Anecdote of Dakwah and Tabligh Effort: The Masjid Chairman and the Village Thug

Once I had been given a task of meeting a chairman of a surau (locality masjid) during a short 3 days khuruuj in the path of Allah. It is always the tartib of any jamaat that whenever we reached any masjid or surau, one of the first things to be done by the amir or leader of the jamaat is to send a couple of brothers to gave a courtesy visit to any leader of the locality, any ustadz or aalim that lives in the vicinnity of the masjid, and the chairman and committee members responsible in the affairs of the administration of the masjid. In case of the chairman and the committee members, one the purposes of the visit is to inform the arrival of our jamaat at their masjid as oppose to seeking permission. A local brother who is a revert from hindu to Islam, acted as a dalil or guide, accompanying me to the chairman's house. When we reached the house, our dalil gave the salam from outside the house. There came out emerging from inside the house a man in late 50's. Before I could even say a word, he immediately blasted us with furious antagonizing remarks, "You people do not have to come here. All the people in this locality perform the solah. You people should go to UMNO's surau! They're the one who do not perform the solah!" (Note: UMNO is a political party).

I was taken aback by surprise. I looked at our dalil and he looked visibly upset. He was a very nice man who has a little disability in his left arm after suffering from a stroke. The chairman continued his lambasting remarks louder, "What's the point of you coming here!? It's better for you people to go to Afghanistan...lift your arms in jihaad! Then it's worthy." Before he could continue, I found myself answering back in the fit of the moment, "How many times have you yourself gone to Afghanistan for jihaad!? Have you ever been to Afghanistan? I just came back from Afghanistan for jihaad! My grandfather and my father were from Afghanistan. Tell me how many times have you gone to Afghanistan? You were talking nonsense when you yourself had never set a foot in Afghanistan. I just come here to inform you of our jamaat's arrival at the masjid for three days. I do not come here to seek your permission." I then gestured to our dalil to leave his place while my retortation somehow managed to silent the chairman.

When we got in the vehicle to return to the masjid, our dalil innocently asked me, "Is it true you just return from Afghanistan from jihaad?" I could not stop smiling at him and replied, "No, I made up the story to teach people like him. But it's true that my grandfather was from Afghanistan."

Alhamdulillah, although there were exchanges of words between me and the chairman, I am glad the matter did not escalate to the worse. However, during that particular khuruuj, the other committee members of the masjid somehow seemed to be united in giving us cold treatment. The whole jamaat, young and old, were forced to sleep on the floor of an adjoining children's dirty classroom since we were not allowed to make i'tikaaf in the masjid. The incident happened in the month of Ramadhan 2002.

Another incident happened during one of my khuruuj in the path of Allah for 40 days. We arrived on Thursday morning at a village's masjid. Among our many dalils was the head of Industrial Training Institute (ILP). He was a soft spoken man. He led us for an umumi ghusht after Asar to visit every Muslims in the village from house to house and from alley to alley. I was being tasked as mutakallim (the one that give a short reminding speech) at that particular time. The first person who our dalil introduced me to was a man in his 30's. I started my task saying,"Alhamdulillah, we came here because we are brothers. And we are brothers since we both recite the kalimah 'La Illaha Illallah Muhammadur Rasulullah'." Suddenly, the man retorted in rage, "Do you want to teach me the kalimah!? You bothered me to teach me the kalimah!? Why don't you go to the kuffar and teach them the kalimah instead!?" I was about to give a reply when our dalil pulled my arm leading me away from the man, perhaps sensing it would lead to arguments and heated exchanges." He then led us to other houses as we left the man behind us to his own rage. At least that was what all of us thought...

