Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Brotherhood, of the Prophets,

And verily this Ummah
Of yours is a single Ummah
And I am your Lord
And Cherisher: therefore
Fear Me (and no other).

But people have cut off
Their affair (of unity),
Between them, into sects:
Each party rejoices in that
Which is with itself.

But leave them
In their confused ignorance
For a time.

The people who began to trade on the names of
the prophets cut off that unity and made sects;
and each sect rejoices in it own narrow doctrine,
instead of taking the universal teaching of Unity
from Allah. But this sectarian confusion is of man's
making. It will last for a time, but the rays of Truth
and Unity will finally dissipate it.

All prophets form one Brotherhood: their message
is one, and their religion and teaching are one; they
serve the One True God, Who loves and cherishes
them; and they owe their duty to Him and Him alone.

Verily, this Ummah
Of yours is a single Ummah
And I am your Lord
And Cherisher: therefore
Serve Me (and no other)

But ( later generations) cut off
Their affair ( of unity ),
One from another: ( yet )
Will they all return to Us.

Ummat: this is best translated by Brotherhood here.
"Community", "race", and "nation." and "people" are
words which import other ideas and do not quite
correspond to "Ummat". "Religion" and "Way of Life"
are derived meanings, which could be used in other
passages, but are less appropriate here. Our attention
has been drawn to people of very different temperaments
and virtues, widely different in time, race, language,
surroundings, history, and work to be performed, but
forming the closest brotherhod as being men and women
united in the highest service of Allah. They pre-fiqure
the final and perfected Brotherhood of Islam.

Allah's Message was and ever is one; and His Messengers
treated it as one. It is people of narrower views who come
later and trade on the earlier names, that break up the
Message and the Brotherhood into jarring camps and sects.

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