The Religion of Humanity – Part 4
Muhammad Yakub Khan
EVEN a superficial observer of Nature cannot help seeing that all the elements which constitute this great universe, pay implicit Obedience to certain prescribed laws. The sun, the moon and the stars; the night, the day and the season; the rivers, the trees and the ocean; all perform their prescribed functions with perfect precision and regularity, and not a moment there has ever been in history when they deviated even by a hair’s breadth from their courses. Just imagine even a momentary violation of the course ordained for an insignificant atom, and the wholesale destruction of the universe that will follow in its wake. A reign of the law, no violation, no trespass, is the indomitable rule of the universe. The same rule, Law and Obedience, runs through the whole human fabric. We have eyes, ears and mouth. Put them to a use other than they are meant for, and they refuse to work. But use them according to the prescribed law, and you will find them most obedient. Every atom in nature owes its existence and its further development to its submission and obedience to law:
أَفَغَيْرَ دِينِ ٱللَّهِ يَبْغُونَ وَلَهُۥٓ أَسْلَمَ مَن فِى ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ طَوْعًا وَكَرْهًا وَإِلَيْهِ يُرْجَعُونَ
And to Him submits whatsoever is in the heavens and in the earth willingly or unwillingly.
Al-Imran 3:83 (The Family of Imran)
If Science reveals to us laws concerning our material nature which we must conform to, if we desire to live a healthy life, Religion likewise reveals to us laws that govern our moral and spiritual nature. And it is only by the observance of these laws, moral, spiritual and material, that human society can make progress. Is it not, therefore, not only desirable but positively essential also that man should have revealed to him from On High laws which will tend to uplift him morally and spiritually? The material advancement only without the influence of moral and spiritual consciousness, will call our brutal nature into play, leading to human devastation and destruction. The Two World Wars serve as a good illustration. But our learned critic would have the world believe: ”The fact that the social and penal laws have been left out of the Gospels, and have been left to the judgement of each new generation, has proved a blessing rather than an omission and short-coming will be clear to anyone who has read in the Qur’an about laws, which however useful at the time when they were revealed, serve now only as checks upon progress and reform.” We cannot do better than to quote in reply a few lines from the famous book, Scenes from European History by. G. B. Smith. He writes:
“There is nothing more remarkable in history than the rapidity with which Muhammad’s ﷺ followers became a civilized people. Less than two centuries after his death Baghdad and Damascus had become beautiful and magnificent cities, the centres of luxury and of intellectual progress. In them lived philosophers, scientists, physicians and men of letters, at a time when Europe was still involved in its great struggle with the forces of barbarism and savagery.”
George Bernard Shaw who was a great thinker of modern age, said, only a few years ago that the staggering problems of the Western World could be solved successfully by conforming to the Law of Muhammad ﷺ only, and, therefore, the religion of Europe, particularly that of Great Britain, would be, within the next century, Islam or something very akin to it. Divine Law and unstinted obedience thereto not only resolve all our difficulties, but leads positively to prosperity, peace and progress.
The Divine Law and guidance were given under a providential plan, to every nation of the world in accordance with their requirements, through the agency of a prophet. But it is another distressing fact of sacred history that after the departure of these national prophets from this earth the Law brought by them was contaminated and corrupted, giving rise to differences and disputes. It thus became essentially necessary that a prophet be raised on international basis to sift and settle these disputes. This World-Prophet is Muhammad ﷺ, the Prophet of Islam, peace and blessings of God be upon him.
We read in the Holy Qur’an: Al-Baqara (The Cow) 2 :213.
