MISUNDERSTANDINGS LED TO THE DISPUTE --- By Remsha Jhutt

Allah has sent 1 lac and 24 thousand messengers in this world towards different tribes to preach the message of Allah to all of them without discrimination. But most of the nations murdered their messengers those were sent to them and then made changes in their holly books or scriptures as well. At the last, Allah sent Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.W) and revealed to him the holy book Quran. Allah, Himself took the responsibility for the safety of the book which resulted into no change in it even after 14 thousand years.
There are many scientific things mentioned in Quran on which today’s scientists agree which shows the authenticity of this Quran event in non-Muslims. Such as the science of the modern cosmology indicates that the whole universe was nothing but a cloud of smoke that is it was an opaque highly dense and hot gaseous composition. Same thing 14 hundred years back Allah said in Quran,

“Then he turned to the heaven when it was smoke…..” Al-Quran (41: 11)

Earth and heavens above formed from the same smoke. So, they are connected entities. Allah’s message and his Prophet’s teachings still are the same then why we are divided among different religious sects. I tried to find out the rejoinder by doing some study on it to see what contradictions if found. 

There are three major sects in Islam i-e Sunni, Shiah and Wahhabi. And further they have several sub sects. These sects are not created by our religion as Prophet Muhammad’s era there wasn’t such concept of Sunni, Shiah and Wahhabi at all. Our religion made make a person unique on the thing that “the person who conduct good in this world.”

As Allah said in Quran,

“O mankind! I have created you from a male and a female, and have divided you among nations and tribes that you may know one another. Lo! The noblest of you, in the sight of Allah, is the best in conduct. Lo! Allah is all knowing, all aware. “Al-Quran (49:13)

In this verse, there are two concepts given by Allah, one is DIFFERENTIATION and another is DISCRIMINATION. Allah said I have divided you among nations and tribes. So that by differentiating each other you can identify each other. But in the sight of Allah we are all equal. Our sect and creed system doesn’t matters to HIM. The only thing which matter to HIM is our action. We’ll be treated differently on the bases of good acts only like if we promote PEACE, LOVE and HUMANITY among mankind without making discrimination in Muslims & Non-Muslims.

According to history, after the assassination of 2^nd Khalifa Umer-bin-al-Khatab on Nov 3, 644 AD. Usman-Ibn-Affan elected as the 3^rd Khalifa. In his era, the famous and rich families of Mecca started establishing their private states. Usman refused to allow them to do so. Usman appointed Muawiyyah (the son Abu Suffiyan, enemy of Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.W)) the governor of Syria. He was a good Muslim and a skilled administrator. But it seemed wrong to the Muslims of Medina, who still boasted of being Ansar (helper) of Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.W) that they should be passed over in favor of Abu-Suffiyan’s offspring. Despite having victories, the soldiers were becoming discontented. And this discontented culminated into the treachery. There were some Jews who were creating this temptation under the leadership of Abdullah-ibn-Saba. In the result, the Abdullah-ibn-Saba entered into the house of Usman with his 8 companions and assassinated him also looted the public treasury. After that, the soldiers acclaimed Ali as the new caliphate and he was also supported by the Ansar of Medina and Mecca.  Discrimination was started from here. And this discrimination was created by the selfish people who were trying to seek the opportunity to get into power. While the companions and the family of Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.W) was innocent and they were stick to follow the true teachings of Islam. This discrimination led to the first fitnah of Islam, when Hazrat Aisha (R.A), the wife of Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.W), attacked with her kinsman to the Ali for not punishing the Usman’s murderers. This battle was called the battle of camel. Ali was also shocked on the murder of Usman. So the reason of the battle between them was a misunderstanding that was created by same Jews traitors who were involved in the murder of Usman. Ali got victory in this battle and gave high ranked jobs to those who supported him in this battle. Ali’s rule wasn’t accepted by Muawiyyah, who was leading opposition in Syria. Also got support from the wealthy Meccans and the Arabs of Syria. Ali was murdered by a kharijiti in 661. Those who remained loyal to Ali acclaimed his son Hassan the new caliph. But he got retired and came to an agreement with Muawiyyah. After that he lived his life in Medina without any political involvement. Muawiyyah made Damascus his capital and tried to unite the Muslim ummah. But the Muslims of the Iraq and Syria became the enemies of each other. Another discrimination we can observed that the Muslims of Syria were against Ali but after his death, still they were opposing those who were with him. But Muawiyyah came into an agreement of Ali’s son Hassan for holding rule instead of him. Later, some Muslims, who were loyal with Ali, started a jihad to achieve Higher Islamic Standards. They claimed that they are Shiah-i- Ali. (The Party of Ali). That were Shiah, the caste of Islam developed and later with the passage of time, due to contradictions, sub-casts were developed within them. They were also divided into sub-casts after the great second fitnah of Islam that was Karbala.

There were a great conflict between the need of the agrarian state and Islamic state. Muawiyyah departed from the Arab traditions to secure his succession and before his death, he mentioned his son Yazid as successor in his testament. But this was really shocking for the Muslims because Caliphs were selected before on the bases of merits or a council meetings were conducted in Medina to elect the Caliph. Muawiyyah’s this step was totally against the Islamic law as he decided to establish the dynasty system of rule by giving the name of his son as a successor. After that, In Kufah, the Shiah-e-Ali called for the rule of Ali’s second son Husain. The kufans intimated by the local government of Umayyad and withdrew their support, but Husain didn’t surrender. Husain was also struggling to remind the ummah the true Islamic values and their prime duties. Instead of an Islamic state Yazid was in the right of agrarian state. Because agrarian state provides opportunities for corruption. Although, Yazid wasn’t able to rule over the Muslim ummah. Outside the Kufah, Husain and his followers were surrounded by the troops of Umayyad. Yazid massacred the Prophet’s descendants brutally for the sake of power. Husain raised the voice against monarchy system and got martyrdom along with his family. Prophet’s family was a great threat to Yazid and all those rich families who wanted to make their private states. It was proved that integrating religion with the harsh world of politics is impossible. There were two types of Muslims in the ummah, one who wanted to follow the actual teachings of Islam and the other one was seeking the opportunities with Jews traitors to get into power.

Let’s discuss about another famous cast in Islam that is Wahhabi. Wahhabi were the people who were in the religious movement called Wahhabi Mission. That mission was led by an eighteenth century scholar, Muhammad Ibn-al-Wahhab. He started revivalist movement against the impurities and innovations in Islam. Wahhabism is also known as the branch of Sunni Islam. Ibn-al-Wahhab was a reformist who claimed that the current crises was best met by a fundamentalist return to the Quran and Sunnah. He set a part from Ottoman Empire and came to in a pact with Muhammad Bin Saud in 1744. According to the pact, Ibn-al-Wahhab would be responsible for the religious matters and Ibn-e-Saud would be responsible for the political and military issues. In this pact, the emergence of the first Saudi State, The Emirates of Diriyah was marked. Here we can again observe that the people with the lust of power always ready to pounce upon an opportunity. Ibn-e- Saud did so. That’s how a religious movement integrate with politics. Ibn-al-Wahhab was against the Sufi practice of Tawassul which is a mean by which a person approached to the goal or objective to attain it. While his son Abdullah speaks positively on the Tazkiyah which is the purification of the inner self and it’s also the practice of Sufi. Though, both the concepts of Tazkiyah and Tawassul are not against ‘Tawheed’. Ibn-al-Wahhab’s way of preaching was aggressive and conservative. Later, Abdul-Aziz the son of Ibn-Saud married to the daughter of Ibn-al-Wahhab. Ibn-Saud used the religion as a bases for legitimacy and established the house of Saud (The Saudi Empire) in Arabian Peninsula. Al-Hasa that was the main Shiah area of what is now Saudi Arabia. Shiah were treated so brutally and also declared as Rafidah (rejecters) by Ibn-al-Wahhab. That time Wahhabi ullama were ordered to demolish the Shiah mosques and hanged the Shiah ullama. Therefore, many of them succeeded to escape from Saudi Arabia and got political asylum in Iran where the Safavid Empire was ruling.

That is how Muslims divided into different sects and used religion to get political power. At start, after the death of Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.W) Jews created misunderstandings and fitnah among Muslims.  Instead of understanding the situations Muslims stood against each other. Sometimes misunderstandings and sometimes personal greed led the situation towards war and massacred.  Despite of dividing in so many religious sects still we bow in front of one GOD, we follow the teachings of Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.W) and we recite the one Quran then why we have so much anger and hate for each other. I will conclude it with the hadith of my beloved Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.W), reminds us that we are one,

“The example of the believers in their affection, mercy and compassion for each other is that of a body. When any limb aches, the whole body reacts with sleeplessness and fever.”