Answer: This is a strange and astonishing question that indicates that many Muslims, if not most of them, do not yet know how Muslims can fight the enemies of Allah and wage war against them while they are, as the questioner himself described, divided into sects and many parties.
How can this questioner imagine that we abandon the study about belief in Allah, the Almighty, which was one of the first doctrines that the Messenger of Allah, ﷺ, was commanded in His saying,
"And your Lord, glorify Him," (Quran 73:3)
and in His saying,
"So know that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah." (Quran 47:19)
If Muslims differ in their understanding of this good word, how can they be one hand in meeting the enemies of Allah and fighting them?
It is as if this questioner and his likes want us to suspend the Shari'ah of Allah, the Almighty, and by suspending the Shari'ah of Allah, we can meet the enemies of Allah.
This is according to the doctrine of Abū Nuwās , who said, "They treated me with the very thing that was my ailment."
Our Lord, the Almighty says,
"And if you disagree over anything, refer it to Allah and the Messenger, if you should believe in Allah and the Last Day. That is the best [way] and best in result." (Quran 4:59)
And the verse that we have mentioned repeatedly earlier,
"And whoever opposes the Messenger after guidance has become clear to him and follows other than the way of the believers - We will assign him to what he has turned to and make him enter Hell, and evil it is as a destination." (Quran 4:115)
How can this questioner and his likes be satisfied that we turn away from all these clear verses? And how can he imagine the possibility of these Muslims meeting on what is between them of severe disagreement, not just in secondary matters, but in fundamental principles, and not just in fundamental principles, but in the very essence of faith, which is Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, Blessed and Exalted?
I am very sorry to remind this questioner and his likes that we were overjoyed when we received news of the victory of our Muslim brothers, the Afghans, over the Russian communists and their allies. Then, as much as we rejoiced, we regretted and grieved when they stopped in front of only two towns of all of Afghanistan.
The reason for that is that their leaders and heads disagreed among themselves and quarreled,
and our Lord says,
"And do not dispute, or you will lose courage and [then] your strength will depart." (Quran 8:46)
This questioner does not realize that the disagreement that the Messenger ﷺ referred to in the Hadith of the seventy-three sects, and that the saved sect is the one that is upon what the Messenger ﷺ and his companions were upon.
When the Muslims unite on this approach from the Book and the Sunnah and what the companions of the Prophet ﷺ were upon, then they can meet the enemies of Allah, the Almighty.
As for leaving the old as it is, as they say, and trying to meet and unite for the sake of fighting the enemy, this is an impossible matter.
The verse and the Battle of Hunayn and the like are the greatest examples of the necessity of unifying the word of Muslims, and this will never be possible except on the basis of the Book, the Sunnah, and the previous verse is sufficient for you, if Allah Wills, as an indication:
"And if you disagree over anything, refer it to Allah and the Messenger, if you should believe in Allah and the Last Day. That is the best [way] and best in result." (Quran 4:59)
— Answered by Shaykh Nasiruddin Al-Albani
