Part 2 - CARE - Love thine Shiaa brethren

Part 2 - CARE - Love thine Shiaa brethren

Walaikum Assalam.

I guess now you are now moving into dangerous waters. If you read the books of our many "respectable" ulema of the past and present belonging to different schools of thought, you would come across more such inconsistencies and at times downright insinuations.

Please...let us stop quoting "opinions" of scholars out of context, especially when the same relate to Muslim brothers and sisters. Yes, we must treat all Muslims (sunnis and shias) as our brothers and sisters (as long as we don't see them doing kufr and shirk openly). This is the TRUTH, the fundamental TRUTH.

Some of them may be misguided, but certainly do not deserve the label of mushriq and kaafir. And I guess, all the "divisive" literature written over centuries reflecting discords among the ulema and scholars or simply political compulsions together carry no weight for a Muslim who takes guidance from the Glorious Qur'an and follow the Prophet PBUH as his only Imaam.

Ethnic profiling has no place in Islam. We must treat all humans - not just the Sunnis, but Shias too, with kindness and invite them to the right path with lots and lots of grace and patience, just as the Prophet PBUH used to do. This is another FUNDAMENTAL TRUTH that Islam teaches us. Even if all the ulema, past and present tell otherwise, the TRUTH stands.

I would refer to your earlier posting where you compared Shias with Ahmadiyas. There is an important difference you forgot to mention. Ahmadiyas brought a new Prophet and that sealed their fate. And let us be clear, there is no reason why we should not give Da'wah even to a second-generation Ahmadiya who has inherited his beliefs from his parents rather than treat him/her as an enemy of Islam.

I would also like to bring to your attention the"division" between the so-called rightly guided Sunni scholars. You may like to see what the differing schools say about each other - Ahle hadith, Salafis, Deobandis, Tablighis, Khanqa - followers of specific scholars, Barelvis, Naqshebandis, and the list is too long indeed.

Quoting opinions based on historical events is all the more difficult to interpret.

Regarding your recent email on the writings of Maulana Manzoor Naumani, may I state that I have the great privilege of personally meeting the Maulana during my student days in Lucknow and I have the highest regards for him as a great scholar and a great Abid and Alim.

However, I feel our times are somewhat different from the times of the Maulana who lived at a time of great animosity between Indian Shias and Sunnis (with frequent riots in Lucknow over incidents of disrespect shown to Sahabah by some misguided Shias).

And the times are changing fast.

The idea of Islamic solidarity and unity between different sects and schools of Islam is more relevant than ever.

No one denies the problem with their Aqeedah. Why should we (the ones with right Aqeedah) feel threatened by them? More so in an age when we are facing Western conspiracies at the highest level to malign Islam and its followers?

With due respect to Maulana and his apprehensions about Shiaism, I personally feel strongly that we need NOT keep going back to books of history to develop a perspective for the future. In this age we feel we should invite the Jews and Christians (supposedly worst enemies of Islam according to some) through Dawah. We prefer not to go by racial profiling and we are proved correct when we are witnessing many of them actually converting to Islam (not withstanding the crusades of the past and what-have-you), there is no reason to believe that the "present day" Shiahs would never revert to the right path and get united with the Sunnis under the banner of Islam.

Rationality and Islamic solidarity will never get a chance if both Shias and Sunnnis keep referring to the books written by their "respected" ulema about the dangers of being friendly with the "other" sect.

At another level, may I state that in the field of Islamic economics and law, I have come across some real gems in the writings of Imam Baqi Al-Sadr (author of Iqtesaduna). To the best of my knowledge the legal texts of Imam Jaafar also draw wide appreciation by Sunni scholars.

It is indeed easy to find fault with the "other"school of thought and take excuse of "protecting one's own flock from falsehood and fitna". But how many more divisions we would need to make of the Ummah to finally feel secure of being on the right path and being with the right Jamaah?



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