It is an unfortunate fact that a lot of people have deviated from the path of truth and righteousness, which is why they have fallen victim to sectarianism and fanaticism thereby undermining or destroying their religion, society and nation by issuing fatwas labelling people as disbelievers without their fatwa being supported by juristic evidence. Issuing fatwa without getting rid of bias and fanaticism is in fact a tribulation afflicting the nation owing to the deeds of the people themselves. If the people’s souls are pure and their deeds directed to Allah the Exalted they would not commit such an abominable deed as God warned against disunity and ordered the people to love one another as He said in the Holy Quran: (Truly! This, your Ummah [Sharia or religion (Islamic Monotheism)] is one religion, and I am your Lord, therefore worship Me (Alone). And He said: (O you who believe! Fear Allah ‘by doing all that He has ordered and by abstaining from all that He has forbidden’ as He should be feared. Obey Him, be thankful to Him, and remember Him always, and die not except in a state of Islam ‘as Muslims’ with complete submission to Allah). Within the same context comes the warning against those nations committing the same blunders of bygone nations, Allah the Almighty said: (And do not be like the ones who became divided and differed after the clear proofs had come to them. And those will have a great punishment). All these values are affirmed in the holy Qur’an time and again because God has revealed the religion to join the hearts together and make people brothers.

By/His Eminence Shaikh Ahmed al Khalili, Grand Mufti of the Sultanate

Reference: Oman observer