1. INTRODUCTION
Islam, a one time powerful religion that impacted on the whole worlds, is today at the crossroads. The Muslims today find themselves in a state of siege, gripped by ignorance and despondency, disunity,hopelessness and apathy, discord and disarray, struggling to get guidance from “those who have gone
astray”. One may ask the simple questions that started agitating the people’s mind about the
differences which are noted among some Muslim scholars, students or Ummah in general: Why can’t
we organize ourselves or carry out some of our actions uniformly? Why do we have these apparent
differences in most of our festivals and so on. The answer is simple. Whatever appears to be
disagreement among Muslims is a normal phenomenon. Islam has been the religion of a thinking
people, i.e. the intellectuals; so, one is bound to find divergent opinions on some minor issues. As to
the major practices, the Muslims are directed by Allah to be unanimous by holding the rope of Allah
together “And hold fast by the covenant of Allah all together and be not disunited”. (Q3: 103). It is
against this background that this paper attempts to place on record that the Hall Mark of Islam is
Unity.
2. CONCEPT OF UNITY IN ISLAM
Unity according to wiktionary.org is related to oneness, meaning: the state or fact of being one
undivided entity or a single undivided thing, seen as complete in itself.
Brotherhood and unity in Islam are twin concepts that mutually reinforce each other to sustain a
human model of the message of Tawhid on earth. Brotherhood ensures the bond of love, affection
and concern in such a way that a believer sees another fellow believer the way he sees the image in
the mirror that he faces: he would want for his fellow believer what he would want for that image in
the mirror he faces, that is, himself. While brotherhood ensures the affectionate bond for the sake of
the creator, unity ensures the pursuit of common goals of the Ummah that marches towards the
fulfillment of the purpose of creation. The fraternal bond of believers according to El-Miskin (2009) is
articulated by Allah Himself. It is manifested through practical correlatives of participation in
common worship patterns backing up the divine articulation. It is also sustained through conscious
efforts by believers to ensure the cohesion of the Ummah.
El-Miskin further elucidated that when Allah establishes the fraternal bond among believer (for
instance in Qur’ãn 3: 10), it is meant to be a transcendental linkage that cuts across bounds; He
explains that, while it is an admonishment, it is a declarative articulation not subjected to negotiation
or compromise. As long as one is a believer, he must subscribe to this intra-Ummah fraternal bond.
The declarative admonition of the Ummah’s fraternal bond is reinforced by a qualitative appraisal of
the Ummah’s cohesive unity. The qualitative appraisal is encapsulated in a tripartite identity pattern
that makes it the best community ever brought forth to this planetary entity, because its individual
constituents and collective entity: (i) admonish that which is good (ii) prohibit that which is wrong, and (iii) believe in Allah. In his Summation, El-Miskin beliefs that this qualitative appraisal of the
important bond constructed with the building blocks of faith that brings together diverse human
elements within a single cohesive Ummah entity is both a reinforcement of the bond and a rationale
that instills in the believer that this community called the Ummah is the best entity to belong to
(Qur’ãn 3: 110).
