The True Religion Of God

The True Religion of God - Islamic Lecture

Speaker: Dr. Bilal Philips

Opening

All praise is due to Allah and may Allah's peace and blessings be on His last Prophet Muhammad and his family and companions and all those who follow his way in righteousness until the last day.

Introduction

The first of the series of talks today concern the religion of Islam being the right religion, the true religion. This is something of course as Muslims we don't have any doubt about for the most part most Muslims do feel that Islam is the right religion but in a world where people follow many different religions often times we as Muslims are put on the spot to defend why we feel that Islam is the right religion especially in these times when there is a move towards accepting all religions as being okay you know the interfaith dialogues and these kind of gatherings where they bring somebody from each of the different religions and you know the study of world religions in the schools now basically promoting the idea really it doesn't really matter what religion you follow you know really as long as you are sincere about your religion I mean that's what's important you are a sincere believer and we shouldn't really be about insisting that our religion is the correct religion I mean this is the way it was in the past but in these times it's sort of like outmoded or you know not politically correct to promote the idea that your religion is the right way it's like you know extreme it's looked at as the extreme view well while other religions have modified their approach and moved towards this acceptance of everybody else Islam hasn't it has remained firm in its claim to be the right the true religion of God.

Religion as a Choice, Not Inheritance

Now the point that one needs to start from is that if we are to follow the true religion of God then that religion should be one of our choosing it should be a religion which is of our choosing it shouldn't be something we inherited I mean that shouldn't be why we are following the religion because my parents follow this religion and their parents follow the religion so I am following the religion if we are doing and we are following Islam on that basis then we really aren't following Islam we are following a culture we are living a culture because Islam as we all know as we heard many times it means submission submission to the will of God and it is not possible

for us to inherit you cannot inherit this spiritual act of surrendering to God you can inherit the customs but the surrender you can't.

We may look at the children of Muslims as being Muslims just from the fact that the parents are Muslims however there comes a time in their lives when they reach the age of maturity where they have to choose choose to surrender which will make them truly Muslims in the sight of God of course this surrender may not be something which is done openly where a person testifies to faith as one may do as a convert to Islam where you are required to make an open testimony before witnesses a person who is born into a Muslim family is not required to do that but they are required spiritually to make that decision they are required spiritually to make that decision for their Islam to be real.

So basically it is Allah's destiny that people are born in different religions if a person is to follow that religion merely because as I said of inheritance then they cannot be sure that what they are following is in fact the correct religion and there is a tendency amongst people in the various religions to follow on the basis of custom they may say well yes I think Islam does have some nice things I can agree with this, I can agree with that but I was born a whatever I'll die then that's the general approach but we as human beings are not the same as animals where a dog is born in a dog's family and he is not going to become a cat one of these days he doesn't have any choice in the matter he is raised as a dog and he will always be a dog so they say you can't teach an old dog new tricks this is what some people when trying to explain Islam to older people they might respond and say it sounds nice but you can't teach an old dog new tricks we say well listen you are not a dog you are a human being no matter what programming you have received all your life you still have the ability to break that programming and to choose what you know to be right and each and every human being has that responsibility to follow what they know to be right.

The Logic of One True Religion

So if all of the various religions with very few exceptions claim that their religion is the true religion because even after the interfaith dialogues and everybody patting each other on the back people still will walk away and say but our religion is the correct religion the best way if they are all correct and they all say each one is correct then we have a problem here they can't all be correct and each one says that each one is correct and the others are wrong it's not going to work either one is correct and all the others are incorrect or they are all correct but they all have to be saying the same thing they all have to agree but they don't so the reality is that only one is correct.

And the idea that only one is correct makes sense not only from the point of view of looking at the religions themselves and what they claim but looking at human beings in relationship to God having created them in one basic mold that human beings haven't changed over the thousands, tens of thousands hundreds of thousands of years they have been on this earth they haven't changed when you read the writings in cuneiform of Hammurabi or whatever peoples of the past, what they wrote about, what they spoke about the problems that they were

faced with the same problems we are faced with today when you read the hieroglyphics of the Egyptians, you find the same thing you read the ancient texts writings of Jewish tradition, you find the same thing so human beings have always been human beings their needs have not changed now how those needs may be fulfilled may vary with technology and these other factors but the basic needs remain the same.

