Quora Answer: Is Islam’s Idea of an Ummah or One Muslim Nation Feasible?

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Islam strongly proposes the idea of an ummah, one Muslim nation with belief in the same God, and Muhammad (s.a.w.) as the Prophet.  With these intra-Muslim issues today, do you think this concept is challenged or even practiced?” 

This concept of ummah refers to the idea that we are all one humanity, not just Muslims.  The ummah of Muhammad (s.a.w.) is all Creation, and this is found in the Qur’an: 

سُوۡرَةُ الاٴنبیَاء

وَمَآ أَرۡسَلۡنَـٰكَ إِلَّا رَحۡمَةً۬ لِّلۡعَـٰلَمِينَ (١٠٧) 

We Sent you not, but as a mercy for all creatures. (Surah al-Anbiya’:107) 

“Arsalnaka” is better translated as  you, and you alone”.  That aside, there are further clarifications that the believers, not the Muslims, are one body.  The word used is “mu’min”, not “muslim”, “those who submit”.  This means mere adherence to the organised faith we recognise it, as Islam does not necessarily make us an ummah. 

We are family with those who share our values, no matter how they choose to manifest and practice it.  There is some congruence in that shared humanity.  Sharing the same labels, whether it is religion, ethnicity, tribe or nationality does not constitute that.  In fact, to support someone merely on this superficial basis is a form of shirk called ‘aswabiyyah, tribalism, and that is haram.  Justice has no favourites. 

Muslims have always conflated ‘aswabiyyah, this tribalism, with the concept of ummah, that shared humanity.  We have always had an ummah because the people of faith recognise each other, and see signs of taqwa’, God consciousness, regardless of labels.  The people of the apparent are still chasing labels.