Shajar Hai Firqa-Aarayi, Ta’assub Hai Samar Iska
Yeh Woh Phal Hai Ke Jannat Se Nikalwata Hai Adam ko
When Moses returned to his people and saw them worshiping an Idol. He asked his brother Aaroon:
“What prevented you when you saw them going astray? That you followed me not? Have you have then disobeyed my order?”
Aaroon replied:
“O son of my mother! seize me not by my beard nor by my head. Verily, I feared that you would say ‘You have caused a division among the children of Isreal and you have not respected my word.’ “
The bold statement in the above verse, 92-94 from Chapter 20 Al-Quran, has a great lesson. Moses got satisfied with his brother’s answer. Why? Probably, Aaroon thought that worshiping an idol is totally stupefied and may easily be stopped by a little enlightment they all were waiting for, but if they get divided then it will become very difficult to gather them again. And this reason was enough to make Moses satisfied.
Oneness
Bazoo Tera Tauheed Ki Quwwat Se Qawi Hai
According to the Quran, idolatry or assigning partners to the one GOD (shirk) is an egregious sin. The first thing that Islam speaks about is “Oneness (Tauheed)”. But what does that “Oneness” mean? Does it mean worshiping a single God? What if you worship a single GOD but have idols in your heart that you follow in your daily lives? In Iqbal words:
Buton Se Tujh Ko Ummeedein, Khuda Se No-Meedi,
Mujhey Bata To Sahih Aur Kafri Kya Hai?
Oneness is achieved when everyone associates himself/herself to a single authority and spends life according to a single message. This oneness can never be achieved if human are divided in different religions and sects, where each sect has different authorities and different messages.
How We Divided?
Bayan Mein Nuqta-e-Tauheed Aa To Sakta Hai
Tere Dimagh Mein But-Khana Ho To Kya Kahiye?
First Episode
From the first day of human intellect, Allah wanted “Oneness” to be the major pillar of DEEN so all messengers brought the same message. Whenever people deviated from this path and be divided into sects, Allah sent a messenger to bring them again under a single roof.
Qur’an – Chapter 2 – Verse 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.
But people started associating themselves to messengers and invented new religions from a single DEEN. For example, Jews accepted Moses and all messengers prior to him but refused to accept Jesus. Who accepted Jesus were called Christians and also accepted all messengers prior to Jesus but refused to accept Mohammad. The reason was the association to the messengers instead of Allah. Allah ended the line of prophets with the advent of Mohammad P.B.U.H. People who accepted Mohammad also accepted all the messengers prior to him.
Qur’an – Chapter 2 – Verse 136:
Say (O Muslims): We believe in Allah and that which is revealed unto us and that which was revealed unto Abraham, and Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the tribes, and that which Moses and Jesus received, and that which the prophets received from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and unto Him we have surrendered.
Qur’an Chapter 33, Verse 40:
Muhammad is not the father of any man among you, but he is the messenger of Allah and the Seal of the Prophets; and Allah is ever Aware of all things.
People once again started coming under a single roof and associated themselves to a single GOD. They started practicing what was revealed from Allah. History is witness that Muslims became the most respected nation in the world. But this glory could not be continued longer.
Second Episode
Qur’an – Chapter 3 – Verse 144:
Muhammad is but a messenger, messengers (the like of whom) have passed away before him. Will it be that, when he dieth or is slain, ye will turn back on your heels? He who turneth back on doth no hurt to Allah, and Allah will reward the thankful.
Qur’an – Chapter 3 – Verse 103:
And hold fast, all of you together, to the Rope of Allâh and be not divided among yourselves, and remember Allâh’s Favour on you, for you were enemies one to another but He joined your hearts together, so that, by His Grace, you became brethren, and you were on the brink of a pit of Fire, and He saved you from it. Thus Allâh makes His Ayât clear to you, that you may be guided.