After Maghrib, the dalil and I were about to leave for ILP to give a talk meant to enjoin and encourage his students to make effort in strengthening imaan and aamal, when suddenly a group of men emerged from the dark led by the man that we had met earlier on. He began to shout in rage, "Where is the man who tried to teach me the kalimah!?" He then came straight to me shouting, "Are you the one who tried to teach me the kalimah!?" I could merely stood there motionless and replied, "I am the man." He raised both fists and aim one fist with a lit cigarette protruding from the grip directly inches from my face while he kept on repeating asking me, "You tell me did Nabi order you to teach the kalimah (to me)?" I just stood still staring at the lit cigarette that threatened to burn my eyeball. All I could think of at that moment of time was at which fragile part of his body should I deliver a single blow that would paralyse him. The noises and commotion caused all the people inside the masjid to rush out. The man eventually backed off as the commotion ensued between the man and a few local brothers that accompanied our jamaat. Our dalil then quickly ushered me to his vehicle and drove off to ILP. But still the incident did not end there...

The next morning on Friday the man returned to the masjid at the time of ta'leem when everyone was listening to ahadith being read. He held an iron rod in his hand which he dragged on the tarmac outside the masjid making scratching noises while he hurled abuses and repeatedly shouted, "Come out, the man who tried to teach me the kalimah!" Some brothers immediately rushed out to reason with the man while the amir of our jamaat ordered me to stay put in the masjid. Further commotion ensued.

Up to that point of time, everyone of us in the jamaat could still tolerate the event and suggested to our amir that we should stay on to continue the dakwah and tabligh effort at the village. We felt that it was an isolated incident under control. At the end of Friday Jumu'ah solah, our amir himself humbly tried to foster a relationship with the Imam of the masjid introducing us as a jamaat from Kuala Lumpur. However, the Imam threw a thunderbolt against us, snubbing our amir in a sharp sarcastic tone, "Huh! There are many claimants of many kinds of jamaat nowadays. Who knows, it might be jamaat of shaytaan!" Indeed it was too much of abuse for us to swallow, and our amir then decided to leave the place and move on to our next route.

About a year after the unfortunate event, I received a great news that the local villagers had started doing ghusht from the masjid and sat in fadha'il ta'leem listening to the blessed ahadith of Rasulullah sallalaahu alayhi wassalam. I hope the said man is among them. And I hope he is making the effort of dakwah and tabligh better than us.

Early Recollection of Dakwah and Tabligh Effort

I have 7 brothers and 2 sisters and I am the youngest. Alhamdulillah, our family is not alien to the effort of dakwah and tabligh ever since my second sister got married to a man whose brothers were amongst the early men who had embraced the effort of dakwah and tabligh many years ago. I recall my sister used to read ahadith from Fadha'il Amal after Maghrib or Isya' when I was very young whenever she returned to visit us and our parents for a few days. Sometimes she would asked me to read from the kitaab which I gladly did but I was too young to understand them. But the scene of us sitting together, hearing the ahadith sticks in my mind to this day. Never mind about understanding any of the ahadith, it is the mahul or the environment of ta'leem that is important. In fact, I believe even now many Muslim adults have difficulties in understanding ahadith and aayah (verses) from the Holy Quran. Blessed are the souls who are given deep understanding by Allah of kalamullah and kalam of Rasul sallalaahu alayhi wassalam, and none understood them better than the Sahabah radiyalaahu anhum. When Allah wishes well for someone, He guides him towards the understanding of Deen. Even a verse of ahadith is being read and listened to by a Muslim household members in a Muslim home is a giant step towards emulating the households of the Sahabah radiyalaahu anhum during the time of Rasulullah sallalaahu alayhi wassalam.

My father (may Allah fill his grave with noor) had been a chairman of the Jame' Masjid in our community for a long period throughout his lifetime. When I was very young, I vividly recall heavily bearded men of Pakistani or Indian origin with a local man came to viist him on several occasions. Subsequently, I used to play with a miswaak that somehow my father had kept one in his car, knowing not what the use of the twig like miswaak for. Only now I realised that the solah offered after doing miswaak in wudhu'  is seventy times better than the solah offered without miswaak. I also found out after the demise of my father that one of the kitaabs that he frequently read every morning sitting on his rocking chair was the Fadha'il Solah booklet by Hazrat Maulana Muhammad Zakariya Kandhlawi rahmatullah alayhi, a part of Fadha'il Aamal kitaab. 

