The Quran reminds us that, originally, humankind was one Ummah, but this unity was broken by various differences which the human beings created among themselves Surah 10 verse 19. It emphasizes the fact that the main purpose of sending God's message through various Messengers is to restore back the balance and unity of humankind, which once existed in the earliest period of human history - Quranic reference 2:213 & 57:25. The Quran warns us not to differentiate among Messengers Quranic reference 2:285 & 4:136, because all of them came from the same source, The Allah Almighty. But the followers of the Messengers Peace upon all of them, not only created differences among the Messengers but they also created divisions among themselves within the following of a single Messenger. As other people, we, the followers of Messenger Mohammad peace be upon him have also created divisions among ourselves. We have done this in spite of the very clear order of Allah Almighty to hold on to His rope together in unity and not be divided among ourselves surah 3 verse 103. As a matter of fact, we mostly follow the illusions built by ouremotions surah 25 verse 43 and the ways of our ancestors surah 2 verse 170 rather than the Quranic reality. This is because whenever we are confronted with the Quranic verses which clearly forbid differences and divisions among Muslims, we find a scapegoat and reply that we are not divided but we only have several schools of thought.
In reality though, these are not schools of thought but are schools of action. Only a few examples will suffice to support this argument: differences in what is forbidden and what is allowed by various schools as far as food is concerned; differences in forms of prayer; differences related to marriage and divorce etc. Everyone will agree that these differences whether major or minor are not just in thought but very much in action also. Majority of Muslims, though, likes to believe in ignoring these religious differences and divisions and carry on with their lives. However, our religious scholars are more interested in maintaining these differences by creating a sense of virtual unity that hides their sectarian differences. They prefer not to work for real unity because it exposes their differences. In fact, they are more interested in practicing virtual Islam rather than the real Islam our Messenger peace be upon him and Sahaabaa practiced. This makes every one feel satisfied, more or less.
