MUSLIMS AND INTERNAL RELIGIOUS DISPUTES TODAY IN Sri Lanka. PART 1

(BY DR RIFAI. LONDON)

A cursory look at the situation of Muslim communities around the world tells us the pathetic conditions of Muslims today all other world. Many Muslim countries are literally burning. Your name any Muslim country today you could see some sort of trouble in that Muslim country. Afghanistan is burning for more than 30 years now, Iraq is burning for more than 25 years now, Syria is burning for more than 3 years now, Egypt is burning for more than 2 years now and some of other Muslim countries could explode any time. Look at the situations in Pakistan for instance; it is like a time bomb waiting to explode.  

 If you look at all other Muslim countries except a few most of the Muslim countries are not politically and economically stable. For instance take most of gulf countries although some countries are economically stable politically these countries are not stable and sound. Political dictatorship and nepotism dominate these countries for more than 60 decades and people are made to live as political slaves and people do not enjoy  freedom of expression and freedom of speech in these countries,. If people write or say any thing against their rulers they would be wiped out from this world within days or locked up in jails for life. There are no any democratic rights in these countries. People are made to live like slaves without questioning any government in place.

On the other hand, the vast majority of people in the Muslim world are suffering from abject poverty, illiteracy, lack of proper health services, malnourishment and basic needs such as shelter, sanitation facilities and good schooling facilities and so on.  A cursory examination of statistics on these issues from UNHDP and Arab Human Development reports reveals some shocking revelation. I’m not going to discuss those statistics of  reports here rather I would  recommend our Muslim students to read those report to grasp the gravity of the problems and challenges that Muslim communities go through today.   No Muslim with the sound Islamic knowledge and sense of faith in Allah and his prophet would ignore these findings of UNHDP and AHDR rather would think how to alleviate hardships of international Muslim community from all these pathetic conditions.

        Muslims today face unprecedented problems and challenges in politics, education, Health economy, development and religious understanding.  Muslim communities to come out of these socio-political, religious and economic mess they have to priorities their challenges and problems. Yet, Islamic groups and Muslim communities all over the world seem to be engaging in unwanted religious and dogmatic issues.  Look at the situation of Islamic scholarship today in the modern world. Most of Islamic scholars and clerics are debating and quarrelling for some dogmatic and theological issues that bring no benefit to the Muslim communities today. Some time they are debating about the history of Shia-Sunni conflict and Sunni Scholars are making staunch criticism of Shia schools of thought and Shia scholars are making counter-criticism.

        On the other hands, Salafi groups are engaging in hot debate on some dogmatic issues. They are debating about the attributes of Allah, they argue about Allah’s sitting on His throne, His hands, His face and His coming down to earth every dawn, they argue about black magic and demons possession, they argue about some juristic issues in Islam. They argue whether it is allowed to pray eight or twenty prayers in the month of Ramadan. They debate whether it is allowed to make one or two Azan in Friday prayers? They debate whether it is allowed to make congregational supplications after each and every prayer or not?  They debate whether it is allowed to pray behind non-Salafi heretical Muslims or not?  You could a list of issues they have been debating since the time of Muhammad Ibn Wahab: the founder of so called modern puritan Islamic movement. It is not my objective to mock our some of those issues they talk about rather I would argue that are these issue are important issues in order of priority. While your house is on fire are you going to save your live from fire or are you going to save your household items? 

We all know well that Muslims communities are go through some of difficult time  in history and it is said that we are going through the worst time in our 1400 years of Islamic history yet, some Muslim people cannot grasp  the gravities of challenges Muslims face today. Consequently, they have been focusing on some pity issues at the expense of grave issues that Muslims face today. This trend is universal trend  in each and every Muslim country today.