When I was about fourteen or fifteen years old, I remember on several occasions, my childhood friend who is the son of Arwah Haji Wan Mahmood had approached me with a group of people, amongst them his elder brothers and one of them talked to me about something that I could not comprehend. I only recalled they asked me to go to our local masjid. It turned out that they were already doing umumi ghusht long before I knew about the effort of dakwah and tabligh.

When I was at a primary school levels at a military college, I recalled sitting with other students listening to ahadith being read out after Maghrib solah. It turned out also to be a fadha'il ta'leem from Fadha'il Aamal that had been started by my past seniors since the mid 70's. 

When I was studying at pre-university levels, I recalled spending a night with a few friends at Masjid India in Kuala Lumpur, which turned out to be a sabguzari night at the former markaz or centre of dakwah and tabligh in Malaysia.

When I was an undergraduate in England, I arrived there with the wrong intention of anticipating freedom. Even before I arrived in the UK, I plotted nasty thoughts and actions away from what I foolishly thought of regimented life at home lands. Just before I was about to be drown in wretched sinful life, someone came knocking at the door at my house at George Street. I was in speechless shock when I opened the door and there standing at the front door of my house the smiling faces of heavily bearded men in white robes and white amamah, a couple of them looked very much like Indians or Pakistanis, one looked like he was from West Indies and the other, white British man with dark brown beard. As if I could still see their glowing faces. I stood there motionless. I could not remember even a word of their short speech. The only thing that crossed my mind at that very moment was how could there possibly exist such men in England? I was completely awestruck. Though I did not fulfill their supposedly invitation to the nearby masjid, that moment really had saved my fragile imaan and served as a wake-up call on me as a Muslim. I hope I would have an opportunity to relate about this episode of my life in more detail and my subsequent dakwah and tabligh journey back to England after the lapse of 12 years.

The most astonishing thing is that I could not recall any of the above mentioned foreshadowing glimpse of guidance until I finally went out for the first time in khuruuj in the path of Allah for 3 days. Only after the blessed khuruuj, those auspicious memories started to come to me like river flow. It is rather frightening when I see them as several signs and signals of guidance by Allah, yet I had failed to grasp them earlier on. I dread imagining those moments of events are only be put to recall and recollection on the Day of Judgement where there is absolutely no hope for return. All praise is due only to Allah. We seek salvation in Him from the evils of our inner selves and the vices of our actions. There is none to guide one whom Allah intends to misguide and there is none to misguide one whom Allah intends to guide.


Note: Other early recollection had reached me in the form of tall-tales.

A Report On Tablighi Jamaat Ijtema in Bangladesh 1399H (1979)

THIS IS A TRANSLATED REPORT ON TABLIGHI IJTEMA IN BANGLADESH IN THE YEAR 1399H (1979) BY SYEIKH MUHAMMAD AMAN AL-JAMY AND SYEIKH ABDUL KARIM MUROD - EXCERPT FROM THE MALAY TRANSLATED BOOKLET ENTITLED "MENYINGKAP TABIR KESALAHFAHAMAN TERHADAP JEMAAH TABLIGH" (LIFTING UP THE VEIL OF MISCONCEPTION AGAINST TABLIGHI JAMAAT)

Bismillahirohmaanirrohim

Tablighi Jamaat had extended an invitation to the University Islam Madinah to attend a large gathering and meeting of Muslims in Dakka, the capital city of Bangladesh. The University had accepted the invitation and thus the two of us, Muhammad Aman Al-Jamy from Ahadith Faculty and Abdul Karim Murod of Syariah Faculty, were sent to participate in the gathering.

