Unifying

When people are born into the world they are all very much alike.

Some have different coloured skin, or hair or eyes,

and they are all born with different qualities to form their personalities,

but they all like the same food, their mother's milk,

and they all speak the same language,

when they want something they cry.

Then as they grow older they become familiar with different things.

They speak different languages,

they like different kinds of food,

and prefer some sounds and colours to others.

They get used to dressing a certain way

and learn certain kinds of social manners and behaviour.

After a while, they like the way they are so much that the temptation is to think that they

and the people around them, who live the same way and like the same things,

are the best in the world

and have the only really good way of living.

When you think you are the best, the temptation is to think of other people who like different things as being not as good as you,

to think that other people are somehow less human than you

because they haven't learned to like the same things,

and so choose to live in a different way.

The way that a group of people live, their habits and their traditions, is called their culture.

Sometimes a different culture can be in a group of people so small that they are not much more than an extended family a clan or a tribe.

Sometimes a culture will have its own language

and cover an area that is known as a separate country.

And sometimes a culture is followed by a few people in lots of different countries,

and sometimes a culture will spread across several countries

to cover a whole region or a continent.

Now Muslims live around the world in all sorts of different places,

and so they have lots of different ways of living, and live in lots of different cultures.

More than one in six of all the people living in the world are Muslim,

that is over 1,000,000,000 people,

so Muslims live in all sorts of different cultures and still think of themselves as Muslim.

Muslims come in all the different shapes and sizes and colours that humans possess.

There are Muslims living in every single different country in the world,

so there are Muslims speaking every different kind of language.

They have all sorts of different kinds of foods that they like to eat,

and different fashions in which they like to dress.

But for all the things that make them different,

there are things about being Muslim,

as there are things about being human,

that make them the same.

God tells us in the Qur'an that as muslims

we should remember the things we have in common

and not just argue about the things on which we differ.

When we meet with other muslims we should only discuss our differences in a friendly way

and remember that the difference in the way we understand things is one of the Signs of God in the world.

Our differences are there to help us understand

ourselves, each other, and the world around us.

And each year muslims gather together in Makkah

united in what they do and ignoring their differences

Where do all muslims stand equal?