The biggest religious misconception occurred when the political Islamic wave adopted heritage and customs in the place of religion. This viewpoint has to be changed, or else we shall continue to maintain the same erroneous idea of religion. There is no doubt that Islam is sacred, with its Quran and true Sunnah [traditions of the Prophet, peace be upon him, (pbuh)]. Some of the early Muslims arrived at an interpretation of the Quran and the Sunnah, verbally and in practice, and that understanding is a legacy that we have inherited. If some of their interpretations were flawed or if their understanding reflected their culture, and experience, their times and the reality of their daily lives, this does not mean that the rest of the Muslims have to adopt the same interpretation, for all time. If that had been God's intention, He would have created only one kind of human brain and He would have cloned it for all humans until the Last Hour. Muslims and non-Muslims may have appreciated this heritage on account of its being a creative human endeavor, but it must never be considered sacred or flawless. The heritage is only a reflection of the bygone culture that produced it. Through this legacy we may be able to detect the way of thinking of the Muslims of olden times, the methods they used to reach the conclusions at which they arrived and the impact other cultures had on them. How did their culture affect the way they perceived the Quran and the Prophet (pbuh)? Did Arab culture affect them when they were writing about the life of the Prophet (pbuh)? This heritage should be the key to understanding what happened in the past, rather than a methodology we should adhere to, now and in the future. This heritage may offer an explanation for the bitter dispute that flared up between the companions of the Prophet Mohamed (pbuh). The disagreement erupted because some companions supported Sayedna Aly while some others backed Sayedna Moawya. The conflict between the two escalated to the point that their armies went to war against each other. We can then conclude that these companions were human and that they made mistakes, like every other human being. Some people who study this heritage may think that the conflict was a religious one, or partly religious and partly secular. Other people might think that it was a power struggle between the tribe of Bani Umayya, the masters of Quraish, and the tribe of the grandfather of the Prophet (pbuh) and of Aly Ibn Abi Taleb, the Bani Hashem. The Bani Umayya tribe established the Umayyad State and the Bani Hashem tribe founded the Abbasid State. Therefore, when we study heritage, and look into its weirdness and peculiarity we cannot attribute these aspects to religion and declare that Islam permits this and that, as used to happen before, when it came to behavior and ethics. The reason is that heritage is a product of human thought. Religion does not follow people, but rather people should follow religion. We cannot consider the way these early Muslims used to think, as a scientific mode of thought. Still, we can add it to "A History of Science". There is no doubt that the early Muslims' creative endeavors can be considered scientific, for the era in which they lived; but according to our modern, standards, they cannot be accepted as science. The early interpreters of the Holy Quran did so according to the scientific methods and knowledge that were current at the time, as well as the information they gained from earlier religions. Now, when we interpret the Holy Quran, we cannot think the same way as those who claimed that the earth was motionless and flat, that it was the center of the universe and that in ancient times men were five meters tall. We can examine the old methods used to study Hadith (traditions of the Prophet pbuh), that include Sanad (a series of references leading up to the original witness giving the Matn) and Matn (the confirmed statement at the end of a Sanad series) to admire them in their historical context. However, we cannot rely on these methods today; we must change and develop them. After all they are a human product, created a hundred years after the Prophet's death to record his Hadiths. We have not developed them instead, we have imprisoned ourselves within their confines. We did not initiate new methods to correct the flaws that have been attributed to the Prophet Mohamed (pbuh). We have sanctified this heritage to the extent that if we just discuss it, we are considered by some to be non-believers.
