وَمَا تَفَرَّقَ الَّذِینَ ُوتُوا الْکِتَابَ ِلاَّ مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا جَائَتْہُمْ الْبَیِّنَةُ ، وَمَا ُمِرُوا ِلاَّ لِیَعْبُدُوا اﷲَ مُخْلِصِینَ لَہُ الدِّینَ حُنَفَائَ وَیُقِیمُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَیُؤْتُوا الزَّکَاةَ وَذَلِکَ دِینُ الْقَیِّمَةِ
"And those who were given the Book did not become divided except after clear evidence had come to them. And they were not enjoined anything except that they should serve Allah, being sincere to Him in obedience, upright, and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate, and that is the right religion." (Surah Bayyanah , 4 & 5)

The main cause for discords within nations (Ummah)

In these holy verses of Surah Bayyanah Allah (s) has brought the attention of religious persons towards a fundamental point related to religion and this point is related to situations when discord gets developed amongst religious persons.

Allah (s) says that we have granted divine book for past communities for the purpose of guidance in which everything is expressed explicitly and clearly.

"Bayyanah" means something which is bright and clearly evidential; and in which there exists no doubts or suspicion. Such expressions and meanings are those which have no layers of dust on it, in which everything is separated out and distinguished and the readers face no difficulties in understanding it. Such statements and expressions are in no need of anything else for their explanation and things are clear in imagination as well as affirmation.

Discord in Religion

Allah (s) has revealed religion with this manifested specialty (Bayyanah). It has been despatched to the religious beings through the Messenger (s.a.w.s) and other Prophets in a bright and explicitly evidential form. But still the religious beings develop differences, rifts and discords amongst themselves in relation to religion which later becomes the cause of development of multiple school of thoughts within the same religion. Such discords due to which the followers of one religion and one divine book tread on different paths  and these paths are not just different to each other but in fact contradictory to each other. Then the followers of one same religion walking on these contradictory paths despite of being related to one religion become enemies of each other. They declare infidelity of each other despite of having faith on Allah and at times this contradiction moves forwards and turns into a practical action and battle and this way the followers of one same religion start to kill each other.

One very sensitive and important question comes up over here is that despite of having a clear, bright, manifested, evidential and straight religion why does discord bursts out amongst the followers of same religion?

The Holy Quran has prophesised this issue and has identified the causes and reasons behind this. It has mentioned the solution for securing yourself from this, it has presented examples of past communities and has ordered us to take lessons and learn from these communities.

The fundamental cause of discord

As such the Quran has specified many causes for discords but the real cause, reason and activator of discord specified by the Quran is scarcity of sincerity and purity. All other causes are also due to lack of sincerity and purity. This is the reason that after mentioning about the discord amongst people of book (Ahle Kitaab) without any delay the Quran immediately says that they were commanded that they should be united keeping the religion pure only for Allah and should only worship Allah.

The People of Book took the book , they even read it, memorized it, they became its reciters, they wrote its exegesis and commentaries as well, they adopted religion and also kept on worshipping Allah but despite of  this discord and differences  developed within them. The reason for this was that they had forgotten the spirit present inside Allah's order which was to keep the religion pure only for Allah. The People of Book (Christians and Jews) forgot this point and thus became victim of differences and discord. They made multitudes of religions and schools, got divided into several groups, occupied themselves in proving each other infidels, they forgot the guidance of Allah and started considering the guides of their sects, the Rabbis and the priests as their lord. They considered their verdicts superior to Torah and Bible, they came down to the opposition of Prophet and Messenger, they started distortion in heavenly books and even got indulged into crimes of assassinating Prophets. All this was because they could not keep the religion pure only for Allah.

The speciality of Pure Religion

Allah (s) in the Holy Quran amongst the specialties of religion has specified three specialities of religion in the afore mentioned verses of Surah Bayyanah.

1. Religion is clear and evidential

2. Religion should be pure and only for Allah

3. The ever living religion is straight and firm

These three qualities and specialities when present in any religion will be termed as "Pure Religion" and if even one of the specialities is missing then the religion does not remains pure. That religion will then be called as adulterated religion, erroneous religion, distorted, crooked, limited, deficient and buried religion. The more such kind of religion is practised more mistakes are done, more discords and separations are spread, ignorance becomes common, religious beings do mal practices and since it is crooked walking on this religion results into differences and oppositions in abundance whereas by following the pure religion the religious beings remain united. They act with wisdom and intelligence and remain secure from controversies in faith and practices. They stay away from ethical vices and just like the vastness in religion they also possess high forbearance capacity, they are not narrow minded, prejudicial and of straightened mental capacity.

Islam is the most liked religion of Allah (s) and this is the reason Allah has declared this as the final religion and also said that for Allah Islam is the only religion. And also said along with this

 وَمَنْ یَبْتَغِ غَیْرَ الِْسْلاَمِ دِینًا فَلَنْ یُقْبَلَ مِنْہُ
"Any other religion except Islam adopted by someone will not accepted"
Surah Aale Imran - Ayah 85

The followers of Islam are being told after quoting examples from past nations that the they (past nations) adopted a clear, bright, evidential, pure and straight religion by making it complicated, adulterated and deficient i.e. they made the pure religion impure hence you should not do the same with your religion.

