Dividing Islam into Sects

Society Religion & Philosophy
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I was reading the translation of the Quran and came upon this…

I believe that Islam should not be divided into sects. If there is a conflict over certain issues, we must all do what we think to be correct based on our knowledge from the Quran, Hadith, and the life of the Prophet (sws). Allah judges us based on our Niyat (intentions). I see no reason for different sects of Islam, when we are all focused on obeying the commands of Allah (swt).

By the way, how many sects of Islam are there? I think it’s like 73…?

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Re: Dividing Islam into Sects

Sects or groups in Islam will happen without a doubt, and it is permitted to an extent for example the four schools of thought this is acceptable because they still within the framework of islam.

However with the absence of the islamic state you have number of sects or groups which are not even islamic at all including the well known one like the ahmadiyya sect and other like it.

With the state established these groups will be publicly debated and refuted thier ideals and goals will be exposed using thought vs thought not using the fists and people will see what they all about.

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Re: Dividing Islam into Sects

Happens when egos conflict. :)

It happened like the day after the Prophet died. Or that very day. Something like that.

Yes, even our own Sahaba were involved in dividing up the Ummah.

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Re: Dividing Islam into Sects

I appreciate your initiative in starting this thread but the events which unfolded right after the Departure of the prophet(saw) from this world inevitably led to this present situation we find ourselves in.
Only way to lay the past to rest is to critically re-examine the Islamic history since that period taking references from all sides and coming to some kind of a understanding which would atleast prevent violence or prejudice against any sect.Obviously there are extremists on all sides which will try to portray this as "selling out" however bear in mind that the Interests of Islam were much more important to the early muslims(i.e the Sahaba) than their own.And despite the fact that many of them did not get along well with each other when the time came to fight against the kaffirs or munafiqeen they united as one.
In the 1500yr history of Islam many a times muslim nations and empires have been threatened with extinction but this time is unique that it is Islam not the muslims that is directly under attack.Time has come to unite as one under the banner of the Prophet(saw)

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Re: Dividing Islam into Sects

Well then we should be taking the Prophet's (pbuh) actions as an example for us. Islam was not divided until after the death of the Prophet (saw) and therefore we should not divide it either.

Suppose we all just looked to ourselves as Muslims. Yes, we'd have different practices, but the unification would be conserved. It would lessen the arguments between the Muslims, I believe. Also, there really is no point in arguing over which sect of Islam is the "ultimately correct" because everyone already believes that they are right. Therefore, time should not be wasted over argument, and instead we should all just refer to eachother as one religion and go about doing what we think is right. Once again, Allah (swt) judges us regarding our intentions. The Quran states (in the verses in my first post) that those who divide Islam will recieve harsh punishment on the Day of Judgement.

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Re: Dividing Islam into Sects

interesting.

Where did the other groups come from?

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Re: Dividing Islam into Sects

[QUOTE]
The Prophet Muhammed (May the Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him) also said:
“Indeed the people of the Book before you split into seventy-two sects. And this nation will split into seventy-three sects, seventy-two are in the Fire and one in Paradise”. And in another narration, “All are in the Fire except one.” It was asked: Who is that one? He replied, “That which I and my Companions are upon” Related by at-Tirmidhi (5/62) and al-Haakim (1/128). It has been authenticated by al-Haafidh al-Iraaqee in Takhreejul-Ihyaa (3/199) and al-Albaanee in as-Saheehah (no.204).
[/QUOTE]

Wow. To the exact number? That's amazing. About how long after the Prophet (saw) died did it take for all 73 sects to come about?

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Re: Dividing Islam into Sects

Assalamalikum,

This is a pretty hot topic. Widely misunderstood and misconceived.

A Public forum isn't the best place to ask such things. Try your local Imam at your mosque, he'll shed better light.

See when it comes to Islam, there are only 2 things we can follow. Quran and Sunnah.

