Allah’s Plan to Unite Muslims Whenever They Are Ready

By Naseer Ahmed, New Age Islam

14 December 2022

Muslims Split Into Sects within A Few Years of the Passing Away Of the Prophet – First In Two Sects Shia and Sunni, and Then into Many Sub-Sects. They Have Once Again Become Enemies of One Another and More Muslims Are Killed By Fellow Muslims Today, Than By Any Other People. They Kill Fellow Muslims in Wars As Well As In Acts of Terrorism

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The immediate question that pops up is why would Allah have the plan to unite the Muslims even before they spilt up into many sects. The answer lies in human nature and the past behaviour of the people by which it was certain that what did happen would happen despite Allah’s exhortations and warnings. The following is what Allah exhorted the Muslims:

(3:103) And hold fast, all together, by the rope which Allah (stretches out for you), and be not divided among yourselves; and remember with gratitude Allah´s favour on you; for ye were enemies and He joined your hearts in love, so that by His Grace, ye became brethren; and ye were on the brink of the pit of Fire, and He saved you from it. Thus doth Allah make His Signs clear to you: That ye may be guided.(104) Let there arise out of you a band of people inviting to all that is good, enjoining what is right, and forbidding what is wrong: They are the ones to attain felicity.(105) Be not like those who are divided amongst themselves and fall into disputations after receiving Clear Signs: For them is a dreadful penalty,-

However, the Muslims split into sects within a few years of the passing away of the Prophet – first in two sects Shia and Sunni, and then into many sub-sects. They have once again become enemies of one another and more Muslims are killed by fellow Muslims today, than by any other people. They kill fellow Muslims in wars as well as in acts of terrorism. Allah’s punishment for splitting up into multiple sects and practising Takfir against the other sects is warned in the following verse:

(6:65) Say: "He hath power to send calamities on you, from above and below, or to cover you with confusion in sectarian strife, giving you a taste of mutual vengeance - each from the other." See how We explain the signs by various (symbols); that they may understand.

Allah’s punishment in the form of sectarian strife and mutual vengeance will continue as long as we remain divided and end only when Muslims leave their respective sects and unite. Allah’s blessings are not for any sectarian Muslim but for those who shun every sect that does not faithfully follow the Quran.

Shun Every Divisive Sect

(6:159) As for those who divide their religion and break up into sects, thou hast no part in them in the least: their affair is with Allah: He will in the end tell them the truth of all that they did.

 (23:52) And verily this Brotherhood of yours is a single Brotherhood, and I am your Lord and Cherisher: therefore fear Me (and no other).(53) But people have cut off their affair (of unity), between them, into sects: each party rejoices in that which is with itself.(54) But leave them in their confused ignorance for a time.

 Sectarianism Is a Common Human Failing

The following verses make it plain from the history of mankind that human weaknesses result in differences arising and people splitting into sects.

(10:19) Mankind was but one nation, but differed (later). Had it not been for a word that went forth before from thy Lord, their differences would have been settled between them.

It is not Allah’s plan to settle the differences immediately but to let the people suffer and learn from their suffering if they will learn at all.

Selfish Contumacy Is a Major Cause of Sectarianism

(2:213) Mankind was one single nation, and Allah sent Messengers with glad tidings and warnings; and with them He sent the Book in truth, to judge between people in matters wherein they differed; but the People of the Book, after the clear Signs came to them, did not differ among themselves, except through selfish contumacy. Allah by His Grace Guided the believers to the Truth, concerning that wherein they differed. For Allah guided whom He will to a path that is straight.        

The splitting of the people over the issue of succession after the Prophet’s death, the Rida wars to put down the rebellion by tribes who refused to recognize the authority of the first Caliph, the war between the Prophet’s widow and son-in-law, the killing of the Prophet’s grandsons and dynastic successions from the fifth Caliph are differences on account of selfish contumacy.

Creeping Polytheism Is another Cause of Sectarianism

(30:32) Those who split up their Religion, and become (mere) Sects,- each party rejoicing in that which is with itself!(33) When trouble touches men, they cry to their Lord, turning back to Him in repentance: but when He gives them a taste of Mercy as from Himself, behold, some of them pay part-worship to other god´s besides their Lord,-(34) (As if) to show their ingratitude for the (favours) We have bestowed on them! Then enjoy (your brief day); but soon will ye know (your folly). (35) Or have We sent down authority to them, which points out to them the things to which they pay part-worship?(36) When We give men a taste of Mercy, they exult thereat: and when some evil afflicts them because of what their (own) hands have sent forth, behold, they are in despair!

The People of Faith

The people of strong faith remain unaffected by the sectarians and remain faithful to their covenant with Allah of not splitting into sects and deviating from the straight path that Allah has shown in His Book

(16:91) Fulfil the Covenant of Allah when ye have entered into it, and break not your oaths after ye have confirmed them; indeed ye have made Allah your surety; for Allah knoweth all that ye do.(92) And be not like a woman who breaks into untwisted strands the yarn which she has spun, after it has become strong. Nor take your oaths to practise deception between yourselves, lest one party should be more numerous than another: for Allah will test you by this; and on the Day of Judgment He will certainly make clear to you (the truth of) that wherein ye disagree.

