Dispersion is one thing and disagreement is something else. Dispersion is the opposite of togetherness and disagreement the opposite of agreement. Dispersion is the scatteredness of the folk of the Tariqah and disagreement of the scatteredness of the folk of the Shariah.
3:105 And do not be like those who became dispersed and disagreed.
Dispersion is that the servant desires one thing and the Real desires something else. Togetherness is that the servant’s desire and the Real’s desire are one. According to the report, “When someone makes his concerns one concern, God will spare him the concerns of this world and the next world.”
It has been said that dispersion is to gaze on the creatures and to see the secondary causes such that you are never relieved of suffering and creaturely antagonism. Togetherness is to gaze on the Real and to know that the Real is one, the work comes from one place, and the decree comes from this one door.
As for the disagreement of the lords of the Shariah, that is of two sorts: One is in the principles of the religion, the other in the branches. Disagreement in the principles is terrible and dangerous since one must be right and the other wrong. When someone’s goal lies in the west and he takes the road east, how can he ever reach the goal? The more he goes, the more he moves away from the goal day by day, and he falls farther behind. This is alluded to in His words, “Surely this path of Mine is straight, so follow it. And do not follow the paths, lest they disperse you from His path” [6:153].
As for the disagreement of the community on the branches, it is like a group who set out for one goal by disagreeing roads, some going nearer and some farther. Although they disagree in the traveling, they arrive at one goal and come together. This disagreement is mercy itself. To it, the Prophet alluded: “Disagreement in my community is a mercy.” In other words, this disagreement in branches is God’s mercy toward the creatures, so that the work of the religion would not become narrow for them and its road would not be difficult. This is in His words, “He placed no hardship upon you in the religion” [22:78]; and in God’s words, “God desires for you ease and does not desire for you hardship” [2:185].
