One Loving Ummah

Mankind was one single nation, and Allah sent Messengers with glad tidings and warnings; and with them He sent the Book in truth, to judge between people in matters wherein they differed; but the People of the Book, after the clear Signs came to them, did not differ among themselves, except through selfish contumacy. Allah by His Grace Guided the believers to the Truth, concerning that wherein they differed. For Allah guided whom He will to a path that is straight. (1)

People belong to families. Families build up communities. Communities make up the many colourful tribes of the world. And all those peoples make up a single, magnificent body called mankind.

Some divide this body into six billion individuals and then try to throw everyone into a single 'melting pot'. They want each person to do his or her own thing and relate equally to every other individual on the planet. They don't see the point of distinct peoples. They feel such distinctions just get in the way.

Mankind was but one ummah, but differed later. Had it not been for a Word that went forth before from thy Lord, their differences would have been settled between them. (2)

Muslims are like leaves extending from twigs branching out from larger twigs on branches of larger branches until we reach the trunk and roots of us all. Each of us has our place on this tree of life, each its source of nurture -- and on this the tree relies for its very survival.

None of us is ever alone. Each carries the experiences of our Ummah wherever he or she goes, along with their troubles, their pains, their victories, their hopes and their dreams. Our thoughts grow out from their thoughts, our goals shaped by their goals. At the highest summit we ever get to, there they are, holding our hand, pushing us upward, providing the shoulders on which to stand. And we share those shoulders, that consciousness, that Muslim heritage with all of our brothers and sisters in Islam.

A man once asked the Prophet: "How can I know when I do well and when I do ill?" The Prophet replied: "When you hear your neighbours say you have done well, you have done well; and when you hear them say you have done ill, you have done ill." (3)

That's why our Ummah is so important: If you want to find harmony with any other person in the world, you've got to start with your own brothers and sisters in Islam. Until then, you haven't yet found peace within your own self. And only when you've found harmony within yourself can you help us find harmony for the entire world.

Every Muslim is a brother or sister of a great family of many hundreds of years. Where a Muslim walks, there walk prophets and martyrs, believers and strugglers, the mundane and miraculous, all the way back to Ibrahim (as), the first Muslim who challenged the whole world with his ideals. Our families walk with pain, through blood and with the fear of Allah (swt), the legacy of those who lived, yearned and died for both Jannah and this dunya -- in the way it was meant to be.

Their destiny is our destiny. In us they are fulfilled. In all of us and every one of us, and all of us together. For we are all one.

Say: Lo! As for me, my Lord hath guided me unto a straight path, a right religion, the community of Ibrahim, the upright, who was no idolater. (4)

When one Muslim does an act of goodness, all our hands extend with his or hers. If one Muslim should fall, all of us stumble. If one suffers, we all feel pain. When one rejoices, we are all uplifted. In our oneness we will find our destiny and our destiny is to be one. For we are a single body, breathing with a single set of lungs, pulsating with a single heart, drawing from a single well of consciousness.

We are one Ummah. Let its guiding principle be love.


Footnotes
1)2.213
2)10:19
3)Al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 1288
4)6.161