By Dallas Darling From Wn.com

Is Islam at a Crossroads? No. But like most other faiths and worldviews or secularized ideologies around the globe, it is experiencing significant internal and external transformations. And like the rest of those living in the world and who adhere to various principles that provides meaning and stability, a greater part of one billion Muslims have also embraced the most important foundational aspect of any society: harmony. So have more than the 50 predominantly Islamic states which now exist.

Yet the question, “Is Islam at a Crossroads?”, is still an important one to ask. Especially since it was this very week in 622 CE that Islam began, that is, when Muhammad and his community of followers moved from Mecca to Medina to avoid growing hostility and hatred, starvation, and even assassination. What is often forgotten between his flight (hijrah) and return (hajj) to Mecca, though, is his symbolic journey of hope in the face of opposition, including the formation of a formal and harmonious community.

It was in Medina that Muhammad brought an end to a civil war between tribes. It was also in this oasis town that he became a respected and just arbiter, resolving political disputes and seeking to unite the city’s residents into a single and peaceful community known as the ummah.(1) Because of this, and in accordance with the Qur’an, Islam describes the ummah as “the best community evolved for humankind,” emphasizing equality and social justice. Just as important is order, stability, and, of course, harmony.

Throughout history, Muslims have applied hijrah to a variety of situations. Some invoked the concept when forced to leave their lands during the Age of Western Colonization. In the 1800’s, Muslims leaving the Balkan states and Russia their migrations the hijrah. In the 1900’s, Indian Muslims moving from British-controlled India to Afghanistan used the term as did some Palestinians when they were expelled by Israeli forces. For others, it represents a spiritual journey of abandoning wrongdoing to pursue righteousness.

Islam is not at a crossroads but hijrah is. A journey away from something always entails a journey towards something. For Muhammad, it was the beginning of a new community which would embrace his principles while living harmoniously with each other. It is troubling, then, to witness a few Islamic states at war from within and without. It is disturbing to observe Muslims killing Muslims. If Muhammad was born today in, let’s say, Syria, Iraq, Bahrain, or Afghanistan, would he be murdered by another Muslim?

Without Prophet Muhammad’s hijrah to Medina and his harmonious ummah, Islam would not have survived. It would not have revolutionized the world with its many achievements and astounding accomplishments. Just as Prophet Muhammad and his followers devoted themselves to his teachings within the context of a peaceful community, is it not possible for several of the Islamic states and their respective populations experiencing conflict to do the same? If not possible, it is practical.

Without harmony, civilizations and societies have disintegrated, usually plunging into disabling discord and civil war. This is true for any religious, political, and economic system, including democracy. Prophet Muhammad’s peaceful ummah in Medina was actually a forerunner of democracy, specifically since it majority and minority were willing to compromise and make enterprising concessions. Harmony might appear to be the most idealistic of ideas, but it is the most practical. It makes all worldviews function.

When harmony fails, people have no common interest. If people have no common interest, they have no community. Lacking a journeyful ummah, or a collection of people, there can be no collective faith, no shared worldview. Harmony is as necessary as life itself, for without it humankind-and its various faiths and religions and systems-would cease to exist. Because of this, harmonious living makes much more sense than violence and war. It is the glue that holds people together. It is the web of life.

Prophet Muhammad realized the importance of a harmonious community in Medina and upon his return to Mecca. Having entered the city, he offered forgiveness and peace to the defeated Meccans, initiating an end to traditional tribal and generational warfare and its cycles of revenge and retaliation. It is only within the context of community that aquidah, or five articles of Islamic faith, can be maintained and lived. Along with family, a harmonious and journeyful ummah or Islamic state is the basis for Islam’s being.

Prophet Muhammad died without designating a successor. This led to bitter internal and external disputes. As important as religious leaders are, maybe he understood that harmonious communities of Muslims-the people who flesh out his teachings of being faithful to God, communal prayers, assisting the poor and oppressed, fasting during the month of Ramadan, and of journeying to the holy city of Mecca-are great importance too. Without a peaceful and journey-minded ummah can there even be and Islamic faith?

A fundamental task of harmony-building is to work unceasingly to create structures in which human life and human rights can be preserved and sustained. From Sunnis to Shiites, and fundamental, secular, reformed, modern, and post-modern Muslims, the path to peace and reconciliation, the hijrah and ummah, can be found only in the struggle for harmonious living. In the midst of differing interpretations, it automatically involves Muslims to enact the words of Prophet Muhammad: “…all people are equal children of Adam.”(2)

Dallas Darling ([email protected])

photo: WN / Imran Nissar Kashmiri Hajj pilgrims walk to board a bus for departing for the annual Hajj pilgrimage on September 17, 2012 in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian administered Kashmir, India. The first batch of 269 Kashmiri Muslim Hajj pilgrims has left for the Holy Makkah in Saudi Arabia to perform annual Hajj pilgrimage

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