I believe what happen in Syria now is a calamity to the Syrians and the whole world. The calamity has descended upon the peoples of Syria because of their own wrong actions. What are the wrong actions of the peoples of Syria? Muslims in Syria are of two groups which are known as the Sunni and the Syiah Muslims. What is the difference between the two groups of Muslims? In principle there should only be one group of Muslims in this world and Muslims should differ only in term of their taqwa to Allah. Many non-Muslims in the west are probably puzzled with the term Sunni and Syiah Muslims. Who is the Sunni Muslims? Sunni Muslims are the Muslims who believe that there is no God except Allah and Muhammad is Prophet of Allah. The Syiah Muslims also believe that there is no God except Allah and Muhammad is Prophet of Allah but Syiah Muslims did not regards some of the companions of the Prophet Muhammad saw such as Hazrat Abu Bakar and Hazrat Umar as the companions of Prophet Muhammad saw but the persons who had snatched the position of Imam from Hazrat Ali who was the members of Ahli bait (family members of Prophet Muhammad saw), whom to the Syiah Muslims, should become the first imam of the Muslims.

Syiah Muslims believe, beside Prophets, Allah will send to the Muslims many Imams who will guide the mankind to the correct path. According to Syiah Muslims imam can either be from the Prophets or non-Prophets. According to Syiah Muslims Prophet Ibrahim was a Prophet and also an imam and Hazrat Ali is not a Prophet but an imam. Syiah Muslims believe that the imam of the Muslims after Prophet Muhammad saw should be Hazrat Ali and not Hazrat Abu Bakar or Hazrat Umar or Hazrat Uthman. Syiah Muslims believe, after the death of Prophet Muhammad saw the position of imam should be given to Hazrat Ali. Syiah Muslims differ with the Sunni Muslims only in the matter, who should become the first imam of the Muslims after the death of Prophet Muhammad saw. The Syiah Muslims believe that the first imam of the Muslims should be Hazrat Ali and to the Sunni Muslims, the first imam of the Muslims or the first Khilafah was Hazrat Abu Bakar. Until today the Syiah Muslims are not willing to accept the fact that the first imam of the Muslims was Hazrat Abu Bakar and not Hazrat Ali. Hazrat Ali was made the fourth imam or Khilafah of the Muslims but the Syiah Muslims stubbornly believe that Hazrat Ali should be the first imam of the Muslims.

Who became the first imam in Islam had already become a history. There is no Muslim Syiah in this world, who can change the fact of history that the first imam of the Muslims was Hazrat Abu Bakar and Hazrat Ali was the fourth imam or Khilafah of the Muslims. In my opinion a Syiah Muslim who is wise should not use the fact of history to create differences between Muslims. Whatever happened to the Muslims in the past had already happened with the permission of Allah. There is nothing which could happen in this world without the permission of Allah. In my opinion there is no Muslims of today who is able to do anything in order to change what has been destined by Allah to the Muslims of yesterday. Allah will change our destiny if we are willing to change our actions. Allah will change our destiny if we change our actions from bad to good. When our actions are good Allah will also make our destiny to become good. Muslims must change from doing the wrong actions to doing the good actions. Allah will change the destiny of the Muslims when both the Syiah and the Sunni Muslims are willing to change their actions from bad to good actions.

Muslims must change from having hatred to having love towards others. Syiah and Sunni Muslims must not hate each other. At the moment, both groups of Muslims should accept the fact that there are differences between them but they should not make their differences to become the means of hatred between them. Why the Sunni Muslims should kill the Syiah Muslims in Pakistan and vice versa? Why the Syiah Muslims should kill the Sunni Muslims in Syria and Iraq and vice versa? In my opinion, the Syiah Muslims should change from having the desire to take revenge to having the desire to forget and to forgive the mistakes of the Sunni Muslims. In my opinion the Syiah Muslims must not regard the Sunni Muslims as their enemies and similarly Sunni Muslims must not regard the Syiah Muslims as their enemies. All men belong to one family. All men have descended from one forefather. Although there are differences which exist between men but men should respect the differences and become friendly and loving towards each other. Allah has created us in order to obey and to love Allah and to love the creations of Allah. When Sunni Muslims kill the Syiah Muslims the Syiah Muslims will in return kill the Sunni Muslims. We will be able to solve our problems with love but not with hatred. How the Sunni Muslims should love the Syiah Muslims and invite the Syiah Muslims to recite the correct Great Kalimah and to invite them to do the work of inviting mankind to good and forbidding mankind from evils and to perform the five times daily prayers.

