Praise be to God! There is no other god except God. In most cases in today’s world you will find two ways in how people approach groups in this world. Some of them, who generally have post-modern ways of thinking, see all groups as relative, and they simply are trying to navigate their way in this world seeing where it will suit them the best, without any real loyalty for any group. And then there are others, completely on the other side of the spectrum, whom I like to call fanatics, who see the world as only two groups, and they will try to be loyal to one group, and everyone else who does not belong in that group is wrong in all aspects. So, they think that one group is completely right, and all the other people are completely wrong. And the third approach, which is neither a post-modern approach, and neither a fanatic approach, is what I call the well-informed modern approach, which is the correct approach for today, because today there are multiple dimensions to any group. Some groups might be right for some things, other groups might be right for other things, some groups might be right for most things, and other groups might be wrong for most things, and there are other groups which are always equally right and wrong, which stems from their organizational structure, if it is a democratic structure, in which case, no matter where it started, it will always push the group towards being equally right and wrong, but that’s another issue for another time, but here let us just concentrate on the groups in general and how they can be measured in multiple dimensions, and not only in one dimension. And when it comes to how we deal with those groups, the Quran has a very simple answer: Verse 5:2 in the Quran says, “You shall cooperate in matters of righteousness and piety, but do not cooperate in matters that are sinful and evil…”
For example:
We share our religious methodology with the Quranists, but not necessarily their results, because they are almost always based on a partial study of the Quran. They reach full conclusions from partial studies.
We share our worship practices with the Submitters – us – but not necessarily all our opinions.
We share the way we do the Contact Prayers with half-submitters, but not necessarily their disorienting ideas on how to organize.
We share some places of worship with the Sunnis and the Shias, but not necessarily all their worship practices.
We share many aspects of our honesty with the Christians, but not necessarily their worship practices.
We share our fundamental laws with the Jews, and actually almost all the legal details, if we just understood how they apply in our new circumstances.
We share our basic understanding of organized religion with the Orthodox Christians, but not our understanding of religion itself.
We share our appreciation for the importance of unity with the Catholics.
We share our appreciation for God’s scriptures with the Protestants.
We share our appreciation for facts with the scientists.
We share our streets and public places with socialists and communists.
We don’t share anything with capitalists, because they don’t like to share. Just kidding. Just kidding. We share our trade with the capitalists, and other business aspects.
We share our money with the poor.
We share our work with the rich.
We share our food, our laughter, private discussions, maybe some gossip, and some other private matters with our families.
We share our ultimate fate in this world with our ancestors – death, but not necessarily their way of life, and not necessarily our fate in the next life, Heaven or Hell.
We share our belief in God with the believers.
And here is what we don’t share. We will not share Heaven with the disbelievers. Verse 7:50 says, “The dwellers of Hell will call on the dwellers of Paradise, and say: “Let some of your water, or some of GOD’s provisions to you flow towards us.” They will say, “GOD has forbidden them for the disbelievers.”
And hopefully, we will share heaven with each other, and with the angels.
And we will share our happiness with God. God will be pleased with us, and we will be pleased with Him.