I still remember that day. A 10 year old boy was reading loud and rocking hard to memorize a one page long essay, "The Cow". Every time he thought he made it, he got stuck after the first sentence. Poor little boy, dung made grey matter had nothing more to deliver! So I warn you before you jump in.

Today the boy is going to retrieve here something a bit different. Although the topic remains the same, the light is on the scripture. The Arabic word for "cow" is "bakarah", title given to the most unmanageable chapter in the Quran as far as the "hifz" students are concerned. But what the cow has to do with this surah? Here comes the story. During prophet Moses's era, one fellow Jew was killed and left without any clue. Then it was ordered to slaughter a cow and strike the dead with a piece of meat so that the person gets back to life for a while to identify the murderer. However, the people started to ask unnecessary questions about the cow, like the color, the age and so on. When detail revealed, it became very tough to find such a cow. (Quran, 2:67-73) Whereas, any cow would have done the job if they had not asked those questions. That's the reason why our prophet discouraged to ask too many questions saying "never think Allah has forgot to elaborate".

Revelation stopped long ago with the death of our prophet. But the people haven't stopped asking questions. They now go to Islamic think-tanks for the answers. However the Islamic scholars have a well variety of answers. With few exceptions, everyone thinks his is the right way only. In fact, the variety of opinions is because of flexibility offered in our scripture. It seems that the Islamic scholars look for a single answer refusing the flexibility offered by Allah (SWT). Say for example a person is asked to solve an equation, 2x+3y +5=0. Only one equation is given. Obviously there will be infinite number of points satisfying the equation. That's what I call "flexibility". Now come to real life example, ways of praying in different 'mazhabs'. You will see people keeping his hands on the chest or on the belt or even with free hands while in 'salat'. Why these variations? Because our prophet was seen doing salat in all these styles. But the Islamic scholars are not prepared to accept the flexibility rather they choose one single style out of many. Isn't it twisting of Islam?

I had been in Australia for long two years. The place I lived was a suburban area where I couldn't find any meat announced 'halal' by most of the Islamic scholars. However I found them eatable according to the Quran as been slaughtered by 'ahle kitab'.......

Why there are so many sects among Muslims? The reason is simple, we don't get same answer of some question although we follow the same Quran and the same prophet. Like the Jews, we also go for the color and age of the cow. Even though we cant find it, we make our own answer and force it to others. Look like we feel ashamed saying "Allah knows the best". We might have different views or opinions but we should not behave like all-knowing. We must be tolerant to others' opinions and there is no alternate to saying "Allah knows the best" while we are not 100% sure. Only then we will be able to eradicate the roots of enmities and divisions among Muslims that had been sown by satan since the time of Osman (R).

The hardline muslim scholars must understand that Islam is easy to follow as it is said in Quran,
"Allah does not wish to impose hardship upon you. Rather, He wishes to purify you; and to complete His blessings upon you; in order that you may be thankful."
[Surah Al-Mā'idah 5: 6]