How can we unite?

In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful,

All praise is due to Allah, the lord of the worlds,

If I say something wrong, it is from my ego, but If I am correct, it is from Allah.

Note: I will be making a presentation on August 14 at MAGO at 11 AM, if you like to come and support me, please let me know. 

  I need to respond to an earlier blog http://nofirqazone.blogspot.com/2011/08/either-pay-zakat-or-buy-diamond-part-2.html

  One of my dear brother brought to my attention that some Imam from local community avoid to come to his radio show, because they may think that he is affiliated with a certain group of Muslims or Imam. This was heart breaking to hear. Here, this brother who came to Islam as a choice, trying to make a difference by the radio show, and instead of supporting him, we are avoiding him. This is unacceptable.

  His show is LaMagica 1220 AM every Thursday 1:10 PM which discusses Islam, and is a great opportunity for Muslims in metro Orlando area to make dawa. I would like to ask all of you to listen to it, and participate.

"And hold fast, all together, by the rope which Allah (stretches out for you), and be not divided among yourselves;" (Quran 3:103)

This incident highlights the disunity that has crawled into all of us. Another example is the speech of Shaikh Albani, where he basically allowed the use of the term Salafi to  idenitfy a group of people. Following is a link to it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HGOcX-mUfc

 It is a direct violation of the verse above, as we are prohibited to divide into groups, and the first step to divide into group is to come up with a name for our group, and all these madhaib have names. Now, there is nothing wrong with using a group name to organize the people, but if the grouping is based on the Quran and Sunnah and Fiqh, it basically creates a circle around certain rulings, and anyone that goes against one ruling, they end up outside the circle.

So, now we have Salafi as another madhab, along with hundreds of other madhaib. What happens now is that if I ask someone to visit the masjid from another madhab, they will excuse themselves, so basically these factions are getting deeper as time goes on. Everyone is happy in their little masjid where everyone is from same country or at least follow the same madhab. So, I, along with all the new Muslims are confused outside these circles, and thinking which circle is Islam. Honestly, all seem misguided, as all claim a name other than Islam. I may be misguided as well, but for a different reason.

Every deviant group starts with labelling based on a dogma or principles. It may not be deviant in the first generation, but in later generations, it will deviate, as the flexibility to steer back to the right path will be a violation of the group membership. I have a news for Salafis that Salaf did not label each other with any names.

A good friend of mine gave me a book about ahle-hadeeth, which claimed that some earlier muslims used the term ahle-hadeeth for grouping, and they are correct that the term was used, but it was used to praise the individuals for their service in the science of hadith. Ahle-hadeeth doesn't mean that a person uses a hadeeth to establish fiqh. A Muhaddith is not same as a faqi, and a faqi may or may not to be muhaddith. For example, a pharmacist knows about medicine, but he cannot prescribe the medicine, because he is not an expert on cases of diseases, but a doctor could know alot about the medicine and can prescribe the medicine.

Imam AlBukhari is the top most muhaddith in the history, but he is not a top faqi, because he did not provide solution to specifiq fiqh issues extensively. He did however assert his opinions by headings and organization of ahadith in his compilation, which is a great source for fiqh students. So, anyone who looks at a hadeeth in a vacuume and follows it as a fiqh is certainly misguided.

We should dissolve the notion of madhaibs, and setup committees that include scholars of every school of thought in the community, and hear arguments based on the evidences, and make rulings as they come along.

We should include members from each school of thought in the shura.

We should setup think tanks to tackle the problems of humans today and provide solutions to local govts.

We should setup a community wide meeting for Imams for all masajid to sit and discuss differences.

I hear alot about following the Sahaba from Tableeghi Jamat, Salafis, Ahle-Sunnah-WalJamah, etc., but Sahaba would change the ruling, if someone recited an authenticate hadeeth and convinced them that they were on the wrong. Are they willing to do that?

I doubt most of you know that USA is suffering from the effects of Riba, and Muslims in Somalia are hungry, while you are setting up lavish Iftar and laughing and backbitting. Shame on all of us. We should cancel the iftars, and send the money to Somalia. Do we really need to eat Biryani, and Quorma every night?

I know that Imams are on the payrolls, so they dare speak, and I know the Trustees are intoxicated with power, so they care not stop the iftar, and I know people are happy filling their stomach, so they may ignore this plea, and I know some will say "Nafsa Nafsi", "let me concentrate on my deeds". Alright, leave everyone to their madhaibs, and drive to the masjid of your madhab, and sip the tea of your ethnicity and come back to your home, but remember that our kids may not have this luxury, if we don't unite.

Just a thought!

JazakAllah Khairin

An unlabelled Muslim
AbuArman Jumani