Call for Unity by His Eminence shaikh Ahmed Al-Khalili (Part II)

sh. Ahmed bin Hamed Al-Khalili attending the Islamic Unity Summit in Tehran in 2008

Muslim Nation and Unity is the Preface of Overwhelming Truth book authored by His Eminence shaikh Ahmed b. Hamed Al-Khalili, The Grand Mufti of Sultanate of Oman.

The most harmful, dangerous, consequential, and worst in outcome, was the dispute in the fundamentals of the religion. For these fundamentals are the foundations of the religion; on them stand its pillars, on them is established its building; the strength of the religion itself is according to the strength of these foundations. That is why the ummah has often tolerated the differences that arise among its groups in the furu` of the Shari `ah. But the difference among the ummah hardens and deepens when it concerns a matter that is fundamental. According to the closeness or distance between one group and another in respect of the fundamentals, they come together or separate from one another. The source of accusation and defamation among the different groups of the ummah is not other than their differences on the fundamentals of the religion, and difference too in the sources from which belief is derived, varying between excess and insufficiency in reliance upon tradition or reason.

Dispute over the fundamentals of the religion, irrespective of the unity of the source to which the disputing minds refer, is nothing but a result of difference among the leaders of the groups in understanding and concepts. Then, the prejudice of the masses in favour of the opinions of their leaders causes each group to regard the opinion of its leader as a fundamental—to the extent that the proofs that go against him are, by every possible means of interpretation, made into proofs in his favour. Thereby the ummah is divided into sects and parties. ‘Each party is pleased with what they have’ (al-Mu|minƒn, 23.53, ').

I do not exaggerate when I say of the Ibadis—the people of truth and istiq~mah (steadfastness on the straight path, ')—that their belief is distinguished, and their method of understanding the fundamentals of the religion is characterized, by three things:

1 Purity of derivation: in their argumentation for the authenticity of their beliefs they have reconciled sound narration and clear reasoning.

The Ibadis did not reject sound texts because of their apparent contradiction with the demands of reason—which is the state of the rationalist school who held reason to be higher, purer and more authentic than what the Prophets, upon them be peace, brought from Allah, Exalted is He, and who relied upon reason to decide between beauty and ugliness, to give explanation and pass judgement. Equally, the Ibadis did not extinguish the torch of reason either—so as, for example, to become imprisoned by the outward meaning of words without seeking guidance therein and (through reasoning, ') unveiling the deeper, inward meaning and going deeper into the intent and purport of those words. That is the state of the worshippers of the word who do not take from the text but the outer shell, do not go beyond its form to its reality, beyond its surface meaning to its content and purport. By contrast, the Ibadis have attached themselves firmly to the strong hooks of the text while using wholesome reasoning as an argument by which to understand the aims of the text, and they have used the conventions of the language as devices by which to track down fugitive meanings.

No surprise in this, for the Ibadis walk in this matter by the guidance of the Qur|~n itself.How often you will find in the Qur|~n (expressions like these, '): ‘signs for people who understand’ and ‘for people who think’ and ‘for people who know’ and ‘for the people of intellects’; as you will find in it (the verse, '): ‘Indeed, We have sent it down an Arabic Qur|~n, that you may understand’ (Yƒsuf, 12.2, '). The Qur|~n, though it far exceeds the eloquence of the most eloquent among Arabs and non-Arabs, does not pass the bounds of being Arabic in language and in style. And Allah has made it easy for memorization by the comprehensibility of its verses, the intelligibility of its intentions, and the guidance that can be derived from it.