Muslim Woman

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 our

emotions 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.