[IslamCity] Re: Islamic State & 73 Sects--clarification

[sahannan]

Respected Mr Siraj,   Assalamu Alaikum. I want to clarify the matter of 73 sects and one saved sect. This tradition has not been narrated in Bukhari or Muslim. It has been narrated in Tirmizi, Abu Dawood and Ibn Majah. Tirmizi has called it ‘ Hasan Garib “ which means it can not be considered as fully Sahih.   In any case, the Hadith does not say which group will be saved. It may mean all who follow the Quran, the Prophet and the Sahabas will be in one group in the day of Qiamah and they will all enter Jannah.   This Hadith is Zanni in nature and is liable to interpretation.( Please see Rasail wa Masail by Justice Malik Gulam Ali,Justice of the Shariah Bench of Pakistan Supreme Court, Volume—6, page 63-67, Bangla edition)   Shah Abdul Hannan - From: Siraj Sandwipy To: Dahuk Dahuk Sent: Friday, August 05, 2005 10:05 PM Subject: [NABIC-L] Islamic State & 73 Sects   Assalamu'alaykum wa-Rahmat Allah wa Barakatuhu   Dear brothers and sisters, I am sure all of you have heard or have been hearing that this ummah of Muhammad (Salla Allahu Alayhi wa-Sallam) will be divided into 73 sects, and all of them will go to hell except one. I mm sure you have also heard many people claiming to be belonging to the so called saved sect (al-Firqah al-Najiya al-Mansurah), while branding every other group or individuals as deviated ones prepared for hell.   It is true that such an authentic narration exists. However, are we qualified to judge others to be deviated. Shouldn't it be our priority to try to bring all the sects and groups to a unified ummah, instead of branding them with names and then severing ties with them? The mutual mud slinging had harmed this ummah ion many ways instead of bringing any benefit to it. Our Ummah is not represented by the saved sect alone. The Ummah includes all the sects. I've found the following article in the Muslims weekly (July 22, 2005), which addresses the issue. I believe you'll all enjoy reading it, insha'Allah.   Ma'assalamah Siraj   ======================================================================================================================================== Islamic State and Seventy-three Sects By Waheeduddin Ahmed Ph.D. Ever since the abolition of khilâfa in 1924 and the establishment of the nation states, there have been much nostalgia and a desire to revive the khilâfa or at the least, to con­vert the nation-states into Islamic ones, by introducing elements of the Sharî‘a law. There were some countries, which became nominal Islamic states by adding "Islamic Republic" to their names and some others, which insisted that they were Islamic by the mere preponderance of the Muslim cultures among their populations and therefore, needed no change. The first attempt to establish an Islamic state was made, even before the demise of the khilâfa, in the aftermath of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, when the Muslim people of Central Asia, anticipating freedom as a result of the end of the Czarist Empire, declared themselves the citizens of free Islamic Turkistan. This dream ended pretty much as it started, under the heavy heels of the Red Army, as it marched across the length and breadth of the empire. Although there was resolute armed resistance, it was brutally put down with the help of the Armenian and other non-Muslim populations within those territories. Religio-political movements were organized in other parts of the Muslim world, notably in Egypt, which sought to replace the western-oriented secular sys­tems of government with one based on Sharî‘a. With some notable exceptions, the conflict between the Islamists and the sec­ularists has remained thus far, an ideological one, with the secular­ists entrenched ever so deeply in the corridors of power. In fact, secularism has remained an essential trait of the dictatorships that dominate the politics of the Muslim world. Some dictators, who have made concessions to the Islamists have done so, not out of conviction but out of necessi­ty. In the past few decades, we have seen in Sudan and in Pakistan, patron despots demon­strating their "Islam-friendliness" by flogging criminals in the open air. Their enthusiasm however, never advanced beyond such the­atrical gestures. Iran, for the purposes of this article, is a category II Islamic state, a Shia state, as specified in its constitution and acknowl­edged as such by others. Established in 1979 in a revolu­tion of the masses, in the manner of the French and the Bolshevik revolutions, it has survived for more than a quarter of a century, withstood all the storms, under­gone one of the longest wars in history suffering 1.5 million casu­alties and has faced hostility from its neighbors. It is one of the very few countries in the Muslim world where, the people are given a chance to change their govern­ment. It has just undergone the ninth presidential election since its inception, with an astounding outcome that has mortified its critics. It is also in the realm of possi­bility that a second Shia state may emerge in Iraq. If such a state becomes reality by beating the odds, then the history of the Muslim world may take a new turn. Afghanistan was a different story. Here, opportunity had pre­sented itself for a comprehensive