(93) If Allah so willed, He could make you all one people: But He leaves straying whom He pleases, and He guides whom He pleases: but ye shall certainly be called to account for all your actions.

How Did The Muslims Go Astray?

The clear, unalterable message of Al-Furqan provides the standard by which to judge the extent to which Muslims are on misguidance. The Quran provides incontrovertible proof that every sect of Islam is on misguidance as we shall see later in this article. How did this happen? Because they gave precedence to the purported sayings of the Prophet over the Quran. The Mutazila had argued that mere reports transmitted ‘from so-and-so, to so-and-so’ could not be placed on the same level as the Qur’an and rejected the idea that anything other than the Qur’an and reason was necessary as a basis for law. The Qur’an, they argued described itself as ‘an elucidation of all things.’  For more on the subject, read:

Does The Quran Ask Us To Follow The Sunnat Of The Prophet?

Others such as Imam Shafi’i argued that the Qur’an ordered Muslims to obey the Prophet and that after his death, we should follow his teachings through reports of his sayings and deeds. If the Mu’tazila claimed that they could derive Islamic law and doctrine from the Qur’an alone, he asked, then where does the Quran teach us how to pray? The Mutazila countered that prayer was drawn from the living tradition of the Muslim community. This did not mean that Muslims should heed individual Hadiths on every particularity of the Shariah.

I have to further point out that the Quran orders not only the followers of Muhammad (PBUH) to obey their Prophet but ordered every people in the past to obey their prophets. What else do we expect Allah to order but to obey their prophet? This meant obeying the prophet living among them and nothing more. If it had meant more, Allah would have castigated the previous people for not preserving the Ahadith of their prophets and asked Muslims not to repeat their mistake but Allah does not do that. Neither did the Muslims feel it necessary to compile the Ahadith for over two centuries. Let us therefore not read into “Obey the Messenger” more than what it meant.

Moreover, if Allah has chosen not to detail the ritual of Salat in the Quran, it only means that Allah, in His infinite wisdom, decided to leave it to the discretion of the Muslims to devise their form of worship after providing broad guidelines in the Quran that Salat consists of prostrating together in congregation. Ritual is extremely important to humans but of little consequence to Allah. Since prayer in congregation is prescribed, there is no escape from following a ritual. Notwithstanding the Ahadith and the living tradition of Salat, practices differ from sect to sect. Do the differences matter? Not at all. The proof that ritual is important for us humans to follow is Allah’s command to turn towards the Kaba for prayer. The ritual unites the community of Muslims spread over the entire globe. The proof that ritual is of no consequence to Allah is verse 2:177 in which Allah rhetorically refers to the different directions in which Jews, Christians and Muslims turn while praying and says these differences are of no consequence as they do not constitute righteousness and then goes on to describe righteousness in terms common to the three faiths. So, if the three faiths differ in their rituals it matters little to Allah but what matters is covered by the remaining part of the verse.

Shafi‘i admitted that making Hadiths the primary source for the minutiae of law would mean relying on a source less certain than the Qur’an but he argued that the Prophet had sent his Companions out to other places to teach Islam to the people who had relied on the Prophets sayings to teach. If one could achieve confidence in the authenticity of a report from the Prophet, then was it not better to follow the Prophet than one’s own fallible reason he argued?  The argument is trying to make a virtue out of necessity. While the revelation of the Quran was not yet completed, there was no choice but to fill the gaps with what the Prophet had said. The Prophet’s personal opinion rarely agreed with what Allah eventually revealed which is to be expected. If this was not so, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) could have written the Quran himself. This also explains why the Ahadith differ from the clear message of the Quran on every subject. The Ahadith must therefore be treated as the Prophet’s sayings on a subject before the Quran’s revelations on the same subject and therefore abrogated by the Quran.

“The new epistemology and interpretive method proposed by Shafi‘i and the early Sunnis inverted that of the Kufans and Mutazila. The Qur’an was not the most powerful source for understanding the Islamic message. Certainly, it was the word of God and thus peerless in its ontological standing. But, as Shah Wali Allah explained, early Sunnis held that :The Sunna rules over the Book of God, the Book of God does not rule over the Sunna.“ (Brown, Jonathan. Misquoting Muhammad) How tragic! How do we know if the entire collection of what the Prophet said was not his personal opinion before a revelation from Allah abrogated it?

Allah guides those who seek Allah’s guidance and those who seek other than Allah’s guidance is allowed to stray. Giving precedence to the ahadith over the Book of God is to choose the path of error.

Proof That All Sects Are On Misguidance

Every sect of Islam believes in the following:

1.       That we have an immortal soul that survives our death.

2.       That we exist between death and being raised on the Day of judgment and that there is punishment in the graves for the sinners.

