If Allah willed...

If Allah willed, He would have made you one nation but [His purposes require] that He test you in respect to what He has given you.” [^9] Of course, the third unity that the Noble Qur’an speaks of is the unity of the Muslim nation, “And hold fast, all of you together, to the rope of Allah, and be not divided among yourselves.” [^10] Muslim unity has two fundamental purposes - one is to uphold the Noble Qur’an as the constitution of life, and second, is to accept our mutual responsibility towards each other as Muslims, for the Messenger of Allah has said, “Whoever does not care about the affairs of the Muslims is not one of them,” and “Whoever hears a man calling ‘O Muslims!’ and does not respond is not a Muslim.” He also used the parable of the human body to describe the Muslim nation - if one part suffers, the entire body will suffer.

One of the greatest achievements of the Messenger of Allah was to unite hundreds of fragmented tribes throughout the Arabian Peninsula into a single strong nation. When he united them, he did not eliminate differences of opinion between them, but rather, he enabled them to have dialogue with each other and to come to a sense of mutual understanding.

Under this philosophy, the Muslim nation was a powerful nation in the past, and only with this understanding it would be able to return to this respected position among the nations of the Muslim world and have the same significant role that it did in the past.

A modern example that the Muslim countries should examine is the European Union in which several states of different languages, cultures, ethnicities, religions, and political agendas have unified under one monetary system, economic agenda, and political front. The Muslim governments could be similarly united if they so chose.

The first step to such a unity is to increase the regular conferences and seminars which are held by Muslim intellectuals and scholars and aim to bridge the gap between the schools of thought. In short, differences of opinion, when properly channelled, are an asset to the intellectual growth of the Muslim nation and are a sign of the vitality of the Islamic culture.

The competition arising between different scholars, from all schools of thought, should encourage them to strive with their maximum effort to reach the best decisions, and ultimately, the truth.