Seminole,
The basic tenets that are shared by each and every sect of Islam are universally the same, unchanged and unchanging…The tenets that makes you a Muslim…There is no argument whatsoever about them between any sect…There cannot be…They are written plainly and without a hint of ambiguity…
But the laws which have been defined by Quran and Sunnah (Shariah) is based on proofs and evidences (Dalail)…So, since every sect has their Dalail, hence they follow those Dalail and we talk about them…There is no argumentation…In this case we say, you to your way, me to mine…
I’ll give you my example…I belonged to the Hanafi sect of which the majority scholars came from the city of Bareli, hence, I was a Barelvi…It is the same branch from which Sufism comes from alongwith (which I later found out) some very deviant other practices which I myself practiced…
After coming to America and gaining interest in my own faith, I started reading about Islam and about Dalails…Since you know in Islam we follow the strongest Dalails, I shifted my views from the Hanafi school of thought to the Shaafiee school of thought…It is the same sect from which Wahabbism comes, a movement which was started by the great scholar Abdul Wahab…(Now, upon reading the word Wahabbism, keep in mind Pavlov’s experiment…You are trained to know what you should think when you hear the word Wahabi…)
Why? Because of Dalails…Now, I know from proofs and evidences that the Shafiee school of thought has more valid and stronger Dalails…Not that it in any way nullifies the Dalails of the Hanafi sect…It’s just that Shafiee school of thought, in my view, is more grounded in beliefs…It doesn’t allow for innovations (Bida’a)…
Here, on guy just posted his views of what he thought about music from his own Dalails…There is nothing wrong with that…And those that do not agree to his views based on those Dalails are countering that with their own Dalails…Nothing wrong with that either…
That is why Islam is such an engrossing religion…There has been no gathering, meeting, get-together of Muslims where I have been to and Islam doesn’t come up…
Can any religion boast of such dynamism and interest?
Hope that explains a droplet from an ocean of knowledge…