The Wisdom of God in Prescribing Religion

So when God prescribed a religion and of course we are working from the premise that God did prescribe a religion and that it isn't as some people say that God just created the world and left it to run on its own and that since they looked around and they saw all the religions are different that they must all be man made that was the other conclusion this is the position of what they are known as the deists God created the world and left it to run on its own that position is not logical because it ascribes to God a lack of wisdom if one considers God to be the creator the all powerful etc it's also the all wise we don't expect God to function in a way which is obviously considered to be unwise to have created us and not explained to us what we need to do that would have been unwise.

Just as we in companies we set up a company we hire a bunch of people to come and work in this company but we don't tell them what they have to do what are they going to do? are they just going to come into the company find their slot somehow someway and just get in there and work all day 9 to 5 and then leave? No they'll go to the cafeteria drink tea and chat, gossip, whatever that's what they would do similarly when you send children to school if you don't inform the kids what are they supposed to do at the school what are they going to do? they're going to just go marching into the classroom sit down, good kids listening to the teachers no, they'll go to the playground wouldn't even bother to go inside the school go to the playground and play all day if it's not explained so we have to explain we know it's necessary to explain so that things will function the way we want them to function.

Similarly, if God created human beings and didn't tell them what they're supposed to do in other words, give them a religion then, who would find their way? it is basically the same as saying really there is no God to say that we don't have a religion is ultimately the same as saying really there is no God we're not really sure so the deists are really agnostics those who say, I'm not really sure there might be a God or maybe not they really belong in that camp.

So for the person who believes, yes God did prescribe a way does it make sense that that way should be different for every people when people are the same if people, human beings are the same for the last 100,000, 500,000 years or however long human beings have been on the earth if they haven't changed why then should God prescribe one way for one set of people and another way for another set of people that's not logical the logical thing is that God would prescribe the way the way which is appropriate for human beings from the time the first human being is created to the last human being on the face of this earth that is the logical and reasonable way.

Characteristics of the True Religion

So if that is the case then the religion should have some or certain characteristics which make it appropriate for human beings throughout these times, locations, etc so as I said if we have a religion or if we are to try to choose a religion the correct religion then that religion should have certain characteristics which make it suitable applicable for people anywhere, anytime.

First Characteristic: Universal Name

Now first and foremost the religion should not be based on a tribe based on certain groups of people in certain places wherein the name is related to that particular tribe or that location like Judaism coming from Judea or Hinduism coming from the Indus Valley this is localized it's not a universal religion a religion which is for all people it's identified with one particular tribe, etc or nor should it be named after people Christianity if Christianity was the religion which was prescribed by God from the time of Adam we have a problem here Christianity depends on Christ's existence at the end of the line of Jewish prophets it comes into existence at that point Buddhism came into existence with Buddha and Buddha becomes the central object of worship as Jesus became the central object of worship.

Islam on the other hand means as I said earlier submission, it's a principle a principle which is applicable from the time of Adam to the last person on this world, on the face of this earth the principle of submitting to the will of God that is the essence of the message and that is the name of the religion now whether you use Hebrew or any other language to express the concept of submission then that is sufficient in the Islamic scheme of things it is not critical that one uses the name Islam itself, this is an Arabic term because the final prophet from the Islamic perspective came initially to people of Arabia and they are speaking Arabic so the expression God's will was being conveyed in Arabic but it was in Arabic with concepts which went beyond the language.

So the claim of Islam first and foremost is that it's name is suitable as a name for the religion of God submission furthermore the central principle the central teaching of Islam is reflected in the name itself the name is not after a person or a place or people, it's the principle the central principle, the essence of worship the essence of the message of all of the prophets of God.