Within the first 50 years of Islam, muslims started getting divided into different groups. Initially, the reason was not the differences in practices but gradually different groups started following different personalities and each group considered its leader as the final authority over DEEN. This ummah had the responsibility to spread the good and stop the evil but this objective could only be acheived if muslims were united. Today, people do not call themselves as “muslims” they have many other identities. If you have any doubt then try sometime asking someone.
Qur’an Chapter 6, Verse 159:
Verily, those who divide their DEEN and break up into sects, you (O Muhammad SAW) have no concern in them in the least. Their affair is only with Allâh, Who then will tell them what they used to do. (159)
Initially there were only 2 sects, then these 2 sects got further divided, and getting divided day by day. Few of them follow an Imam but still do not offer prayers in each others’ mosque. You just collect fatwas that they have directed against each other, finally you will ask “if everyone is wrong then who is right?” Every sect considers itself “correct” according to the beliefs they have extracted from Qur’an or from narrations. Every sect has its own narrators and narrations and don’t consider other narrators or narrations reliable.
Qur’an – Chapter 30 – Verse 32:
Be not of those who split up their DEEN, and became sects, each sect rejoicing in that which is with it.
Qur’an Chapter 3 Verse 105:
And be not as those who divided and differed among themselves after the clear proofs had come to them. It is they for whom there is an awful torment. (105)
Iqbal replies the Shikwa in Jawab-e-Shikwa and says:
Manfiyat Aik Hai Is Qaum Ki, Nuqsan Bhi Aik
Aik Hi Sab Ka Nabi, Deen Bhi, Imaan Bhi Aik
Haram-e-Paak Bhi, Allah Bhi, Qur’an Bhi Aik
Kya Bari Baat Thi Hote Jo Musalman Bhi Aik!
Firqa-Bandi Hai Kaheen, Aur Kaheen Zaatein Hain
Kya Zamane Mein Panapne Ki Yehi Baatein Hain?
Youn To Sayyed Bhi Ho, Mirza Bhi Ho, Afghan Bhi Ho
Tum Sabhi Kuch Ho, Batao To Musalman Bhi Ho?
The Solution
1)
Qur’an – Chapter 49 – Verse 9:
And if two parties or groups among the believers fall to fighting, then make peace between them both, But if one of them outrages against the other, then fight you (all) against the one that which outrages till it complies with the Command of Allâh; then if it complies, then make reconciliation between them justly, and be equitable. Verily! Allâh loves those who are equitable.
Who has been addressed here to make peace between two parties? It’s a party that do not belong to any sect. It was Mohammad P.B.U.H at that time and his true followers. But it had to be continued after Mohammad P.B.U.H so it actually means a Central Authority that follows Quranic System, Quran termed it as “Qibla”.
Qaumon Ke Liye Maut Hai Markaz Se Judaayi
2)
The Qur’an is the only way to understand the real essence of Islam and no doubt this book (Qur’an) has no contradictions while other books do have and these contradictions lead to the differences between sects. Muslims nowadays have blind faith on those books that are not from Allah. Qur’an is being used for “sawaab” purposes only, actually misusing it and DEEN is being extracted from books other than Qur’an.
Qur’an – Chapter 4 – Verse 82:
Will they not then ponder on the Qur’an? If it had been from other than Allah they would have found therein many contradictions.
Qur’an – Chapter 2- Verse 78-79:
And there are among them illiterates, who know not the Book, but (see therein their own) desires, and they do nothing but conjecture. (78) Then woe to those who write the Book with their own hands, and then say: “This is from Allah” to traffic with it for a miserable price! Woe to them for what their hands do write and for the gain they make thereby.
Will you still follow books other than Qur’an?
Final Words
The enemies of Islam, unfortunately they are not outsiders, have played great games in the past but we are still unaware of those conspiracies and taking those unquranic beliefs and teachings as DEEN. Try to think at least what are the reasons of downfall of muslim ummah? Few thousands muslims were strong when they followed Qur’an and the exact DEEN revealed by Allah but now 1.4 billion muslims have no strength. Could this be the same practices that Mohammad P.B.U.H and his companions followed or practices have been changed somehow?
