Thursday, March 4, 2010

Islam and the Concept of Unity

Islam poses great stress on the importance of unity. The Islamic concept of Tauheed is the other name of the unity of mankind. The basic concept of Islam is the unity of God. Allah’s unity teaches us the message that we should not divide humans into sections and sects. Almighty Allah in the Quran says that the division of people in the races and clans is only for their introduction. The best one out of them is the man of piety.

Islam is a religion that bears other religions and orders its followers to respect and protect all humans irrespective of color, religion and ethnicity. According to a Hadith of the Holy Prophet all persons belong to Adam and Adam was from soil. The racial discrimination has been strictly prohibited in Islam. In the last sermon from the mountain of Arafat the Holy Prophet had clearly announced that no Arab has any superiority over a non-Arab; or the white over the black.

Islam advocates equal rights for all humans in the world and gives clear enjoinments for the respect, safety, security and prosperity of the non-Muslims as well.

When we Learn Quran we fine three levels of unity. These three levels are:

Unity of humanity

The Quran in Sura Al-Hujurat (The Inner Apartments) says:

“O, Mankind! We have created you from a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes that you may know one another. Verily, the most honorable of you with Allah is the one who has piety.” (49:13).

In this verse, Allah addressed believers and whole humanity rather than addressing only Muslims.

Unity of the People of Book

The people of the Books are the Jews, the Christians and the Muslims. In Sura Al-e-Imran the Quran says:

” O, people of the Book! Come to a word that is just between us and you, that we worship none but Allah, and that we associate no partners with him, and that none of us will take others as lords besides Allah. Then if they turn away, say; Bear witness that we are Muslims” (3:64).

Unity of Muslims

In Sura Al-e-Imran the Quran says;

“And hold fast, all of you together to the rope of Allah, and be not divided among yourselves.” (3:103).

Islam is to serve humanity. It has come to reform and unite humans, not to divide them. We must condemn separatism extremism and terrorism in the name of Islam and unite humanity if we believe in the unity of God.

2 comments:

kat said...

Thanks---this was interesting

zaheer said...
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