Second Characteristic: Name Found in Scripture

Furthermore the name of the religion should be found in the scripture of the religion itself now if you go to the scriptures of Christianity for example you will not find Jesus informing his followers that you are Christians you will find Paul saying that later on after Jesus time they came to be known in Antioch as Christians this is the name people put on them, they accepted it or they call themselves that similarly you will not find in the Jewish scriptures the Torah, the Psalms where God is saying your religion is Judaism you will not find this nor will you find Buddha saying to his followers your religion is Buddhism it's not in the scripture itself this implies humans

invented it in other words the name of the religion itself if it's not there in the original scriptures implying that it is something because the scriptures claim to be from God so if all the scriptures claim to be from God then the message, the essential message the name of the religion should be there identified in the scripture itself.

Quranic Verse (Surah Al-Imran 3:85):

And you can find in the Quran for example in the third chapter verse 85 God is saying: if anyone desires a religion other than Islam submission to God it will never be accepted from him or her and in the hereafter they will be among the losers.

There is a clear statement here of course as we said Islam is in the Arabic term in the language of Adam it was whatever it was in the language of Abraham it was whatever it was the concept of submission you can find that even in the writings of the New Testament and in the Old Testament where the prophets or Jesus speaks about doing the will of God so that concept is there it never became the name of the religion because people invented names.

Third Characteristic: Central Message of Worship

Now when we look at the message the central message that we spoke about that being worshipping God alone because if we submit our wills to God meaning we do whatever God commands us to do that is the essence of worship we worship God alone that is the essential principle.

Now if we look at the essential teachings found in some of the other religions the essential principle in Christianity today for example is the idea that Jesus is the son of God the third of three of a trinity God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit three Gods in one if we go to the scripture you will not find that there it's not found in the scripture it is well known that this principle was agreed upon by scholars in the 4th century 325 AD or after the time of Christ 325 after the time of Christ the name, the principle of Trinity was accepted was voted upon decided upon by human beings and so on and so forth.

If you go into what exists of Hinduism today and you try to find scriptural origin to much of the practice of modern day Hindus you will find it's not there you know like Hindus for example are known to be vegetarians today strict Hindus, they are known as vegetarians but if you go back into the scriptures in the Gita you will find the early figures the central figures like Rama and Krishna they were eating meat no problem all the Gods who became incarnate they were all meat eaters but modern day Hindus became vegetarians why? because they introduced a principle the principle of reincarnation which didn't exist before in the early scriptures you don't find talk about reincarnation but later on reincarnation is introduced once it's introduced then you find the need for vegetarianism.

Why? because I know a number of you are probably exposed to the vegetarian campaign don't eat meat animal rights we should treat the animals as we would like to be treated you know this modern trend Paul McCartney

and his wife were known for it promoting it and others little do most people know that in spite of the arguments that are commonly presented today that it's not really healthy you are healthier to eat vegetable matter and they have a whole fancy way of talking about how the cow eats up the vegetable matter and produces its own meat and then you eat the cow the amount that you gain from the cow is less than the cow gain from the grass they have a whole fancy nice way of trying to argue that it's better it makes more biological sense to eat vegetable matter though when they are confronted with the idea that we do have the teeth the canine teeth to chew the meat why do we have these teeth? if you believe in God, God created us why did he give us teeth if we are not to chew the meat? it's there for a purpose of course then they get caught up in the evolutionary where we have evolved the teeth haven't changed over yet.

But the point is that if you really get to the root of why and where this idea of vegetarianism comes from it comes from this concept of reincarnation this is the essence of it they don't talk about it because it's a little embarrassing the essence of it is that when you die if you are good good karma you come back in your next life as a step up the ladder the caste system you work your way from the shudras or if you are below that the outcast into the caste system as you are good each life cycle you come back on a higher and higher level till you reach the level of the brahmins and when you reach the brahmin level and you are good then you experience what they call moksha and you disappear into the world the god who pervades all things, brahma this is the basic belief on one hand but there is another hand what if you are bad? what happens now is that you start going down the ladder if you are at the top you start working your way down the ladder if you are bad each reincarnation you are not a good person you go down lower and ok what happens when you reach the lowest level you run out of levels on the human level then what happens and you come back as an animal you may come back as a goat or a pig or a cow or whatever.