We left Al-Munawarrah Airport on Monday morning 10.2.1399H to Jeddah on our journey to Karachi (Pakistan). We arrived in Jeddah at 6.30am and we immediately contacted a representative of Pakistan Airlines through the Office Manager of University Islam in Jeddah, Al-Ustadz Musfir Az-Zahrani, since he had booked our seats for the flight. The travelling procedures finished within 10 minutes and we waited at the departure hall for the journey. But an hour later, we were surprised with an announcement made that our departure was being delayed to an unspecified time, apparently caused by the flight engine trouble. We then went through an uncertain waiting period. We performed Dhuhur solah at the departure hall since we were not allowed to leave the hall. During lunch, we were told that the flight would be long delayed.

And so our wait continued until after Isya' solah on Tuesday night. Then it was announced that our departure time would be at 11.00pm. It was already past midnight when we finally continue our journey to Karachi. We slept soundly all the way during the flight as we were tired during the long wait in Jeddah. We were only woken up by the in-flight landing announcement. Alhamdulillah, we arrived safely and entered Karachi city before dawn. We made Fajr solah at the hotel. 

After Fajr solah and a good rest, we discussed about our journey to Lahore (Pakistan) that we initially intended to go before going to Dakka. But we decided to postpone the Lahore journey until we return from Dakka, fearing that we would be late to attend the Ijtema' which was our main purpose for the journey. So on Wednesday 12.2.1399H we tried to book a flight to Dakka on Thursday, but we were informed that flight to Dakka was only available on Friday for those who did not take the flight on Tuesday, on the day that we just arrived in Karachi. Flights to Dakka were only available twice a week - on Tuesdays via Pakistan Airlines, and on Fridays via Bangladesh Airlines.

Hence, we booked seats on the Friday flight, and by the acceptance of Allah, we took off after Asr solah, thereby reached Dakka Airport late at night. It was a 3 1/2 hours flight from Karachi Airport to Dakka Airport. The two of us and all those who made the journey with us for the Ijtema, were welcomed at the airport by the istiqbal people who have good relationship with the airport officials, and these people were tasked to welcome all the delegations arriving for the Ijtema. With them, there were a few Sudanese and Pakistanis whom we had met before. 

They handled all the airport procedures for the benefit of all the delegations that arrived for the Ijtema' in a special way where the delegations did not have to undergo passport and travelling inspections. The delegations' passports were not even opened, just simply marked with coloured chalk, whereas other travelers have to go through rigorous inspections. We then be ushered to a masjid near the airport and divided into a few groups of guests. From there we were brought to the lodgings made up of tents readily set up at the Ijtema site! Everything settled before dawn and we have time to rest for awhile before the call of the adzan. The adzan then was called and we performed solah at the nearby masjid.

The masjid (at the Ijtema' site) looked like a large structure erected on land area measuring approximately 1.5km x 1km capable of accommodating thousands of people. A very large number of people approximately 1 million performed solah in congregation behind one imam without the use of loud speakers. A number of muballighin were divided and located on strategic high places to shout the voice of the imam until every musholi could hear the imam's voice during solah in jamaah.  I myself did not know why they never used loud speakers during solah whereas they did use loud speakers in talks, discourses, ta'leem, etc.

Everyone was amazed with the detailed arrangements and preparation for the Ijtema since the masjid and the guests' tents were all made of light building materials, made use of, and then returned to their owners at their stores in the condition that they remained eligible to be sold and used again.

The masjid and tents were made of light materials such as zinc, bamboos, gunny and ropes without the use of nails to prevent tem from being damaged. The owners and merchants of the light materials donated them, put up and built the tents themselves.

When the Ijtema was over, they themselves untied the ropes and brought down the tents with ease, as easy as putting them up beforehand. In this unique masjid, in the most calm Islamic environment that spread humility and peace, the mushollis sat in groups across the masjid in halqah and discourses everytime after solah. This masjid resembled the Muslims ummah masjids in the beginning of Islam era, when masjids only had been established for solah and ibadaah, not just for the display or pride and luxuries. May Allah always assists us.

