Today is Thursday the 12th of Muharram, 1446 Hijrah. Yesterday I read a very disturbing news coming from Oman that a masjid in Oman was being bombed and took the lives of nine people. Apparently according to the news report, Daesh or IS claimed responsibility for the bombing and the masjid is said to belong to a Shia community in Oman and they were observing the mourning of the day of Ashura when the bombing happened. Now this is very sad because this is against the teaching of Islam.
We need to look beyond sectarian divisions within the Islamic Ummah. Rasul salallahu alayhi wa sallam said,
من صلى صلاتنا واستقبل قبلتنا وأكل ذبيحتنا فذلك المسلم
“Those who pray our prayers and face our Qibla and eat from our slaughter, that is a Muslim that is under the protection of Allah and under the protection of Rasul salallahu alayhi wa sallam.”
So this barbaric act of killing innocent lives, taking innocent lives just because of sectarian differences is haram. This is a great sin.
Now are Shia Muslims? The answer according to this hadith is absolutely clear. Yes they are Muslims. We differ in certain things with them. I'm a Sunni, I'm a Shafi'i Sunni in terms of my theology. I grew up and learning Sunni creed from the Ash'ari school of Aqeedah, Shafi'i school of law and Ghazali school of Tasawwuf.
Yet it doesn't mean that I would call our Shi'i brothers and sisters Kafir. We disagree. I disagree strongly with many of their teachings, with the way they view the Sahaba but that doesn't make them Kafir. That doesn't exclude them from the fold of Islam. Rasul salallahu alayhi wa sallam gave us this clear criteria. They pray like we pray. Look at the way our Shia brothers and sisters pray. Yes there may be some minor differences and those minor differences fall within Fiqh differences but by and large it's the same prayers and they face the same Qibla. It's not like they face some other places. It's not like they face Karbala in prayers. They face Masjid al-Haram. They face the Kaaba like you and I, like the rest of the Ummah and they eat from our slaughter. That makes them a Muslim. That makes them fall under the protection of Allah and the protection of Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wa sallam.
IS you did this. You're going to answer before Allah and Rasul salallahu alayhi wa sallam in Yawm al-Qiyamah. So we have to rise beyond these petty differences. We can disagree but there are matters bigger concern, matters of bigger concerns to the Ummah that we will need to unite. For instance the matter of Palestine. The matter of Palestine we are one Ummah and we see realistically in the world today politically the only countries that are taking real actions beyond words, beyond rhetoric are the Shi'i countries. We see what the Houthi in Yemen are doing and the impact they have on the economy of Israel.
Now just because they do that doesn't mean that we condone, we acknowledge their teachings as the correct teaching. We can defer yet they are still Muslims. We can strongly disagree yet they are still Muslims. We believe that they are Muslims but their teachings in some matters within Islam is wrong. We can sit down and discuss academically with regards to this matter but it should never lead to bloodshed. It should never lead to death.
May Allah have mercy upon those who were killed at this Masjid in Oman. My condolences to the people of Oman. Oman is a peaceful country. People of Oman are beautiful souls, very peaceful, peace loving people. May Allah protect all of you and Allah bless Oman and her people. May Allah shower mercy upon those souls that have departed and may Allah destroy IS, may Allah destroy Daesh.
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