Islamic Ummah will remain a single identity with avoiding division and conflict: Top cleric

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
All praises be upon the Almighty God Who created everything. And all our greetings be upon Mohammad (pbuh), the Divine Messenger and His Pure Progeny and Companions.
I extend my best regards to the participants at the Islamic unity conference meeting. I congratulate the Islamic Ummah on organization of the 36^th meeting of the Islamic unity conference titled "Islamic unity, avoidance of division and conflict and the practical solutions to this end". In the title of our meeting, we see three main and basic terms namely "Islamic Unity", "avoidance of division and conflict" and "solutions". This occurs while we are facing this main and basic question: “What solutions and mechanisms should we take in order for us to realize the Islamic unity and avoidance of division and conflict "? If we refer to Islam or if we refer to the Holy Quran, we find all the said three terms clearly. These terms exist in the Holy Quran and can be visible in the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet of the Almighty God. Within the same respect the Almighty God in the Holy Quran stipulates: “And verily! This your religion (of Islamic Monotheism) is one religion, and I am your Lord, so keep your duty to Me.” We also read in another verse of the Holy Quran: “Verily, this brotherhood of yours is a single brotherhood, and I am your Lord and Cherisher: therefore, serve Me (and no other).”
Based on the afore-mentioned, the Islamic Ummah is a single Ummah in the light of its principles and slogans, even if minor differences exist between different Islamic schools. If Muslims avoid division and conflict, the Islamic Ummah will remain as a single identity. Islam has always been calling Muslims towards unity and avoidance of division and discord. Within the same respect the Almighty God stipulate in the Holy Quran: “Hold fast, all together, to Allah’s cord, and do not be divided [into sects]. Remember Allah’s blessing upon you when you were enemies, then He brought your hearts together, so you became brothers with His blessing.”
This holy verse in of several meanings. The first one is the necessity to hold fast to the Allah’s rope or cord. In this holy verse it has also been stipulated that Muslims shall avoid division. All religious personalities know well that in Islam when something is banned and rejected it implies that it is Haraam or religiously forbidden. This means that the Almighty God means that division and discord are Haraam or forbidden.
In another word anything that leads to division among members of the Islamic Ummah is forbidden. As you can see, in continuation of the holy verse, it has been referred to Islam as as a sublime blessing; A blessing that saved people from the ignorance of the pre-Islam era and established peace among their hearts. Therefore, holding fast to the rope of the God Almighty is a necessity that we all must practice it.
It goes without saying that on the day of resurrection, we will be asked: “Why you did not hold fast to the rope of the Almighty God while the God Almighty forbid us from entering into division? On the day of resurrection, we will be asked: “Why did you enter into division? Within the same respect the Holy Quran stipulates: “And obey Allah and His Messenger, and do not dispute and [thus] lose courage and [then] your strength would depart; and be patient. Indeed, Allah is with the patient.” In this holy verse and we can witness command and prohibition beside each other. In this holy verse is also speaking of obedience to the Almighty God; obedience to the Almighty God and holding fast to His divine rope and following the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet of Islam. And the obedience to the Almighty will pass through legacy of the Holy prophet of Islam.

Within the same respect the Holy Prophet said: "I leave two things among you; the Holy Book of the Almighty God and My Household." Also, in the above-mentioned holy verse, Muslims are prohibited from entering into conflict with each other. In this verse, failure has been refereed to as a certain result of division and conflict that is of different dimensions. The first dimension of this failure is failure against the enemy during hard and soft wars. If we enter into conflict with each become divided then we will be turned into an easy prey for our enemies. And if the enemy attacks us during such circumstances, then we will be defeated quite easily. And then we can feel the failure practically.
A defeated nation with division among its members will enjoy nothing. Then there will be neither industry nor agriculture. Such a nation will not be able to use its natural wealth such as oil and mineral resources. Such a nation will not be able to use its human capacity. Of course, we have some different Islamic countries whose wealth if used in favor of unity. If Muslims are united with each other, they can use wealth in favor of their progress.
And in this way the enemy cannot control us destroying our human and natural capacities. And in this way the enemy will no longer be able to strip us from our wealth.
If we enter into conflict with each other, the enemy will peddle their influence within us. The enemy definitely does not wish the good of us and it is only looking for his own interests. We cannot expect the enemy to attach significance to our unity, interests and progress. Unfortunately, some Islamic countries became friends with our enemies and today their situation is quite clear. There are neither factories nor workshops in these countries. They do not have any production. The enemy has control upon these countries imposing its will and desires upon them. This occurs while the enemy has no control over the countries who rejected their desires taking act against them. Therefore, it is necessary for all of us to get united and avoid division and discord obeying and following the God Almighty’s desire and will. We need to avoid and denounce division and conflict. Why? Because as I mentioned before, "failure" is the undeniable consequence of any division and conflict. If their division persists among the Islamic Ummah, then it will sustain heavy defeat and failure in both hard and soft wars and also in using its natural resources. Therefore, disunity means division; the division that would to nothing but total failure.