Please Think, You Can Think
!mran
Filed under: Islam | Tagged: Deen, Downfall, Firqa Bandi, Islam, Mohammad, Oneness, Qibla, Quran, Sectarianism, Tauheed
Imran has done a very good debate on Sectarianism (Firqa-Bandi) and I am totally with the concept but what we see from forever many intellectuals came talked about this and then disappeared like the one greatest Iqbal but we need applications and their results as fast as possible. I think Sectarianism is one of another big problem among Muslims like education (ilm , knowledge not taleem) why don’t we try make every one intellectual so he/she decide his/her own path correctly. Making intellectual means lets do not talk about what is wrong and what is right. Let’s do good things so the badness disappears itself this is what non-muslims have done for their nations that’s why they getting success and someday they are going to change their belief system about religion too I hope !!.
That is the problem of “Firqa bandi” that has damaged the Islam by making categories or groups which has distributed the islamic unity , on the other end we see other religious races Christians, Hindus, JEws do not have so much firqa bandi
This firqa bundi has really blurred the real image of Islam
imran,
very good start and firqa bandi is only one of the problems that muslims all over the world face. i think the more interesting question which needs to be debated in islamic societies across the world is why we muslims are in such decline and how we should rectify this problem. in my humble opinion the decline of muslims across the globe began when we stopped giving importance to education and science. at its zenith, the Islamic world was the leader in education and science not to mention literature, poetry, the arts, music etc. We produced the world’s leading scientists and much of modern medicine, astronomy, mathematics etc is based on findings and discoveries made by Muslims. Entire volumes of the Greek philosophers would have been lost forever had they not been translated into Arabic by men of letters. The list is long and distinguished. The decline began when we stopped freedom of thought, the emphasis on education which is clearly mentioned in the Quran and the Hadith by the Prophet (PBUH). The decline and rot started then.
Today, the Islamic world of 1.5 billion people produces no significant academic or scientific contribution to the world. Our universities which used to be ranked at the top in terms of global rankings are now at the bottom of the heap. our great libraries which were visited by people from all over the world are no more. Can you imagine that the entire Islamic world produces less scientific material than the state of israel which is 3 million people.
Given the situation we are in it is only natural to blame others for our predicament. This is not the case. Yes external forces might want to keep us down but getting to stage we can only blame ourselves. And the solution is also something only we can work out but only after we admit that we are here because of our own shortcomings – whether they are in terms of leadership or what is now important to us.
btw Ahmed, there is a lot of firqa bandi in all the religions you have named – not to the same extent but the fissures are there.
best,
shakir
Thank you shakir, It is nice to have your comments here. I totally agree with what you and asif ali wrote.
I have the stats with me. Fifty seven muslim countries have just five hundred universities that means one university for every three million muslims. I have this topic in my list, will be writing very soon.
I do not consider non-muslims as “enemies of Islam”, enemies and criminals of Islam are majority of musilms themselves. There is a monopoly of few people having a specific set of mind, so much ritualism, fatalism, mullah propogated beliefs and principles, lack of education, ignoring matters of this world, waiting for the rewards in hereafter.
You are right that the decline began when we stopped thinking and of course there are also reasons behind this idleness. Iqbal pointed out three major things, he says “ae kushta-e-sultani-o-mullayi-o-peeri” means “Victim of Monarchy, Mullayiat and Blind Following”
Thank you,
!mran
Totally agreed, no one can deny the importance of education and the fact that we are lacking in it!
Just recently I read the case study about how Catholic Church has been operating and how multinational companies should take lessons from it. In that it was clearly mentioned that the biggest core competency were the core ideas and values around which it evolved remained the same since its creation i.e. 2000 years, but in our case sadly that was not maintained for few hundred years!
Hello Imran,
I should appreciate that you brought up this topic for discussion which really have compelled us to think about this issue in our Ummah.
