What does Islam say about unity?

[Levanaye Zalmaye]

Islam itself is divided, how can it unite anyone else?

[شمله ور خراساني]

First of all, if you want people to unify upon something, you need to define what Islam is.

If you basically call anyone a muslim who has an Arabic sounding name, then no. You can't unify people based on that.

If you want unification of anyone who considers himself a Muslim, then again, you will fail. Because people tend to have totally different interpretation of what Islam teaches and what Islam is.

So this brings us to the main point. In order to understand what Islam is, you need to study the source. You need to dig back as deep as possible to the true teachings of Islam. You need to learn about Islam and how Islam was as it was revealed 1400 years ago.

Once you have obtained the knowledge of what Islam is, you can then see the real problem. And understand why Muslims are not unified.

We follow all sorts of groups, sects and movements who contradict one another in so many grounds.

You will quickly come to realization, that unity among all these groups is impossible.

Because they want to follow their own goals and objectives set for their particular group or movement. And not what Islam teaches.

Therefore, what we should know about unity is the following. Unity is in the core teachings of Islam. Unity is among those who reject all other interests and values and only strive to please allah. Unified are those people who really are prepared to go off their own way and to submit fully to Allah and practice the true religion based on the most authoritative and authentic sources. Only the most devout, and the most dedicated to Islam can be unified.

People who are too attached to their own particular group or sect, and refuse to think critically about their practices and traditions and never compare what they do with what was revealed are not worthy to unify with.

People who move away from rationality and blindly follow their leaders are automatons. They don't even know what they believe in. And what the meaning of their belief-system is.

So unity will remain elusive for the general public among Muslims. As human beings are by nature very laid back and lazy people who rather follow repetitive motions and let their brain cells rest.

Success does not come from the power of majority or mass. But by the effort and struggle of the dedicated and devout.

[Palwasha]

Why are we not united? We've fallen victim to too much pride.

Not every singly Pashtun follows Islam as they should, not every Muslim follows Islam as they should; in fact only 20% of the Muslim population pray five times a day. The disunity is no fault of Islam, rather the fault of ourselves. We allow divisions to come separate and come between us.

O people, We have created you from a male and a female and made you into races and tribes so that you may know each other. Surely the most honored of you in the sight of God is the one who is the most righteous of you” (49:13).

[Palwasha]

See? The Quran agrees that our primary identity is our Nation/Race and not our religion.

Not necessarily, how did you come to that conclusion? It merely states that we were created into nations and tribes, not that it's of more importance.

[Nadir Shah]

We are divided because we have lost the true essence of the message of Islam. We are too busy fighting over petty differences like how to pray, or are sufis muslims?, rather than takling the far bigger issues and working on our goals for betterment based on our similarities. We have become "know it alls" without having respect for other's opinions. Its these petty differences and outsiders have been continously exploited this to seperate us. Without having knowledge or undrestanding, people are declaring each other kafir, left right and center.

We also don't have any leadership or role models to show us the way. Sure Muhammad (Swt) and other islamic personalities should be our role models but they are all in the past. We don't have anyone present to aspire to. Religion, specially Islam is daily malinged and muslims have become scapegoats of today's society. Ideologies like communism, secularism and other deviant ideologies are creeping into our youth becuase our Mullahs are too incompetent to tackle or debate these issues and instead rely on rehtoric and empty words. We need to gain knowledge and refute these ideologies to safregaurd our unity and the status of Islam in our society.

I can go on for days, including things like nationalism and racism but the jest of it is, that we don't know enough about Islam and we don't practice is sencierly enough. Thats why I feel we are in this mess and unity looks unlikely if we keep being ignorant about our faith and why we are muslims.

How are daily prayers, fasting and Hajj going to help Pashtuns achieve their political, economic and cultural goals? How is praying 5 times a day going to give us back our stolen water of Abaseen? How are Sawabi Rojaas going to help us gain our tobacco revenue?

[Levanaye Zalmaye]

People should look at the world realistically.... States are socio-political (or geopolitical) entities and have their unique needs and those needs are the determinants of their foreign policies upon which those states choose to act. The Christians of Europe tried to unify with each other for almost a thousand years under Catholic Christianity until they realized after the loss of millions of lives and infinite money that it's impossible. They had more reasons to be united than us.

Two questions come to mind though - what do you mean by "Islamic unity" and why should Pashtuns unite with other 'fellow' Muslims when they are the ones who are responsible (partly or otherwise) for our current situation?

