khan@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (Iqbal Mustafa Khan) (03/06/90)
I really do not want to reply to the article by Mr. Omar because everytime somebody tries to respond and reason with him, it brings no results. Omar claims not to be divisive but if we were to take a vote on this issue, most readers would agree that he is one. I deleted most of the article but felt compelled to reply to this portion. Her it goes. Omar Write: > I have no plans to do anything about anyones views ... like most > raised in the West I only speak for myself. While I have no proof > that my ideas are correct I do believe that Allah only intended > one version. Others may discuss anything they like and still > be Muslims but when they ascribe other names to themselves they > confuse their own deen. The religon belongs to Allah and no one > can claim otherwise to me. In responding to Omar claim that Allah has intended only one version of Islam, it is very easy to observe that even the steps taken by the Ullema in interpreting the religion are to cope with the reality that people differ in their understanding. The idea of Ijtihaad is a gateway for the muslims to interpret Islamic matters according to their understanding. At the social level, the idea of Ijma' is there to reconcile people's differences by taking the majority openion. With avenues like these, mostly accepted by the muslims, one cannot claim a monolithic nature of Islam. Islam offers diversity and forbids division. Any intellectual, even who wants to highlight the divisive issues between Sunnis and Shias, would write analytically and not emotionally. Labelling a certain group of people as the sole representative of a whole sect is not a very logical thing. Nobody is denying the differences between the Sunnis and the Shias, but one must also consider the differences among Sunnis themselves, or for that matter of fact among the Shias. A "sunni" in Pakistan is NOT the same as a "sunni" in, for example, Morocco. Even among the Sunnis there are four major sub-sects (although with less controversy than between sunnis and shias), and MANY sub-sub-...-sects, found mainly on the differences of interpreting certain aspects of Islam. However, as long as they subscribe to the same religion, they are as much muslims as you and I are. A famous scholar from the indian sub-continent, Abul Ala Maudoodi, gave a speach in 1937 to a crowd of muslims in PathanKot, Punjab. I will roughly translate a portion of his speech from Urdu which relates directly to this issue. It can be found in his book, Khutubaat, in urdu. Please accept my apollogies in advance for any mistranslation. Topic: What is Shariah Maudoodi says: ...I will now tell you what is called Shariah. Shariah carries the meaning of 'a way'. When you accept Allah as the Master, accept that the Prophet gets his authority from Him, and accept that the Book is from Him, you will have entered the DEEN. After this, the way you are to live as His servant, accept His Will, and subscribe to His way is called the Shariah. Allah tells us about this way through His Prophet...People who accept the Shariah, which Allah has given to us through His messanger, as His and compulsary to be implemented in their lives are all Muslims. Now, if people understand the orders of this Shariah differently, they are still all muslims because everyone of them is following the way that he/she thinks is the order of Allah. Then how can one have the right to call another a non-muslim. The most he/she can say is that the other has not understood the message correctly, but he cannot exclude the other from the religion. Anybody who attempts such an authority is actually playing God. It is as if he says: just like you are obliged to follow the Master's order, you are also obliged to follow mine, otherwise I will exclude you from the religion. Imagine how big of a disobedience is this. This is why the Prophet of Islam said, "Whosoever calls another muslims, without proof, a Kafir is actually calling himself one." God has made the muslims obliged to follow only His way and not the way of anybody else. In other words, this person is playing a smaller god and whether the other muslim is really Kafir or not, he is for sure endangering himself of commiting a Kufr...... Now, I want to tell you what harm the lack of understanding about the DEEN and the Shariah is causing to you. Muslims have different ways of saying their Salaat. For example, one person puts his hand on his chest and one on his belly button, one says the FATIHA behind the Imam and one doesn't, one says Amin loudly and one doesn't. Everyone of these people is considering his way to be the way of the prophet and he presents his evidence. Even with different version of Salaat, all these would be called muslims. However, those who have considered these matters as the DEEN, have divided themselves on these issue, have separated their mosques, have started calling names (and cursing) at each other, and have even fought cases in courts against each other. As a result, they have divided the Ummah of the Prophet into little pieces. When even these things did not satisfy these people, they started calling each other misguided, Kafir, and Fasiq. One person takes one point of the Qur'an and Hadith according to his understanding and does not consider it sufficient to just follow whatevery he understood, but consider it his duty to force others to follow his interpretation, and if they don't then exclude them from the religion. Now that you see various factions of Islam, all these consider the Qur'an and Hadith as the final evidence and take orders out of them according their understanding. It is possible that one is correct and the rest wrong; even I am a follower of one of these and consider it correct and discuss with people who consider my version wrong to try to convince them about my way's correctness. But somebody's understanding to be wrong and somebody's exclusion from the DEEN are two totally different matters. Every muslim has the right to practice Islam according to his/her understanding. If there are ten muslims and all ten have different ways to practice Islam, as long as they believe in Shariah they are all muslims, and are all one Ummah, and there is no reason for dividing themselves into different groups. But those people who do not understand this are the ones who divide on small things, cut themselves from each other, separate their mosques from each other, stop intermingling with each other, stop inter-marrying with each other, and make each of their groups into smaller Ummahs. The Dangers of division ----------------------- You cannot imagine how much harm does this division bring to the muslims, who are supposedly one Ummah. For example, India has 80 million muslims (in 1937) and if such a big group were really one and worked together for the cause of Allah, who in the world would have the courage to put them down. But the reality is that this division has broken this number into hundereds of smaller groups. Their hearts have hatred for each other; even in the time of a REAL disaster they will not unite. A muslim from one group has as much prejudice for a muslim from another group, as a jew would have for a christian; in fact even more. There have been incidences where one muslim group collaborated with the Kuffaar just to put down another muslim group. In such a situation, if you see the muslims as loosers you shouldn't be surprised. This is their own earning. They are put to the AZAAB which Allah has mentioned in His holly book: "one of His Azaabs is that he will divide you into various groups so you will kill each other" (In'aam 65) Brothers, this Azaab which is put upon the indian muslims, its traces are most evident in Punjab. Here, the inter-group fights and rivalries are at their peak and it is due to this reason that despite being a majority in Punjab, you carry no influence. If you want to survive, then please get together and live like brothers; live like one Ummah. There is nothing in the Shariah based on which you should be divided into different "Ummahs". These divisions are caused by ignorance; Allah has made only one Ummah-tul-muslima. End of Maudoodi's speach. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Iqbal Mustafa Khan khan@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu 812-857-7725 Computer Science Department Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana 47405 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------