in the first place? There are many categories of religious Muslims. Each category considers itself as right and others as wrong. Thus each category teaches preaches endorses proves promotes only its own version of Islam. Thus followers & students of each category naturally develop a sense of superiority for their own group and look down upon others consciously or subconsciously whether they openly express it or not. This psychology is itself most destructive for unity and is sadly the perfect condition for disunity. I have identified the problem. What is the solution? Throughout the world in Muslim countries, all Islamic institutes should have only and solely the following design:- The governance/leadership/management/administration and especially faculty members should have no affiliation or association with any category at all. They should be 100% neutral. They should call themselves only Muslims - no further label at all. Admissions should be equally open to any person who claims to be a Muslim even if you don't consider him one. In the same classroom, in front of all students, the teacher should teach point of views of all categories whether Sunni (and its sub-categories) or Shia (and its sub-categories) with equal intellectual honesty, arguments, and details without any bias, prejudice, discrimination, and distortion of facts. Students should not be forced by the teacher to subscribe to any single opinion at all. It is totally the free choice of all students to subscribe to whichever point of view they themselves find convincing. They can become whatever they want to be without any fear. Qadiani's point of view should also be fully included but to prove it wrong and show its flaws so that graduates can later do Dawah among Qadianis. The only way to convert Qadianis is to speak to them and show them politely that their opinion is wrong because good people are in every single category - only Allah can judge them. We cannot judge anyone at all. Simply calling them Kafirs is no solution at all. You have to show them why it's kufr in the first place and that is only possible if you actually know their thesis in full detail. Similarly, within the Shia sect, there is only one sub-category: Kufr, and students should study it properly only to prove it’s wrong. The philosophy behind this unique idea is that Muslims of every category should know clearly that the other categories are also sincere and honest in their quest for the Truth. They are not bad or astray people at all. They are not fools at all and have their own sound reasons for believing in whatever they believe. No category has any right to claim its Ahl-E-Haq at all. No category has any special privilege towards Ultimate Truth. Only Allah knows the Absolute Truth. Only He can decide on the Day of Judgment who is right or wrong. Our job is not to judge people but to give them the benefit of doubt that they might be right as well. If we find something convincing, we cannot expect everyone else to be convinced with it as well. All we can claim is that we tried our best to reach the Truth and our category appealed to us more than others in the process but other categories may be right as well. Only Allah knows it in the end. This is the psychology that generates mutual respect and trust despite all the differences in thinking, which is perfectly natural and needs this hour. --- Aadil Farook, Winner/Nominee of 2 International Awards (US & UK), is a Lahore-based blogger. URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-society/ummah-unity-muslim/d/125941 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism