Unity And Social Cohesion
M.A.
Khan Dehlavi
To maintain the unity of
the Ummah is an act of worship, and to undermine it is an act of rebellion
against Allah. Unity, peace and social cohesion are maintained by safeguarding
Islamic beliefs and practices because allegiance to other philosophies, or unfatuation
with other systems, and the pursuit of one's caprice sow the seeds of
dissension in the hearts of the people.
"Verily there has come to you a Messenger from amongst yourselves: grievous to him is your suffering; anxious is he over you: gentle to the believers, compassionate". (9:128).
The Holy Prophet's (ﷺ)
entire life and his teachings show a solicitude for the well-being of the
Muslims both in this world and in the Hereafter. It is a pity that we are
either ignorant of those teachings or we disregard them. The entire Ummah is
suffering from the consequences of our revolt. We should study the following
Hadiths and reflect upon the various events in current history that have mauled
the Muslim ummah because it did not pay heed to the teachings of the Noble
Prophet (ﷺ).
1. The Messenger of Allah, said: The likeness of the
Muslims (as a body or millat) is the likeness of the body of a person; if his
eye is sore, the whole body feels the discomfort and if his head aches the
whole body become restless. (Noman bin Bashir- Mishkat)
If an individual in one's neighbourhood or in the
community needs help, it is the duty of the Muslims to help him. Social peace
and the power of the community depend on this voluntary help eagerly given to
those who stand in need of it. This is an act of worship and not merely a
measure for maintaining social and economic peace. If a body of Muslims within
a country, or a politically organized community of Muslims needs help, it is
the duty of the other Muslim groups or nations to come to its help. If a jamaat
of Muslims should stand aside and allow another group to fall a prey to
internal misfortune, or external machinations and pressures, the turn of that
jamaat itself would come on another day. The principle of Islamic social life
is: one for all and all for one. Muslims ignored this teaching, and their
internal feuds and fratricidal warfare destroyed the unity and the power of the
Ummah. The ranks of the Muslims have thinned out in this manner, and they
themselves have destroyed their power in this fashion.
2. The Messenger of Allah, said: One who deceives the
Muslims and sows dissension in their hearts, and a miser, and one who recalls
his favour to the mind of one on whom it was conferred, will not enter
Paradise, (Abu Bakr Siddiq (RDA).
Man is himself a fakir, a
suppliant. It is presumptuous of him of regard himself as the owner or source
of something that he bestows as a gift or favour upon a fellow man. A person
should not nullify his act of kindness by so proclaiming it that it hurts the
sensibility of the person to whom the kindness was shown. Allah is the
Benefactor, and it befits Him only to remind His creatures of His bounty and
favours; and therefore AI-Mannan is one of the most beautiful names of Allah.
3. The messenger of Allah (ﷺ), said: Purify your Deen (of all debased beliefs and
practices, and selfish motives), the little good that you then do will suffice
you. Mu'az bin Jabal - Mishkat)
Deen is the law laid down by Allah, and expounded by
the Noble Prophet (ﷺ), through his Sunnah. The law prescribes the modes of
worship as well as rules for regulating social life. Worship and upright living
together constitute the Deen, which means a way of life. We should be devout
and sincere in our worship, and should not allow un-lslamic beliefs and
practices to confound the prescribed ritual and observances. We should be
sincere in out social relationship. Our actions should not be inspired by selfish
motives. They should be free from the taint of hypocrisy. They should not be
performed for the sake of being seen by men or for some worldly gain. Our
worship and our social dealings should have but one purpose: to earn the
pleasure of Allah.
4. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), said: Allah the Exalted does not look at your faces
or your wealth, but He looks at your hearts and your deeds. (Abu Hurairah -
Mishkat)
Mere lip service to the Deen, superficial deeds not
inspired by sincerity and devotion to Allah, or any good deed down for show or
personal glory, and sanctimoniousness do not earn any merit. While a person may
deceive his fellowmen as to the nature of his beliefs and intentions, he cannot
deceive Allah Who Knows the motives and the innermost thoughts of man. The fear
that Allah is watching us, and belief in our accountability to Him for our
actions - which is the significance of the Hereafter - are the only factors
which can ensure peace and happiness in social life on the globe.
5. Abu Hurairah (RDA) narrates that he heard the
Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), say: Whosoever defies authority and abandons the
jam'at and dies thereafter, dies the death of jahiliyah; and whosoever fights
under a dubious flag or is incited to fight by (his passion for) tribalism or
factionalism, or propagates tribalism or factionalism, or propagates tribalism,
or supports the cause of tribalism and is killed (in the fight), is slain in
the state of jahiliyah; and whosoever draws the sword against my Ummah and
kills the righteous (as well as) the wrong-doing people and does not spare the
believers, and does not keep faith with the people with whom a treaty had been
made, does not belong to me and I do not belong to him. (Abu Hurairah -
Mishkat)
Jahiliyah (from jahl, ignorance)
means the state of Kufr, or un-belief among the pagan Arabs before the advent
of Islam. The Hadith makes it clear that anyone who creates a rift in the
community and unfurls his banner to the detriment of the Ummah is like an
unbeliever of the pre-Islamic times. It warns the Muslims of the grave
consequences of mutual bickering, inter-nal rivalries and conflicts, the manoeu-vering
for advantage or power, and of what has now acquired respectability as
institutionalized opposition. Such activities weaken the Ummah, and split it up
into rival communities, each of which in time falls a prey to an alien power. A
life of utter degradation, devoid of self-respect prosperity arid prestige, is
the evil consequence, which for the foolish acts of a few. The consequence in
the Hereafter is too forbidden to contemplate.
Dubious flag means a cause which is not just. Asabiyah
which has been severely condemned here, has emerged in new and refined forms in
modern life, such as the ethnic feeling or movement, the movement on the basis
of linguistic affinity political parties and various factions within the
parties, trade unions, professional associations and brotherhoods. Some of them
may be harmless to social life, but, as inferred from this Hadith, they should
not be allowed to poison human minds and subvert human relationships and
thereby disturb social equilibrium.
Human beings, however, are self-centered
and this is what does happen. One shows undue favouritism to a person who
belongs to one's group or tribe or district, or association, or speaks the same
language; one leans towards one's tribe, or faction in total disregard of the
facts and the dictates of justice, and this attitude ultimately culminates in
the cry "my country, right or wrong." The Hadith condemns asabiyah on
account of its manifestation in this type of social behaviour. Fighting in
defence of the millat, or for a cause within the bounds of Allah, is
obligatory, but fighting without a just cause is evil and forbidden.
The Messenger of Allah, said: Verily Allah will not
make my followers or he said the followers of Muhammad reach a consensus on
what is (manifest) error. Allah's hand is over the jama'at (community) and
whosoever separates himself from it enters the Fire. (Ibn Umar - Mishkat)
To maintain the unity of the Ummah
is an act of worship, and to undermine it is an act of rebellion against Allah.
Unity, peace and social cohesion are maintained by safeguarding Islamic beliefs
and practices because allegiance to other philosophies, or infatuation with
other systems, and the pursuit of one's caprice sow the seeds of dessension in
the hearts of the people.
Muslim peoples have in fact suffered heavily at the
hands of unscrupulous adventures, who have risen from time to time to
aggrandize themselves at the cost of the Ummah. In times gone by they took to
the sword and in the modern age they take to propaganda, perverting the thought
and beliefs of the Muslim peoples by the infusion of meretricious ideas of
alien origin into the life-stream of Muslim society. Invariably, almost, they
have been tools of foreign interests and have brought about the fall of their
particular Muslim community. But soon thereafter they have been crushed by
their foreign protectors. These renegades and quislings have in every case met
with an ignominious end. There is no dearth of examples in history, of the
heinous crimes of self-seeking individuals, who have brought down catastrophes
of such magnitudes on the Muslim peoples that in several cases the entire
Muslim population has been wiped out form one country after another.
Ibn Alqami the Shiite, who conspired with Halaku to
destroy the Abbasid Caliphate, met with a dreadful end. The Spanish Muslim
Muluks who were continually warring with each other, enlisted the support of
their Christian antagonists to fight their own Muslim brothers. In the end all
of these were wiped out and the Muslims were later expelled from Spain. The
Amirs of Bukhara, Smarkand, Khorasan, Tashqand and Merv in Central Asia, who
either befriended the Russians to settle scores with their Muslim brothers or
stood aside when one or the other principality came under Russian military
attack, came to an inglorious end. This land was once the cradle of Islamic
learning and civilization. But now through their misdeeds Islam has been ousted
from the land.
Post a Comment