Uniting Our Ummah When Politics Divide

Uniting Our Ummah When Politics Divide

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

We begin by praising Allah and bearing witness that none has the right to be worshipped or unconditionally obeyed except for Him. And we bear witness that Muhammad ﷺ is his final messenger. We ask Allah to send his peace and blessings upon him, the prophets and messengers that came before him, his family and companions that served alongside him, and those that follow in his blessed path until the Day of Judgment. We ask Allah to make us amongst them. Allahumma ameen.

Holding Firmly to the Rope of Allah

Dear brothers and sisters, Allah says in the Quran:

And hold firmly to the rope of Allah — all of you — and do not be divided amongst yourselves. And remember the favor of Allah upon you. Allah mentions His ni'ma twice. Some of the scholars mention that this is to emphasize that this is only by the blessing of Allah. As Allah says in another part:

If you would spend what is in the heavens and the earth, you would not be able to unite their hearts. This is something that is purely a favor and a miracle of Allah. Remember when you were enemies, and Allah united you, and you became brothers. Once again, by His blessing, brothers, united as one.

And سبحان الله, when you look at the society of Medina, you find a people that could not but be united by لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ. There is nothing else that would have been powerful enough to help them see past their differences and to come together — and to not only start to see one another as human beings, but to see one another as brothers and sisters. It's one of the great desires of the Prophet ﷺ when he would make du'a night and day for the unity of this ummah. For the unity of this community. Because when we are united, we're focused. And when we're focused, we're productive. We're guided. We are living in accordance with the mandate that Allah has given to us as an ummah.

Political Polarization and the Danger of Division

Now سبحان الله, today I wanted to speak about a very particular element of this. It was really because there have been a lot of articles over the last few weeks that are asking the question whether or not the country that we're actually in right now is even sustainable with the amount of political polarization that exists, and the amount of disagreement that exists around us. That eventually, as people are fed through their algorithm everything that they want to hear, everything that they want to know about the world, they no longer see anyone as capable of having a mere difference of opinion on anything, but they see them as enemies that they have to destroy. And eventually people hurt each other. People hate each other, and then they hurt each other, and then it becomes an unsustainable situation.

And سبحان الله, when you look at what the Prophet ﷺ dealt with in his community — without social media, without the algorithms, without that polarization — you still always have the potential of that fire to be lit. And then suddenly, people that have come together starting to see each other in a certain way.

The Lesson of Hadith al-Ifk: When Division Crept into the Companions

Now سبحان الله, in this situation, we're talking about the companions of the messenger ﷺ. And I wanted to focus on just a few benefits from this and how we start to see each other once again as brothers and sisters past differences of opinion — legitimate differences of opinion. I'm not talking about fiqh. I'm talking about just differences of opinion on different things that are around us and how quickly those things can be magnified.

The first place to start is Hadith al-Ifk. When Aisha رضي الله تعالى عنها was slandered, the Prophet ﷺ stood up on the minbar and he said:

"O my people, who is going to relieve me from a person that has hurt my family? You know the purity of my family. You know the purity of your mother Aisha رضي الله تعالى عنها. Who is going to take care of him once and for all?"

Sa'd ibn Mu'adh رضي الله تعالى عنه gets up. And who's narrating this? Aisha رضي الله عنها — the one who is the subject of the slander. She is the one watching all of this unfold. And she says Sa'd ibn Mu'adh got up and said:

"Oh messenger of Allah, I'll take care of him. If he's from al-Aws, we'll take care of him. And if he is from our brothers, from al-Khazraj — if he's from the other tribe — if you told us to do away with that person, we would do away with that person as well. Whatever you command us to do, we're going to do it, oh messenger of Allah."

And then Sa'd ibn 'Ubadah got up — وَهُوَ سَيِّدُ الْخَزْرَجِ — and he is from the other sub-tribe. Now سبحان الله, we don't say al-Aws wal-Khazraj. We say the Ansar. Because to us they're all one. We love the Ansar. We praise the Ansar. And Allah refers to them in the Quran as the Ansar. But those old wounds were there. And so the old wounds got triggered. This man from al-Aws said: if he's from our people, we'll take care of him, and if he's from al-Khazraj, from the other tribe, we'll take care of him as well.

And Sa'd ibn 'Ubadah is from al-Khazraj. And he stood up. And Aisha says — and this is what I want you to pay attention to — she says that Sa'd ibn 'Ubadah was a good man. He was a pious man. But he was overtaken by the heat of the moment, and some of the old divisions of jahiliyyah — of the days of ignorance. Aisha is the one who has the most to lose in this situation. And she feels like it's important to actually qualify what's happening here by saying: Look, Sa'd ibn 'Ubadah makes a mistake here. But by the way, he's a good man. He's a good man that slipped for a moment and went back to those days of tribalism.

And he responds back and he said to the other Sa'd:

"If he's from us, you will never touch him. You will never be able to overcome him."

And then Usayd ibn Hudayr from the first tribe got up and said to Sa'd ibn 'Ubadah:

"You have lied. You better believe that if he's from your people, we will take him out. And you're a hypocrite arguing on behalf of the hypocrites."