While I was thinking about this a question came to my mind that the sectarianism started right after the death of Prophet (P.B.U.H) (Shia and Shunni) but still in the time of Hazrat Umer and even after his regime muslims conquered half of the world, then what is the reason that we can not achieve this height, glory now.
Secondly, i think when we look at each other as muslims belonging to other sects we do not try to look at the commonalities amongst us but we try and look at the differences , how did this happen? In spite of believing in the same God and the same prophet (P.B.U.H) we feel that we all are different? Don’t you think that one God and His Prophet (P.B.U.H) are the reason enough for unity?
I also believe that we should take this sectarianism or I would like to call it pluralism or diversity in Muslim Ummeh as strength rather than taking it as a burden on the Ummeh. Allow me to explain myself…. Quran, which is another commonality between us (Ummeh) is written in a very parabolic language… full of stories …. Full of narrations which can be interpreted differently, as Arabic is a very powerful and rich language … one word has many meaning s …. I would say that every sect which we are talking about within ummeh has their own set of interpretations other than the commonalities which I mentioned above …. Now what is needed here is a BROADER thinking, where we should be willing to accept other perspectives of looking at things, other viewpoints of interpreting Quran and this is what makes Pluralism, diversity as strength …..
Why this is not happening now?????…. Muslims saw their part of glory to rule the world and this is by rule that every glory sees the decline when there is pride, injustice in the society, as this is human nature that when you achieve something you then start taking everything for granted and stop being thankful to Lord for those things …..
“Jiss din insaan apne aap ko Makhlooq hone k baje KHALIQ tasawwr karta hai uss ka zawal wahin ho jata hai”
Muslims also did the same .. we should always remember that everything has been created by our lord the only thing we need to do is to unveil it …. But Muslims have stop being humble to the fellow beings …. Have forgotten that we need to thank that ONE lord for everything ……
Why we muslims think that we have the right to kill the people of other religions?? When God gave them the share in this world why should we start throwing them out of the world? We should accept the existence of ALL the people in the world and stop thinking that ISLAM is the ONLY right path to reach to God …. Christianity and Judaism were also from God (as we know Moses and Jesus were also sent by God).
I think when we will broaden our thinking and accept Everything as part of God’s creation and give them the same respect everything will work fine.
Assalam o alaykum to all
Brother AG,
You said (Why we muslims think that we have the right to kill the people of other religions??) Perhaps you are unaware that we muslims are not allowd to kill non-muslims, its mentioned in the Quran (11:256) “Let there be no compulsion in religion”.It is even prohibited to even force a non muslim to accept islam.
And more importantly you said “Christianity and Judaism were also from God (as we know Moses and Jesus were also sent by God).I think when we will broaden our thinking and accept Everything as part of God’s creation and give them the same respect everything will work fine”. Thats what you said right, brother AG we know that Christianity and Judaism were sent by God but my dear brother they are no longer present in their original form as sent by God. Bcos it is still mentioned in the Bible about prophet Muhammad PBUH about his coming as proved by Dr zakir Naik.but Christians and Jews do not believe it and they are doing totally against what prophet Jesus and Mosas tought them. We muslims do respect them as a human but who ever have a knowledge of Quran can easily say that they are not on the right path , brother our duty is to convey the message of Islam to them in an effective and intellectual way not to say that they are on the right path bcos if we would say that then how can we correct them ???
With due respect i think you havn’t read Quran properly with the translation and understanding otherwise you would not had said that “We should stop thinking that ISLAM is the ONLY right path to reach to God” bcos in Quran Allah(GOD) says that “The Religion before Allah is Islam (submission to His Will): Nor did the People of the Book dissent therefrom except through envy of each other, after knowledge had come to them. But if any deny the Signs of Allah, Allah is swift in calling to account”.(Surah 3:Al-i-Imran Verse 19)
It is not some Mullah’s interpretation it is just the translation of the Quranic verse So its proved that its wrong to say that Allah created humans with different believes, Allah(GOD) gave all the humans the same message of submission to his will but later people deviated from the real path God didnot made them to deviate, its their own choice and crime. But even then we muslims do not hate them bcos its our duty to show the true picture of Islam to the non muslims.