The all  the jamaahs that were apportioned across the masjid make tadarrus of the Al-Quran  by memory, reciting some short surah that in general, have been memorized by all Muslims or the majority of them. This lasted until sunrise and breakfast time. Thereafter, preparation for following lectures or discourses. At the time of Dhuha, on Saturday 15.2.1399H, we attended a discourse by the respected Syeikh Muhammad Umar in Arabic. The lecture was delivered specially for the Arabs, and it was a lecture of very high quality and of great benefits. Therein, there were answers to many doubts (syubhat) about the activities of Tablighi Jamaat, the call for khuruuj fi sabilillah and the purpose of the said khuruuj that could be summarized as changing the mahul or environment for the dai'e and the mad'u (those who are being dakwah). Since not all those who go for khuruuj are dai'e. But most of them are people who intended to get islah or rectification, in need of encouragement to practice and love for Islam, and solutions to their religious concerns. Experience shows that all these could not be achieved by a person except when he goes out, leaving the hustle bustle of lives and moves to a better environment, etc.

After his lecture ended, Arabs jamaah were told to attend a discourse after Dzuhur solah  and one of us was requested to deliver the lecture. Certainly we fulfilled the request.

I delivered the lecture after Dzuhur solah, and it was translated into various languages. Then announcement was made about a discourse by Syeikh Abdul Karim Murod on Sunday 16.2.1399 after Dzuhur solah as well. Likewise, we regularly follow discourses after every solah that was translated from Urdu to Arabic.

Sheikh Abdul Karim Murod delivered a lecture at the scheduled time, and the talk centred on Tauhid Ibadaah, a reminder not to worship any wali (righteous man), and not to erect any structure on their graves. As for the Saturday talk, it was a general direction towards achieving kalimah At-Tauhid.

The Ijtema site is approximately 7km from the city centre. This helps them to establish and tranquility in solah jamaah, even regularize themselves towards masjid throughout the duration of the Ijtema.

We and those like us, who arrived a bit later could not enter the capital city centre before and after the Ijtema. After the Ijtema was over on Tuesday, we immediately left the Ijtema site for our visit to several parties in Pakistan.

Other people immediately proceeded in the effort of dakwah ilallah, and they had been tasykil (urged to participate) in a large numbers of jamaat every time after every solah. Tuesday was the day where directions and guidance was given to the dai'e before they were sent in jamaats. On that day, the mixed feeling of joy and shedding of tears witnessed the depth of mutual love for the sake of Allah in their hearts. Also witnessed their state of fana' or ecstasy in loving Allah, their hard work in the effort of dakwah ilallah and their relaince on the One and Only Allah without turning on to other than Him.

This serves to summarize their discourses, lectures, talks, actions and abstinence that is contrary to what is being said about them by those people who do not really know them, or just pretending not to know the truth about them because of some reasons.

One thing about them that should be accorded special recognition, is that this jamaat feel the sweetness that could not be felt by other jamaats that are carrying out dakwah ilallah, ie. their patience and tolerance in dealing with those people whom are undergoing rectification with them and those people who are given guidance, together with husnu dzoon  or good impression towards them. Their patience is like the patience of a mother towards her beloved child.

At their hands, Allah gives hidayah to so many of  His servants of all races, especially the young men that we had sent to study in Europe and America, then we forgot about them and we let them managing themselves without care and guidance. Allah has saved many of them through the effort of this jamaat, and had given them hidayah when they were at the brink of leaving the fold of Islam, when they were being influenced by the living environment where they study. I have real evidence and stories of such cases that would be very long to tell all. 

A Short Story

For instance, I will mention a story about a young man from Riyadh who was present at the Dakka Ijtema together with a group of young men from America. He was saved by Allah from 'jahiliyyah' that takes root in America because of this jamaat. This young man told me about his desire to perform umrah, with the hope that the act of worship will eliminate his sins and purify him from jahiliyyah.