And in a nutshell i'll tell you how it works.

The divisions occur because people choose not to refer to Fuqhi.
A Fuqhi is someone who has spent years studying islam. And when approached with a masla, he will resort to the following to answer it:

  1. Quran
  2. Sunnah
  3. Sahabah
  4. Other Prophets

and THEN he will reach a verdict which will be presented to you.

This idea of a FUQHI is known as taqleed. Where you adopt jurisdistic views of a Scholar or a group of scholars with belief that they are correct in their views.

See when a masla is presented to you, you can do two things:

  1. Conclude by yourself by looking it up in the Quran and Sunnah.
  2. Ask a Fuqhi.

If you choose 1. then you are most likely to follow your desires. This is a sickness amongst many muslims today..and this is the core motive for division in islam.

People tend to mend islam to how THEY view it. However, as you can see, Islam for them revolves around their wants and desire.

This concept of Taqleed existed in the time of Sahabahs. Not all sahabas were Fuqhis (Scholar) nor did they know how to deduce to a verdict. So they would go to a ullema (fuqhi) from the sahabahs to get verdicts.

Meccan people always gave preference to Abbas r.a. and Medina people gave reference to Zain ib Thabit.

People of Khufa gave preference to Musad r.a. and would follow his verdicts.

These were some examples of the differnet fuqhis at the time.

One of the MANY examples, from a hadith..

A sahabi asked Abu Musa about inheritance after passing away. Abu Musa said, duaghter sister get 1/2 of the wealth, and grandson get nothing. So when that same sahabi went to ask Ibn Masud (a greated fuqhi at the time) and asked him the same thing, Ibn Masud gave a different verdict.. So Abu Musa said *follow Ibn Masud while they are still alive. *

So you see these Fuqhis existing.

But phatima you see , the problem NOW is that our time and day, we're not like the Sahabah. We're lucky if us Muslims can get our 5 times namaaz correct.

See from the time of Sahabah to our times, things happened:

  1. knowledge decreased of deen
  2. **fear of Allah **decreased.
  3. *DESIRES have increased. *

Therefore in SUNNIsm atleast...latter scholars have said follow the 4 imams that have Compiled and ordered your deen for you. THey **did not INTRODUCE NEW THINGS **just took the sunnah and the life of the Sahabahs, to make deen easier for the average joe. And you've been instructed to follow one.

Why? Because of the above mentioned 3 things. ****

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Re: Dividing Islam into Sects

I think thats a very good ahadith… and answer lies in it… If you find something which has been done by the Prophet (PBUH) and his companion then there is nothing to worry… and that is the reason that all the 4 sects call themselves as Ahl-e-sunnat-wal-jamma’t where jamma’t means that they follow anything which the shabha has officially done and allowed..

Actually the reason for the emergance of the sect is that we don’t like to read on the Islam and ahadith and subsequently we are not clearly the islamic concept to our children and when a person like this who doesn;t have a basic background knowledge of Islam reads about one thing or other he doesn;t have his/her own knowledge to judge the authenticity of this new knowledge…

Anyway just my views… open to positive criticism

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Re: Dividing Islam into Sects

Crescent - So in this case, what would a "fuqhi" say about the given Quranic verses that state the punishment of those who divide Islam? Hadith are also given (Sadiyah's post) to support this law.

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Re: Dividing Islam into Sects

Feel free to correct me, but I'm totally against the idea of blindly following a scholar or anyone else for that matter.

I feel one should always ask for proof and evidence by the scholars to back up their statements, claims, fatawa, etc.

Das Reich, interesting. I always thought the argument was settled out. Perhaps someone else can can confirm your statement or mine for that matter.

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Re: Dividing Islam into Sects

The same kind of stuff can be expected from this lady who always uses her guess work without ever supporting her stories with some sound evidence (this is the second thread I saw the same)

Off course there were no differences among Sahabah till Khalifah 'Uthman radhiyAllahu was martyred by the Rebels.
And all the chaos was appeared during the period of Hadhrat 'Ali radhiyAllahu 'anhu, this was the time when shias appeared but even then they didn’t establish their faith as a new sect. It did take time.

