Disunity and Weakness of the Ummah

 

بِسۡمِ اللّٰہِ الرَّحۡمٰنِ الرَّحِیۡمِ

In the Name of Allah, the Rahman, the Merciful

All praise belongs to Allah, Lord of the worlds

Salutations of peace and blessings upon you, my Master, Apostle of Allah

The Holy Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم said:

أَجَلْ إِنَّهَا صَلاَةُ رَغْبَةٍ وَرَهْبَةٍ إِنِّي سَأَلْتُ اللَّهَ فِيهَا ثَلاَثًا فَأَعْطَانِي اثْنَتَيْنِ وَمَنَعَنِي وَاحِدَةً سَأَلْتُهُ أَنْ لاَ يُهْلِكَ أُمَّتِي بِسَنَةٍ فَأَعْطَانِيهَا وَسَأَلْتُهُ أَنْ لاَ يُسَلِّطَ عَلَيْهِمْ عَدُوًّا مِنْ غَيْرِهِمْ فَأَعْطَانِيهَا وَسَأَلْتُهُ أَنْ لاَ يُذِيقَ بَعْضَهُمْ بَأْسَ بَعْضٍ فَمَنَعَنِيهَا

Indeed, it is a prayer of desire and fear. I asked Allah in it for three things, and He gave me two and denied me one. I asked Him not to destroy my nation with a famine, and He granted it to me. I asked Him not to give power over them to an enemy from outside them, and He granted it to me. I asked Him not to let some of them taste the violence of others, and He denied it to me (Jami at-Tirmidhi)

The acceptance of the Prophet’s صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم prayer that an external enemy should never overpower or impose itself upon his Ummah means the Ummah in its entirety. But certainly parts of the Ummah have and continue to be overwhelmed or subjugated by the foreign powers. So today we see that certain sections of this Ummah have been subjugated by the enemy from without; Palestine by the Zionists, the North Caucasus by the Russians, Kashmir by the Hindus and East Turkestan by the Chinese. Yet most of the bloodshed which this Ummah has and continues to experience is a consequence of civil conflict—Muslims fighting Muslims!

At the moment, by the grace of Allah, several civil wars in the Muslim World have been resolved while others have cooled down, such as what we have witnessed in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Libya. But if some places have been granted relief others are just beginning to heat up such as Sudan. We should not expect this cycle of Fitnah within the Ummah to abate until the Mahdi appears. This disunity within our ranks is perfectly exploited by the external enemy, meaning the Kuffar. It is an undeniable cause of our collective weakness and inability to defend the most oppressed segments of the Ummah, such as the Palestinians, the Uighurs and the Rohingya. When Allah جَلَّ جَلَالَهُ says:

وَاعۡتَصِمُوۡا بِحَبۡلِ اللّٰہِ جَمِیۡعًا وَّلَا تَفَرَّقُوۡا

And hold fast, all together, by the rope of Allah and be not divided

(Surah 3, Ayah 103)

The prohibition of disunity is not merely a reference to Muslims dividing into sects over theological and religious differences but it is also a prohibition against political factionalism and disunity on the basis of race, color, caste, ethnicity, language, nationality and tribe. Arguably, the disunity in this Ummah on the basis of non-religious differences has been the cause of greater destruction and harm than what has occurred as a consequence of religious differences.

The Holy Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم said:

لاَ تَرْتَدُّوا بَعْدِي كُفَّارًا يَضْرِبُ بَعْضُكُمْ رِقَابَ بَعْضٍ 

Do not commit apostasy (becoming) Kuffar (infidels) after me by some of you striking the necks of some

(Sahih al-Bukhari)

The apostasy and kufr spoken of in this Hadith is the minor kufr which does not expel one from the Millah, nevertheless, it is an egregious crime for Muslims to fight and kill each other, one that has been likened to actual apostasy. The first party to whom this Hadith applies are the rebels who murdered the Prophet’s third Successor, Uthman bin Affan رضى الله عنه

His tragic martyrdom is what sparked the First Fitnah in the history of this Ummah, followed by the Second Fitnah which was caused by the rule of Yazid and the martyrdom of Imam al-Husain رضى الله عنه at Karbala, followed by the Third Fitnah—internecine war within the Umayyad House that concluded with the success of the Abbasid Revolution, and then the Fourth Fitnah—a civil war within the Abbasid House, between the two brothers (sons of Harun ar-Rashid), namely, al-Amin and al-Ma’mun. Ever since there have been countless wars, rebellions and riots within the Ummah in which our people have been totally heedless of the severe prophetic warnings about the gravity of such evil bloodshed. In this phenomenon the Muslim Ummah is guilty of following in the footsteps of the communities which preceded us, notably, Jews and Christians. Consider the civil war in ancient Israel between the House of Saul and the House of David and the Great Jewish Revolt against Rome in the mid-First Century of the Common Era, in which various Jewish factions fought each other facilitating their eventual reconquest by Rome.

Presently, the filthy rich Gulf States, especially Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the Emirates, have agreed to mind-boggling investments worth nearly a trillion dollars into the United States under the dynamic presidency of Donald Trump. The aim of these Gulf States is to cement their thrones by acquiring an unwavering American guarantee of their security. The Gulf States have lacked legitimacy in the view of the broader Arab population that they rule until now, when opinions about the question of their legitimacy have become somewhat divided and are evolving. Put simply, over the recent decades these Gulf States have been successful in utilizing their enormous oil wealth to buy off or silence any opposition within the Arab World that questions their legitimacy. Only a few years ago Trump had stated that the Saudi King wouldn’t survive a mere “two weeks” without American military support. The failure of the Gulf Arabs, despite their economic power and their possession of the latest, cutting edge military technology and weapons, to prevent the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza at the hands of the genocidal Zionists is a solid proof against any notion that we Muslims should look to them for guidance or leadership.