Why Do Muslims Divide Over Islam's Core?

No more nothing.

[Silence]

Alhamdulillah.

[Silence]

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us in he says subhanahu wa ta'ala regarding the people of the book the Jews the Christians those who were given the revelations of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and then proceeded to ignore more much of that which was revealed to them and proceeded to divide amongst one another out of spite towards one another out of arrogance between one another. this happened and such differing should not have occurred. Why is that? He says subhanahu wa'ta'ala regarding the people of the book the Jews the Christians he said subhanahu wa'tala and the people of the book they did not divide up amongst each other and group up into different groups and factions. and u opinions that were fighting and contradicting one another in their understanding of the core principles of their revelation. They only did this after their messengers came to them, after their respective messengers came to them. However, this should never have happened. Why? Because what should have united them all underneath all of that was the basic tenants of their religion which was they were not commanded except that they worship Allah making sincere to him all of their worship and follow and adhere to their messengers. This is what they were commanded and that they establish salah and that they give zaka and that is the straight religion of Allah. That is the religion of Allah. What does that mean? Every prophet and messenger came with that core message. If we were to have a devout follower of Musam amongst us today or Isa or NIM or L or H or or any one of these Muslims from those past nations, if they were amongst us today, the details of their worship will be different than ours. The details will be different. However, the core tenants would be exactly the same. There'd be no difference between us and them in the core tenants of the religion. Meaning we would all agree on the worship of Allah alone without any partners, making sincere to him all acts of worship and that we should only worship in the way that our respective prophets taught us. That is the religion of Allah from the time of Adam until the last human being on this earth. This is what we were created for. There was never any deviation from that and there was never any confusion in that from the messengers and the prophets and the scholars. The confusion came when people started to twist and play with the religion of Allah for worldly gain or personal gain or because their mind had become warped by presuppositions presupposing something and then looking for evidence for that thing in the Quran and Sunnah. This is what we refer to and we call innovation. That's what innovation is. And so when these groups, when these nations, these followers of the prophets started to fight with each other and started to compete with each other. What did they start to do? They started to contradict each other for the mere point of contradicting one another. And for this reason, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said regarding those who differ in their religion, listen to this verse. He says, he says indeed those who have differed and divided in their religion. You are not of them in any way. He was speaking to the prophet sallall.aii wasallam. Indeed those who differ in their religion and contradict one another and split up into factions in groups you oh Muhammad have nothing to do with them. Nothing to do with them in this life and in the hereafter. Nothing to do with them. Meaning all of them will claim that Muhammad sallall.aii wasallam is their prophet and they follow him. However, it's not about claiming to be the follower of Muhammad sallall.aii. It's about if Muhammad claims you. This is what matters. It's not about if you claim to love Allah. Everybody claims to love Allah. That's not unique at all. Every human being claims that. Speak to anyone who believes in Allah and has not learned their belief from from Allah. No matter how wicked or evil they are, they will tell you, "I'm sure that God is happy with me. I'm sure that he's fine with me. Right? You look you you look even to disbelievers, people that worship other than Allah, atheists, people who disbelieve in Allah, they claim paradise for each other always say, "Well, you know, God rest his soul. I'm sure he's in a better place now." How do you know that? What did this person do to find himself in a better place, right? And so the claim that you love Allah, everybody claims that. What is the notable thing is if Allah claims to love you, if he loves you, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, to them to your followers, tell them if you all claim to love Allah, then follow me and Allah will in turn love you. to lay claim to the love of Allah. This is not unique. It's whether Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala loves you back. To lay claim to the prophet Muhammad sallall.aii wasallam is not unique. Every single person does that. It's whether he lays claim to you in this life and in the hereafter. That is what matters. Everything else falls to the wayside. So when we look at this verse, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us that these people of the book, they differed with each other. And you, oh Muhammad, you are not of them in any way. And those who follow you, but differ with one another in the essential core values of the religion of Islam. You are not of them in any way. He says subhanahua. It's interesting because this verse in Indeed, those who those who divide up their religion and become split into factions and waring groups in that religion, you are not of them in the least. It's interesting because this verse has another recitation which is as well correct. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, and the house for.

