For anyone even mildly serious about that Almighty Being, that Supreme Designer and Orchestrator of this Universe, what an interesting scenario we have today in this world !
Even taking just Islam, there are a plethora of sects and many have diametrically opposed views on some fundamental points (Abrogation of verses of the Qur'an, Punishment of Apostasy, Reliability of Ahadith, etc. etc.) and each is happily following their respective dogmas but for a seeker of God, this is an extremely uncomfortable situation ! Which way to go, which path to choose, that will lead one to the Beloved? One might argue that any path can be chosen and it will lead to the Beloved but alas, to me it seems there are some serious flaws with this reasoning
- If they were so compatible with each other, then why do we have so much inter-Muslim conflict.
- How can unity of the Muslim Ummah possibly be established with differences of any sort - will any denomination's leader really be unanimously accepted by all?
- It is stated in exegeses of the verse of the opening chapter of the Holy Qur'an "Guide us along the right path..." that the 'path' is the path that is not only the path of righteousness but the one that is straight and direct and which reaches the objective without deviation. In my humble opinion, having multiple paths that lead to the end goal may waste a seeker's precious time in this short life.
I genuinely feel that it would be difficult for anyone to have real conviction of his faith with just philosophical/logical argument. If someone very skilled and logic were to come tomorrow and deconstruct the arguments that you have in your mind for following what you follow, you would be left scrambling for days or weeks trying to reconstruct your entire belief system to work around those. Anyhow, we already know that this type of knowledge is very deficient and earlier people who came into Islam and sacrificed their everything did not do so based on reasoning. No, not at all. God Almighty is 'Al-Hayy', 'The Living' and He has graciously opened the door to personal experience and guidance from On High. To state one of many sayings about this :-
"When the slave comes towards Me a hand-span, I go an arm-length towards him. When he comes towards Me an arm-length, I go a fathom towards him. When he comes towards Me walking, I go towards him running." [al-Bukhari]
So how is it that there are still so many denominations? Why has unity in the Muslim Ummah not been achieved? Do the elders of each denomination, who are on the whole followed by their respective congregations as they would have presumably practiced righteousness their entire life, have differing beliefs about such fundamental aspects as mentioned earlier? Some points that come to my mind are :-
- It is well known that many Muslim leaders are funded by external parties, often in other countries, with a personal agenda and so do exactly as they are told - like puppets (muppets even).
- Some would not be striving for that aim as there are denominations who believe that any sort of divine communion is not possible after the Prophet Muhammad(saw) - and then they've had to fabricate and conjecture a multitude of ideas concerning the purpose of prayers, motivation of living as a Muslim, etc.
- Some may appear righteous by all means and indeed consider that they are striving but, quite understandably, they are not able or not willing to rid themselves of the more subtle chains of this world such as (ironically) the pride their position has given them, or a lack of genuine humility or loving money/luxury/children as they should love God.
What this would imply, and I hope I'm wrong, is that rather than the elders striving to create a connection with God and hence being guided by the Grace of Almighty God by virtue of their striving, they would continue in their current state (for fear of losing power, friends or families if they are not treading the right path). This is bigotry. And this is a very sad state indeed - so many muslims, so little connection with God.
Please comment - and hopefully tell me I've missed something.
Then we can apply the same rule to theism in general and say that people of all religion should be able to ask guidance from their respective God(s)/Deceased Saint(s)/etc.
Even taking just Islam, there are a plethora of sects and many have diametrically opposed views on some fundamental points (Abrogation of verses of the Qur'an, Punishment of Apostasy, Reliability of Ahadith, etc. etc.) and each is happily following their respective dogmas but for a seeker of God, this is an extremely uncomfortable situation ! Which way to go, which path to choose, that will lead one to the Beloved? One might argue that any path can be chosen and it will lead to the Beloved but alas, to me it seems there are some serious flaws with this reasoning
- If they were so compatible with each other, then why do we have so much inter-Muslim conflict.
- How can unity of the Muslim Ummah possibly be established with differences of any sort - will any denomination's leader really be unanimously accepted by all?
- It is stated in exegeses of the verse of the opening chapter of the Holy Qur'an "Guide us along the right path..." that the 'path' is the path that is not only the path of righteousness but the one that is straight and direct and which reaches the objective without deviation. In my humble opinion, having multiple paths that lead to the end goal may waste a seeker's precious time in this short life.
I genuinely feel that it would be difficult for anyone to have real conviction of his faith with just philosophical/logical argument. If someone very skilled and logic were to come tomorrow and deconstruct the arguments that you have in your mind for following what you follow, you would be left scrambling for days or weeks trying to reconstruct your entire belief system to work around those. Anyhow, we already know that this type of knowledge is very deficient and earlier people who came into Islam and sacrificed their everything did not do so based on reasoning. No, not at all. God Almighty is 'Al-Hayy', 'The Living' and He has graciously opened the door to personal experience and guidance from On High. To state one of many sayings about this :-
"When the slave comes towards Me a hand-span, I go an arm-length towards him. When he comes towards Me an arm-length, I go a fathom towards him. When he comes towards Me walking, I go towards him running." [al-Bukhari]
So how is it that there are still so many denominations? Why has unity in the Muslim Ummah not been achieved? Do the elders of each denomination, who are on the whole followed by their respective congregations as they would have presumably practiced righteousness their entire life, have differing beliefs about such fundamental aspects as mentioned earlier? Some points that come to my mind are :-
- It is well known that many Muslim leaders are funded by external parties, often in other countries, with a personal agenda and so do exactly as they are told - like puppets (muppets even).
- Some would not be striving for that aim as there are denominations who believe that any sort of divine communion is not possible after the Prophet Muhammad(saw) - and then they've had to fabricate and conjecture a multitude of ideas concerning the purpose of prayers, motivation of living as a Muslim, etc.
- Some may appear righteous by all means and indeed consider that they are striving but, quite understandably, they are not able or not willing to rid themselves of the more subtle chains of this world such as (ironically) the pride their position has given them, or a lack of genuine humility or loving money/luxury/children as they should love God.
What this would imply, and I hope I'm wrong, is that rather than the elders striving to create a connection with God and hence being guided by the Grace of Almighty God by virtue of their striving, they would continue in their current state (for fear of losing power, friends or families if they are not treading the right path). This is bigotry. And this is a very sad state indeed - so many muslims, so little connection with God.
Please comment - and hopefully tell me I've missed something.
Then we can apply the same rule to theism in general and say that people of all religion should be able to ask guidance from their respective God(s)/Deceased Saint(s)/etc.
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