Benefiting from our differences

The clear command of God is that when the believers are in dispute over a matter, they should defer it to God and His Messenger, that is to say, the Book and the Wisdom. (Wisdom is that sense and quality of judgement which is given to the Messengers, along with revelation, so that they can embody the commands and guidance of God in everyday practice, sometimes strictly, sometimes flexibly, always faithfully. The Wisdom in the case of the final Messenger is more popularly known as the Sunnah.)

The authority of God and His Messenger

We cannot obey this command if there is in our community, whether local, national, or international, any established institution to which religious differences and disputes among Muslims must be referred, and whose judgements must be accepted by all parties without question and enforced by law and its agencies.

The reality is that if we truly will to obey the authority of God and His Messenger, we must deny that highest authority to any other individual or institution. This holds even when the authority is someone of proven learning, devotion, and righteousness of intent and deed. What believers must remember is that we follow the best of the Companions, they are imams for us, only because, and insofar as, they follow the teaching and example of God’s Messenger.

The Companions do that, just as God commands, because the teachings of God’s Messenger explain, embody, and exemplify the commands and guidance of God in the Qur’an.

The flow of authority

There is a source and flow of authority which begins from, and must return to, the Book of God. That returning of authority to God is practised, and the flow is maintained, when Muslims refer their differences to God and His Messenger.

The flow of authority is interrupted when, either in a few matters or in certain kinds of matters, such as everyday business affairs, politics, or war but not matters of worship, people prefer the shortcut, the artificial channel, of turning for judgement to some individual or institution and regarding that judgement as though it possessed the highest authority of God and His Messenger.

If the natural flow of the highest authority is interrupted, especially when the distance from its sources increases and the flow weakens, there is agitation at and around the points of interruption. Individuals, schools, and sects raise their voices and tempers around these points.

If the current authority separates itself from the main source and the main stream of the highest authority, there is danger of it becoming stagnant, stale, and sterile because it is self-referential and self-validating. It has practically ceased to refer back to God and His Messenger.

That highest authority cannot be delegated, usurped, duplicated, or packaged into summary legal formulas. God has clearly said in His Book that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is the last of His Messengers. None after him has the authority to determine laws, rules, and norms which carry religious authority, the authority of God, rather than the authority of, for example, human reason, human experience, or simply brute force, in determining our choices of how to live.

Living with legitimate disagreement

If we properly understand and respect this principle, it follows that we must accept, that is, permit and tolerate within the community, any disagreement which cannot be, or has not been, resolved by reference to the Book and Sunnah.

We can continue to hold our position if we have diligently looked for evidence in the Book and Sunnah to support it. Others who disagree with us have the same right and obligation to hold their position.

Neither party needs to condemn the other, separate from the other, ostracise them, discourage or prevent people from respecting them, reading their books, or listening to their arguments. Neither party needs to call upon the powers of the state to silence the voice of the other. Least of all does any party need to accuse another of impure belief or unbelief. Such accusation is forbidden except in the rarest and most extreme circumstances.

Rather, all parties need to remain mindful of two things. First, if they are striving to explain and embody the Sunnah, they may hope for a reward for that effort, even if they have failed in fact to identify the Sunnah correctly. Second, if it turns out in the Hereafter that one group not only strove to identify the Sunnah but in fact succeeded in doing so, that group is rewarded doubly.

That is the teaching of God’s Messenger, specifically conveyed to console judges who have to give difficult verdicts or advice in difficult situations but cannot be certain that they have reached the correct conclusion. They can only be certain that they have done their utmost to bring to bear upon the matter their knowledge of the Book and the Wisdom.

Hope through humility

Because the highest authority belongs to God and His Messenger, and because the source of that authority begins and ends with them, Muslims are able to reserve final judgement both about themselves and about others.

Such judgement belongs to God alone, and all who are living are equally distant from that judgement, confident only that it will come, but not confident of what its outcome will be. Being able to reserve judgement for ourselves and for others preserves hope, both for ourselves and for others, in God’s mercy, favour, and forgiveness.

In the end, deferring our disputes and differences to God and His Messenger, as the Qur’an commands, is part of deferring final judgement to God and therefore of preserving hope in ourselves and others.

Anyone who has ever tried to live, even for a few hours, without hope knows how difficult it becomes to find the will to do even the simplest things, such as eating, drinking, working, speaking, or responding to changes in the world. Without hope, nothing matters enough to act upon. With that in mind, it becomes easier to understand how and why Muslims can benefit from their differences. By living with differences, we live with hope, and we trust in the promise of God that He will settle all such matters in the Hereafter: disputes, differences, injustices, and every matter between individuals and between groups.

That trust is itself rewarded in the Hereafter. Here and now, it strengthens hope and nurtures civility in speech and behaviour within the community.

A psychological observation

A minor point worth bearing in mind

One of the main reasons Muslims in modern times find it so difficult to tolerate disputes and disagreements among themselves may be this: they are politically and culturally weak, unable to challenge or resist effectively the policies and practices of the Western powers. Those powers seem too great to fight against, so some Muslims turn their frustration against one another.

A similar thing happens when children are harshly or unjustly disciplined by their father. When the father has gone, an older child will often punish a younger one, verbally or physically, to make up for the humiliation felt when unable to resist the father and, interestingly, for failing to defend the younger child from discipline that was experienced as unjust.

Muslims should be aware of this psychological and emotional need that people have to prove and vindicate themselves against one another as a substitute for vindicating themselves against a greater, more powerful, and more unjust external force.