Of course I gave encouragement for it, after I explained to him the priority of taubah (repentance) that it is able to remove previous sins. With an apparently visible embarrassment on his face he said, "Syeikh Muhammad, I desire to perform umrah but I do not know what to do if I reached Makkah, since I had forgotten all that I had learnt at school before, even before I went to America. I've lost everything." He said this with great remorse, and I was very heartened to hear his confession. I said to him, "Let us rather move away from the bustle of people for me to describe the practices of umrah." He said, "May I record them?" I said, "Please do if you have tape recorders and cassette." I was also asked to describe the practices of hajj. I described them all in brief and encouraged him to visit Masjid Nabawi and the Islamic University in Madinah Al-Munawarrah for books and beneficial pamphlets. 

One thing that I want to briefly mentioned about this story and the description of events mentioned before, that the Jamaat Tabligh had a long lists of desirable results from their effort that are too lengthy to mention, which are not present in other jamaats, in Islamic world and others. Their effort could clearly be perceived by, and could not be denied by friends or foes.

The secret of their success is because this jamaat makes dakwah ilallah and the rectification of the entire humanity as their purpose of life. It is not enough for this jamaat to hold dakwah effort with their left hand and live by its name, but they hold dakwah effort with both hands. Then they stay away from desire for praises and commendation. To them, praises or condemnation is the same, till they attain simplicity of lives. 

Suffice for me these as illustrious, since the difficulty is clear, and the effect of their dakwah effort is also very clear. And those who make aamal, the effect of their aamal and struggle is evidently theirs. May Allah Ta'ala grants taufiq and strength unto us.

In the atmosphere that we described, we lived the life of the earliest da'ie that still is being preserved in their fitrah, for the duration of 3 days.

On the fourth day, Tuesday 18.2.1399H, after solah dzuhur, we left for Karachi. There we reserved flight seats for Sunday 23.2.1399H flight to Jeddah, and one of us to take a flight to Lahore before Sunday, intending to get back to Karachi so that we could return together to Jeddah. Alas, the flight to Lahore could only be obtained on Wednesday 19.2.1399H and because of an unforeseeable event, return flight to Karachi could not be obtained except on Monday 24.2.1399H. Because of that one of us returned to Jeddah on Sunday 23.2.1399H and the other on Wednesday 26.2.1399H, thereby completing our blessed journey, Insha' Allah.

Notes

It is observed that the fact is Tabligh Jamaat has no official name. Tabligh Jamaat is the name being called by people, that pointed out to dakwah and their activities, i.e. dakwah and tadzkir (giving reminders). Whereas dakwah training, coordination, and repeated gatherings, all of which make them capable of carrying out through coordination in their affairs without feeling weariness or dejection.

Tablighi Jamaat is capable of holding and organizing the largest of gathering, when if it is held by others, would require huge sum of expenses and require a long duration of time. As for Tablighi Jamaat, in their ijtema or gatherings, require not much expenses except to treat the guests and delegations that come from distant places. In fact, every individuals in the jamaat consider themselves to be responsible for the success of the ijtema or gatherings. Everyone perform their duties. Everyone presented themselves according to their abilities and straightaway deal with the work. Everyone seek to serve and not to be served, and strive to give benefits to others, making the love and care for each other at a very high level.

Suggestions

Having described about this jamaat and the Islamic activities that they performed, expressed by the great real results that could be relished, and some of them had been spoken of, where friends and foes provide a similar assessment against them. After all those, we view it as sound to make the following suggestions:

1. To actively help each other with this jamaat in all honesty, work together with them, in order to attain efforts like sharing experiences.

2. For the effort of this jamaat exists among our university students so that they may give or receive useful lessons. Verily our university students include those who are really in need of an effort such as this and the dakwah which is full of bless.