I would ask this lady to first learn what the meaning of word **sect **is before spreading her golden words in this diamond world.

Now coming to the point, as everyone of us know that we our religion is based upon 3 sources:

  1. Quran
  2. Sunnah
  3. Ijma’ (agreement or consensus of Ummah)

Our problem is that most of us have left Quran and Ijma’ of Ummah and stuck to hadiths (hadees) and 'ulama.
Deobandis, Barelvis, Maturidis, Asharis, Hanafis, Salafis, lots of factions and they are ruled by 'Ulama.
A salafi scholar curses a Hanafi scholar and the Hanafi does the same with salafi.
Most of us are blindly following our scholars which means if I follow a Deobandi scholar, I will always think bad of another person who follows a Salafi scholar.

Therefore in my opinion, the only way we should get rid of these satanic deceptions, is to stop following scholars blindly and sticking to Quran only (which does guide to follow Sunnah and Ijma’ of Ummah).

Salatssssssssss
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Re: Dividing Islam into Sects

Here is my post (view) from another forum:

Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem

This is true that our scholars in the past have caused disintegration of Ummah and divided them into a number of groups. For example today there are two big rivals within Muslim Ummah (believe it or not); salafis and nonsalafis. Even in this thread you can see the dislike between them . I have seen the same thing on other forums as well.
Tragedy is that we are not going to come out of this Anti-Islamic and Anti-Muhammadi activity. We keep blaming others for things. In my opinion there are these reasons for this Disintegration of Ummah:

  1. Blind faith in scholars

If you are a Hanafi / Salafi you will be labelled likewise and you will regard it haraam to go against the fiqh of your respected Imam/scholar. You will think that only you and your madhab is right and all others are wrong.

  1. No use of Common sense

So if you are a Hanafi / Salafi, you will regard it haraam to use your own brain and always buy your thoughts from your scholar (s).
Sometime ago in the past I came to know that in Salafi madhab, wudhu doesn't break if someone starts bleeding. Well since I have been praying in the mosques where all the people are Hanafis, so I became a Hanafi (this is how people do taqleed mostly, that is by chance) and I had read in the past that if you bleed your wudhu is broken and you have to make ablution once again after wiping off the blood.
Hanafi says that the bleeding breaks wudhu because blood is haraam, though I think that drinking blood is haraam and if a person bleeds over skin, he doesn't drink blood.
Salafis say that if you bleed, it doesn't matter because during Jihad, mujahideen do bleed but they don't need to make wudhu again because of bleeding. Well my mind doesn't as well accept this analogy, as Jihad is a special and extraordinary condition where conditions are different.

In short, I don't agree on this matter with Salafis and Hanafis both, but it doesn't mean I would start making fun of them saying they both are idiots. Off course I wouldn't do that. Both of them are right at their place, becuase they are justifying their actions with reasoning and no doubt the intention of both of them is to obey Allah and His Messenger sallAllahu 'alayhe wasallam. I call those Jahil and Fasaadi (mischief makers) who promote sectarianism (on the basis of madahib) amongst Muslim Ummah.
Such people should be imprisoned and they must be isolated so that such Freaks can't divide this Ummah anymore.

  1. One Problem

I pray my salaat and observe most of the things on the fiqh of Imam Abu Hanifah but I don't understand why I am obliged to follow each and every decision of Imam Abu Hanifah. Sorry to say I call it misguidance and this is against the real teachings of Islam.
I will follow only and only Muhammadur Rasoolullah sallAllahu 'alayhe wasallam blindly. Abu Hanifah was a human being, he could make mistakes, he could make wrong judgments, and this is why I would see what other 3 Imams of fiqh and other than them say about a matter. I would chose the judgment / decision of one who would prove his decision to be in accordance with Quran (at the first place) and if Quran is silent on the matter then Sunnah (secondarily) which in fact all 4 madahib and Salafis claim and they must be right at their own place. And this is why I would once again depend upon my aql (as is commanded by Allah) and chose a decision which I would find correct and better.

