Unity of Believers

You shall hold fast to the rope of God, all of you, and do not be divided…
(3:103)

Unity is a great and wonderful blessing from God upon the believers. The unity we see in the world is artificial and temporary. But for the believers, God promises an everlasting and true unity.

God does not change the condition of the people unless they themselves change. We simply cannot achieve unity by wishing it. We have to follow God’s laws. God gives us specific methodology and formulas for achieving unity. For example, the Quran teaches us the following:

Tell My servants to treat each other in the best possible manner, for the devil will always try to drive a wedge among them.…(17:53)

Obviously, if we treat each other as nicely as we can, we are going to

be very close. When we lose our temper at someone, it does not draw that person closer to us. Controlling our temper helps promotes closeness. However, we must never compromise the Quranic principles for the sake of unity. Compromising may lead to unity, but only to disenchanted, temporary and artificial unity.

Unity is a trait of the believers, and God creates harmony between the believers. The believers are one family and are humble towards each other. They hold fast to the rope of God, and are stern against the disbelievers. They do not break their religion into sects and are like bricks in a wall.

We learn about the unity by analyzing some of the factors that cause disunity. Some of most

important factors causing disunity among the people are:

• Different priories
• Idol worship
• Differing beliefs and opinion
• Failure to follow one consistent source.

All these can be summed up in one word, EGO. It is our ego that causes us to follow our own priorities, idols and opinions. By telling us to kill our ego, take one consistent source, the Quran, and have God as the foremost priority in our lives, the Almighty is giving us the most powerful ingrediends for creating unity. One God, one book, and one brotherhood.

Feroz Karmally