At the end i just want to say that brother Imran is right and to get united we should only follow the Quran and the Sahih Hadith of the Prophet Muhammad PBUH , we have to be very cautious when we consult hadith we should make sure about the validity of the Hadith.
Before going the last words i want to say are that if we want to get succeeded in here and hereafter we should start obeying Allah and his Prophet Muhammad PBUH, brothers stop thinking and start obeying, look what Allah(GOD) said in Quran “Say: If it be that your fathers, your sons, your brothers, your mates, or your kindred; the wealth that ye have gained; the commerce in which ye fear a decline: or the dwellings in which ye delight – are dearer to you than Allah, or His Messenger, or the striving in His cause;- then wait until Allah brings about His decision: and Allah guides not the rebellious.
(Surah 9-At-Taubah Verse 24)
Its easy to blame others what about our own selfs , talking is easy but implementation is difficult so lets promise today that from now on we will become a practicing muslims as Allah wants us to become, let start with commonalities like we will never leave any prayers , we will never tell a lie on and on and on and its nothing to do with sectarianism bcos we all believe in these things commonly, arn’t we ??
May Allah guide us all to the paths of heaven.
Your Brother in Islam
Hasan
A good read.
http://iht.com/articles/2008/06/25/opinion/edcohen.php
AG!
I took many days to write on this topic. I pondered on this issue a lot and when I was writing I was very concious about each and every word. I could go into the details myself but it would become so long to read. That’s why I summarized it and thought people could think further themselves.
Actually the main problem is that muslims are not clear even on the basic concepts of Islam. The downfall of muslims began when Islam started being considered as a religion instead of a DEEN. It was not something between God and Man. Islam brought a system to serve humanity and wanted to involve men to establish a heavenly society. But unfortunately after few years, it started inheriting the religious concepts from other religions and Islam lost its attraction. Why It happened? Because people left the rope of Allah that is Qur’an and started associating themselve to different personalities instead of a single GOD. “Tauheed” bacame “Worshiping a single God” so people worshipped Allah but lived according to others.
I will soon be writing on “Reasons of Downfall of Muslim Ummah” that will probably cover all these issues.
Here I would like to reply on some of your points.
You said: “the sectarianism started right after the death of Prophet (P.B.U.H) (Shia and Shunni) but still in the time of Hazrat Umer and even after his regime muslims conquered half of the world, then what is the reason that we can not achieve this height, glory now.”
My Response: See, Few problems do not give their results immediately. Sometimes, It takes years or sometimes centuries. And second thing conquering half of the world is not a criteria to check the affects of Islam on the society. But I believe the muslim society in the time of Hazrat Umar was the practical example of the revelation. He was the one of the closest companions of Mohammad P.B.U.H, obviously he received pure Islamic Teachings. Why he said that “even if a dog dies near the valley of farat, umar will held responsible”? He could easily divert this issue towards GOD. But He knew that Islam is a system and we have to establish it ourselves.
You said that we should take this sectariansim as a strength and should find commonalities between them.
My Response: You mean we should mix diamonds with the garbage and then find those diamonds again? There is a big difference between School of thoughts and sects. A wall could also be built straight with bricks of different colors but if a single brick has been adjusted improperly then you can imagine where that wall can go. Two lines with minor difference in their angles even starting from a single point will always go in different directions.
And in response to your last paragraph: There may be different ways to reach to a destination but there will be only a single path that will go straight towards your destination and that is called “Sirat-e-Mustaqeem”. Who told you that Judism and Christianity or the “Altered” Islam were from Allah? I think you re-read “First Episode” from my post.
Thank You
A very good column but ont thing is missing is the reasons of sectarainism.