Correspondence with Maulana Abul Lais Islahi Nadwi

Regarding the verse aqeem-ud-deen, I have also gathered the commentators’ statements, which indicate that all of them interpret ad-deen as the core religion and exclude the detailed Shariah from it. To clarify this point, some of the commentators of the Quran have used the following phrase: And what is meant here are not the laws that serve the interests of nations according to their circumstances, since these differ and vary. (Al Kashaf by Al Zamakhshari, Vol. 4, p. 215; Tafsir Al Qurtubi, Vol. 16, p. 10). Taking this phrase, Maulana Saadruddin Sahib says about me that I have, in fact, misunderstood it, and that the intention and meaning of the commentators are certainly not what I have taken it to be. Then, explaining my “misunderstanding,” he writes: The truth of the matter is that when the respected commentators said that ‘what is meant here are not the laws,’ they did so to remove an apparent difficulty or objection. The difficulty or objection was that the religions of the noble Prophets, in their detailed forms, were not identical; rather, their laws had many differences. Still, in this verse commanding the establishment of religion, it is stated that this is the religion revealed to all the Prophets. So,