There is no doubt that unity is the most important requirement of the Muslims, and that old rancor is the basic cause of all troubles in the Muslim world.  It is also true that the enemy is always ready to exploit these disputes.  But it appears that the concept of Muslim unity has been misunderstood.
 

Muslim unity which has been the subject of discussion among the scholars and the broad-minded sections of the Muslims does not mean that the Muslim sects should ignore their principles of faith and articles of acts for the sake of unity, adopt the common features of all the sects and set aside the peculiarities of all.  How can this be done when this is neither logical nor practical? How can the followers of any sect be asked to ignore for the sake of preserving the unity of Islam and the Muslims, any of their beliefs or practical principles which they consider to be a part of the basic structure of Islam?  Such a demand would mean to overlook a part of Islam in the name of Islam.

There are other ways of persuading people to stick to a principle or give it up.  The most natural of them is to convince others by means of logical arguements.  Faith is not a matter of expedience, nor can it be imposed on any people or taken away from them at will.

We are the Shi’ahs and are proud of following the chosen descendants of the Holy Prophet.  We do not regard as compromisable any act which has been even slightly commended or condemned by the holy Imams.  In this regard we are not willing to fulfill the expectation of anybody, nor do we expect others to give up any of their principles in the name of expediency or for the sake of Muslim unity.  All that we expect and wish is the creation of an atmosphere of good will so that we, who have our own jurisprudence, traditions, scholastic theology, philosophy, exegesis and literature, should be able to offer our goods as the best goods, so that the Shi’ahs should no more be isolated and so that the important markets of the Muslim world should not be closed to the fine material of Shi’ah Islamic knowledge.

The adoption of the common Islamic features and the rejection of the peculiarities of all sects are contrary to the compound consensus of opinion among the Muslims and the product of this action will be something absolutely un-Islamic, for the peculiarities of some sect or other must be the basic part of the structure of Islam.  Islam, bereft of all peculiarities and distinguishing features, has no existence.

The most prominent among those who advanced the noble idea of Islamic unity have been the late Ayatullah Burujardi among the Shi’ah and Allamah Shaykh Abdul Majid and Allamah Shaykh Mahmud Shalut among the Sunnis.  But they never had such a view of Islamic unity in their mind.  All that these learned men advocated was that the various Muslim sects in spite of their different theologies should on the basis of the large number of common features existing among them, form a common front against the dangerous enemies of Islam.  These learned men never proposed under the name of Islamic unity a religious unity which is not practical.