ISLAM - THE RELIGION OF TRUTH

ISLAM- THE RELIGION OF TRUTH

By Abu ‘Abdillah Ibrahim Chris Otayemi Al-Ijaebuwee

 

 All praises and adoration are due to Allah [God], the Sole Creator of all that exists. We praise Him, we seek His help and forgiveness; and we seek refuge in Him from the evils of our souls and those of our actions. He whom Allah guides, none can misguide, and he who is misguided, none can usher him towards guidance other than Allah. I bear witness in absolute terms to the Oneness of Allah in His lordship, worship, and in the uniqueness of His Divine Names and Sublime Attributes. I also testify that Prophet Muhammad is Allah’s slave and noble Messenger. May Allah’s peace, blessings and mercies be showered on this noble Prophet and upon his household, his companions and the generality of the true monotheistic believers until the Day of Consternation [Amin].

As to what follows, humanity as a whole has constantly been on the edge to devote itself to a ‘higher power’- the power, to which it believes, exerts a considerable influence on its existence as an entity, and its social intercourse with nature. With the exception of the relatively few atheists, humanity has constantly been on the strife to determine the true faith in which it hopes to acquire its much-needed spiritual and social tranquility and the veneration of his dignity. However, the human race has not availed itself the opportunity of seeking the Celestial Knowledge from the one and only true source, as most of humankind are still deeply plunged in the abyss of ignorance and moral corruption as constituted by the various obnoxious ideologies and rather misleading creeds, values and thoughts that pervade its ranks. 

Although man might pride himself as being the custodian of great material achievements as seen in his architectural masterpieces, his huge and sophisticated information technology progression, his unassailable scientific geniuses and many others, yet he is largely ignorant of the essence of his being- the worship of his Creator; thus, he remains perpetually arrogant, ungrateful, rebellious and unrepentant to the divine calls that had come his way from of old.

 

It is a widespread claim nowadays, though erroneous, that there exist three monotheistic religions in the world [i.e. religions that affirm the oneness of God]: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Even though Muslims acknowledge the divine source of the first two religions mentioned, as they both stemmed out of the third, however these two religions have undergone widely varying interpolations and contradictions that have rendered them relatively irreverent, sacrilegious, and unfit for the emancipation of the human mind from its spiritual bondage. To the learned Muslim, Judaism is no more than bigoted idolatry; and Christianity, a subtle form of polytheism which is evident from its pagan doctrinal formula of the concept of trinity- a ‘unified’ tri-god! A concept so irrational that even the most learned Christian, being intellectually bankrupt and confused about how to explicate, explains away as a mystery! [I seek Allah’s refuge from this polytheistic outlook of the Godhead]. 

Islam, which technically is defined as the submission to the oneness of God, obedience to His orders and abstinence from all forms of polytheism, has proclaimed that, in its doctrinal principle, it is not a new religion; but it is the first and only faith which Allah, the Exalted, revealed unto Noah [may Allah’s peace, blessing and mercies be upon him] and continued to reveal to all prophets and messengers after him. If men however find religions to differ in those principles, it is because of the corruption and distortion effected by the heads of those religions, and the arbitrary and misguided interpretations that they gave thereto out of spite and mutual jealousy.

 

It was with this pure and unadulterated faith that the Lord, the Exalted, had eventually sent His last Prophet and Messenger Muhammad to humanity so that men may unite on a universal basis in order to enjoy the blessings of divine unity in their individual diversities; a brotherhood based solely on faith and the desire to please the Sole Creator of the universe, and not that based on the feeble cord of tribalism, racism, nationalism, universalism or secularism. Being the last in the long chain of prophet-hood that spanned from the advent of the first man and prophet- Adam, Muhammad called the entire world, so accustomed to idolatry and iniquity, to abandon its pagan beliefs and inclinations for the worship of the One True God, the Sole Creator of all that exists. The chief instrument in his arsenal to discharge this noble task of prophet-hood was the Qur’an- the last of the heavenly testaments which Allah revealed to him as the divine spiritual constitution upon which the structures of this pure faith were to be rebuilt. 

Allah, the Exalted, says in the Qur’an that which translates as: ‘Allah has ordained for you the religion which He commanded unto Noah, and that which He revealed to thee [O Muhammad] and that which We commanded unto Abraham, Moses and Jesus: observe this religion in true belief and obedience and do not be divided concerning it. The worship of One God to which you call them is intolerable unto the unbelievers. Allah chooses to the faith whomsoever He wills and He will guide thereunto whosoever shall turn unto Him.’ He also says in another verse: ‘We have indeed raised in every nation a messenger [proclaiming]: worship God [solely] and turn away from taaguut [any other thing(s) worshipped besides God]. Of them are those whom God guided, and of them are those upon whom misguidance is inevitably justified. Travel through the earth and witness what the end of the beliers [of the truth of Islamic monotheism] was like.’

 

It should be borne in mind that all the messengers of God called to the same creed- Islam [absolute submission to God]. They were all sent with the same mission which is the affirmation and dissemination of the worship of God Alone, the obliteration of all forms of human and symbolic polytheism, and the spiritual, moral and economic advancement of their adherents. They were ordained to call people to singling out Allah Alone in worship and to disavow all other gods or deities. By calling men to uphold the natural laws of God, Islam demands from its adherents to relinquish all inherited bigoted traditions and superstitions, and to face the bare fact of life free of all imaginary misconceptions or rational prejudices. 

