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Introduction to Islam (Submission to God) . "He decreed for you the same religion decreed for Noah,
and 42:13 . All the Scripture revealed to mankind from God advocate one and the same religion. This religion God calls Islam (Submission to God). Submission to God as a religion is also described as Monotheism (Hanifeyah) …. see 3:67, 6:79, 10:105, 98:5. The principal command from God in all Scripture is to worship God alone devoting all the religion to Him and rejecting all other gods/idols : . Old Testament: "You shall have no other gods besides Me" Exodus 20:3 (First Commandment) New Testament: "You shall worship the Lord your God. and Him ONLY you shall serve" (Luke 4:8) The Quran: "You shall know that: "There is no other god beside God" 47:19 . Submission to God is the religion whereby we recognize God's absolute authority, and reach an unshakeable conviction that God ALONE possesses all power; no other entity possesses any power that is independent of Him. The natural result of such a realization is to devote our lives and our worship absolutely to God ALONE. As shown this is the message of all Scripture. The above Quranic verse (42:13) confirms that the religion that was revealed
to Muhammad through the Quran is not different from what was given to the
previous prophets. This truth is given light in numerous verses such as: . "We made them (Abraham and his sons) imams who guided in accordance with our commandments, and we taught them how to work righteousness, and how to observe the Contact Prayers (Salat) and the obligatory charity (Zakat)." 21:73 . Essentially, if there is only one religion decreed by God there must be One 'truth'. Do we conclude that there should be one revelation? The answer to this question is that 'truth' and 'revelation' are not absolutely equivalent terms. Because 'truth' is an absolute term it is situated independent of form, whereas revelations are relative to time, people and place, and thus require a form. But to speak of form is to speak of diversity and thus plurality. The need for different revelations at different times and for different people is justified by the following factors: 1- Mankind has gone through enormous development through the ages physically, mentally and spiritually, that there was always the need for various revelations at different times and for different peoples. Although the various revelations are united in message and truth, yet we find that God never addresses identical revelations to two different people. This being so, it can be said that the diverse revelation do not, and should not contradict one another, for although they differ in form, the religion decreed in all of them (Monotheism) is one. 2- If there appears any apparent contradictions between different revelations, they are in human receptacles and not in the divine message. This is a result of human inability to interpret such revelations and more importantly the failure to preserve the 'truth' contained in the revelation, which always tends to be impaired and altered with the passing of time. Ultimately, the apparent contradiction is no more than one between corrupt scripts and interpretations of the original revelations, and not between the revelations themselves. Inevitably, and through corruption in the transfer and application of a Scripture, together with the social and cultural factors that always widen the gap between the factions, we are left with a multitude of corrupt religions. These sub-religions in many ways hardly bare any resemblance to one another, or to the original religion decreed by God. For that, there becomes a necessity for mankind to receive another revelation that puts them back on track with God's law that has been badly corrupted. 3- We find that up until the advent of the industrial revolution and the fast
travel era, the world was still a wide expanse of disjointed lands and peoples. However, after the revelation of the Quran, there became no need for any further revelations. Not because the message of the Quran is much different from the message of the Torah or the Gospel, but because of the following reasons: A- A divine promise has been endorsed in the Quran that it will not be corrupted like previous Scripture. As a result, and if the message would remain intact in one Scripture, there becomes no need to reveal further Scripture. B- With the advent of the modern fast travel means of today, the whole world became a closer knit unit. People do not have to travel to hear or receive information, it is brought right up to them through the various media channels that were not available a few centuries ago. _______________________________________ . "The only religion approved by God 3:19 . The word Islam simply means Submission (to God). We learn from previous Scripture that all the prophets of God submitted to God Almighty and called their people to submit to the One and only God. It is a mistaken concept among Muslims (and non Muslims alike) that Islam is
basically the religion of the Quran and the religion of Muhammad. Millions of Muslims today believe that it was Muhammad who taught them how to pray and conduct their other rituals. This belief is erroneous since it violates the truth of the Quran. In the Quran we read: 1-
God taught Abraham and his sons all the rituals of Islam (Prayer, pilgrimage,
Zakat ... etc see 21:73, 22:26-29). This took place long before the time of
Muhammad. This is followed by God’s description of the Quran as 'COMPLETE' (6:115), 'FULLY DETAILED' (6:114), that 'NOTHING' has been left out of it (6:38) and that it offers ‘explanations for EVERYTHING’ 16:89. God calls this One religion that He decreed to all previous prophets Islam
(Submission). _____________________ . |
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