Working
together

Now we know that

beneath all the differences of muslim thought and culture,

there is still a unifying core of ideas and understandings,

a muslim worldview

that sets those differences within the oneness of Tauhid.

Nonetheless, human nature being what it is,

that unity doesn't have to divide very far

for muslims to turn on fellow muslims,

fighting to the death

no matter how small the argument.

The extremes to which such divisions can go

are clearly evident from the factionalism and civil war that followed the death of the Messenger

and traced through all of muslim history

to the muslim on muslim conflicts of today.

Two hundred years after the Messenger,

Muqtadir was made Caliph.

He was only thirteen,

but the government was run by his mother.

During his reign, disagreement as to the interpretation of an ayat of the Qur'an

was strong enough to cause widespread bloodshed,

the Hanbalites taking a strong objection to the works of many philosophers,

seizing such works from bookshops and libraries,

and burning them in public.

Throughout muslim history

wars have been fought in the name of such disagreements

over Islamic understandings

but the people of both sides called themselves muslim.

After Muqtadir, the nobles installed Al-Qahir as Caliph,

whose behaviour was considered cruel and merciless,

even by the standards of the time.

This severity also applied to the Islam he oversaw,

so he banned all music

and prohibited all use of wine,

even though he listened to music himself,

and as the history books say

"did not himself relinquish intemperance"

And in the end he was overthrown by the army

blinded and imprisoned

then left to beg on the streets of Baghdad until he died.

But no-one said he wasn't muslim.

He was the Caliph for a while.

Throughout history

muslims have waxed and waned,

from times of glory to times of infamy,

from times of strength and vigour

to times of colonisability

and weakness in the face of a changing world.

And sometimes they have been divided in ways that involve combat

involving pain and death,

but mostly they would try to keep their differences constrained

within the more subtle warfare of politics

where power is recognised through an ever shifting pattern of allegiances.

There is a coming together, between families

across locations languages and nations

unifying groups despite their differences

It might be a matter of birth, or a matter of choice,

and admittedly fear of worldly power may prove to be a strong persuader,

but in theory allegiance is voluntary.

It is a pledge,

a promise.

More than a sports fan's promise of unwavering support,

allegiance places self at the service of its liege,

and in doing so recognising dependence on its liege to sustain it.

Now a liege does not have a sex.

Allegiance can be given to a group,

as of football fans

which isn't male or female

or to an individual,

which has one way or another

but which isn't relevant to allegiance

You can have a liege-lord or a liege-lady,

or in the case of God just a Liege.

And here we see the relationship between God and all created beings in its essential form

Our service to our Liege is one of complete surrender

to the judgement of a Liege whose power is beyond our imagination,

and accepting our total reliance on our Liege's provision,

the Liege of all the Worlds.