[Silence]

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sent down another recitation of this verse and that is in the first recitation indeed those who divide up their religion and turn into waring differing factions. You oh Muhammad are not of them in the least. And then another recitation indeed those who depart from their religion. Depart. Depart. What does that mean? The first one indeed those who divide up their religion. And the other recitation indeed those who depart from their religion. What does that mean? It means that as soon as a person innovates and hence divides up the religion of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala immediately they depart with the religion of Allah immediately because these are two opposites they cannot come together they cannot simultaneously exist in the same place and in the same time you cannot divide up the religion of Allah and still be part of the religion of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And so we understand from this that the dividing up of the religion comes as a result of the of the departure of mankind from the religion of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And we're not speaking about differences of opinion on issues regarding issues of issues that the scholars of Islam differ on. That is considered to be of interpretation. We're not speaking about that. We're speaking about differing on the core tenants of Islam, differing on the of Allah, differing on innovation, differing on the belief and beliefs with regards to the names and attributes of Allah, differing in aspects of the prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam's legacy which is not open to debate. Introducing newly invented matters, innovation, these are things that are not open for discussion and they are not unclear which is an oxymor. It's a double negative. They are incredibly clear crystal clear. As a matter of fact, a lot of times we when we look at, you know, we read something online or we hear people talk and we think that everything in Islam is a difference of opinion and it's not a big deal. If you don't understand something as from Islam and you go to look it up and you start reading things that you're not prepared to read yet and you don't go through the scholars of Islam to learn your religion many of us or most of us today. You have an issue, you have a question, you go and you type it into Google and you start to read articles and from god knows where written by god knows who, right? You start to read and this is a difference of opinion and that's a difference of opinion and this is a difference of opinion and that's a difference of opinion. What do you what conclusion does the average person come to when you see that over and over and over? What conclusion do you come to? Everything's a difference of opinion. You know what that means? Nothing nothing makes sense. Nothing is clear. Everything is unclear. Everything is open to debate. Everything is open to discussion. Even the scholars don't know what's really going on. That's the conclusion you come to. Even if only subconsciously. And so when we start to take on this belief or this understanding and it starts to creep up, we start to not differentiate between anything. As long as some scholar said it from god knows where. it's valid. That is not how it works at all. And the ex the exact example of that would be if I was not trained in medicine. I'm not a doctor. And I start to crack open advanced medical books and start to read about all kinds of different opinions that doctors have had throughout the centuries, right? and current differences of opinion and read in statistics and read in studies and I have no idea what I'm reading. What does that mean? That doesn't mean that what I'm reading every single thing is translated into action. A doctor would understand these things very simple and they can come to a conclusion and knowledge is clear to him. Contrary to someone me, I don't know where to start or where to end, how to make heads or tails of this. I have no business reading that. I have no business reading that. And so to end here, the point that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is driving home to us is that differing amongst one another in the essential values of Islam and in the essential issues of Islam and in the main tenants of belief and tenants of Islam. This only comes as a result of innovation. Allah would not hold us accountable for something that we are not guilty of. And so when Allah holds accountable people for dividing up their religion, that means that they had no right to do that and it was clear. And I will tell you just how clear the Quran and Sunnah is. I'll end with this narration. The prophet sallallah.aii wasallam tells us just how clear his sunnah is. Forget about all these things that you read you know difference of opinion and some scholars say this and some scholars say that. These are studies that only students of knowledge and scholars are supposed to be reading. These things are not meant to be translated and exported to the masses of layman people in the world. If a person has a question, they come to the scholar, they ask him, they take what he says and they implement it. They want to learn what is behind that. They have to now take a path to seek knowledge. You don't get to just ask anything and get the answer in the way that you want. And so if we were to look at Islam in that way, the Quran and its most obvious interpretation is clear. The Sunnah and its most obvious interpretation is very clear. This is how clear the sunnah is. The prophet sallallah.aii wasallam said inb.

[Silence]

This is how clear the prophet's religion and sunnah is. He said, "I have left you all behind on the clear, straight, unmistakable path. And it is so clear that its night is just as bright as its day. The path that the prophet has le left us on its night is just as bright as its day. Meaning even the things which are differed upon and slightly unclear are in essence crystal clear. They are not unclear enough to not be able to recognize the path of Muhammad sall.ai Wasam. I have left you all at behind me on the path of Allah. The clear unmistakable path of Allah. Its night is just as clear and bright as its day. The only person that will step off of this path after my departure is someone who is bound for hell. The misguided. That is the only kind of person. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that he subhanahu wa ta'ala teach us of the Quran and what we are ignorant of and that he benefit us from that which he teaches us of them. me which is equal.