Friday Special: Agree to Disagree!

The indisputable teachings of the Qur’an and the Sunnah of the last Prophet of Allah establish the essential foundations of Islam. The Islamic tradition has always acknowledged a range of reasonable differences of opinion on those secondary concerns that are open to interpretation. However, on the other side, even valid differences of opinion might cause confusion among common Muslims who are unsure which viewpoint to follow in their day-to-day religious practice. On one hand, there are certain fundamental components of Islam that are unambiguous and unassailable: the existence of only one God, the fact that Prophet Muhammad is His Final Messenger, the principles of faith and pillars of practise, theological and legal issues that must be agreed upon, so on and so forth while on the other hand, there are other matters that are open to interpretation, some of which even the companions of the Prophet’s differed over, which continues up to this day. Based on the evidence, the scholars of Islam like other scholastic fields draw different interpretations which differ from the others, which forms the basis of “Islamic jurisprudence.” Ijtihad is the word given to the process of scholarly research in matters which are open to interpretation. Evidently, scholars come up with different opinions which by no means should be perceived as conflict or sectarianism. Imam Malik objected to the Caliph Harun Rashid’s intentions to implement his jurisprudence saying: “O Leader of the Believers, differences between the scholars is a mercy from God for this Ummah. Each follows what he believes to be correct, each upon guidance, each seeking Allah.” As a matter of fact, Muslims must understand the subtleties of scholars’ interpretations and not fall into the gorge of sectarianism which does not seem to respect differences of opinions. At the same time, different Schools of thought should not be considered as sects but the diversity of Islamic religion. The unfair juxtaposition of these two separate terms breeds confusion and disagreement.