WHY ISLAM – PART 1

Mohammad Yaqub Khan – Imam The Woking Mosque 

SOMEWHERE else we reproduce a letter of a correspondent from Hyderabad (Sind) in which a question, a pertinent question indeed, has been posed at us, asking, if Judaism and Christianity, and for that matter any other religion of the world, are efficacious enough to fetch deliverance to their followers in the life to come, what is, then, the need of Islam, and why should a man renounce his own ancestral faith, often at a great risk, and embrace Islam; and that how far Islam’s claim to be the only true and perfect way that leads unfailingly to the Most High God, is consistent with its own teaching as contained in the following verse:

إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَٱلَّذِينَ هَادُوا۟ وَٱلنَّصَـٰرَىٰ وَٱلصَّـٰبِـِٔينَ مَنْ ءَامَنَ بِٱللَّهِ وَٱلْيَوْمِ ٱلْـَٔاخِرِ وَعَمِلَ صَـٰلِحًا فَلَهُمْ أَجْرُهُمْ عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ وَلَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ

(Al-Baqara (The Cow) 2:62)

”Surely those who believe, and those who are Jews, and the Christians, and the Sabians, who-ever believes in Allah and the ’Last Day and does good, they have their reward with their Lord, and there is no fear for them, nor shall they grieve.”

Of all the great religions of the world, Islam is undoubtedly the last. But it is not only the last religion; it is an all-inclusive religion which has within itself all religions that went before it. Islam, in the evolution of religion, occupies the last stage at which the revelation of the great Truth from on high has been brought to perfection.That all the great religions of the world came originally from the same Divine source is a principle taught exclusively by the Holy Quran. The Prophet ﷺ was commanded by God to proclaim:

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

(Al-Baqara (The Cow) 2:136)

”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 and to Him do we submit.”

And history bears out this great cosmopolitan truth indisputably. If India had its Vedic Rishis, with Ram Chandra, Krishna and Gautama Buddha to follow them, China found its Teacher in the holy person of Confucius; and if Zoroaster had been sent to kindle the spiritual fire in Iran, Moses and Jesus had been raised for the guidance of the Israelite nation. In brief, as the Holy Quran has put it:

إِنَّآ أَرْسَلْنَـٰكَ بِٱلْحَقِّ بَشِيرًا وَنَذِيرًا وَإِن مِّنْ أُمَّةٍ إِلَّا خَلَا فِيهَا نَذِيرٌ

There is not a people but a warner has gone among them (35:24).

These Teachers, since they came from the same Divine source, brought Messages which were, in their essentials, identically the same: that God is One and there is none like unto Him; man shall worship Him alone, and Him alone shall man beseech for help; and there is a life beyond the grave when man shall be required to render an account of the deeds done on this earth. They also gave some moral precepts adapted to the particular needs and conditions of their respective peoples. Now, this is the essence of Islam, a belief in God, in Divine revelation and in the Hereafter. In the Holy Quran, very often all the doctrines of faith are summed up as amounting to belief in God and the Future Life: Whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day and does good, they shall have their reward from Allah.

But each nation began to think that only they were the chosen sons of God, and that all others were the caput mortem, the rejected residuum. They, while claiming Divine origin for their own faith, denied this privilege to the creeds of all other nations. The Jews and the Christians to this day claim for themselves the great gift of Divine revelation and prophecy to the entire exclusion of all other nations; and the votaries of the Vedic Dharm of India propound a still more fantastic proposition that the Most High God spoke only once in the beginning of creation, some 1960 million years ago, to the four Rishis of Aryavarta exclusively, discarding all the other nations of the world to wallow in darkness and ignorance. This superiority complex created the foul feelings of conceit and hatred between man and man. The Holy Quran has denounced it, saying:

وَقَالُوا۟ لَن يَدْخُلَ ٱلْجَنَّةَ إِلَّا مَن كَانَ هُودًا أَوْ نَصَـٰرَىٰ تِلْكَ أَمَانِيُّهُمْ قُلْ هَاتُوا۟ بُرْهَـٰنَكُمْ إِن كُنتُمْ صَـٰدِقِينَ

(Al-Baqara (The Cow) 2:111)

And they say: None shall enter the Garden except he who is a Jew or the Christians. These are their vain desires. Say, Bring your proof if you are truthful.

This doctrine of Divine Favouritism, it can be easily understood, was repugnant to the ultimate aim of true religion, viz., the establishment of the unity of human race along with the Unity of Godhead; that there shall be one God for all the nations of the world, and none beside Him shall be worshipped and adored; one Book as the standard of all Law and all practice; one Prophet to serve as an exemplar for all; and the entire human race as one Universal Brotherhood. In the verse quoted the Holy Quran has overthrown and smashed the idea of a favoured nation. They are told in categorical terms that the mere fact of their being the Jews and the Christians or the Sabians will not give them the title to salvation, but the true and real source of salvation is entire submission to Allah’s will and the doing of good to His creatures, in the full belief that they shall have to account for their actions on the Last Day of Judgment:

إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَٱلَّذِينَ هَادُوا۟ وَٱلنَّصَـٰرَىٰ وَٱلصَّـٰبِـِٔينَ مَنْ ءَامَنَ بِٱللَّهِ وَٱلْيَوْمِ ٱلْـَٔاخِرِ وَعَمِلَ صَـٰلِحًا فَلَهُمْ أَجْرُهُمْ عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ وَلَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ

(Al-Baqara (The Cow) 2:62)

”Surely those who believe, and those who are Jews, and the Christians and the Sabians, whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day and does

good, they have their reward with the Lord, and there is no fear for them, nor shall they grieve”.

Belief in Allah and the Last Day is, as stated above, the quintessence of Islam; and the verse simply means to say that salvation cannot be achieved by the mere lip profession of a people, not even by the Muslims, unless they stick unflinchingly to the true belief and do good deeds. But if they should cling defiantly to their own selfish doctrines, then

“Allah will judge between them on the day of Resurrection”.

إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يَفْصِلُ بَيْنَهُمْ يَوْمَ ٱلْقِيَـٰمَةِ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَىْءٍ شَهِيدٌ

Al-Hajj (The Pilgrimage) 22:17

The Holy Quran, it may also be remarked in passing, denies not the existence of good men in other religions also, but its claim is that perfect peace or the state of absolute contentment, which is characterized by freedom from fear and grief, can be attained only in Islam, for Islam alone is the religion of absolute submission to the Will of the Most High God.

(The Light – January 24, 1959)