Sunni-Shia Hatred- A Disease We Must Fight

Sunni-Shia Hatred: A Disease We Must Fight

Imam Zaid Shakir

Opening and Introduction

(بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ - bismillahir-rahmanir-rahim)

Thank you all for being here and to all the study circles around the world. And that's a great honor and pleasure to begin this class with Imam Zaid Shakir. And the idea behind the class is the importance of reviving love, mercy, and affection within the Ummah of the Prophet Muhammad and to build a prophetic community and strengthening those bonds of love in doing so.

The Crisis of Loneliness in Modern Society

Just very briefly, an introduction about loneliness in the world today. I work a lot with students and it's not uncommon to come across students when they come for counseling who are dealing with a range of emotional issues, challenges, sometimes some mental challenges. And one thing that I see time and time again, particularly at a place like the University of Toronto, which is a very busy academic lifestyle and many people commute, so they spend a lot of time getting to school, getting back home, and the entire time they're either in class or at the library studying, is there isn't a whole lot of time with friends. Just, you know, real human interactions.

And there's a shift both kind of on the ground level with students and as a whole in many human relationships, the family unit, society, community. And we need to be aware of these changes and we need to know how to respond. Just a few statistics about the dangers of loneliness.

Statistics from the United Kingdom

And these specific statistics here are related to the United Kingdom. You have 51% of people over the age of 75 living alone, that they live completely alone. So half of people who are over 75 are alone all of the time or live alone.

And there was a story in a newspaper of an elderly couple in the UK that called 999, just like 911. They called the police and the police came to their apartment and they said, we just wanted someone to come by because we were lonely. Can you have a cup of tea with us? So they're calling emergency, you know, just so someone will spend some time with them.

40% of elderly people say that TV is their main source of company. This isn't progress. This is a regression in just the basic human relationships.

Statistics from the United States

There's also an increase in loneliness in the United States. This is from the U.S. census. In 1940, less than 15% of people were in single households. That was in 1940. In 1970 census, the number rose between 15 to 20 who

were living alone. And in the 2000 census, over 25% were living in single households.

Over 25%. So the number of people who are even just living alone is rising. And there was, you know, a story from Sayyidina Umar ibn al-Khattab where a man committed a crime and Sayyidina Umar's punishment for the man was to banish him for a year, that he had to live in exile for one year.

And when the man came back, when Sayyidina Umar when he saw the effects of being alone in that extreme condition on this man, he said, I'll never punish someone with this punishment again. I'll never do that to anyone again. So you're starting to see this rise in loneliness.

The Health Impact of Loneliness

And many people are saying social media does not compensate, does not make up for it. And, you know, a loss of a sense of community. And even they're saying in terms of medically and the effect on physical health, they're saying loneliness increases the odds of an early death by 45%.

That being alone increases the odds of an early death by 45%. And they're saying it's worse than smoking 15 cigarettes a day, being in a state of loneliness. And inshallah, we'll have on the forum an interesting TED talk called The Lethality of Loneliness by Dr. John Cacioppo.

The Prophetic Model of Community

So inshallah, without further ado, we'll have Imam Zaid inshallah share some wisdom with us. Alhamdulillah, it's a great honor to be here at the Seekers Hub, such a beautiful, inviting space. The colors are very tranquil, and the message is tranquil.

Dignity, reverence, serenity, and love, and high aspiration. الله أكبر And the people are very beautiful, and the youngsters especially so. May Allah protect them, and protect everyone, and protect this space, and bless it to fulfill its mission. And bless all of you out there in the various seekers' circles of knowledge and aspiration. May Allah Ta'ala bless all of you.

The Foundational Hadith of Unity

I would like to speak in the context of the subject so very beautifully and movingly introduced by Amjad Tarsin. The hadith of the Prophet from Nu'man ibn Bashir, may Allah be pleased with him. He said, The Prophet said:

(Source Name)

So this hadith was related by Imam Muslim and others, on the authority of Nu'man ibn Bashir. May Allah be pleased with him and his father, both of whom were companions. Similar to Ibn Abbas, where Ibn Abbas and his father Abbas were both companions. So we say, May Allah be pleased with the two of them.

That the Messenger of Allah, may the blessings and peace of Allah be upon him, said: The likeness of the believers in their mutual love, their mutual mercy, their mutual affection, is like a single body. If one part of the body complains of some injury, the entire body, all of the parts of the body call to each other with sleeplessness and fever. So this is a very profound and powerful hadith.

The Meaning of Community

And it goes right to the issue of community. That not only are the Muslims a community, not only are the believers a community, but they are an affectionate, merciful, and emotionally invested community. Or we should be, anyway.

The First Pillar: Mutual Love )التوا

So the first quality of that community that the Prophet mentioned is love. And it's not just love in the abstract. It's mutual love. تَوَادِهِمْ their love for each other. And this reminds us of a very, very important aspect of our religion, and that's mutuality. Allah جل جلاله when He mentions love, again, there's mutuality involved.

Divine Love and Mutuality

So He doesn't just mention His love for the believers, or the believers' love for Him. He mentions the love they have for each other. So, for example:

Etc. to the end of the verse. So, O you believers! And so again الْمُؤْمِنِينَ مَثَلُ The believers are being referred to here. Similarly, in the ayah the verse يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا being addressed.

Supporting the Religion

Whoever amongst you turns back on his deen, and most commentaries mention this is an ارْتِدَادٌ عَمَلِيٌّ It's not a creedal or theological apostasy, but it is turning back from helping the religion. So, we have a responsibility to help our religion, brothers and sisters.