Many men find it hard to ask for forgiveness and many men also find it hard to forget and to forgive. It costs men nothing to ask for forgiveness and it costs men nothing if men are willing to forget and to forgive others. In case the Sunni Muslims admit the mistake which was committed more than one thousand years ago, will it be possible for the Syiah Muslims to forget and to forgive the mistakes of Sunni Muslims including the mistake of Hazrat Abu Bakar and Hazrat Umar? Does it incur any lost and sufferings to the Syiah Muslims if the Syiah Muslims are willing to forget and to forgive the mistakes of Sunni Muslims including the mistakes of Hazrat Abu Bakar and Hazrat Umar. It costs nothing to the Syiah Muslims in case the Syiah Muslims are willing to forget and to forgive the mistakes of Sunni Muslims including the mistakes of Hazrat Abu Bakar and Hazrat Umar. What does the Syiah Muslims lose if they were willing to forget and to forgive the mistakes of Sunni Muslims including the mistakes of Hazrat Abu Bakar and Hazrat Umar? The Syiah Muslims will not lose anything but gain more friends and more brothers in this world and I am certain that Allah will be pleased with the Syiah Muslims too if Syiah Muslims are willing to forgive the mistakes of Sunni Muslims including the mistakes of Hazrat Abu Bakar and Hazrat Umar.

When the Syiah Muslims are willing to forgive the mistakes of the Sunni Muslims and the mistakes of Hazrat Abu Bakar and Hazrat Ali, Allah will also be willing to forgive the mistakes of all the Syiah Muslims. In my opinion, it is to the advantage of the Syiah Muslims that the Syiah Muslims should be ready to forgive and to forget the mistakes of the Sunni Muslims including the mistakes of Hazrat Abu Bakar and Hazrat Umar. In case the Sunni Muslims, Hazrat Abu Bakar and Hazrat Umar had made mistakes to the Syiah Muslims then the Syiah Muslims should realized that the mistakes had already been committed for more than one thousand years ago. The Syiah Muslims should realize the fact that there is no one in this world including Prophets of Allah who is free completely from committing mistakes. Prophets of Allah also committed mistakes but Allah had forgiven all their mistakes. In my opinion it is to the advantage of the Syiah Muslims to forgive Hazrat Abu Bakar and Hazrat Umar and to accept them also as the beloved companions of Prophet Muhammad saw. When Syiah Muslims are willing to accept Hazrat Abu Bakar and Hazrat Umar as the beloved companions of Prophet Muhammad, then both Syiah and the Sunni Muslims will become brothers in Islam and Muslims in all over the world will then be one group known as Muslims.

Syiah Muslims believe, Hazrat Abu Bakar and Hazrat Umar were the two persons who had caused the position of the first imam in Islam to be given to Hazrat Abu Bakar and not to Hazrat Ali. Some of the Syiah Muslims who are very fanatic about this issue hated Hazrat Abu Bakar and Hazrat Umar to the core. They accused Hazrat Abu Bakar and Hazrat Umar of doing treacherous action against Hazrat Ali who is one of the members of the family of Prophet Muhammad saw (Ahlul-Bait).They accused the actions of Hazrat Abu Bakar and Hazrat Umar at the meeting with the Ansar without the presence of Hazrat Ali had caused Hazrat Ali to be deprived from the position of the first imam in Islam. Syiah Muslims regard the Muslims who are not with them as the non-Muslims or Sunni Muslims. There are some Syiah Muslims who believe they can tell lies to the Sunni Muslims and under certain circumstances they can even be allowed to kill the Sunni Muslims. Some Sunni Muslims regard the Syiah Muslims as non-Muslims and some Sunni Muslims believe that under certain circumstances they are allowed to kill the Syiah Muslims whom to them is the same as killing the non-Muslims. Many Sunni Muslims do not regard Syiah Muslims as Muslims but as non-Muslims and many Syiah Muslims do not regard Sunni Muslims as Muslims but as non-Muslims. Why the war to overthrow President Bashar Al-Assad turn to become a sectarian war? The war has turned to become a sectarian war because President Bashar Al-Assad is a Syiah Alawis and to the Syiah Muslims the war against President Bashar Al-Assad mean the war against Syiah Muslims. Now the war has become the war between the Sunni and the Syiah Muslims. The majority of the Muslims with the Free Syrians Armies are the Sunni Muslims while the majority of the Muslims with President Bashar Al-Assad are the Syiah Muslims.

