The Seoul Times

The Islam religion came into existence about 1430 years ago on the soil of the Arabs. Prophet Mohammad is respected as a founder of religion Islam. He incarnated in Arab. According to the Islam religion, Prophet Mohammad is considered the last messenger of God. It is considered that since prophet Aadam (the first messenger) to prophet Mohammad, one lakh 24 thousand prophets embodied themselves, one after the other ,on earth among them, prophet Mohammad was the last to embody himself. Eesa, Moosa, Nooh, Ibrahim, Ismail, Loot, Daud, Yusuf is considered to be the prophet of this tradition. According to the Islam, the God gave this message, through his voice in another way, to the Prophets in their lifetime. These messages were later on compiled and accepted as The Book of God. According to the Islamic considerations, there are four such books considered to be the Books of God. Among these, the compilations of the svoices that were heard at the time of prophet Daud were called zubur and those at the time of prophet Musa were called torait and those at the time of prophet Eesa were called Engeel and the compilations of the massage of the God that echoed to prophet Mohammed has been named Quran Shareef .

It is considered that as Prophet Mohammad was his last messenger sent by God, in the same tradion, Quran Shareef was the last book that came through Prophet Mohammad. The people who had faith in Prophet Mohammad and the Quraan Shareef were called the Muslims. Prophet Mohammad advised his followers and other people that the Islam is a religion that believes in oneness of God, humanity, brotherhood and cooperation. But after the death of Prophet Mohammad, the religion Islam was divided into different sects on the basis of different faiths and assumptions. According to the Islamic scholars, there are 73 sects in the world that call themselves, the Muslims but there are historical deep differences among them.

Among these 73 sects, the main two are the Shiites and the Sunnies. Those Muslims are considered to be the Sunnies who accept Omar, Abu Bakr and Usman as their first, second and third Caliphs as the important cooperatives of Prophet Mohammad whereas they accept Ali as the fourth Caliph. It means that the sunnies are followers of Khilafat tradition that came after the Risalat tradition in Islam that is of the last prophet and that is Prophet Mohammad. And the second is Shia sect that instead of giving recognition to the Caliphs, the co-operators of Prophet Mohammad accepts the real nephew and his son –in law Ali as the successor of Prophet Mohammad. In this way the Shia sect gives recognition to 12 Imams of the imamat tradition and Ali was the first imam of that tradition. But the Sunni sect does not recognize them. Since the death of Prophet Mohammad, till now, the Shia–Sunni conflict is increasing.

Far the last 1400 years, the Shia–Sunni sects are blood thirsty of each others blood. And in the last one decade it has been following the more dangerous sides. People of the both the sects claim that they are the real Muslims. They use to tell the other sects as Kafir or as the non believers. Undoubtedly, the ditch of distrust between these two sects that started 1430 years ago has reached to the point that cannot be engulfed by discussions and meetings. It is also true that the experts in international politics have from time to time added fuel to the fire. As a result of it this, small flame of fire, at times turns itself into a big fire. The hanging of Saddam Husain can also be seen as a conspiracy that fuelled the fire of Shia–Sunni conflict. Since the time new Iraqi government got Saddam hanged because of Dujail massacre, a class of the Muslims is unfortunately trying to over praise Saddam Husain. In the last days on the meeting on and processions, that were organised on the birthday of prophet Mohammad , the pictures of Saddam Husain were also put and he was praised to the skies. The high praises of the ruler who killed thousands of innocent Iraqis, only to save his throne, is now being over praised. Saddam Husain not only had his cruelties on the Shia sect but he was cruel to the Kurds & even the Sunnies also. Saddam has put strict restrictions for shia sect to go to Karbla, a sacred place for them.

Today the villain of Karbla the former ruler of Syria Yazeed is not alive nor Aurangzeb, Mehmood Ghaznavi nor Saddam Husain who insulted Islam. Today the main subject to be deeply thought before the Muslims is the unity of the Muslim world & to put before them, what the real Islam is. The Muslims of the world will have to think that what the Islam has got from the controversial issues of its history of the last 1400 years & what it has got from its cruel rulers? History has witnessed that whenever there is a historical difference, then after that there is a regular spread & propaganda of it & then it is commercialised. Some people start to earn their livelihood from that controversial issue. Such controversies either turn into historical differences or they get different recognition of different caste, sect or faith. But now time has come that the Muslim world by learning a lesson from its history of the last 1430 years, should try to unite all the Muslims of the world. For it, first of all, it is necessary to find a remedy for the controversy among the Shiites & the Sunnies. Undoubtedly, at present all the religious leaders from both the sects are playing in the hands of those powers who want to increase the gulf between the different classes of the Islam religion. If they are not sorted out in time, it will not be a surprise that the condition & the direction of the Islam will change from bad to worse in this world.

Mr.Tanveer Jafri, who serves as contributing writer for The Seoul Times, is a noted columnist in India. He writes in a variety of issues including world peace, anti-terrorism, and national & international politics for numerous news dailies and portals in India. As a devoted social activist he is a member of Haryana Sahitya Academy & Haryana Urdu Academy.