unity: real or bogus
Once, I remember as a child asking my mother something along the lines of, “Who am I? Who are we?”
Now, as I look back, I know why I even asked the question. I never felt a sense of belonging. Like a stranger in a foreign land. Everyone in my school was Jehovah’s Witness, white, black, Christian, and everything in between, but there were no Muslims.
My mother said that we were Sunni and Hanafi and that is how most Muslims identified themselves.
I was so confused, but also intrigued. It was cool to know I was Sunni (whatever that meant), but wait, wasn’t I a Muslim?
Sunni? Hanafi? Where did that come from?
I probed more but soon got the feeling that she didn’t want to continue the conversation (I’ll admit I asked at the wrong time. She was working in the kitchen). Soon after, the case was closed, but I was left on a cliffhanger, even more uncertain than before of my identity. But as a kid, you trust your parents and learn to just let things go.
And I did just that.
Years later, I became a hafiz, completed the alim course which spanned three madrasas (fancy word: seminary] across three continents and started teaching the very stuff that took on the existential questions like the one a curious child had asked an eon ago.
The question was very basic, but necessary, as I discovered years later after political correctness slowly infiltrated the Islamic milieu, especially in the West.
It started with this trumpeting about unity on the minbar and in conferences and other Islamic events. We needed to put our differences aside and be one, we were told. I understood all this talk about unity, but it was all preaching to the choir. I couldn’t agree more to the importance of unity, but the vagueness was annoying. What type of differences are we being asked to put aside?
Differences come in different sizes and degrees. Some we can put aside, others we cannot.
If you like green more than blue and I don’t, we can agree to disagree and be united. If you think we should do things one way and I believe it should be the other, we can disagree and still be united. Differences of opinion are not roads to disunity. But someone telling me the sky is under my feet and the earth above my head is not a difference of opinion. It’s not even different perspectives.
It’s two different realities.
This is how it works with belief. If you call yourself a Muslim but you believe some impostor is a prophet or believe that Abu Bakr and Umar (ra) were apostates, I am sorry, but that is two irreconcilable realities with the Islam that I know. In that case, there can never be unity, at least, under the umbrella of Islam.
Yes, we can still live and let live under the umbrella of humanity.
The hadith about 73 sects
The Prophet (sa) prophesized that sectarianism will prevail in this Umma and that many groups will emerge claiming to be Muslim. He says in this famous, authentic hadith that there were 72 sects in Bani Israel while our umma will be divided into 73 sects. All will enter the Hellfire, but for one [Abu Dawud 4/324].
Now, every group claims to be on the haqq. But how are we to be united when, according to this hadith, every group is hellbound but for one?
The Prophet (sa) was then asked to define the saved sect. He replied, “Upon which I and my Companions are” [Tirmidhi: 2641].
Those who follow the Sunna of the Prophet (sa) and all the Sahaba without exception are the guided ones. They are the Muslims. They are the followers of the Sunna and the Jama’a of the Sahaba.
Now you understand the coinage: Ahl Sunna wa al-Jama’a.
Therefore, there is no conflict between being a Muslim and being Ahl Sunna wa al-Jama’a at the same time. There wasn’t even a need for the name Ahl Sunna wa al-Jama’a, but for the fact that the Prophet (sa) himself assigned the name to identify the true believers from false claimants.
What’s interesting is that though the Prophet (sa) frequently emphasized the importance of unity in the umma [e.g., a Muslim is a brother of a Muslim [Abu Dawud, 4/424] and even predicted a time when the umma will be divided, yet he is conspicuously quiet in this prophesy about unity. Instead, he identifies the saved sect so that the distinction between true and false Muslims is crystal clear. He is encouraging those who are on the Straight Path to maintain that distinction while guiding those who are not to live up to their claim and change their ways.
His answer is telling that adhering to Quran and Sunna is more important than establishing of unity.
Where did we go wrong
The problem is that our understanding of unity is not refined by the Quran and Sunna. Unity is not this cuddly feel-good concept of togetherness that we must live and die for at the cost of compromising the principles of our faith.
Loyalty to that degree is exclusive to Allah and His Prophet (sa) only.
We only unite by the order of Allah and disunite by the order of Allah.
Yes, we even disunite by the order of Allah!
Take a close look at the [translation of] the following ayah:
Indeed, those who have believed and emigrated and fought with their wealth and lives in the cause of Allah and those who gave shelter and aided- they are allies of one another. But those who believed and did not emigrate-for you there is no support of them until they emigrate. And if they seek help of you for the religion, then you must help, except against a people between yourselves and whom is a treaty… [8:72]
In simple words: in the case that the Muslims sign a truce with a group of disbelievers who are oppressing the Muslims who did not migrate from Makka, and the non-migrating group seeks their help, Allah is enjoining the emigrant Muslims not to help their own Muslim brothers against the disbelievers with whom they have signed a treaty.
This is why the Prophet (sa) returned Abu Baseer, a sahabi who fled Makka and sought refuge in Madina, to the Makkans with whom he had signed a treaty in Hudaybiyya in 6/628.
Surrendering your brother to the enemies of Islam? Our modern definition of unity certainly doesn’t fly in this scenario. But we understand why. We must live by our treaties and truces even if it's with an enemy and even if our fellow brother may have to suffer for it. In other words, adhering to the principles of Islam is superlative.
So much for the modern version of unity. Unity, in reality, is in holding to the principles of faith together as Allah says:
And hold firmly to the rope of Allah all together and do not become divided. And remember the favor of Allāh upon you - when you were enemies and He brought your hearts together and you became, by His favor, brothers [3:103].
When we hold strong to the principles and our fundamentals, Allah brings us together.
As for the modern version, two contrasting realities can never be melded into one just like how black can never be one with white.
The differences between the Four Imams are not differences in the fundamental aspects of faith. They are differences of opinion between oceans of knowledge.
In this context, it is much easier to understand Imam Malik’s response to the Abbasid caliph, Mansur, who wanted to impose Imam Malik’s book, the Muwatta, as the law of the land and said, “We will copy this book, command people to adhere to it and will send copies of it to each of the Islamic provinces so that the Umma may follow it.” Imam Malik said, “O leader of the believers, differences between the scholars is a mercy from Allah for this umma. Each followed what he believed to be correct; each was upon guidance, each aspiring to Allah” [Tabaqat Ibn Sa’d: 5/468]. Since the differences between the four imams are not different realities but differences of opinion regarding some open-ended scriptural text, it is a form of mercy for the Umma. According to a weak hadith, this difference of opinion is a rahma [Kanz al-‘Ummal: 10/136] because it makes practical adherence to the Law more flexible for the Umma and does not create divisions, since the differences are not fundamental in nature.
All in all, the bottom line is there is no unity in compromising of our faith while there is no disunity in differences of opinion [such as between the Four Imams] since the ultimate objective behind their ijitihad was nothing more than to please Allah.
So, to answer the childhood question: I am Muslim and Sunni and Hanafi all at the same time just as how I am human, Asim, and my father’s son all at the same time.