كَانَ ٱلنَّاسُ أُمَّةً وَٰحِدَةً فَبَعَثَ ٱللَّهُ ٱلنَّبِيِّـۧنَ مُبَشِّرِينَ وَمُنذِرِينَ وَأَنزَلَ مَعَهُمُ ٱلْكِتَـٰبَ بِٱلْحَقِّ لِيَحْكُمَ بَيْنَ ٱلنَّاسِ فِيمَا ٱخْتَلَفُوا۟ فِيهِ وَمَا ٱخْتَلَفَ فِيهِ إِلَّا ٱلَّذِينَ
أُوتُوهُ مِنۢ بَعْدِ مَا جَآءَتْهُمُ ٱلْبَيِّنَـٰتُ بَغْيًۢا بَيْنَهُمْ فَهَدَى ٱللَّهُ ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ لِمَا ٱخْتَلَفُوا۟ فِيهِ مِنَ ٱلْحَقِّ بِإِذْنِهِۦ وَٱللَّهُ يَهْدِى مَن يَشَآءُ إِلَىٰ صِرَٰطٍ مُّسْتَقِيم
“Mankind is a single nation. So Allah raised prophets as bearers of good news and as warner’s, and He revealed with them the Book with truth, that it might judge between people concerning that in which they differed. And none but the very people who were given it differed about it after clear arguments had come to them, envying one another. So Allah has guided by His Will those who believe to the truth about which they differed.”
Thus among the different national religions of the world, Islam occupies the position of an international religion. Islam is an all-inclusive, an all-comprehensive religion within which are included all the religions of the world that went before it. It is one of its basic principles that a Muslim must also believe in all the prophets who had been raised in the different nations of the world, before the advent of the Holy Prophet Muhammad ﷺ:
Says the Holy Qur’an in Al-Baqara (The Cow) Chapter 2 Verse 136:
قُولُوٓا۟ ءَامَنَّا بِٱللَّهِ وَمَآ أُنزِلَ إِلَيْنَا وَمَآ أُنزِلَ إِلَىٰٓ إِبْرَٰهِـۧمَ وَإِسْمَـٰعِيلَ وَإِسْحَـٰقَ وَيَعْقُوبَ وَٱلْأَسْبَاطِ وَمَآ أُوتِىَ مُوسَىٰ وَعِيسَىٰ وَمَآ أُوتِىَ ٱلنَّبِيُّونَ مِن رَّبِّهِمْ لَا نُفَرِّقُ بَيْنَ أَحَدٍ مِّنْهُمْ وَنَحْنُ لَهُۥ مُسْلِمُونَ
“Say: We believe in Allah and in that which has been revealed to us and in that which was revealed to Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes, and in that which was given to Moses and Jesus and in that which was given to the prophets from their Lord; we do not make any distinction between any of them.”
A Jew believes only in the prophets of Israel ; a Christian believes in Jesus the Christ; and to a lesser degree in the prophets of Israel ; a Buddhist in Buddha only ; a Zoroastrian in Prophet Zoroaster only ; a Hindu in the Rishis raised up in India ; and a Confucian in Confucius only ; but a Muslim believes in all these and in Muhammad ﷺ also, the Last of the Prophets.
“If religion,” says our learned correspondent, ”is a socially necessary and useful institution, then the highest and noblest conceptions and teachings of the different religions must be brought together to give mankind the religion of humanity”. This condition, we take this opportunity to point out, has already been fulfilled with the advent of Islam. Its fundamental, principles, the unity and all-comprehensive providence of God, the universality of Divine revelation, and the accountability for all actions in a life after death, are recognized by all religions and all nations, and their universal acceptance is clear evidence of the fact that human nature itself bears testimony to their truth. Islam is the natural religion of man. We read in the Holy Qur’an:
فَأَقِمْ وَجْهَكَ لِلدِّينِ حَنِيفًا فِطْرَتَ ٱللَّهِ ٱلَّتِى فَطَرَ ٱلنَّاسَ عَلَيْهَا لَا تَبْدِيلَ لِخَلْقِ ٱللَّهِ ذَٰلِكَ ٱلدِّينُ ٱلْقَيِّمُ وَلَـٰكِنَّ أَكْثَرَ ٱلنَّاسِ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ
Ar-Rum (The Romans) 30:30
“So set thy face for religion, being upright, the nature made by Allah in which He has created men. There is no altering Allah’s creation. That is the right religion.”
Islam removes all limitations upon the three basic doctrines of the religion of humanity and gives them as wide a significance as humanity itself. No other religion in the world has claimed to be the natural religion of man. As a matter of fact, Islam is the Religion of Humanity which our learned correspondent seems to be in search of.
(The Light – September 8, 1959)
