Unity Among Western Muslim Communities by Ja'far Idris

Shaikh Ja`far Idris: Unity Among Western Muslim Communities

Bismillaahir Rahmaanir Raheem

Innal hamdalillaahi nahmaduhu wa nasta`eenuhu wa nastaghfiruh,
wa na`oodhubillaahi min shuroori anfusinaa wa sayyi'aati
a`maalinaa, wa may yahdi llaahu fa huwal muhtad, wa may yudhlil
fa lan tajida lahu waliyyan murshidaa, thumma ammaa ba`d:

I think I better start by giving you the characteristics of the
ideal Muslim community, as far as unity is concerned. And the
ideal Muslim community is, of course, that of the Companions of
the Prophet sallallaahu `alaihi wa sallam. So if we aspire to
be united we should have that ideal in our mind. We might never
attain to that high level, but we should at least keep it as a
goal, and as a criterion by which we judge how far towards the
unity we have gone. The community of the Companions of the
Prophet sallallaahu `alaihi wa sallam was united.

The characteristics of that community are:

First, `aqeedah. And I don't need to go in the details of that,
you are experts in this, being the Salafis. You have one of the
Shaikhs of the Salafis here, so...And I like, in fact, when
speaking about Muslims, I like to use the word eemaan instead of
`aqeedah, because this is the word that is used in the Qur'aan
and in the Sunnah of the Prophet sallallaahu `alaihi wa sallam.
The word `aqeedah was introduced later on when the Muslims felt
that they need to study beliefs of others, of non-Muslims, and
compare these beliefs with those of the Muslims. So they looked
for a word which is more general than eemaan. They confined the
word eemaan to the Muslims. So, we can say the first
characteristic is that of eemaan, eemaan that is according to
the Qur'aan and the Sunnah of the Prophet sallallaahu `alaihi wa
sallam, no deviation at all.

This eemaan had as its natural result brotherhood. Because, as
Allaah subhaanahu wa ta`aalaa told the Prophet sallallaahu
`alaihi wa sallam, "Lau anfaqta maa fil arDi jamee`an maa
allafat bayna quloobihim wa laakinna-llaaha allafa baynahum"
[8:63]. Had you spent all the wealth on the earth, you would
not have been able to bring their hearts together, to make them
brothers, but it was Allaah who made them brothers and Allaah
made them brothers by showing them how to believe in Him as the
Creator and how to worship Him. Once this belief enters the
heart, then those people in whose heart faith has entered, they
become brothers. They don't have to make any effort to become
brothers. This is not something that you do by lectures or by
organizations, this is something that comes naturally as a
result of eemaan entering your heart.

Secondly, `ibaadah. Their `ibaadah was also according to what
the Prophet sallallaahu `alaihi wa sallam told them, what they
found in the Qur'aan. No bid`ah, they didn't add or deduct
anything from what the Prophet sallallaahu `alaihi wa sallam
said. And `ibaadah is important for eemaan, it nourishes
eemaan. Eemaan is not something you can have once, and say, if
I am a mu'min today, I will be a mu'min forever. You can't say
that. You can't be sure. You might be a mu'min today and
become a kaafir tomorrow. One way of preserving your eemaan is
`ibaadah and especially salaah. "Wa la-dhikrullaahi akbar"
[29:45].

Third is akhlaaq, moral behavior, and this is the fruit of
eemaan and `ibaadah. That is why the Prophet sallallaahu
`alaihi wa sallam said, "akmalul mu'mineena eemaanan ahsanuhum
khuluqan" [at-Tirmidhee.] The best of the mu'mins in eemaan is
the best of them in moral behavior. In Arabic, akhlaaq is
confined to the way of treating people. Some brothers disputed
with me on that issue, but that will not make them non-Salafis,
eh [laughs]? Neither it will make me non-Salafi if I'm proven
to be wrong. I think that the word khuluq is not equivalent to
morality. Because akhlaaq is confined only to the way of
treating people. Morality is more general than this. So,
"akmalul mu'mineena eemaanan ahsanuhum khuluqan." The best of
the mu'mins in eemaan is the best of them in treating people".
And the Prophet sallallaahu `alaihi wa sallam also said,
"Khayrukum, khayrukum li ahlih" [at-Tirmidhee, ad-Daarimee], and
the best of you are the best to their wives. This again is how
to treat people. So this is one main fruit of eemaan and
`ibaadah. And the Prophet, in fact, made it the sign, the
proof. You say in English the tree is by its fruit, so this is
the fruit. If you don't see a person in treating people, and
especially his wife, treating them in a good way, that means
there is something wrong with this eemaan and with his
`ibaadah.