Islamic state to take root in an extremely favorable circum­stance. The Soviet invaders had been expelled by the heroism of a rag-tag army, a conglomeration of tribal mujahideen. But as soon as the Russians turned tails, the mujahideen leaders became turn­ coat warlords in keeping with  the tradition. Lawlessness and ban­ditry ruled and cities became rub­bles. Then all of a sudden, in a spontaneous explosion, streams of Sharî‘a  students (Taliban) rolled out of their madrasas and swept across Afghanistan. The population breathed a sigh of relief, as law and order  was restored in amazingly short time. The circumstance under which the Taliban rule came to an end — We may not have seen the end yet — is common knowledge. This was a classic case of oppor­tunity lost. The Taliban had no dearth of Islamic knowledge and the leadership lacked  intellectual prowess. Consequently, the Taliban were easily manipulated by outsiders, who had no strate­gic vision, who had extraterrito­rial agenda and no sympathy for Statecraft. They saw Afghanistan merely, as a launch pad for unscrupu­lous adventures, a sanctuary and asylum. This was an invitation to disaster. Some people may consider my categorization of states into Shia and Sunni as imprudent but this is necessary to pursue the line of argument; We are already on a slippery slope of schisms. A great tragedy is unfolding in Iraq and a sectarian civil war is in the making. The invasion of Iraq has cut through its fault-lines. The dichotomy of Arab and Ajarn, the previously faint dividing, line between the Shia and the Sunnis has become piv­otal in the dynamics of Divide-and-Rule. Sunni Islam is so fractious that it virtually precludes the possi­bility of a category I state ever coming into being. Fissures are all over the surface. Divisions based on holier-than-thou men­tality are ubiquitous. Mosques are monopolized and differ­ences made irreconcilable. The self-righteous have secluded themselves behind the Hadith that the Ummah would be split into seventy-three sects, all of which shall be in the fire save One. On an ever increasing scale, practicing Muslims have started to live the prophecy and are resigned to an imagined catastrophic fate, handing the enemy a windfall victory. Shall we give up hope and rest in despair unperturbed? No, we do not want to suffer a collective ignominious death. There will always be Shias and Sunnis, Salafis and Sufis, Devbandis and Barelvis; but the face of the Ummah doesn't resemble any one of them. It resembles the man who may not even be con­versant with the full rigors of religion, who may have no flare for weighing the imaan of the next person, who may have no inclination for scrutinizing the aqeeda of his neighbor but calls him his brother from the depth of his heart, whose heart is filled with joy with the news of Islamic revolutions in Iran or Afghanistan, who comes out on the street protesting, if the Qur'an is desecrated and is pre­pared to lay down his life for his brother, whether he is Shia or Sunni, lives in Iran or Sudan. No, he doesn't even have a beard, nor is the cup of his eru­dition full to enable .him to call anyone kafir. He is not like you and me but he is the Ummah. He gives me hope. He is the one whom I can sway to uncondi­tionally get up and march along­side millions of others world­wide, towards the destiny as prophesied, away from the doomsday scenario of seventy-three sects.   Wa Allahu ya'lamu wa antum la ta'lamoon.   "To each is a goal to which Allah turns him; then strive together (as an ummah) towards all that is good. Wherever you are, Allah will bring you together; for Allah has power over all things." (Qur'an 2:148) ========== Siraj Sandwipyi __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com *************************************************************************** {Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.} (Holy Quran-16:125) {And who is better in speech than he who [says: "My Lord is Allah (believes in His Oneness)," and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites (men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: "I am one of the Muslims."} (Holy Quran-41:33) The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "By Allah, if Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of camels." [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim] The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)  also said, "Whoever calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all." [Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood, an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- All views expressed herein belong to the individuals concerned and do not in any way reflect the official views of IslamCity unless sanctioned or approved otherwise. If your mailbox clogged with mails from IslamCity, you may wish to get a daily digest of emails by logging-on to http://www.yahoogroups.com to change your mail delivery settings or email the moderators at [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the title "change to daily digest". YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS  Visit your group "islamcity" on the web.    To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:  [EMAIL PROTECTED]    Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.