Islam is a religion divided. There is no one person who has authority to speak for all of Islam. Why is this so? Why did the Prophet leave Islam in such a state of chaos? How can any Muslim be certain of the truth, when there are so many versions of the truth in Islam?
Which? There is no complete religion (major one at least) that has a central authority. Denominations yes, whole major religions do not. If your are going to claim that Catholicism counts for having a central authority, then so does Shia Islam.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia_Islam This article does not say Shia Islam has a central authority.
The Grand Ayatollah of Iran is the central authority in Shia Islam. The Ayatollah of Iraq forms a similar role, but even he is appointed by Qom.
It is customary to provide links to back up what you say. My source did not mention that Shia has a central authority. What is your source?
Uhh, pretty sure any protestant could provide you an adequate explanation of how this works--that god, the supreme being, the invisible pink unicorn, J. R. Bob Dobbs, etc provides individual clarification of the truth. In other words, you're basically assuming that a religion ought to be guided by human beings, rather than revealed by a deity. I mean, I'm an atheist, and even I get that much. It's not a hard concept to grasp.
Most religions don't have a central authnority......Christian has just as many sects and denominations as Islam does.
This division of Islam is forbidden. 6:159 Indeed, those who have divided their religion and become sects - you, [O Muhammad], are not [associated] with them in anything. Their affair is only to Allah ; then He will inform them about what they used to do. But there is a central authority in Islam, the Caliphs. The Caliphate is the only times Islam was united, like it should always be. Many people have done a lot to prevent another Caliphate after the fall of the Ottoman Empire. The different sects have nothing to do with the Quran, and in fact have to do with the Caliphs. Seems you still have some research to do. Salam
Response: There is only one islam. People who choose to divide the religion are the ones who have no authority to do so and do it for their own personal gain. Islm is the teachings of the Qur'an and Sunnah. Anything outside of this is not islam. For even all islamic sects accept that the Qur'an is the most authorative and the Qur'an itself states to follow the sunnah (ways of the prophet).
Caliph of the Sudan, a Songhai king of the Sahel. The Zaydi Imams of Yemen used the title for centuries and continued to use the title till 1962. Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca, proclaimed himself Caliph on 3 March 1924, two days after the office was abolished by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. (see Sharifian Caliphate) Hussein's claim was not accepted, and in 1925 he was driven from the Hijaz by the forces of Ibn Saud. He continued to use the title of Caliph during his remaining life in exile, until his death in 1931. A Caliphate would be the worst thing for the Arab world.. it would be the antithesis of Democracy. Imagine Somalia being part of a Caliphate. Imagine Sunni, Shia, Ishmaeli, Druze, Twelvers, Wahhabis all under a Caliph??
Having an actual Caliphate would be different. With Somalia it would work out better than it is now. al-Qaida would be removed from Somalia and the people would be helped out. The only way a Caliphate will work is if all of them start cooperating (Druze aren't really a sect if Islam btw) so that wouldn't be a factor if a Caliphate was formed. The only ones trying to prevent a Caliphate is the West powers, and it's not because it is bad for the region. These borders the French and British made shouldn't exist, and half the current leaders are corrupt and bought by American money. سلام
I see it very differently unless the Caliph were an honorarium.. The last Caliphate turned the Arab world into a stagnating backwater. Some Arab countries have moved cautiously into modernity while others have not.. Some Arab countries were colonies of Europeans.. some were not. Turkey is very much an exception in the Muslim world because of early forced secularism.
Some people had a problem with electing a Catholic (JFK) because of the central authority. The very existance of a central authority for a religion demands one thing be considered, "To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization" for the exclusion of that religion being a Trojan Horse or fifth column.
Yep.. I think that a Caliphate would assure that the Arab world remain backwards.. because you can't have a democracy without a free press, religious freedom and equality under the law. It would be top down without civic participation in governance.
And wars would be bigger, much bigger, should the central authority choose wrong and abuse our citizens, or other things leading to a "Crusade" (the old one was in essence between central authorities): "Also if I see an article about Christians being put on trial in a certain country for just simply spreading the word, carrying out their religion, and the accusers themselves make no accusation of the Christians using force, oppression or persecution I will have to look in the Koran to see what it says about forcing religion on others. I would like to know where in the Koran it says that Christians cant practice their religion, which requires the spreading (not by force) of the word, because if Islam is afraid of the Christian word then Islam is insecure in its beliefs? By understanding the word I can know whether the Islamic country allegedly doing the persecution is following their religion, which cant be a true religion if it must be forced (a faith is not a faith if it must be forced), and whether those being persecuted were violating their social contract, and then can judge how my country should respond if its [sic] citizens are involved." (posted August 30, 2001 10:35 PM "new colored forum please" started by muslim after I posted a verse in the Taliban topic and a Jew got offended, and I need a rules change to quote scripture outside of the Religion Forum) I suppose Margot all was can do is pray for them, that they be successful in throwing off tyranny and do not fall into another.
Islam will find its way.. look how long it took for Christians to stop warring on each other and the heathens and heretics.