3.  The Islamic University should participate more in the ijtema and gatherings of this jamaat through their board of teachers and students.

We pray to Allah to make our aamal sincere only for Him, to rid us from riya' and seeking fame. Verily to Him we place all our needs.

May salutation and peace be continuously showered upon the best of Rasul sallalaahu alayhi wassalam, his family and his Companions radiyalaahu anhum.

Muhammad Aman bin Aly Al-Jamy

Dean of Ahadith Faculty and Islamic Studies.

We Do Not Create New Way Or New Jamaat

The ulama' spearheading the effort of dakwah and tabligh give the following words of advise - "By merely adopting the name of one group or one class of people will create groups and factions. That is, we should not even calling ourselves 'Tablighi Jamaat' or saying that we are members of 'tablighi jamaat' (group). There are no jamaats nor do we belong to any particular group. We are an Ummat and our effort is focused on the entire ummat. There is no basis or ground for segregation in this ummat. Hazrat Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Kandhlawi rahmatullah alayhi used to say, 'The mere usage of the word 'jamaat' (group) causes disunity and segregation.' Thus, we should not even use this word. We are an Ummat. Become an Ummat and give dakwah as an Ummat. Sayidina Abdullah bin Mas'ud radiyalaahu anhu used to define the word Ummat as, 'Those who teach and spread virtue (are an Ummat).'"

What then is tabligh? According to Hazrat Maulana Muhammad Yusuf Kandhlawi rahmatullah alayhi, tabligh is the noble characteristic of Rasulullah sallalaahu alayhi wassalam in life and in the effort of Deen. It entails strength and that everything is not turn to use except in the path of Allah. A person who is doing the effort of tabligh should strive to acquire this noble characteristic of tabligh in his every deed or aamal.

Hazrat Maulana Muhammad Yusuf rahmatullah alayhi further said, "To implement this dakwah and tabligh, we did not create any machine or open up any office building or registration, no payment fee nor being paid, since all this (da'wah and tabligh effort) is the duty of the entire Muslim ummat. We never formed or built new way or new jamaat, or pull away or split from the traditional way. As those who established regular solah in masjid in jamaat, made up of various types of people who come together offering their worship in solah and return afterwards to their homes and activities. So do us, we urge all our brothers, "Spend a little time of your busy schedules to learn and practice dakwah. When returning to your homes or work, then keep making the effort with usool and tartib as specified."

Hazrat Maulana Inamul Hassan rahmatullah alayhi said, "Presently, the people are united on the basis of colour, creed or nationality. Everybody likes unity. Everybody calls it to be desirable. However, if observed carefully, it is found that there is no attachment between father and son, one brother and the other, the rich and the poor, one country and the other. Even if they join and unite for certain purpose, they will remain so only till it is achieved. As soon as the objective is achieved, the unity too will end."

"So what is the reason for the lack of cohesion and unity? The reason is that someone chalks out a scheme and desires everyone to join him. But it is not possible because there are numerous categories of the people and they have different objectives. In case the rich people join together, their objective will be to extract more work and make less payment. On the other hand, if poor people join together they will give a call for higher wages and less work. Everbody's movement is governed by his own sentiments. The cohesion or unity is, therefore, not possible. The only way to bring all the people together is that they get connected with Allah."

"It is difficult that men may converge on men, because everyone of them has his own interest to safeguard. But Allah Ta'ala has to derive no benefit from anyone. Allah Ta'ala rather grants benefits to all others. He belongs to everyone and gives to everyone. Everyone will converge on the Giver. Give a call of 'Allahu Akbar' and bring everybody to a masjid and collect them all in the name of Allah. All people will unite on Allah Ta'ala. If a man is to be bound and connected to another man, it is a must to bring them to the path of Rasulullah sallalaahu alayhi wassalamand then his dakwah, which is full of spiritualism, will unite them."

I briefly mentioned about the related subject here.