 Allah says in His Glorious Revelation: ‘Verily the [only] true religion with God is Islam and none other is acceptable unto Him; and those who were given the Scriptures (before) [i.e. Jews and Christians] differed not concerning it until after the knowledge of its truth and authenticity had come to them, out of mutual jealousy and the desire for supremacy; and whoever disbelieves in the signs of God, [verily] God is prompt in reckoning.’ He also says: ‘Do the unbelievers [in Islamic monotheism] seek a religion other than God’s? Whereas to Him submits all that is in the heavens and the earth willingly or otherwise, and unto Him shall they all return [for judgement].’

            In addition, since Islam aims at the unification of nations in a new era of humanity, we find its doctrines are based on a universal principle applicable to people of all races and generations. It enjoins its adherents to believe in all the messengers of God, to make no distinction between them and believe in the dispensations they were sent with. This was made the basis of belief so that Islam may be given a universal character from all stand-points, and in this connection Allah, the Supreme, commands: 

‘Say O you believers [in Islamic monotheism]: we believe in God and that which has been sent down to us [the Qur’an], and that which was revealed to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob and his [twelve] offspring, and that which was given to Moses and Jesus, and that which was given to all the prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction between them and to [God] we are Muslims [those who have submitted].’

 

Regrettably, it has been said, and quite rightly too, that Islam is the most misunderstood religion in the world, old or modern. Indeed, the Muslim world suffers chiefly from the misinterpretation and misinformation concerning the pristine doctrines of Islam; this, being a deliberate act on the part of western orientalists and zealous Judeo-Christian writers and commentators intended to keep the true teachings of Islam away from the reach of the grossly misinformed, ignorant and stereotyped populace, who apparently lack the intellectual capacity for conducting independent research and making personal unprejudiced opinion. The true Muslims have had attributed to them that which has no basis in their religious teachings and laws; baseless charges have been advanced against the religion of Islam. Nay, the very beauties which Muslims account amongst their exclusive reserves have been denied them, and the very evils which Islam came to abolish and which it did proscribe are ascribed to it. 

Allah reminds the Muslims of the plot of the unbelievers with the following words:  

‘[The disbelievers: Jews, Christians and the pagan polytheists] wish to extinguish Allah’s Light [of Islamic monotheism] with their mouths, but Allah will not allow except that His Light should be perfected even though the disbelievers detest [it].’

 

The Islamic concept of God is that He is Allah, the One and Only besides Whom there is no deity; He alone has the right to be worshipped. He begets not, nor is He begotten, as He has no similarity in His creatures as per procreation. He it is Who had raised different prophets amongst men throughout ages. His Greatness is immeasurable, incomparable with any of His creatures, living or dead. He is the One Who abides from eternity to eternity without a beginning or an ending. The One and Only Lord without a partner in His sovereignty; Singular, with none like Him; Magnificent, having no contrary; Distinct, having no equals. He is not a formed body; nor a measurable substance; neither does He resemble bodies, either in their being measurable or divisible. He is not an accidental being, nor do accidents exist in Him or His actions. 

He is not determined by dimensions, nor contained within bounds; nor is He surrounded by sides, nor is He comprised in the heavens and or the earth. He is firmly established on His Glorious Throne, after the manner that befits His Majesty in the way He described in His Glorious Book and in the same sense which He Himself meant; an establishment that is far removed from any notion of contact, or resting upon; but both the Throne and whatsoever holds it are sustained by the goodness of His Power and are conquered by His Will. Allah remains exalted by infinite degrees above the Throne, no less than He is exalted above the earth, and at the same time is nearer to everything that has being; nay, He is nearer to man than his jugular vein, and is witness to everything, though His nearness is not like the nearness of bodies, for His Knowledge encompasses all things. 

He does not exist in anything nor does anything exist in Him; but He is too Exalted to be contained in space, and too Magnificent to be determined by time; for He existed before He created time and space; and He is now as He has always been. He remains distinct from His creatures by His Attributes. The Living, The Self-Sustaining One, the Powerful, the Mighty, the Controller, the Irresistible, the Supreme, the King, the Eternal, the Absolute, the Merciful, the Gracious, the Lenient, the Provider, the Peaceful, the Truth, the Creator, the Light of the heavens and the earth, the Originator, the Fashioner, the Wise, the Hidden , the Apparent, the Holy; to Him belong the most beautiful Names. Nothing escapes His grasp, nor can the vicissitude of things elude His Power. The effect of His Might are immeasurable, and the object of His Knowledge infinite.

 

This is but a fraction of the creeds of the Muslims about Allah [God, the Creator of all things] - a creed that totally outlaws any form of idolatry, apparent or conceived. It strictly forbids the worship of images and the artistic representation of anything that resembles the human form, whether it be the image of angels, prophets, saints, monks, animals or whatever it may be that the mind could conceive, for indeed, Allah’s Essence is beyond the conception of man, except that which He has revealed about Himself upon the explication of His Messenger.

 

In conclusion, Allah, the Exalted, informed His prophet Muhammad to declare the following: 

 ‘If they dispute with you in religion, then say: I have faithfully given myself unto God, as have they who followed me; and say unto them who received the Scriptures (before you) [Jews and Christians], and the ignorant who have no knowledge thereof: do you then give yourselves unto God even as I have done now that its truth has been established? If they embrace Islam, then they are rightly guided and are benefitted thereby, but if they turn away, verily your task is only to convey the message of that which has been revealed to you; and God is regardful of His servants.’  

That is Islam- the true religion, the religion of truth.