And then it all became yelling and screaming — back to the old days, back to the old wounds. And the Prophet ﷺ is standing on the minbar disappointed.

And سبحان الله — these are companions of the Prophet ﷺ. What ended up happening? It wasn't about the issue anymore. They became quickly Team Aws and Team Khazraj — very quickly. They went back to being Team Aws and Team Khazraj instead of just being Muslims, which had been nurtured over that entire time.

And who gets away as a result of the distraction? Who's looking at that, not disappointed at all, saying "I dodged one"? The actual hypocrite. The actual munafiq. The actual person who caused all the problems is sitting there going, "I'm glad they're fighting each other," because now he gets to walk out of the masjid peacefully while great people start to argue with one another again. Because they stopped being Team Ummah, Team Islam. They stopped being just Muslims. And they went back to being Aws and Khazraj. And who stands to benefit? The actual evil parties stand to benefit most from that. Because it becomes a distraction.

The Trap of Political Tribalism

سبحان الله, when you talk about political polarization in America, how often — more often than not, almost always — the same corruption that is present in the Republican party is present in the Democratic party. It's the same group of people that control and pull the strings, and they stand to benefit from poor people all trying to fight each other. Over what? Over defending their platforms, defending their parties, and drifting back into that. Because we are as human beings naturally tribal — Muslim or not Muslim. We can descend very quickly into: my team. That's my team. You're on my team. He's on my team. She's on my team. That's it. And so when anyone from my team slips, I'm going to overlook it. But when anyone from the other team stirs something up, let's all gang up on that person.

And what does Allah say? Remember who you were and remember what you became. You became a people of لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ. You became a people that stand up and pray at night. You became a people that spent of your wealth for the sake of Allah. You became a people that were willing to put your lives on the line. Don't go back to that. The Prophet ﷺ says: don't go back to being kuffar, striking at each other's necks. What's wrong with you? Don't go back to that.

But we're human. And the companions are the best human beings after the Prophets of Allah. In fact سبحان الله, the best two people of this ummah — Abu Bakr and Umar, may Allah be pleased with them. The best two men after the Prophet ﷺ. I was just reading about the disagreement that they had — because guess what? They disagreed sometimes. The Shaykhaan of this ummah, the two Shaykhs of this ummah, they disagreed sometimes.

And in this one particular disagreement, it was actually some of the context of Surah al-Hujurat where they started to raise their voices in the presence of the Prophet ﷺ. Umar رضي الله عنه expressed an opinion different from Abu Bakr al-Siddiq رضي الله عنه. Now these two men love each other. They love each other. But what did Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه say?

(Referenced in the context of Surah al-Hujurat; see Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 4367)

"You only expressed a different opinion because you wanted to differ with me." Abu Bakr and Umar. But there was hurt sometimes. And that's when they started to argue. Now of course this is Abu Bakr and Umar, and not only did they reconcile in the moment and not go too far with this, they took Islam far and wide in ways that are still benefiting us today — always, always سبحان الله — because they put Allah first and they put the messenger of Allah ﷺ first. After those moments, they were able to come back and get back to Allah wa rasulallah. Every single time. Because they had bigger goals.

And sometimes we have to be reminded of what that bigger goal actually is, and how we actually come back to something that is uniting — that is more important to us than anything else.

Keeping Perspective: What is Secondary to Tawheed

Dear brothers and sisters, سبحان الله, there are legitimate disagreements and there are disagreements that are far out of the realm of what is legitimate. But when you see a person next to you who says لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ — your brother, your sister — you have to always keep that perspective ahead of you. You have to be able to put that ahead of you, over and over and over again. And not let things that are secondary to tawheed — and everything is secondary to tawheed, everything is secondary to لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ — become a source of this type of disagreement. It's human nature, but it is a prophetic call. It's the call of Rasulallah ﷺ: always get back to who you are and what you are supposed to be.

Some of you probably don't care about politics at all. You're like, "I never fight anyone over any politics. I just don't care. I don't read the news. I don't get involved." But it's just one example of what leads to a lot of heated discussions. And you'll see a lot of people arguing on two sides of a political aisle and it's as if their wala' and bara' is to a political party or to a political figure rather than to Allah and His messenger ﷺ — willing to cut off ties, to insult, and to mock people who say لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ, who you hope to see in Jannah next to you. But here you are — you cut it off.

You know سبحان الله, there was a brother who once said something very profound. He said: "You know, when I signed up for the shahada card — when I said لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ — there wasn't a tick box that said Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative. I didn't have to tick: Salafi, Sufi, Ikhwani, Tablighi." He was like: "I didn't know when I said لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ I'm going to have all these tick boxes in front of me. What happened to لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ?" — the very basic of hablullah, the rope of Allah.

Red Lines and the Space Between Them

And it's important for us to say that despite all of this, we do have red lines. We have red lines in our differences of opinion. We have red lines in our disagreements. Aqeedah is a red line. Our aqeedah is a red line. Al-Aqsa is a red line — definitely. The blood of our brothers and sisters is a red line. You can have differences of opinion on very real things, but if it gets to the point where you are now insulting Allah, clearly going against Allah and the Messenger of Allah, clearly going against your brothers and sisters — actually putting those things forward — these are red lines.

