Our differences unite us
Islam can look very different from one country to another, from one city to another, or even from one neighbor to another. For many this is a very scary thing, religion is a serious matter, and your eternity in the afterlife could depend on this. But for others, they can appreciate the beauty of having Islamically acceptable differences.
Seeing the history, the culture, the priorities each group of Muslims chose to emphasize, is all so beautiful. But what makes it beautiful is the fact that even with all these differences we are all united on what truly matters: The oneness of God.
There is a statement that is commonly attributed to the Prophet of Allah PBUH “The differing of my ummah is a mercy.” The truth is, it is not a direct statement of the Prophet Mohammad PBUH, but a statement of the Tabi’een (the generation after the Sahabah, the companions of the Prophet).
There is a lot of truth in that statement. The madhhabs within Sunni Islam differ in many small details, but all are acceptable. Each madhab is an extremely thorough attempt at extracting the proper jurisprudence. This was done at the incredible expense of scholars of the highest caliber dedicating their lives to these gargantuan feets. These were experts of Sirah (the life and sayings of the Prophet), Arabic, Hadith, Tafsir (translation of the Qur’an), and they had extensive knowledge about text and context, combined with their genius, perfect memories, incredible wisdom, and barakah (blessing from Allah).
To truly appreciate how they each came to those differences, we have to either study Islam formally, or respect the opinions of scholars who did.
When we see someone worship differently, our immediate reaction shouldn’t be to think they’re wrong. We should be open to the possibility of, “what if I’m wrong?” or more accurately, “what if neither of us is wrong, and it’s just them following a different school of jurisprudence than me?”. The small differences in acts of worship should not be simplified to just petty differences, but at the same time, they should not be equated to acts of heresy or fractions in dogma or creed.
Most of the time the difference isn’t a matter of kufr or disbelief, it’s just an acceptable difference. Throughout the blog, we’ll address how to get better at finding acceptable differences, starting with the most important act of worship after the Shahada (testimony of faith), Prayer.
