Respecting differences

by Zafar Bangash June, 2013

The tendency among some Muslims to insist that their particular understanding of Islam is the only correct way has caused numerous problems. These are compounded by rigidity leading to unnecessary conflict when Muslims should be tolerant of different approaches. Every Muslim sincerely and consciously commits to the One God — Allah (swt) — the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) as the last and final messenger for all humanity, and the Qur’an as the revealed word of Allah (swt) to guide humanity till eternity. Problems arise in the Muslims’ selective understanding and application of Qur’anic teachings and the role of the noble Messenger (pbuh) in their lives. This is further complicated by some Muslims’ insistence that their particular understanding is the only legitimate way to interpret and implement Islam in real life. When such attitudes harden into fanaticism, it leads to disunity among Muslims and divisions in the Ummah. Many different approaches can be identified but the most serious differences exist among those Muslims that are striving to establish Islamic states in their societies. Is there only one way to achieve this? Often adherents of different approaches seem to think theirs is the only correct way and all others are wrong. Our readers know where we stand. Our position is clear from our writings in this magazine as well as from our other works such as the tafsir of the noble Qur’an by Imam Muhammad al-Asi or the books we have produced on the Sirah of the noble Messenger (pbuh). But we also take the position that no matter how strongly we may disagree with other Muslims’ point of view we do not exclude them from the fold of Islam or from adding their views to the larger ferment of Islamic ideas. Denouncing other Muslims as kafirs has regrettably become fashionable among some groups (the takfiris). They go further: based on such denunciation, they think it is permissible to kill the Muslims so identified. Such behavior has no sanction in the Qur’an or the Sunnah and the Sirah of the noble Messenger (pbuh). There are a few conditions in which killing others (anyone) is permitted: three of these include engagement on the battlefield, treason, and the murder of an innocent person. In the latter case, the Qur’an stresses forgiveness over revenge. So how did Muslims end up with this strange takfiri ideology that is spreading like a virus in the Ummah? A closely related phenomenon is that of sectarianism. It is used to create hatred against a targeted group of Muslims to justify acts of violence against them — including killing them. Muslims would do well to identify the forces that are pushing them toward sectarian warfare: imperialism and Zionism. True, different sects have always existed among Muslims but their differences never took on the virulent form it has taken on today. Whose interest does it serve for Muslims to fight each other? Let us be blunt: some Muslims that call themselves Sunnis are busy instigating hatred against other Muslims that carry the Shi‘i label. This is most clearly visible in places like Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Bahrain. The launch of this campaign can be traced to the success of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, a Shi‘i majority country, in 1979. Iran’s success exposed the fraudulent claims of the puppet Arabian regimes to being Islamic. The only way they could undermine Islamic Iran was by playing up the sectarian card. Regrettably, some Sunni ‘ulama including those that have built a reputation for learning have also joined this campaign. Changes in Iran, Iraq and Lebanon have led them to describe these as the “Shi‘i project.” When a tyrant like Saddam Husain was in power in Iraq, many of these ‘ulama remained silent. Today, they seem to have fallen for the lure of comfortable living under the patronage of petro-rulers and joined their vicious sectarian game. Instead of urging Muslims to confront imperialism and Zionism and their local agents in the Muslim world, they are busy pushing Muslims into the flames of sectarianism. We have no doubt that committed Muslims will ultimately triumph over the imperialists, Zionists and their munafiq agents in the Muslim world, as promised by Allah (swt) in the noble Qur’an (47:07, 61:13), but before that victory is achieved, Muslims would have paid a terrible price in life and blood. Committed Muslims have an obligation to properly understand the global reality and take the necessary steps to guard against all such schemes aimed at dividing them. Such divisions only serve the agenda of a more and more desperate West, whose policies have failed. Leading Muslim institutions, such as al-Azhar in Egypt, have a responsibility to come out clearly against such attempts at creating divisions and work for social and religious harmony among Muslims. Al-Azhar has a rich history of working to bring Muslims together. The legacy of Shaykh Mahmoud Shaltut needs to be revived and built on. Now is the time to do it. Zafar Bangash is Director of the Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought

