The Harms Of Differing, Discord, Mutual Hatred & Boycotting

By al-‘Allammah Imām ‘Abdur-Rahmān ibn Nāsir as-Sa’dī [d.1376H]

Translation by Maaz Qureshi ©1438H/2016 C.E. Sunnah Publishing, Grand Rapids MI, USA

The individual of sound intellect will have no doubt that Allah has not prohibited us from an affair from the affairs, except that within it are from comprehensive and specific harms that are prohibited by His Wisdom and Mercy.

So the first harms of quarrelling and mutual hatred and differing are:

Neglect of this magnificent foundation, and disobedience to Allāh and His Messenger (صلى الله عليه و سلم), which necessitates the punishment of Allāh, and the depravation of reward, and the deficiency of faith, and weakness, and decline, and neglecting that which is indicated in the ayāt (verses) of the Qur’an and in the ahadīth (narrations) of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه و سلم).

And from that which comes about as a result of this is fighting and dispute and allegiance and disassociation, which turn the Muslims into sects, with every faction wanting to aid its own point of view with truth or with falsehood. So as a result of this, there comes about errors, misguidance and desires, and other forms of general and specific harms, which can enumerate besides but Allāh.

A result of this is the abandonment of the truth which is with the adversary in order to give victory to one’s own desire and it results in hatred for the individual who has come with it; so this necessitates hating what the individual has from the truth. And this results in a level of backbiting, tale-carrying and slander that is from the greatest acts of disobedience to Allah. And this confuses the individual who desires the truth. A good intention, if accompanied by little insight, will not guide ones to the path of truth and he will not know which of the two groups to follow.

So the follower of his desires who has an evil intention will find the opportunity to manipulate in order to disparage the honors of the scholars, the righteous and the rulers of the Muslims. So he will ascribe his statement to a group and he will don their cloak over the heart of a treacherous and deceitful hypocrite. So by doing that he will reach the wicked objectives he intends and he will sow whatever seeds he is able in the hearts of those whom he ascribes to, which results in disgrace and degradation. And the regret is not in the destruction of one whose condition is such and this is his intended objective, because he is destroyed due to the path that he adopted. Rather, the regret is only over the one who lends such an individual his ear and grants him influence over his heart and mind and pays attention to him considering him a sincere advisor, yet in reality, he is the greatest and most deceptive enemy. These are some of the end results of differing.

And from these evil consequences are that such an evil individual gradually takes those who are separated and sows the seeds of mutual alienation and boycotting, up until they no longer learn from one another and they no longer advise one another. So they lose out on the benefits that they are concerned with, if they were united; and these benefits are from the most important of obligations and from the greatest causes of drawing closer to Allāh and they are from the most significant acts of obedience to Allāh. And they will lose out on other than this due to what their enemies covet for them in order to split up their word and divide their affair.

[To read more on the Salafee position towards discord refer to, “A Treatise On Muslim Unity And A Repudiation Of Splitting And Differing” By al-‘Allammah Imām as-Sa’di]