The fourth point is jihaad, and by jihaad here I mean two
things. First, jihaad of how to bring about an Islamic
society. The Muslims were with the Prophet sallallaahu `alaihi
wa sallam in Makkah. When they were there, they were in a
minority, they were weak. At that stage they were told to
restrain their hands, not to fight, and then they were ordered
to make hijraa, and then they were ordered to fight. That is,
they were given permission to fight, then they were ordered to
fight. And they continued doing jihaad in the two senses,
jihaad by the word of mouth and jihaad by the sword.

The last point is that of political unity. The Muslims are
supposed to be very distinct from other communities, even in
their political organization. And that is why our `ulamaa used
to say that jamaa`ah, jamaa`at ul-muslimeen, one of the
characteristics, one of the conditions of having a real
jamaa`ah, is that it must be ruled by a ruler who follows the
Sharee`ah, and it must have `ulamaa who know the Qur`aan and the
Sunnah of the Prophet sallallaahu `alaihi wa sallam. Allaah
subhaanahu wa ta`aalaa said: "Wa atee`oo llaaha wa atee`oor
rasoola wa ulil-amri minkum" [4:59]. "Obey Allaah, obey His
Prophet and those who are in authority." And those who are in
authority are, as they say in Arabic, al umaraa' wal `ulamaa',
the rulers and the learned people.

Does this mean that there was no difference at all among these
Companions of the Prophet sallallaahu `alaihi wa sallam? There
were differences, but - and this is a big but, as they say - the
differences were individual differences. They were not group
differences, this happened later on. Aboo Bakr said something,
another person disagrees with him, he says no, then the other
person tells him that the Prophet sallallaahu `alaihi wa sallam
said so and so, Aboo Bakr says, "OK, I 'm mistaken." He
agrees. `Umar says something, Aboo Bakr differs with him.
`Uthmaan says something, `Alee differs with him. And they might
make ijtihaad also and they differ in their ijtihaad. But today
I am with him on one point, tomorrow I differ with him, then the
next day, we both agree and we differ with another brother and
so on. So, differences are on the individual level, there were
no group differences. This is the ideal thing.

What can we do in our situation? I think it is very important
for Muslims living in the West - let us just confine ourselves
to the United States - it is very important for Muslims living
in the West to be united, because, as I said, I think yesterday,
whether we like it or not, we are all considered as Muslims.
There is only one label, and sometimes even fundamentalist
Muslims. And even those who don't go to the mosque, since they
are Muslims they will be called fundamentalists. And someone
said all Muslims are by definition fundamentalists. So there is
no way of running away from this, we are all Muslims, we are all
fundamentalists, according to some people, and we will be
treated as such, so it is better for us to be united. The ideal
thing is for all the Muslims, all over the United States, to
have one organization, one leadership. And that organization
will include all Muslims, whether they are Salafis, or people
who have some deviation from the Sunnah, because the Prophet
sallallaahu `alaihi wa sallam said that this Ummah will be
divided - you know the hadeeth of the Prophet - that they will
be divided, but all those divisions are divisions of Muslims.
They are Muslims. They are divided, but they are Muslims.

One group, one of them, the best one, it's called al firqatun
naajiyah, the one that is saved, that will go to Paradise, in
shaa' Allaah, follows the way of the Prophet sallallaahu `alaihi
wa sallam and the way of the Companions of the Prophet
sallallaahu `alaihi wa sallam.