  1. Another Problem

Madhabi scholars (those who follow 4 Imams) say that you must chose 1 fiqh or one Imam otherwise you would become the slave of your desires and chose those decisions which suit you. Well I don't agree with this theory. If I really follow my desires then I would be caught by Allah. If I have an intention to obey Allah then why would I follow a decision which suits me.

IMPORTANT

I regard it very important to explain that our Imams like Abu Hanifah, Malik etc rahimahullah were not sectarian (to my gracious presumptions for them), it was only their followers who promoted sectarianism within Ummah. Then I don't think Imam Abu Hanifah would have forced or requested people to follow his fiqh, he must be like another scholar whose figh is not accepted today as another (5th) school of thought.
Therefore we must stop worshipping our Idols (scholars) and those (scholars) who are doing nothing except disintegrating this Ummah by spreading their mokery against one another. I believe such scholars are to be condemned and punished for the crime of Dividing us. We must follow Quran and Sunnah and take the guidance from those scholars whose madhab is Quran and Sunnah only.

Please note I am not discouraging following a madhab, I have only presented my views, everyone has a right to disagree with me, in any case I respect all madahib including Salafis.

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Re: Dividing Islam into Sects

Follow Quran by ourselves?

We are in no positions to get islam ourselves out of the Quran and hadith.

Muslims aren't Muslims in today's time. Our only saviours are the Ullemas. Only THOSE that are of the Isnad.

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Re: Dividing Islam into Sects

True but if they have the historical accounts to backup their argument then it is different

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Re: Dividing Islam into Sects

Crescent - But wasn't the Quran dedicated to mankind? Therefore, we should refer to it whenever we are in doubt, yea?

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Re: Dividing Islam into Sects

If you actually read the Quran, you would know that God made the Quran easy and understandable for everyone, so that you ARE in a position to learn Islam yourself out of the Quran.

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Re: Dividing Islam into Sects

I agree with you broadly but arent the people who spend thier lives studying religion(ulemas) best qualified to judge and Interpret its meaning ?
afterall the Quran is a historical work and should be treated as such without knowing the historical background of many ayats are really hard to understand.

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Re: Dividing Islam into Sects

Allah asks mankind to THINK and PONDER over what they read in Quran. Read it once, think, if you don't understand it read it again and again and if you are sincere - it will start to make sense. After all else fails, let common sense prevail and that is what Allah wants to teach us through Quran.

There was no dispute or differences among Sahaba, they were the best of Muslims and mankind. The so called Shia-Sunni revolt and split is largely due to the fact that some deceptive factors had made inroads into the Islamic ranks and caused rifts and useless arguments over leadership and other matters.

The likes of Abdullah Bin Sabah, a Jew convert to Islam (said to have started the so called "shia" sect) will rot in hell forever for causing and spliting Islam into sects and iniating a trend which is not allowed and disliked by Allah as well as his prophet.

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Re: Dividing Islam into Sects

There are many historical references, and yes, you need to know your history. But anyone with a basic education in Islamic history can still understand what the Quran says. At least I have a clue of what I'm reading. I don't see anything hard or complicated about it. In fact, many scholars who have read other texts will say that the Quran's language is pretty clear, and for me, its one of the best legal documents of all time. I mean, those clauses are well put together. For very little is there any confusion, and if there is confusion, its probably because someone else is trying to confuse you rather than the Quran confusing you itself. I had tried reading some religious texts from other religions in my formal religion classes and those texts are confusing and quite contradictory. The Quran does not rely as heavily on historical situations and allegories as other religious texts do.