But dear brothers and sisters, there's a lot in between those red lines. We're just human beings and sometimes we're going to have these disagreements. We're going to have discussions. And you have to still see your brother and your sister as your brother and sister. And not succumb to the dominant way of discourse where people just quickly hate each other and people quickly cut each other off. You have to remind yourself — and I have to remind myself — we're all on the same team. We're all on the team of لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ. We're all on the same team.

And we have to see each other, insha'Allah, as تَوَاصٍ بِالْحَقِّ وَتَوَاصٍ بِالصَّبْرِ — enjoining one another in good, in truth, and enjoining one another in patience. Trying to bring people to that rope of Allah and have them hold through. And the rope of Allah is the Quran, as the scholars say — وَهَدْيِ نَبِيِّهِ ﷺ — and the guidance of our Prophet ﷺ, as many of the scholars added. The Book of Allah and the guidance of our Prophet ﷺ. And we want to have as many people as possible hanging on to that.

And one of the promises that we are seeking to make to people is that if they prioritize Allah and the Messenger ﷺ, then it sorts out the world views, it sorts out the differences. It doesn't stop making us human. It doesn't stop making us differ altogether. But it does unite us around a purpose that is greater and that cannot be exploited by corrupt people and evil people.

And so you stop seeing your brothers and sisters as teams. Anytime this person says something, "I don't care if it's good, I'm going to disagree because that person is not on my team. And anytime someone on my team says something, I'm going to support it." This is exactly the jahiliyyah the Prophet ﷺ condemned. "Support your brother, whether he's oppressed or whether he's an oppressor." How do we support the oppressor? Stop him from oppressing. He's still your brother. You're still on the same team. Stop him from oppressing. But your goal is to have as many people holding on to this rope as possible.

Some of the scholars mention that sometimes, سبحان الله, when you do the opposite of nasihah — when you start to offend someone and come really aggressive at someone — you might make their opinion worse than it already is. Someone's still within the red line, and then because you're lobbing shots at them and you're fighting each other and yelling at each other and calling each other names, that person might say something that's going to take them out — just because they're mad at you and just because of the heat of the argument.

Shaykh al-Sha'arawi said something beautiful about the rope of Allah: if you're trying to kick someone off the rope of Allah, it's like you've got your brother or sister hanging on by a thread, and you're trying to stomp them off of the rope of Allah and kick them into Hellfire. What's the difference between you and the Shaytan? Trying to get as many people kicked off as possible, into Hellfire as possible — that's not who we are. It's not who we are.

The Prophetic Command to Brotherhood

Our condition of لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ keeps us united as brothers and sisters. And sometimes when we say something to each other, we take it back, we apologize, we come back to each other. We try as much as possible to make room on the rope — nasihah — to build people up, to say let's get as many people as possible holding onto this rope of Allah and protect it بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ تَعَالَى. And not let our egos take us away from our prophetic way, the way of our Prophet ﷺ. He said ﷺ:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2563)

It's a beautiful hadith in Sahih Muslim. He said ﷺ: don't envy one another, don't hate one another, do not spy on one another, don't go fishing around on one another, and do not become people that raise prices on one another and try to exploit one another — but instead be عِبَادَ اللَّهِ إِخْوَانًا — be servants of Allah and brothers and sisters on that condition: that we're all the 'ibad of Allah.

The Qantarah: A Scene Before Jannah

I end with this idea and this scene of the Qantarah. The Qantarah is an interesting place if you read about the Day of Judgment. We often talk about the Meezan, and indeed there are some people at the scale on the Day of Judgment who have their good deeds taken away because of their tongue. In fact, that's what the Prophet ﷺ mentioned — the majority of people going bankrupt on the Day of Judgment — that running tongue, those running fingers. They offended, they hurt, they abused, they backbited, whatever it may be.

Then you have those people that make it to this Qantarah. The Qantarah — the Prophet ﷺ said — is the bridge right before Jannah. Right before Jannah. It's the brothers and sisters that made it. You're going to Jannah — may Allah make us from the people of Jannah. People that said and that acted in righteous ways, in ways that were satisfactory enough for them to be on this bridge, right about to get into Jannah.

And some of them have hard feelings towards one another. Some of them have some hard feelings. And Allah is not going to let you into Jannah with those hard feelings. سبحان الله, in this situation — it's not even an obvious transgression, the way that the transgressions happen and are dealt with in the grave and at the scale and things of that sort. It's the brothers and the sisters that used to always go at it. It's the brothers and the sisters that tried to avoid each other in the musalla. And now you're looking over and you see that person next to you on the Qantarah. And imagine getting held up from Jannah because you need to work this out between yourselves.

How silly would we feel? How silly would we feel? I can see Jannah over there and I want to get in there. But I need to work this out.

May Allah remove from our hearts those grudges and that malice. May Allah protect us from it. May Allah allow us to enter into Jannah as brothers and sisters around our Prophet ﷺ.