Muslims Need Unity Not Uniformity!

It is not very often that one comes across words of such profound wisdom that it makes one stop instantly to ponder deeply at what has been just said. The realization then dawns that it is so very true and you probably thought about it all the time but just failed to put the same in words.

This is what happened when I recently heard Imam Suhaib Webb use this phrase, 'Muslims need unity, not uniformity'. Now Suhaib Webb is kind of a new discovery for me. He is one of those Americans who had a hard time during his childhood and discovered Islam as a youth, got so fascinated by it that spend time some where in the Middle East; in his case Al-Azhar of Egypt (where he still is); to learn more about Islam and is now a full fledged scholar sharing and teaching Islam with the people of America.

Muslims should realize that Islam doesn't present a very rigid framework of dos and don'ts as one would tend to think or believe but is in fact a very vibrant and dynamic system which always never has one absolutely right option to choose. The Islamic law is a wide spectrum which lies within the allowed but yet has multitude of differences. Muslims can and should beg to differ on various contentious issues and work with wisdom and deep contemplation every time they face a problem.

Now there is a bit of more understanding to do. The traditional sources of Islam, i.e. The Quran, Muslim's Holy Book and the life of the Prophet of Islam, Muhammed (Peace Be Upon Him) shall always remain the primary and most basic sources of guidance to which Muslims will turn to for help when ever they have a life option to make. This probably means they wouldn't go the Christian way who now seem so far away from what Christianity originally taught, though such can be feared with Islam too with the advent of so many so called "liberals', 'moderates' or 'reformists' who in their attempt to set things straight deviate so much from the real spirit of the faith.

Coming back to our point, Muslims need to staunchly unite on theological basis on which there is no chance to budge. Islam offers pretty straight forward concepts on life, God, life after death, prohibitions and obligations, etc which Muslims have to comply with. But apart from that come hundreds of issues where in it cannot be expected from more than a billion people to act in the same manner, more so to be in uniformity with how Muslims lived for all these centuries. With the advent of globalization, easy travel and the spread of Islam to every corner of the world, Muslims have to come to terms with not only geographical and cultural differences but also the differences arising from the war of ideas.

How can one think today that there should be standing on common grounds in terms of say dress, food, language or societal makeup. Each of these have guidance from the traditional sources of course, but it can never so happen that there is absolute uniformity among all Muslims around the world on these issues. These are mere outwardly things. Imagine ideas and concepts. There can always be so much of debate and in the end there definitely is freedom in what opinion you adopt and surely you can be different from the others.

Muslims should learn to marvel sometimes in the diversity they adopt, while professing absolute, unrelenting and uniform faith. These should become points of extensive academic contemplation and research. There should always be rethinking on how you adopt to new challenges and how you gel with changing times to establish new patterns. Come to think of issues like democracy, global warming, poverty alleviation, education, birth control, insurance, internet and social networking, etc. All these are very intimidating problems for the Muslim scholars and it requires significant academic exercise to find solutions for. But we should eventually learn that we need to respect emergent differences on geographical and periodical basis that arise from such exercise. There should be freedom to adopt changing rulings based on the various parameters and requirements. An example to elucidate might be that birth control can be prohibited, partially allowed or completely allowed based on multiple factors and differences can still exist in different parts of the Muslim world.

Muslims should learn to realize the reality of such differences and learn to live with them but at the same time bind with each other world wide in a common bubble of brotherhood. Your differences should raise the esteem of the one you differ from and his right for the same be respected and at the same time every effort be made to avoid intolerance from cringing up, which in reality is the actual vice plaguing the Muslim world arising from such differences.

Newer times bring in newer problems and we as an Ummah* should rise to the occasion to not just relate with them and find solutions to them but also offer the same solution to the people of the world. This can form a very crucial and beneficial aspect of dawah* too. Muslims should learn to recreate the lost glory of its predecessors instead of just bragging about Islam's rich and resplendent history. Think of it. We have failed miserably to continue the torch of enlightenment which the Muslims had lit centuries ago and are now languishing in a heap of misery which is our own doing or quite ironically, undoing.


Ummah: The followers of The Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him)
Dawah: Invitation to Islam