Introduction to Islam
(Submission to God)
"The only religion approved by God is Islam (Submission)" 3:19
On first impression, many who read the above statement will immediately say: hold on, what about Judaism and Christianity? After all, these religions were truly authorised by God!
However, if we discard all labels (Judaism, Christianity .... etc) and only look into the meaning of the word Islam, and learn that it simply means Submission to God, and since we know 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, then we can understand why the only true religion is submission to God (Islam).
Islam, in that sense, is not the religion of the Quran alone, nor is the religion brought by the prophet Muhammad. It is written in the Quran that Islam (Submission to God), is as old as Abraham (22:78), and that all the practices of Islam were first given to Abraham and his sons long before Muhammad was born.
"He decreed for you the same religion decreed for Noah, and what we inspired to you, and what we decreed for Abraham, Moses, and Jesus: "You shall uphold this one religion,and do not divide it." 42:13
This Quranic verse, alongside numerous other verses, confirm the truth that as far as God is concerned there has always been one religion. The one religion was decreed to Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad.
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)
The Quran: 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:
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- The practices of Islam were first given to Abraham and his sons (Prayer, pilgrimage, Zakat ... etc see 21:73, 22:26-29). This took place long before the time of Muhammad. 3- Muhammad and all believers were commanded to follow the creed of Abraham, which is defined in all verses which have the words "Millat Ibrahim" (creed of Abraham), as Monotheism and refrain from associating partners with God (16:123). 4- God also tells Muhammad (and all believers) in verse 5:48 that within each revelation there are specific laws and rites that are specific to the receivers of this particular revelation. Hence the command is issued in 5:48 that Muhammad should follow the rites given to him in the Quran and not the rites of previous people. ---------------------------------- 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. 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.
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.
Within the religion of Islam God decreed specific rituals and practices designed to teach man to worship his Lord. These acts (Prayer, pilgrimage .... etc.) were taught first to Abraham.
2- Across the ages, as normally happens, many of these rituals were corrupted and the element of idol worship crept in. All the practices were thus restored to their pristine purity in the Quran. God also promised that the Quran will never be corrupted (15:9), thus all believers will always have access to the pure way of worshipping God.
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.
Many people would have not even heard of those Scripture that have already been revealed in various other parts of the world. This is why a new scripture would be revealed to new communities who have not received the Scripture.