One of the strategic concepts in Imam Khomeini’s (RA) thought that, in addition to national dimensions, has international aspects for the Islamic world, is unity in the Islamic world.
According to Imam’s thought, Muslims need unity, solidarity and empathy for development and elevation and moving away from Islamic unity is one of the factors in the transformation of the Islamic system and the process of civilization. Due to human, natural and strategic resource and religious similarities, Islam world has great capabilities to be turned into an effective power in global power structure.
It seems that for Imam Khomeini, solidarity among all Muslims and more importantly, and simultaneously observing the independence and the existence of all countries including Islamic countries is of the highest importance.
Imam Khomeini (RA) undertook serious efforts to eradicate divisions among Muslims
Imam Khomeini (RA), the late Founder of the Islamic Republic has been a great champion of the Islamic unity in contemporary history. Imam undertook serious efforts to eradicate any existing sectarian strife or divisions among Muslims.
Imam Khomeini (RA) once said in this regard as following: “Today, world peace is such that all countries are under the political influence of the superpowers; they observe a control everywhere and have schemes for defeating every group. The most important of these is sowing discord among brothers.
Muslims should be awake, Muslims should be alert that if a dispute takes place among Sunni and Shi’ite brothers, it is harmful to all of us, it is harmful to all Muslims. Those who want to sow discord are neither Sunni nor Shia, they are agents of the superpowers and work for them.
We must pay attention that we are all Muslims and we all believe in the Quran; we all believe in Tawheed and must work to serve the Quran and Tawheed.”
The Origin of the Islamic Ummah in Imam Khomeini’s (RA) Thinking
About the place of concepts of Ummah and nation in Imam’s thinking, these two terms can be analyzed at two political philosophy and sociological levels. At the political philosophy level, the ideal Islamic society is introduced with an idealistic look, toward which the existing Islamic societies should move to realize their wishes and it is only in that case that they achieve their real unity.
The Idea of Ummah in Imam Khomeini’s Political Thoughts to encourage Moslems to avoid dispersed and discording identities, and move toward the ideal and genuine identity of Ummah . Thus, Imam accepts those different types of identity as existing realities, knowing them as several features of the One reality.
He believes that if all of them seek for a common objective in a common path, they are not contradictory, but very useful. In order to achieve his idealistic strategy, Imam Khomeini emphasizes on some concepts as requirements of formation and realization of the Islamic Ummah. Some of the most important of those concepts are as follows:
Islamic Identity
Imam Khomeini had the highest focus on the investigation of identity at three levels of individual, national-Islamic, and religious. At individual level, he identified following of God’s orders and disobeying the command of non-Gods as the base of people’s identity. About national-Islamic identity, Imam Khomeini, introducing pure Islam and clarifying its requirements, strengthened Iranians’ interest in such an attitude toward Islam in order to make consistent the ethnical-regional and linguistic identities in its light
from one side, and to read out Iranian-Islamic identity through defining nationalism and Iranianism within the concept of Islam from the other side.
Islamic Unity
Imam Khomeini as one of inspirers of Islamic unity, knows formation, victory, and duration of Islamic Ummah, based on Islamic unity. He introduces real unity as the requirement of Islamic unity.
And believes that real unity is in the unity of hearts. He follows his unity strategy through an ideological and
intellectual base and not by aggression and breaking borders. The study of Imam’s works shows that emphasis on unity in his works has roots in a strong theoretical base and this emphasis is based on gnostic thinking .
For him, moving toward real unity in any society is one the signs of trust in Allah while its opposite point, discord and greediness are among the qualities of polytheism and disunity. He, pointing to the Quranic verse of “Resort to God’s rope and don’t scatter”, believes that real unity is defined only through two characteristics of resorting to God and not scattering. He, frequently introduces the lack of “unity” among Muslims as the origin of most of trouble in their lives.
source:shafaqna
