Let me be very honest – I am tired of hearing Muslims complain about disunity. It pains me greatly to see so many members of my community exude a sense of hopelessness and despondency due to a false belief that the Ummah is divided, and thus we are all “losers”.

I know this negativity stems primarily from having to bear witness to the violence and injustices being inflicted on our brothers and sisters in faith across a number of Muslim-majority countries, with perceived impunity, in the context of different geopolitical conflicts.

As Muslims, however, we have a responsibility not to despair. Our religion encourages us to engage in introspection, and to adhere to the Islamic ideal of “al-amr bil ma’rouf and al-nahy anil munkar (enjoining good and forbidding evil)”.  This requires careful analysis and – if necessary – criticism of the status quo. But never dejection.

After the loss of the Khilafa with the fall of the Ottoman empire in 1922, a considerable majority of Muslims focussed all their attention and energy on finding a way to “reunite” the Ummah. Without a Khilafa, they assumed, Muslims of the world would struggle to remain on the same page on important issues and suffer the consequences. This led to seemingly endless infighting – primarily between those who sought to maintain old religious practices and understandings and those who wanted to make foundational reforms to the faith in the name of reuniting the Ummah. Where did all this bickering and screaming get us? What did all this achieve? It has been a whole century since we had a Khilafa, and many of us are still crying about Muslims being disunited.

Those who became obsessed with the Ummah’s loss of “unity” in the absence of a shared political structure lost sight of things that continue to keep us united – things that can actually help our community collectively achieve justice, peace and prosperity.

True unity cannot be found in the enforcement of political or cultural uniformity under a Utopian empire stretching from Morocco to........

© Al Jazeera