[Mutakhasis]

See? The Quran agrees that our primary identity is our Nation/Race and not our religion.

You left out the part

O people, We have created you from a male and a female and made you into races and tribes so that you may know each other. Surely the most honored of you in the sight of God is the one who is the most righteous of you” (49:13).

Let's not see what we want to see and start seeing what's actually there

[Levanaye Zalmaye]

And everyone from the followers of nonviolence to their opposites in Al-Qaeda believe that they are the "righteous".

[Nadir Shah]

You left out the part

O people, We have created you from a male and a female and made you into races and tribes so that you may know each other. Surely the most honored of you in the sight of God is the one who is the most righteous of you” (49:13).

Let's not see what we want to see and start seeing what's actually there

Very good point Mutakhasis Malgariya. Now I understand this verse totally. If I may re-phrase it as following:

'My primary identity is being a Pashtun/Afghan, but that does not grant me superiority among humans, rather I am only as good a human as my deeds.'

Agreed?

[Nadir Shah]

People should look at the world realistically.... States are socio-political (or geopolitical) entities and have their unique needs and those needs are the determinants of their foreign policies upon which those states choose to act. The Christians of Europe tried to unify with each other for almost a thousand years under Catholic Christianity until they realized after the loss of millions of lives and infinite money that it's impossible. They had more reasons to be united than us.

Two questions come to mind though - what do you mean by "Islamic unity" and why should Pashtuns unite with other 'fellow' Muslims when they are the ones who are responsible (partly or otherwise) for our current situation?

A more basic approach would be to list pros and cons for the participation of Pashtuns in the Pan Islamism. As an example, we should compare the positive points for Pashtuns/Afghans in an 'Islamic United Setup' versus, lets say, a Central Asian Union.

[Roshina]

Unity among Muslims? Practically impossible when the only way most of us think unity can be achieved is if we accept the SAME interpretation of Islam and that our interpretation is correct and everyone else's is wrong.

Sorry to break it to you, folks, but that's not unity at all.

We need to understand the *fact* that the current sects of Islam are a result of different interpretations of Islam (the Quran and Sunnah) and that these differences are perfectly legitimate. Why should either sect have to settle for the interpretation of the other? How do we decide WHICH interpretation is the correct one? We can never know -- we can only make judgments. And part of the problem is deciding which scholars to agree with and follow. We have evidence from this from folks even on PF, all of whom prefer different groups of scholars and different *websites* to trust. And then those same folks go around telling us we're wrong and who's Muslim and who's kaafir.

The Quran tells us to hold strongly to "the rope of God" (Islam), but why does that have to mean you're not allowed to have differences just because they lead to division? What if Side X believes that its interpretation is closer to correct while Side Y believes the same, and NEITHER is therefore willing to accept the other's? We really can't blame them for thinking that way -- until they start applying force and violent to make their point (as is the case with many groups of Muslims today and always has been). My question is always: Why should either side have to accept the views of the other side as "more legitimate" or "more correct" than its own views? And how do we decide WHICH side should give up its views for the other, submitting to the views/interpretation of the other side and at last rejecting its own?

God advised us to hold strong to His rope and to avoid division because He knew that division gives birth to disunity, which in turn gives birth to warfare and blood shedding.

So, once we liberate ourselves from this sick mentality that being united means being the SAME, following and practicing the exact SAME interpretation of our religion, doing everything the same way, etc., etc., only then can and only then will we be united.

Until then and as long as that's not the case, we will remain disunited.

We need to understand that unity shouldn't mean being the same. It should mean, instead, respecting each other in spite of (rather, because of) our differences, supporting each other, tolerating each other, etc. unless one side uses violence against us, in which case we'd have to stand up for ourselves and fight back.

[Roshina]

Quoting myself from another thread:

Speaking merely in theories does no help: the differences in interpretation need to be acknowledged, and a more creative, intelligent, and nonviolent way needs to be thought of in order to settle these differences. Avoiding violence for Muslims should not have to mean denying their differences, as legitimate as they are, for unity can be achieved alongside diversity. Making fruitless attempts to avoid expressing the differences between Shiite and Sunni Muslims does not solve the problem that has been a product of those differences; neither sect should have to accept the interpretation of the other when it can defend its conclusions intellectually. The focus, instead, should be on teaching each other how to accept differences and how to respond to an interpretation that does not coincide with the one people have been taught is the only possible one.