The Thoughts and Words of Imam Khomeini(r.a) on Muslim Unity
O Muslims! Keep Away From the Disuniters!
O you powerful Muslims! Beware! Know yourselves and let the world know you. Cast aside the sectarian and regional disputes, which have been created by the world-devouring powers and their corrupt agents for the purpose of plundering you and treading upon your human and Islamic honour. You are to cast away, in accordance with the judgement of Allah, the Most High, and the Glorious Qur'an, the disuniters, such as the mercenary akhunds (mullahs) and the nationalists who know nothing of Islam and of the interests of the Muslims. The harms of these people to Islam are no less than those of the world-devourers. They show Islam upside-down and pave the way for the plunderers. May Allah, the Most High, deliver Islam and the Muslim countries from the evil of the world-devourers and their affiliated and connected agents.
The Difference Between the Shias and the Sunnis Is the Want of the Foreigners If there happens a dispute between the Iranian nation and the other nations, or between the Sunni brothers and the Shias brothers, it will be to the disadvantage of all of us, of all Muslims. Those who want to cause disunion are neither of the Sunnis nor of the Shias. They are the directors of the Super Powers and they are serving them.
Those who try to create disunity between our Sunni brothers and our brothers of the Shias, are the groups who plot for the enemies of Islam. They want to help the enemies of Islam to overcome the Muslims. They are the followers of western powers, and some are also the followers of the eastern powers. The Muslims, wherever they may be must be aware that disunion between a country in the farthest end of the world and another one on the other end of the world, does not mean a local dispute.
The world of today is not like before. It will not be the question concerning only that part of the world. If there is a dispute among you brothers in Iran, it will concern the whole world, and if there is a dispute between the Iranian brothers and the Iraqi brothers, i.e., the Iraqi nation, it is a matter concerning the whole world, not a local matter between Iran and Iraq. It is considered in the whole world, as those in the world who want to put the profits of the world in their own pocket and to impose their control over the whole world, they exploit any disunion which may happen between the Shia brothers and the Sunni brothers in Iran. Similarly, if it happened between our Iranian brothers and the brothers who are in Pakistan, they exploit the situation, too.
We must be awake and know that the divine judgement says: "The believers are but brothers" (Hujurat: 10). There is nothing among them other than brotherhood, and they are obliged to have brotherly conduct. It is a political point to have all the Muslim nations-nearly a milliard in number- be brothers to one another, in which case no harm may befall them and none of the Super Powers will be able to transgress them. O brothers! Pay attention to this! Sunni and Shias are Brothers & Should Avoid All Disputes.
A group of the Muslims are Shias, a group of the Muslims are Sunnis, a group are Hanafi, a group are Hanbali, a group are Akhbari. Basically it was erroneous from the beginning to suggest such ideas. In a society where all want to serve Islam and to be for Islam, such matters should not be suggested. We all are brothers and are together. It is merely that your ulama issued a set of fatwas and you followed them in imitation, and so you became Hanafi. Another group became Shafi`i and followed him. Another group followed the fatwa's of the Imam Sadiq and became Shias. These should not be causes of difference. We should not have any difference or contradiction. We all are brother's. The Shia and Sunni brothers should avoid all differences.
Today, our differences will be in the interest of those who believe neither in Shiism nor in the Hanafi or in the other sects. They want neither this nor that to be. Their way is to cause differences between us. We must realize that we are all Muslims, followers of the Qur'an and of tawhid, and that we must toil for the Qur'an and to serve tawhid. The Muslims of the World Are to Join Together They are uselessly trying to create disunity.
The Muslims are brothers and would not be disunited by the evil propaganda of some corrupt elements. The origin of this question concerning Shias and Sunni, the one on one side and the other on the other side, is caused by ignorance and by the propaganda waged by the foreigners. They even cause disunion among the Shias themselves. They do the same among the Sunni sects, too, placing one group against another.
Today all the sects of the Muslims are facing the Satanic powers who want to uproot Islam, because they do know that what can be dangerous to them is Islam, and that the greatest danger is in the unity of the Muslim nations. Today is the day on which all the Muslims of the whole world must come together. Today is not the day for a group in a place to say: "Only we", and another group in another place say: "Only we". Today is the day on which all are to be united on the basis of the rule of Islam and the Judgements of the Qur'an. They are not to dispute. The dispute among the Muslims, in any way it may be, is prohibited by the Qur'an. Dispute will bring them failure and effaces the attractive qualities of man and nation. This is the command of Allah, the Generous.
Those who try to create disunion, and yet claim to be Muslims, have not found the Islam whose Book is the Qur'an, the Islam whose ka`bah is its Qiblah. They do not believe in Islam. The ones who believe in Islam are those who accept the Qur'an and its contents, the content which says: "The believers are but brothers". So they must comply with what brotherhood requires. Brotherhood requires that if some misfortune happened to you all the other brothers, wherever they maybe, sympathize with you. If you are happy, all will be happy, too.
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