The unity of the Ummah: a state of mind above all else

The unity of the Ummah: a state of mind above all else

Perspectives by Iqbal Siddiqui


The unity of the Muslim Ummah is a reality proclaimed in the Qur’an, in the ayah “Verily this Ummah of yours is one Ummah…” (21:92) and numerous others. It is one of the key strengths of the Ummah at many levels, from the cultural to the political. It is the unity of the Ummah, the common understanding that all Muslims are brothers and sisters in faith, that makes Muslims feel at home wherever they may go in the Muslim world. However, translating this principle of unity into practical unity at a more functional level has always proved problematic; from the earliest days of Muslim history there have been differences and conflict within the Ummah, as Muslims have disagreed on fundamental issues of politics and fiqh.
In recent times, there has been a sustained campaign to promote sectarianism in the Ummah in order to isolate Islamic Iran and minimise its influence over the rest of the Ummah. One of the immediate results of the revolution was a massive outpouring of sectarian, anti-Shi‘i literature in the Sunni world, mainly funded by the Saudis and the Islamic institutions linked to them. The impact of this campaign has been immense, with many Sunnis, even those who have no truck with the Saudis, harbouring sectarian hostility towards Shi‘is, to the extent of explicitly or implicitly questioning whether they are even Muslims. Such attitudes are based entirely on ignorance and misunderstanding, albeit deliberately promoted, but are immensely damaging nonetheless. The sectarian violence seen in Iraq in recent years, in which both Sunnis and Shi‘is have been both perpetrators and victims of appalling atrocities, is a tragic example of the dangers of this approach. Even our Western enemies have recognised the potential for damage to the Ummah by emphasising sectarian issues; from the outset the Islamic Revolution was described and discussed as a Shi‘i phenomanon rather than an Islamic one.
We should recognise, however, that these campaigns were successful only because they appealed to receptive minds.  There has unfortunately been a tendency to sectarianism in the Ummah for a long time; there have always been ‘ulama and political leaders, Sunni and Shi‘i alike, who have preferred to emphasise differences between Muslims instead of what they have in common. This has been the case even among those whom Sunnis and Shi‘is recognise as Muslims of different schools of thought, rather than being outside the Ummah. It is the effect of this sort of attitude, reflected in ingrained cultural and social behaviour on both sides, that has, over decades and centuries, laid the ground for the sort of extreme sectarianism that has been deliberately cultivated in the last few decades. It is important to note, moreover, that this is not only a Sunni problem, although — because of the success of the Islamic Revolution — it has been whipped up among Sunnis in particular. There have been plenty of Shi‘i ‘ulama who have responded to the Saudi-financed campaign by choosing to emphasise their Shi‘ism and attacking Sunnis, which attitudes have played into the hands of Sunni sectarians, and have also laid the ground for the Shi‘i extremism in Iraq today. A sectarian sense of Shi‘i exceptionalism has also contributed to the fact that Islamic Iran has failed to reach out to the rest of the Ummah as effectively as it should have done.
Yet throughout Muslim history there have been voices in the Ummah that have sought to minimise differences and focus on what Muslims have in common, rather than focussing on differences and areas of disagreement. In recent years, Crescent has regularly reported on the work of the Majma‘ al-Taqrib bayn al-Madhahib Islami (Organisation for Proximity between Schools of Thought in Islam).
This was created after the Islamic Revolution, but is part of a long tradition of dialogue and cooperation that includes the Dar al-Taqrib al-Madhahib created as a result of the cooperation between senior ‘ulama at Al-Azhar in Cairo and Qum in Iran in the 1940s. This cooperation led to Mahmoud Shaltut, rector of al-Azhar, introducing the teaching of Shi‘i theology at al-Azhar in 1959. Muslims regularly show their instinctive understanding of the unity of the Ummah by supporting Hizbullah, a predominantly Shi‘i movement, and indeed the Islamic State of Iran. The relations between Hizbullah, Iran, and the Hamas resistance movement in Palestine, which is an off-shoot of the Ikhwan, is an example of unity in practice.

Unity is, first and foremost, a state of mind; we must make a conscious effort to realise the unity of the Ummah proclaimed by Allah (Â) by focussing on what we have in common rather than on our differences. At this crucial time in the struggle of the Islamic movement, it is essential that all Muslims, in all parts of the world, and of all schools of thought, rise above sectarian issues to stand united against the enemies of Islam.

pull quote:
Unity is, first and foremost, a state of mind; we must make a conscious effort to realise the unity of the Ummah proclaimed by Allah (Â), by focussing on what we have in common rather than on our differences.