A Call Beyond Sectarianism, Back to God

שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָד

Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad.

“Hear, O Israel: the LORD is our God, the LORD is One.” Deuteronomy 6:4

The verse sits at the heart of Jewish confession. Rabbinic tradition made its recitation central to Jewish religious life, morning and evening. (Sefaria). Having studied under 2 Rabbis intermittently, I understand that both Muslims and Jews worship the same God of Abraham whereas Christian Theology is a bit more convoluted due to the trinity.

One question the reader must ask here is if both Muslims and Jews worship the same God of Abraham, and God is the All Knowing and the Guide, then why is there a difference and strife and bloodshed? Don’t we trust God as the final arbiter?

Fourteen centuries ago, the Qur’an reinforced the same message from God:

قُلْ هُوَ ٱللَّهُ أَحَدٌ

Qul huwa Allāhu Aḥad.

“Say: He is Allah, One.” Qur’an 112:1

The linguistic resemblance is not accidental.

Hebrew אֱלוֹהַּ — Eloah and Arabic إِلٰه — ilāh belong to the same ancient Semitic family of words for deity. Elohim is the familiar Hebrew form, while Allāh is the Arabic name by which Muslims refer to the One God.

Likewise, Hebrew אֶחָד — eḥad and Arabic أَحَد — aḥad are cognate Semitic words expressing oneness.

Not identical in every grammatical nuance.

But unmistakably related.

And the theology underneath them is even clearer:

That is where I would begin.

Not Islamic Brotherhood.

Not the countless other labels that have crept up. 

Not the accumulated wounds of communities.

Because perhaps the great tragedy of religion is that we begin by worshipping God and eventually become capable of worshipping the things and language we have built around Him. The labels we ascribe.

And sometimes we do not even notice it happening.

Maʿqil ibn Yasār (raḍiyallāhu ʿanhu) reported that he went with Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq (raḍiyallāhu ʿanhu) to meet the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.

The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said:

“O Abū Bakr, shirk among you is more hidden than the crawling of an ant.”

Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq (raḍiyallāhu ʿanhu) asked:

“Is there shirk other than making another god alongside Allah?”

The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ replied, by the One in Whose hand was his soul, that shirk could be more concealed than the movement of ants.

Then he taught him the cure:

“O Allah, I seek refuge in You from associating anything with You knowingly, and I seek Your forgiveness for what I do not know.”

Al-Adab al-Mufrad 716 in the commonly indexed edition; graded ṣaḥīḥ by al-Albānī. (Sunnah)

I find that image terrifying.

Something almost silent.

Something small enough to escape attention.

Shirk can enter the heart without announcing itself.

That is why sectarianism should concern all of us.

This is one of the worst evils of society, and in many ways the precursor to violence. This could be along many lines but religion and ethnicity are two we are dealing with as a society today on a massive scale. ICE is an example of this. 

One of the great tragedies of this “type of sectarianism” is the effect it has on the psychological safety of citizens and their mental health. 

A person may proclaim lā ilāha illa Allāh while allowing something else to acquire an authority in the heart that belongs only to Allah.

“My scholar cannot be wrong.”

“My sect cannot be wrong.”

“My people cannot be wrong.”

“My country cannot be wrong.”

The Warning About Sects

The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ warned that fragmentation would not belong only to previous religious communities.

Abū Hurayrah (raḍiyallāhu ʿanhu) narrated that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said:

“The Jews split into seventy-one or seventy-two sects, and the Christians similarly, and my Ummah will split into seventy-three sects.”

Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī 2640. (Sunnah)

The natural human response is to read the hadith and immediately identify the other seventy-two.

I think the more frightening response is:

What if the label I inherited has become more important than the revelation by which that label itself must be judged?

“Hold firmly together to the rope of Allah and do not become divided.” Qur’an 3:103

“Indeed, those who divided their religion and became sects—you have nothing to do with them.” Qur’an 6:159

The centre is not the sect.

The God of Moses (ʿalayhi ṣ-ṣalātu wa-s-salām)

Mūsā (Moses) (ʿalayhi ṣ-ṣalātu wa-s-salām) is one of the towering figures of the Qur’an.

As a Muslim, I believe Allah spoke to him.

I believe Pharaoh oppressed the Children of Israel.

I believe Mūsā (ʿalayhi ṣ-ṣalātu wa-s-salām) confronted tyranny.

I believe the........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)