Many Syiah Muslims regard the Sunni Muslims including Hazrat Abu Bakar and Hazrat Umar as non-Muslims. Since Syiah Muslims regard Hazrat Abu Bakar and Hazrat Umar as non-Muslim, therefore to the Syiah Muslims Hazrat Abu Bakar and Hazrat Umar are not eligible to be buried beside Prophet Muhammad saw. There are some Syiah Muslims who are willing even to remove the dead bodies of Hazrat Abu Bakar and Hazrat Umar away from the dead body of Prophet Muhammad saw because to them they believe Hazrat Abu Bakar and Hazrat Umar are non-Muslims and therefore should not be buried beside the body of Prophet Muhammad saw. Syiah Muslims have made attempt in the past to remove the body of Hazrat Abu Bakar and Hazrat Umar from being buried beside the body of Prophet Muhammad saw. Once upon a time they were some Syiah Muslims who pretended to live in Medina but in reality they were trying to remove the dead bodies of Hazrat Abu Bakar and Hazrat Umar away from the body of Prophet Muhammad saw. How did they try to do that? They secretly dug an underground tunnel from their house to the graves of Prophet Muhammad saw. However, their attempt to remove the dead body of Hazrat Abu Bakar and Hazrat Umar had failed when via a repeated dream of Prophet Muhammad saw told to the Wazir of Medina to protect his grave because his grave was in danger. Upon investigation the secret plan of the Syiah Muslims to remove the dead bodies of Hazrat Abu Bakar and Hazrat Umar away from the body of Prophet Muhammad saw was exposed.

Syiah Muslims hate Hazrat Abu Bakar and Hazrat Umar to the core because to them the actions of Hazrat Abu Bakar and Hazrat Umar to meet the Ansar without the presence of Hazrat Ali had deprived Hazrat Ali from becoming the first imam in Islam. In my opinion the reasons why the Syiah Muslims hate Hazrat Abu Bakar and Hazrat Umar is only political. They accused both Hazrat Abu Bakar and Hazrat Umar as the persons who love to have power and position when in reality the accusation was baseless. Under the circumstances of the meeting with the Ansar who were about to select their own leader, Hazrat Abu Bakar was forced to receive the position as the first Caliph or imam of the Muslims because he wanted the Ansar to be united with the Muhajirin. In reality Hazrat Abu Bakar dislikes to become the imam or the Caliph but the Ansar tend to favour him to become the Caliph and not Hazrat Umar or Hazrat Ubu Ubaidah. Hazrat Abu Bakar was forced to accept the position as the first Caliph or imam in Islam because he wanted both the Ansar and the Muhajirin to become united. Hazrat Abu Bakar told the Ansar that they should not elect another person from among them to become their leader because according to Hazrat Abu Bakar at any one time there should be only one leader among the Muslims. Hazrat Abu Bakar also told to the Ansar that Bid’ah practices will be rampant in the Muslims community which has two leaders at one time.

In reality both Hazrat Abu Bakar and Hazrat Umar were among the best persons other than the Prophets that the world has ever had and both of them are the lover of Allah. We are ordered to love them because Allah loved them. Allah certainly will not be pleased with us in case we hate them. We must forgive their mistakes so that Allah will forgive our mistakes. In case we decline to forgive their mistakes, Allah has forgiven all their mistakes and Allah will not forgive our mistakes. Many Sunni Muslims are not sure whether the Syiah Muslims are Muslims or non-Muslims. Recently there is much news about the Syiah in the Malaysian’s newspaper. Many are worried about the spread of the Syiah teachings among the students in the higher institutions in Malaysia. Many in the world are not sure about the teaching of Syiah Muslims including those who have admitted that they also belong to the Syiah Muslims. In my opinion as long as the Syiah Muslims recite the Great Kalimah that there is no God except Allah and Muhammad is Prophet of Allah, they are Muslims but they are Muslims who have become deviated from the correct paths. When the Syiah Muslims are accepting only the first part of the Great Kalimah but are not accepting the second part of the Great Kalimah then in my opinion the Syiah Muslims is no longer Muslims but they are in fact have become the non-Muslims, similar to the Jews who are accepting only the first part of the Great Kalimah but are not accepting the second part of the Great Kalimah.

Prof Dr Nasoha Saabin
November 2013
Integrative Holistic Wellness Centre