The others have deviations, even in matters of `aqeedah, but the
deviations are not so great as to take them out of the fold of
Islaam. They will still be Muslims. And if there is an Islamic
government, they will give allegiance to that government and
they will be treated as Muslims, they will not be prevented from
going and making jihaad with the Muslims, they will not be
excused from giving zakaah, they will not be asked to give
jizyah. They will be treated as Muslims. And the same applies
to Muslims who might be Sunni and Salafi, but who drink wine.
You might wonder how can a person be Salafi and drink wine.
Yes, he might do this because he might be Salafi in his
`aqeedah, he has no deviations in his `aqeedah, but he is weak,
sometimes he drinks wine, sometimes he might be tempted, or she
might be tempted and commit zinaa or so, but still they are
Muslims. They will not be expelled from the Muslim community.

So, the ideal thing, and I don't know whether there is a chance
for it to be implemented in reality, is for all the Muslims to
have this organization. Now, if we cannot have that ideal, then
the second best, there should be coordination among us. If you
have, say, 20-30 organizations, we should have one umbrella
organization where representatives of people belonging to all
these different groups come and discuss things and agree on
certain policies which they deem to be necessary for all of us.
For example, it should not be left to just one group to decide
whether to take part in politics or not. Because if it is only
one group, then it will not have a great effect on the political
situation in this country, but if Muslims have this group that
coordinates all of them, they can give their vote to this or
that person and they can have an effect on the policy of this
country.

If we cannot have even this, then there is something which we
can do, at least we who are here. All people who follow the way
of the Prophet and who are sometimes called Salafis, even if
they have different organizations, they should cooperate. At
least these people. They should treat each other as brothers,
they should not exaggerate the differences among them because
the differences might be just organizational, or differences in
certain political issues, or differences among leaders and so
on. These are very minor differences, so we as people who
follow the way of the Prophet sallallaahu `alaihi wa sallam
should do our best to act according to these principles that I
have just explained.

We should treat other people as Muslims, even if they have
deviations, whether deviations in `aqeedah or deviations in
conduct. And we should treat them as Muslims, we should
cooperate with them in matters in which there is an agreement,
we should not alienate them, especially in a country like this.
We should do our best to unite the Muslims and this is something
that we can do as a group. We can do [that], in shaa' Allaah.

And here I would like to mention that there are different kinds
of organizations and this applies to Muslims and non Muslims.
There are people who believe in certain principles, you can call
them "principle people", but they are so rigid that they cannot
cooperate with anyone who does not believe in all their
principles. Usually these people do not have much influence on
the society, they will just be pleased with themselves. They
meet, they say nice words to each other, and they feel that they
are the best people, but they do not have any effect on the
society, because they are so rigid. They cannot cooperate with
others. Now, there is the other extreme, people who have no
principles at all and whose main objective is, say, to gain
power or so. These people unfortunately can have great
influence on the society, but one day they are with this group,
another day they are with another group, one day they say
something, another day they say something different, depending
on experience. Whatever furthers worldly objectives, they will
follow that.

Now, there is something in between and these are the people who
can make a good influence on the society, in shaa' Allaah. I
hope you will be among them, people who believe in the truth,
who follow the Qur'aan and Sunnah of the Prophet sallallaahu
`alaihi wa sallam, but who are also flexible. They say this is
the truth, this is the ideal thing, we abide by this, but this
group, judging by this criterion is the nearest one to us, so we
cooperate with them. That group is the second nearest to us and
so on. And they will be ready to cooperate even with non
Muslims, on issues which, judging by our Islamic criteria, are
good things. We cooperate with them. There is a statement by
Ibn ul Qayyim in Zaad ul Ma`aad - I wish I could have it with me
- he says that anyone who asks to be helped - something like
this - anyone who asks to be helped on something which we deem
to be good and with which Allaah will be pleased, if a person
asks to be helped, on an issue like this, then he should be
helped, irrespective of whether he is kaafir, or faasiq, or
mubtadi` or whatever. And I liken this to a person who is
making a building and someone comes and says I will help you, I
will provide you with some bricks. You will not say, "you are a
kaafir, I don't accept your bricks," because I want to build and
he is helping me to build the house. I am building the house of
Islaam, so whoever likes to cooperate in this can. If some
people want to wage a kind of war against drugs and they ask me
to cooperate with them, and it is in my capacity to help, then I
do that. And all the vices that are in the society, because the
further the people go from these vices, the more likely they are
to accept the truth of Islaam.

