On Religious Identity
The particular facet that I intend to write about today pertains to identity related to religious sects. This identity often elicits strong emotions from its followers. I will hereby try to address why in my opinion, I understand the strong sense of attachment to these sect-based identities to be problematic.
So let’s explore our attachment to our identification with religious sects. I was born into a Dawoodi Bohra family which is a subset of fiq-e-jafria and over time my family saw itself finding more connection within the larger community of fiq-e-jafria than the smaller subset of Dawoodi bohras. The reason for this was primarily ideological.
By that extension, I would be termed to belong to the Shia sect. Over this past year, I have been reflecting on why this identification is problematic. I would not primarily approach this topic from a historical context since history often has multiple narratives and each side finds evidence that supports its claim for righteousness.
I would start off however from where Islam began, from the Prophet Muhammad. How did he identify himself, he identified himself as purely Muslim, there was no Sunni no Shia nor any other sub-sect. How did his progeny identify themselves, they too called themselves Muslim and nothing else. Even in their times there were objectively speaking good human beings and not-so-good human beings who were part of their community. However, they did not label themselves differently based on their sense of moral righteousness. Why would they not do that one might ask? My assertion is that labelling creates divisiveness. By belonging to a single community despite disagreement, you strengthen the whole.
In the next phase of my life, I would aim to follow a similar approach. Rather than identify myself as a certain sect of Muslim I would much rather be practicing and believing in just this larger identity and try to actively de-identify myself from the sub-identity of being either sect.
How does one do that practically speaking? Well for one, one can pray in any and all mosques that one comes across. If the jamaat is praying with their hands crossed, you pray with your hands crossed so as not to upset the rhythm of the prayer, if the Jamat is praying with their hands uncrossed you pray that way. If a group of people is breaking their fast at the earlier maghrib time you do it that way. The underlying intent is, rather than splitting yourself into groups based on minor differences in practices one should compromise and let go of these minor differences in practicing faith. These are practical ways in which one could bring people closer together. There could be countless such examples of differences in the practice of faith that lead to division for not very important reasons.
I understand when it comes to matters of jurisprudence there are significant implications for each sect. Since (fortunately) I do not have to deal with such matters yet, I would not spend my brain power deciphering issues at that level.
However, if I were to use a simple yardstick of decoding life’s principles based on Islamic law, I would try to understand which path seems to suggest ways of dealing with situations with more compassion and mercy. After all, the most used title for Allah is the most compassionate and the most merciful. Having said that, I would park those more complicated matters for later on in my life when perhaps I would no longer have the luxury of parking these matters for the future.
In conclusion, I believe, splitting ourselves into sects is counterintuitive to the intent of religion which is to bring people closer together and to spread peace and harmony in an individual's and a community’s life. So within our individual lives, we could undo the indoctrination of the cultural baggage of our sect-based identities, we would be helping to build a more united and peaceful community for the larger whole which is perhaps what was the intent of religion all along.