We clearly see that the events happening to Muslim populations in some countries are mainly rooted in economic problems and the lack of financial support in their favor. For example, Muslims of Myanmar are always subjected to the harshest and most brutal oppression. The same situation persists in East Asia. These Muslims are suffering from oppression and massacre. But what are the reasons behind such circumstances? The first one is the animosity and enmity of the enemies with Islam. The second one is the economic weakness and the limited number of Muslims. And the last is the lack of unity among other Muslims in order for them to extend their support. If all Muslims had supported these oppressed people with financially, intellectually and militarily then their situation would have been different as compared with what we witness today. On the other hand, the adverse impact of conflict and division among the Islamic Ummah might be followed by adverse impacts on economic and intellectual areas; just like what we can see in Iraq, Yemen and even Palestine. We can clearly witness that the adverse effect of division and discord in the said countries has been reflected in the intellectual and economic areas. We shall not forget that the enemy is trying to stir up division and discord among Muslims with the with the purpose of stripping them of their natural wealth. The enemy wishes to be witness to Muslim starvation. The enemy wishes to witness while Muslims to live on natural resources but cannot benefit from them. In the meantime, if someone intends to show Muslims the right path enemies call him a conspirator or mercenary. This is the soft war. Unfortunately, some coward Muslims have been deceived by these lies, and it is exactly from here that the division and conflict emerge and the failure occurs.

The question that I wish to raise here is why did Europe win and we lost? In response, we must that in Europe, different structures, ethnicities, sects and followers of different orientations can live together turning them united under the name of "citizenship". In Europe, all citizens shall serve their country. According to European laws, if any citizen harms interests of their country, they should be accountable and if violating the laws shall be punished. However, this is contrary to what we have in Islamic countries. In Islamic countries if someone tries to stir up division other people will comply him. And, naturally, we have to tastes the failure. This occurs while the Islamic Ummah is supposed to be united and single Ummah. And this occurs while the Almighty God has called all Muslims to unity and solidarity and avoidance of division and discord in many verses of the Holy Quran. And in this era, we need this unity more than ever before.
Another point that I would like to mention here is that it seems Muslims in Europe and USA might not be oppressed as they are in countries like Myanmar. The reason lies in this fact that in USA and Europe, quite different methods are used to deal with Muslims and that is to strip up Muslim people from the real Islamic discourse and wisdom. In the United States and by extent the West, Hijab is a form of backwardness. In the West marriage and Islamic laws are introduced as culture of backwardness. And, instead they promote phenomena like homosexuality. What the role of Muslims shall be? What Muslims shall do to help the Islamic culture and thought? What shall Muslims do to support their religious brothers and sisters financially and economically?
What is the duty and responsibility of Muslims in helping their brothers who get killed? It goes without saying that, all Muslims can do anything in this respect passes through Islamic unity. The present conference always invites people to unity and brotherhood. And هn my turn, I also invite citizens of my country in Iraq to unity, brotherhood, cooperation, avoidance of conflict and division as well as obedience to and following the Holy Quran, because "failure" and "destruction" are the vulnerable result of conflict. And If destruction takes place who the winner will be? Surely the enemy. Therefore, we need to identify all ways and means to realize the unity. I recommend the Islamic Unity Conference to establish workshops for this purpose. In this way we can reach unity and avoid division, discord and conflict that will by all means lead us to failure. The basis for unity is to establish proper mechanisms for avoiding division and conflict.
In conclusion, I extend my appreciation to organizers for inviting me to the present conference meeting wishing them every success in all their efforts by the grace of the Almighty God.