The Second Reason

The unity of misguided people arises from their lowliness, whereas the division among Muslims arises from their dignity. In other words, since worldly-minded and misguided people, who are heedless of the Creator, do not base themselves on truth, they experience weakness and lowliness. Because of this weakness and lowliness, they feel a need to acquire strength; and because of this need, they cling passionately to help and cooperation with others. Even if they are on a wrong path, they still preserve their unity. It is as though they find a truth within their wrong path, sincerity within their misguidance, steadfastness within their unbelief, and unity within their division. As a result, they succeed, because deeply rooted sincerity does not remain fruitless, even when it is used for wrong purposes. Indeed, whoever sincerely seeks something will, by Allah’s permission, obtain what he seeks.

As for those who follow the straight path, such as practicing Muslims, scholars, and Sufis, they base themselves on truth. They turn only to their Lord and rely on His support. As a result, they experience a dignity that arises from the path they follow. When one of them feels weak, he does not seek support from people; rather, he turns to his Lord and asks Him for assistance. Because of differences in outlook, he does not feel a true need to cooperate with those whose views appear to differ from his own; he may fail to see the need for unity. If, in addition, he is self-centred and proud, he will regard his own view as correct and the opposing view as wrong, resulting in disagreement and rivalry instead of unity and love. As a result, he loses ikhlāsSincerity in worship, seeking only the pleasure of Allah and avoiding the pursuit of fame or status. in his service, and the expected fruits of his efforts are completely lost.

The only means of avoiding the negative consequences mentioned above and preserving ikhlāsSincerity in worship, seeking only the pleasure of Allah and avoiding the pursuit of fame or status. consists of the following principles.

Those who serve Islam within a particular group should act positively. That is, they should cherish love for their own group and method, and should not occupy themselves with criticism of, or opposition to, other groups and methods.

They should be aware that every group within the Islamic community, whatever it may be, contains bonds of unity that require mutual love, brotherhood, and affection in order to establish harmony.

They should act with fairness and take the following principle as their guide: “If necessary, a person who serves Islam within a particular group may say, ‘The method of my group is correct,’ or, ‘The method we follow is the best.’ However, he must not imply that other methods or groups are flawed, nor should he say, ‘Only the method of my group is correct, and only we are on the straight path.’”

They should be aware that striving for unity with those who follow the straight path is a means of attaining the help of Allah and a source of honour for Muslims.

They should realise that even the strongest individual resistance may be overcome by the organised attacks of a group of misguided people who, through their unity, possess collective strength. Therefore, they should form unity among those who follow the straight path in order to preserve justice against that collective strength of the misguided.

They should give up their ego, self-centred feelings, misplaced self-importance, and meaningless competitive feelings toward their Muslim brothers in order to free the truth from falsehood.^[1]