اللَّهُ هُوَ الْغَنِيُّ الْحَمِيدُ If you help Allah's religion, Allah doesn't need your help. He is free of all needs, worthy of all praise. So, if you help the deen of Allah, Allah will help you. But the point, He will bring another people in your place whom He will love and they will love Him.

Mutuality. Whom He will love and they will love Him. And so, the love mentioned in this hadith is a mutual love.

Reciprocated Love

Their love for each other. So, the love that we have shouldn't be unreciprocated love, which can be the most painful form of love. Love that's unreciprocated is terrible. We all have our experiences with that in our youth. So, I won't elaborate on that. But just to mention the magnitude of love that it's a part of our faith in terms of completing and perfecting and fulfilling our faith.

So, for example:

لَا يُؤْمِنُ أَحَدُكُمْ حَتَّى يُحِبَّ لِأَخِيهِ مَا يُحِبُّ لِنَفْسِهِ - (Sahih al-Bukhari 13, Sahih Muslim 45)

No one of you truly believes until he or she loves for their brother and sister what they love for themselves. So, again, love for our brother, love for our sister. Connect it with the completion of our faith.

لَا يُؤْمِنُ So, it's not a negation of faith. You know what I'm saying? You absolutely don't believe. But no one's faith is completed until, amongst other things, he or she loves for their brother or sister what they love for themselves.

Love as a Foundation of Dawah

So, they love for their brothers and sisters what they love for themselves. And this hadith, amongst other things, is one of the foundations of dawah. We should be people actively inviting people to Islam. That's part of our mission. The other side. So, one wall here in the seeker's hub. MashaAllah. Dignity, reverence, serenity, love, and high aspiration. Adab of dhikr.

On the other side:

So, O Prophet, we have sent you, testing my glasses now, as a witness, a bearer of glad tidings, a warner, and as a caller to God with His permission, and a shining light. So, as a caller to God.

Calling Others to Faith and Inner Peace

So, this is an integral part of our activity both as individual Muslims and our community as it was an integral part of the Prophet's mission. So, why did I say that? Our brothers and sisters in faith, our brothers and sisters in humanity, we should love for them to have faith as we've been blessed with faith.

We should love for them to have the personal security and serenity. Serenity, again, on the other side here, I feel like a ping-pong ball bouncing back and forth from one wall to the other. But serenity so that the need for drugs, the need for alcohol, etc., the need for these various addictions, shopping until you drop, which is an addiction. The need to just eat, eat, eat is not there. Why? Because there's inner peace and there's inner serenity.

Why? Because there's faith. And we who have benefited from that, some of us know how Islam has empowered us to overcome various things we were wrestling with. Wouldn't we love for our brothers and sisters who might still be afflicted with some of those addictions to have that inner strength and inner serenity to help them overcome them?

Spreading Peace and Greetings

Similarly:

لَا تَدْخُلُونَ الْجَنَّةَ حَتَّى تُؤْمِنُوا وَلَا تُؤْمِنُوا حَتَّى تَحَابُّوا أَوَلَا أَدُلُّكُمْ عَلَى شَيْءٍ إِذَا فَعَلْتُمُوهُ تَحَابَبْتُمْ أَفْشُوا السَّلَامَ بَيْنَكُمْ - (Sahih Muslim 54)

So you won't enter Paradise until you believe, and you won't truly believe until you love one another. So again, the mutual love is تَحَابُّوا حَتَّى تُؤْمِنُوا وَلَا until you love one another. Shall I not direct you to something which were you to do it? You would love one another, spread the greeting and the essence of peace between yourselves. أَفْشُوا السَّلَامَ بَيْنَكُمْ

The Spirit of Salam

And that means first and foremost the actual greeting but not the greeting as a burden. Not like, are you bothering me? This is my business, why can't you mind your business? You know, you get scared to give people salam. السلام عليكم brother. She's like, be quiet man, people know I'm Muslim, you're crazy. You know what's going on in the world.

السلام عليكم، أهلاً وسهلاً ومرحباً ، كيف حالكم؟ بخير، والحمد لله

But what about the spirit behind it? Where does the salam come from?

سَلِمَ يَسْلَمُوا سَلَامًا

So, it comes from سَلِمَ وَسَلَّمَ to render someone safe. And so, what is the spirit of the greeting?

الْمُسْلِمُ مَنْ سَلِمَ الْمُسْلِمُونَ مِن لِسَانِهِ وَيَدِهِ - (Sahih al-Bukhari 10, Sahih Muslim 41)

The Muslim is one from whose tongue and hand other Muslims are safe. That's the spirit behind the greeting. So, there's the greeting السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته and there's the spirit of it.

May Allah give us tawfiq.

The Second Pillar: Mutual Mercy التراحم(

And the mutual mercy. So, mercy again is another vital characteristic. And mercy is the willingness to suffer loss, pain, hardship for the sake of the one mercy is shown to. And so, love can be confined to the emotional realm. And love can be very subjective. But mercy is expressed in the world through action. And mercy is very objective.

The Objective Nature of Mercy

Love can mean many different things to many different people. And there's the objective aspect of it in terms of تَعْرِيفَات how it's defined. But mercy, most people it means pretty much the same thing to virtually everyone. It's very objective. And the essence of it, the willingness to sacrifice and the willingness to suffer on the part of one for whom one shows mercy to.

And so, again, this is a mutual phenomenon, if you will, that should qualify our community and qualify our relationships with each other.

The Example of the Companions

So the companions:

They gave preference to others. This was a manifestation of mercy even though they had dire needs. They were willing to suffer deprivation, to suffer hardship, to go without food so that the other could eat. And so, this is a manifestation of mercy. And again, this should qualify our relationships with one another. And it should qualify our community in terms of the characteristics that define our community. One should be mercy.