The Message of the Quran

The Message of the Quran

1987 3 March 8-11 The Message of the Quran (1526) “Who but a foolish man would forsake the faith of Abraham? We chose him in this world, and in the world to come he shall dwell among the righteous. When his Lord said to him: ‘Submit,’ he answered, ‘I have submitted to the Lord of the Worlds.’ Abraham enjoined the same on his children, and so did Jacob, saying: ‘My children, God has chosen for you this faith. Do not depart this life except as men who have submitted to Him’. Or were you present when death came to Jacob? He said to his children: ‘What will you worship when I am gone?’ They replied: ‘We will worship your God and the God of your forefathers Abraham, Ishmael and Isaac: the one God. To Him we will surrender ourselves.’ That was a nation which has passed away. Theirs is what they earned, and yours is what you have earned. You shall not be questioned about what they did (2: 130-134).

The message taught by the Prophet Mohammad was exactly the same as had been taught by Abraham. But it was the Jews, those who prided themselves in being followers of Abraham, who led the opposition to the Prophet Mohammad. Why did the Jews act in this manner? The reason was that the religion that Mohammad taught, and which Abraham had taught before him, was the religion of Islam. Now, Islam means total submission to God, and it was this religion that Abraham handed down to his offspring. But the religion that the Jews practised had nothing to do with total submission to God. Having lapsed into permissiveness and, unwilling to change this lifestyle, they had allowed their religion to degenerate into a series of hollow rituals which they fondly believed would make it easy for them to enter paradise. In the religion that the Prophet Mohammad taught, however, one could gain salvation only by virtue of one’s actions. The Jews, for their part, thought that their affiliation to a nation of saints and prophets would be sufficient to earn them redemption. There was a world of difference then between Islam, the true religion of Abraham, and the religion that the Jews practised and attributed to him. True religion means acceptance of divine guidance, as revealed to man through the Prophets, whereas the religion practised by the Jews was based on their own national legacy, a collection of national traditions which had accumulated over generations among the Jews, but had been distorted from the pure religion which God had revealed to His Prophets.

Attaching oneself to saints and prophets, whether they are living or dead, lulls one into a false sense of security so that, just as one has been attached to them in this life, one will remain attached to them in the next life. It makes one feel that their surplus of good deeds will make up for whatever may be lacking in one’s own. The Jews were so far-gone in this form of wishful thinking that they had invented a dogma of ancestral salvation, laying all their hopes in the holiness of their elders. But it is pure self-deception to think that one person will receive the reward of another’s actions. In fact, everyone will reap the rewards, and bear the burden of his own actions. No one will be made to share in the reward, or punishment, which is awarded to another by virtue of his actions on earth.

One who submits to God finds that he has to face all forms of difficulties in this world. His worldly hopes and ambitions will not necessarily be fulfilled. Yet one who is firm in the faith will not be put off by such adversities; he will persevere, making sure that he leaves this world as a Muslim, so that he can look forward to God’s blessings in the next world.

“They say: ‘Accept the Jewish or the Christian faith and you shall be rightly guided.’ Say: ‘By no means! We believe in the faith of Abraham, the upright one. He was no polytheist.’ Say: We believe in God and that which was revealed to us, and in what was revealed to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob and the tribes; to Moses and Jesus and the other prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and to God we have surrendered ourselves.’ If they believe as you have done they shall be rightly guided; if they reject it, they shall surely be in schism. Against them, God is your all sufficient defender. He is the Hearing, the Knowing. We take on God’s own dye. And who has a better dye than God’s. And we are His worshippers. Say: ‘Would you dispute with us about God, Who is our Lord and your Lord? And we are responsible for our actions, and you for yours. To Him alone we are devoted. Or do you claim that Abraham, Ishmael, Ishaq, Jacob and the tribes, were all Jews or Christians? Say: ‘Who knows better, you or God? And who is more unjust than one who hides a testimony which he has received from God? He is watching over your actions. That nation has passed away. Theirs is what they earned and yours what you have earned. You shall not be questioned about what they did.” (2:135-141)

The religion that the Prophet Mohammad taught was the religion of the Prophet Abraham, the very religion to which the Jews and the Christians claimed allegiance. Why was it, then, that they turned away from the Prophet Mohammad? The reason for this was that the religion taught by Mohammad, on whom be peace, taught people to take on the hue of God; to devote themselves to Him entirely. With the People of the Book, (i.e., Jews and Christians) religion had a different meaning. For them religion was a symbol of national pride. The message brought by the Arab prophet hurt their pride, so they turned against him.

Those who consider their own race superior to others cannot accept truth when it manifests itself in some nation other than their own. They believe in prophets who come among their own people, but not in those from far-off places who come among other peoples. The only religion that they are acquainted with is communal religion. The only personalities that they acknowledge are those who belong to their own race. Those who look at religion as worship of God, on the other hand, recognize the truth of every piece of wisdom that God sends down, no matter who teaches it. For Jewish theologians to realize that Mohammad was God’s final messenger was not a matter of insuperable difficulty. There was nothing to prevent them from seeing the truth of his religion. They should have proclaimed what, deep down in their hearts, they knew to be true. But they did not accept him as the final prophet, as they were enjoined by God to do, for the simple reason that they were more concerned about their own position and prestige.

Just as the people of old had their just deserts as individuals, so will latter-day generations have what they merit on their own account, for truth is an individual, not an ancestral matter. The mistake of the Jews was to think that contemporary and succeeding generations would be rewarded for the good deeds of their ancestors. The Christians had done the same. Their idea of original sin implied that sins were handed down from one generation to the next. Such beliefs have no basis in truth. Everyone will be rewarded by God according to his or her own personal actions; no one can be held responsible for the deeds of others.

The faith that is pleasing to God is faith “as they believed”, that is, faith as the Companions of the Prophet believed. What was so special about the faith of the companions of the Prophet? To understand this, one has to think of the situation at their time. On the one hand, there were the ancient prophets, whose position had been historically accepted by the society in which they lived. On the other hand, there was the Prophet Mohammad, who had just come to the world. A wealth of historical traditions had not built up around his person. Yet in spite of this, they recognized the truth of his message and believed in him. Their belief amounted to acceptance of truth on an abstract level. This belief in truth for the sake of truth is the belief that God recognizes and accepts. When truth becomes a national legacy, or becomes embellished with the greatness of historical tradition, then people tend to believe in it, not for its own sake, but because it has become a source of national pride, because to do otherwise would be to deny history. When truth stands on its own unsupported by history or traditions as it was in the time of the Prophet Mohammad, those who accept it do so for the pure and simple reason that it is the truth. This is pure faith, and it is only faith such as this which is acceptable to God.