Solidarity among Muslims has become nowadays more
necessary than any other time in view of the attacks that target
them and the strife that aims at their division. Thus, the
callers should play important roles in confronting these
attacks. One of the most important roles is acknowledging the
discords and differences between religious scholars, sects,
parties and nations, as well as dealing with these discords on
the basis of the Islamic brotherhood that Allah (The Most
Exalted) has commanded us to adhere to and made it higher than
all other human bonds. This brotherhood has only one basis that
is the person should say that he is a Muslim and bear witness
that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad (p.) is His
Messenger.
But, indeed, some callers are slipping towards playing a
different role. Instead of uniting Muslims, they are dividing
them through their speeches that instigate sectarian strife.
To learn about what is spreading the discords and to know
who is the responsible for this phenomenon and how to solve it,
we asked the Religious Authority, Sayyed Muhammad Hussein
Fadlullah. The following is the dialogue which we held with H.E.:
· Who is responsible for spreading the discord among
Islamic sects?
- Mostly, those who stir up sectarian strife are those
who are not pious, or those who pretend to be pious, or those
who are non Muslims. Therefore, the religious leaders of each
sect ought to raise people to the level of the religious
values and the message which all parties believe in. That is
because sectarianism is – in its reality – a point of view
regarding the values in this or that religion. And ignoring
these values in the name of sectarianism means ignoring the
religion itself.
Besides, the dominance of the culture of values would
help in: bringing together the members of the different sects
in the same confession as well as turning those values into a
common realistic criterion to which every confession may rely
on to evaluate any event or any individual.
Therefore, it is difficult to talk about a direct
responsibility because the sectarian issue in our world is
very complicated due to the intertwinement of the interference
of the foreign countries that are trying to control and
subjugate the positions of Muslims through weakening the
Muslims internal structure, and the role of the political
leaders since people have given up their rights of directing
them to the right path. In addition, there are the negative
historical accumulations that were not criticized in the
religious educational process.
Do you consider that nationalization is the
solution?
- We see that keeping the missionary work within the
bounds of the official religious institutions does not seem to
be a realistic matter in the course of the plurality of the
religious authorities and their means of calling. Besides,
there is no objection to organize the missionary work through
establishing public constrains and foundations that are based
on Islamic criteria in terms of the religious, intellectual
and educational competency as well as uprightness and equity.
Moreover, the institution that sponsors the missionary work
may –in itself – submit to politicization and consequently,
may constitute another problem instead of solving the main
problem.
Between the caller and the politician
· Who is the first one to benefit from sectarian
strife?
- The enemy is the first one to benefit from any
sectarian strife that may erupt, because strife makes the
nation weak vis-à-vis the enemy. It also directs all forces
and activities against ourselves, while they should be
directed against the foreign enemies or the internal ones such
as “the atheists and the materialist”.
· How is it possible to solve the discords in order to
prevent any sectarian strife?
- Those who are responsible for the missionary work
ought to establish clear criteria that are based on true
Islamic basis in which these criteria constitute the program
that is adopted by all those working in the field the call.
The most significant bases of these criteria are: establishing
the culture of opening on one another, respecting one another,
discarding fanaticism, attributing to dialogue when solving
the discords, and not mixing between the issues.
Moreover, the activists in the missionary work should not
rush to evaluate the performance of this party or that, since
the evaluation should not be based on sectarianism, but rather
on the objective values of the performance… such values that are
in conformity with the Holy Quran and the Sunna of the Messenger
(p.).
Produced by, Ayman Almasri, the reporter of
islamonline net in Lebanon