Allah Ta‘ala says in the Quraan Majeed,
وَاعْتَصِمُوا بِحَبْلِ اللَّـهِ جَمِيعًا وَلَا تَفَرَّقُوا
“And hold firmly to the rope of Allah Ta‘ala all together, and do not become divided.” (Surah Aal ‘Imraan v103)
In this verse, Allah Ta‘ala instructs us to hold firmly to His rope all together. A rope is something that is used to join between things. In this regard, there are two messages in this verse.
The first is that we should connect to Allah Ta‘ala via His rope. The rope of Allah Ta‘ala refers to Deen. Hence, we should hold firmly to Deen, by fulfilling every command of Allah Ta‘ala and abstaining from every prohibition. It is ONLY through holding firmly to Deen that one can connect with Allah Ta‘ala.
The second message is that we should all hold onto Deen together. In other words, we should be united. Allah Ta‘ala further clarifies and highlights this saying, “and do not become divided.”
Generally, people fail to achieve unity because each person or party has their own agenda. Even if the agendas are aligned, one group will not support the other, though their aims and goals are the same, because each wishes to hoard the prominence and popularity, and none is willing to share the spotlight.
The only way to gain unity is to put our own agendas and motives aside and unite under the banner of Deen. If each and every person puts his race, skin colour, nationality, caste, societal status, etc., aside and comes onto complete Deen, putting the objective of Deen before his personal aspirations, there would be great unity within the Ummah.
Since Deen forms the basis of unity, another aspect that can be understood from this verse is that Deen should NEVER be compromised for the sake of unity.
Finally, it should be borne in mind that valid differences of opinion in Deen, by those who are qualified to hold an opinion in Deen, do not contradict unity. Rather, these differences are accommodated by Deen, and since the hearts are united and there are no ill feelings, the unity is unaffected. Hence, we find that various learned Sahaabah (radhiyallahu ‘anhum) held differing opinions in certain matters, yet all maintained love and respect for one another.
May Allah Ta‘ala bless us all to connect with Him and to achieve unity in our homes, families, communities and in the world at large, aameen.