Islam is the most explicit, clear, bright, evident, pure and straight religion which implies that you should keep Islam as pure and should follow Pure Islam (Islam-e-Naab). There is no other religion worthy of  acceptance other than Islam similarly no other form of Islam can be accepted other than Islam-e-Naab (Pure Islam). The way the past communities were ordered to keep religion pure similarly the Muslims are ordered to keep Islam as pure.

It is grievous that Muslims did the same thing with Islam which the People of Book (Jews and Christians) did with their religion. Today Islam is present but discords, sectarianism and differences amongst Muslims is much more as compared to the People of Book. There is an abundance of sects and schools of thoughts, everyday new sects are coming into existence, the dooms day of controversies between beliefs and practices is evident, the ethical disgraces have transformed the face and outlook of Muslims, the guides of sects are worshipped more than Allah, the verdicts (Fatwa) of scholars of every group or sect has preference over Quran. There are multiple faces of Islam common amongst Muslims today; Adulterated Islam, erroneous Islam, limited Islam, deficient Islam, buried Islam, shrouded Islam, courtyard Islam, ascetic (Sufi type) Islam, Islam of hymns, forefathers Islam, Islam of slavery, Islam of parties and organizations, feudalist Islam, Capitalist Islam, comfortable and luxurious Islam, stagnant and still Islam, pragmatic Islam, Islam of enlightened  (beyond limits) thoughts, treacherous Islam, Secular Islam, Liberal Islam, governmental Islam, Islam of debates, Islam of terrorism, Talibani Islam, Islam of seclusion, traders Islam, Islam of pomp and show off, Islam of Mullahs, Islam of beggars, Prejudicial Islam, Sectarian Islam, free Islam and Islam of America.

Today these faces of Islam are propagated and promoted in education centres, seminaries (Madrassah), from pulpits, in debates, in parties and organization, in mosques and books. Though all these faces are not the creation of this era instead these have gradually come into existence over fourteen hundred years. They have been transferred from one generation to another and every new generation has accepted these faces of Islam with utmost sincerity. The pure religion of Allah and Islam-e-Naab was lost amongst these faces and the Muslims had washed their hands from it. Since Allah (s) has taken the responsibility of protecting Islam-e-Naab on his self it was protected from getting obliterated within these common distorted faces of Islam. And to revive and bring back to life the fourteen hundred years old lost Islam he sent a new reformer whose name and title is "The great Khomeini". Imam Khomeini (r.a) after coming to senses was aware that the Islam common amongst the people is not the one which Allah has revealed in the Holy Quran, one which was preached by Holy Prophet Mohammad Mustafa (s.a.w.s),  the Islam for which the progeny of Prophet (s) gave sacrifices. Thus he addressed the Islamic Scholars, the education school, the Islamic states, the Islamic researchers, the Islamic seminaries, students, people and said:

 اسلام گمشدہ است، اسلام را از دست ما گرفتہ اند، اینکہ دردست ماست آن اسلامی نیست کہ در صدرِ اسلام بود ، مسلمین باید اسلام را پیدایش کنند

"Islam is lost, Islam has been snatched from our hands, what is present today with us by the name of Islam is not same Islam as it was in the beginning, it is necessary for Muslims to find that true Islam."

Imam Khomeini (r.a) from Quran, Sunnah and Seerat (Character) found the true, clear and straight Islam and presented it to the Muslim nation (Ummah). Imam Khomeini (r.a) has given big gifts to Muslim nation (Ummah) amongst which the greatest, sacred and most precious gift is Islam-e-Naab-e- Mohammadi (s) (The Pure Islam of Mohammad (s)). Allah (s) has said that you have been ordered to be united keeping the religion pure and only worship Allah, establish prayers, give charity; this is the correct and upright religion.

The meaning of keeping religion pure is to adopt Islam-e-Naab (Pure Islam). This is only possible when the distorted and transformed faces are rejected and left aside but this is the most difficult task to do. To leave impure and accepting pure, leaving forefathers religion and accepting divine religion, leaving religion of rulers and accepting the religion of Mohammad (s) is hard and tough because Allah (s) has said in Holy Quran: کُلُّ حِزْبٍ بِمَا لَدَیْہِمْ فَرِحُون (Surah Momin, 53) "Every individual and group is pleased with what it has". They are not attracted towards bright, clear, evidential, pure and established religion because the adulterated religion has spoiled their taste.

Today all the problems in the Islamic world is due to impure Islam and impure religion. The solution for all these problems is to return towards pure Islam and pure religion. It is astonishing that with a bright, pure and established Islam present why Muslims are not turning towards it?

 فَمَالِ ہَؤُلاَئِ الْقَوْمِ لاَیَکَادُونَ یَفْقَہُونَ حَدِیثًا
"What has happened to this community, why don't they understand?"
(Surah Nisa, 78)

..... To be continued