Two words “Nafs” and “Ruh” which are not even synonyms have been mistranslated to interpolate the concept of “soul” in the Quran. The precise meaning of these words and proof that neither means soul was brought out in my following articles published in July 2017:

1. Islam and Mysticism: Is ‘Nafs’ Soul? (Part - 1)
2. Islam and Mysticism: Is ‘Ruh’ Soul? (Part 2)
3. Islam and Mysticism: What Else Is Confused With Soul? (Part 3)

Why did the theologians invent the concept of the soul? For them the concept of a soul was a logical necessity to explain how when we die and turn to dust will we be raised up again in the Hereafter. They explained that our body is merely like an outer garment, and the real us is our soul which is spirit and never dies. This explanation is shunned by the Quran while responding to the same question which appears thirteen times spread through the Book in different Surahs as this was the oft-asked question by the Rejecters. The Quran does not in any instance explain with the concept of the soul.  It says Allah has the perfect record/information about every individual with which to recreate them exactly as they were right upto their fingertips. We know from science today, that every individual has a unique DNA code which is nothing but information with which they can be recreated exactly as they were matching even their unique fingerprints. Raising us on the Day of Judgment does not require a soul. This is covered in my following article published in November 2022 and doubly confirms what I had brought out more than five years before:

The Seemingly Unanswerable Question That Religion Raised

The proof is incontrovertible that there is no concept of the soul in the Quran and the Quran has shunned the explanation of the theologians which is common to all previous religions. This is also proof that the Quran is free from the errors that have crept into the previous scriptures through human accretion and redaction. The same error has crept into every translation of the Quran but we are fortunate that the Quran is available to each one of us as revealed which made it possible for me to detect this error. We are also now able to see how we can be resurrected when nothing except information about us survives which made it easy for me to reject the concept of a non-existent soul. This was not possible for the earlier people.

When there is no soul, there is no question of any existence between death and the Resurrection and therefore there cannot be punishment in the grave either and indeed there is no verse of the Quran that speaks of it. The Quran speaks of every stage of human life but has nothing to say of existence between death and resurrection. The following is one example:

23:12) Man We did create from a quintessence (of clay);

(The very first creation, followed by procreation)

(13) Then We placed him as (a drop of) sperm in a place of rest, firmly fixed;

(14) Then We made the sperm into a clot of congealed blood; then of that clot We made a (foetus) lump; then we made out of that lump bones and clothed the bones with flesh; then we developed out of it another creature. So blessed be Allah, the best to create!

(15) After that, at length ye will die

(16) Again, on the Day of Judgment, will ye be raised up.

What do we find after death except being raised on the Day of Judgment? I can cite many more examples.

Those who believe in existence after death also believe in punishment in the grave although the Quran does not speak about it.  Consider the following verse:

(46:35) …. On the Day that they see the (Punishment) promised them, (it will be) as if they had not tarried more than an hour in a single day.

If there was punishment in the grave, they should have seen/experienced the punishment after their death itself in their graves. They should also have a memory of it just as they would have a complete memory of their life in the world. If they have no memory of it and it would appear to them that they had waited after death for not more than one hour, it is because they didn’t exist during the intervening period.

Conclusion

The Quran is proof that every sect is on misguidance falsely believing in an immortal soul and punishment in the grave. The ahadith on this subject are numerous and all of them are proven false. This is only a small sample of the false beliefs of every sect. Should this not be the trigger for the Muslims to abandon their false sectarian beliefs and defective Islamic theology and come together on a common platform and be guided by the authentic message of the Quran? The trigger to unite people by making them realise the error of their ways is a powerful one and it will work when the Muslims are ready for it. They will be ready for it after they have suffered enough to learn humility and once again seek nothing except Allah’s help, surrender to Him completely and unconditionally. The scholars are the worst in bigotry and sectarianism and are least likely to come to their senses realising the error of their ways. The reform movement is more likely to spread through the common Muslim bypassing the Ulema.

(39:32) Who, then, doth more wrong than one who utters a lie concerning Allah, and rejects the Truth when it comes to him; is there not in Hell an abode for blasphemers? (33) And he who brings the Truth and he who confirms (and supports) it - such are the men who do right. (34) They shall have all that they wish for, in the presence of their Lord: such is the reward of those who do good: (35) So that Allah will turn off from them (even) the worst in their deeds and give them their reward according to the best of what they have done.

The verses above are proof that sending Muhammad as the seal of the prophets and revealing Al-Furqan which is also Kitabum Mubeen (perspicuous and clear book) is not enough and there will be a need for people who will have to bring out the truth and support it which is why Allah promises a handsome reward to such people. May Allah accept my efforts to bring out the true meaning of His Book and reward me as promised above and also those who support it.

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A frequent contributor to NewAgeIslam.com, Naseer Ahmed is an Engineering graduate from IIT Kanpur and is an independent IT consultant after having served in both the Public and Private sector in responsible positions for over three decades. He has spent years studying Quran in-depth and made seminal contributions to its interpretation.

URL:   https://newageislam.com/islamic-ideology/allah-unite-muslims-sects-prophet-sectarianism/d/128626

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