The person who is always drunk, the person who indulges in zinaa
all the time, is further from the truth than the one who is
sober, who is morally upright, even if he is a kaafir. He is
nearer to fitra, nearer to his true human nature and therefore
he is more likely to accept Islaam than a person who indulges in
these vices.

Also, one thing we should avoid, and I'm telling you here from
experience, and I heard brother Zarabozo saying this, I came
only in the last fifteen minutes... Don't be partisan. There is
a difference between working in a group and making a political
party. Especially in your situation, especially at this stage,
especially in this country, don't change your Islamic
organizations into political parties. In fact one of the
complaints that I had against our Islamic organizations in the
Muslim world was that they were changed into political parties
and in fact the worst of the political parties. Not the parties
in the democratic countries, but the parties in the communist
countries. Perhaps many of you might not know, but in a
communist party if the leaders agree on something... there is
what they call the central democracy... 20 or 30 people would
come to discuss - they are free to discuss - then they vote and
whatever opinion is accepted by the party by counting votes, say
by 12 to 8, then that becomes part of the ideology of the
communist party. If you oppose the decision of this committee,
then you will be opposing communism and therefore you will not
be tolerated. If you are fortunate you will be expelled,
otherwise something else will happen to you.

Many Islamic organizations adopted the same thing, the leaders
would come and discuss and make a standpoint, issue a statement
on a certain political issue. All members who belong to that
Islamic organization will be bound by that statement and they
would be expected to defend whatever is written in that
statement irrespective of whether they agree or not.

I told many leaders whom I met that this is not Islamic. In
Islaam you should not defend something in which you don't
believe. And I used to tell my brothers in the Sudan that the
most I can do is just to keep silent, but I cannot go and say "I
believe in so and so", and my heart tells me "you are a liar,
you are a liar, you are a liar." I cannot do this, because
this religion is based on honesty, you cannot tell me to be
Islamic and dishonest at the same time. So you should avoid
this. And it is because of this that differences instead of
becoming individual differences became group differences.

Suppose that there are two Islamic political parties. This is a
party and this is a party and there is an issue they want to do
discuss. The leaders of this group meet and they say our
decision is X. And suppose that they allowed all the people to
vote and the voting was, say, 60 to 40. So you adopt this
position X. These other people adopted the other position,
again by 60 to 40, position Y. Now, this whole group will be
against this group, but if you left it to the individuals, then
the 40 here would be with the 60 here and the 40 here would be
with the 60 here and the difference would not be one group
against another group, but some individuals against other
individuals. So you should avoid this. And that does not apply
to political matters only, even in matters of ijtihaad, minor
matters of `ibaadah - and when I say minor I don't want to say
unimportant or, as some people say, trivial. No, there is
nothing trivial in the religion, Allaah does not send his
Prophet to busy himself with trivial things. Even the cutting
of nails is not a trivial thing. But, of course, it is minor,
compared with salaah, or siyaam or other matters. So we should
not, especially in matters of ijtihaad, we should not quarrel,
we should give room to brothers to express their opinions, to
differ. We agree only on the main principles.

If we know a brother always violates these principles, he always
goes against something which he knows to be in the Sunnah of the
Prophet and this has been explained to him very clearly several
times and he goes against this and on another occasion he goes
against another hadeeth, then we say you are not one of us, you
do not belong to our group, because you have now violated a
principle. But if he makes a mistake and he follows an `aalim
in his wrong ijtihaad in any matter, we don't expel him from our
community, we do not say, "you are not Salafi". We should have
as an ideal, as I said, the community of the Companions of the
Prophet sallallaahu `alaihi wa sallam.