So for them this is where the issue now if you go and eat a goat maybe you are eating your grandfather you know he came back, he was not a good guy and he ended up there, you are now eating grandpa this is what is really behind the vegetarian campaign this is what is the essence but of course this is not presented to us the other side is presented about biology no, that is what is at the bottom of it so strict vegetarians, Hindus this is what is behind it the possibility of eating your ancestors is very real believing in that system.

So when we look at this belief as I said it is something which came or was introduced at a particular point in time and we look at all of the other ancient religions you will find that there is that tendency that the religion that is practiced today is not the religion that was originally practiced.

Whereas Islam from the time of its revelation in the final form because we believe that the religion of Adam was Islam the religion of Moses was Islam the religion of all of the prophets of God was Islam that form of the religion hasn't changed what people do today as a Muslim are supposed to do Muslims know, you can find out if you don't know how you pray, how you fast you make pilgrimage, all of the basic things your dietary rules dress code, all the different things that people do today as Muslims practicing Muslims these were done 1400 years

ago the religion remains pure from human interpolations, additions, changes creations that is the religion as it was revealed which is available and accessible.

Now of course as human beings in different parts of the world people may have strayed from that original message that pure message and introduced to their practices a variety of cultural additions so we may go to different parts of the world and find Muslims doing things which are really not a part of the teachings of Islam but any Muslim anywhere if he or she wants to find out what really is the teachings of Islam what really are those teachings, they can because it's not hidden, it's not lost so though on a cultural level many Muslims in different parts of the world have strayed away from the pure teachings they are still available for anyone who seeks it.

Comparison with Other Religions: Worship of God vs Creation

Now if we look at Islam and look at all of the other religions in terms of that central message we spoke about, central message being worshipping God alone, and Islam states very clearly in the scripture that all of the prophets were sent with the same message.

Now what we have in the world today as various religions generally speaking do not adhere to this message we find the different religions worshipping different individuals, objects, people etc now when we compare the religions we find Islam on one hand calling to the worship of the one true God, the essential message on the other hand, all of the other religions we can put them together and say that in general their message, their central message is the worship of God's creation instead of God that's what has happened.

Of course, all of these religions will express that they are in fact worshipping God so the person who is bowing down to an idol this person will say I am worshipping God the one who worships a human being whether it is Jesus or whether it is Sai Baba in India, you know Sai Baba has 8 million plus followers among them the president of India believing that Sai Baba is God incarnate they do worship him as God walking the face of the earth all of these people who are worshipping these various objects or creatures they share in the idea that they are worshipping God they all think that they are worshipping God but this in essence we could say is the message of false religion that you are worshipping God but in fact you are not in theory you are but in fact you are not.

So you find for example the Hindu who bows to his idol if he is educated and you ask him why are you worshipping this idol you are going through all these different changes he will say to you well actually I am not worshipping this idol that you see this physical object that you see actually I am worshipping God who becomes concentrated in the object at the time of my worship philosophical but in practice in reality what is he doing? he is worshipping the idol but he has found a rationale to explain how it is that he is actually worshipping God when he is actually worshipping the idol.

Similarly for Christians when we say to them you are worshipping a human being Christ he was born of the Virgin Mary he was a human being well they say yes he was a human being but at the same time he was God he was God who became a human being and they might even get more philosophical and ask you don't you believe that God is able to do all things and of course as a Muslim you have to say yes Allah says in the Quran in how many places Allah is able to do all things well can't he have a son? can't he become a man? you said he is able to do all things so from this rationale he is able to do all things then they have said it's ok he could be a man he could have a son.

Of course atheist philosophers threw back at the Christians because of their belief in God becoming a human being and having a son they said to them ok if the God that you believe in is able to do all things he is all powerful can he create a stone which is too heavy for him to lift this is the problem if he is able to do all things he is almighty can he create a stone which is too heavy for him to lift what's the answer what do you think it's not possible he said it's not possible well if you said it's not possible then God is not able to do all things is that true it's not true he is able to do all things he's got a problem here right this is a problem.

Well the answer to this question or this proposition is that when we say God is able to do all things we do not include in the all things the absurdities absurdities can God become a mosquito it's an absurdity why is it an absurdity because we already when we define God we said God is one who is eternal ever living so if you say God is eternal and ever living and then somebody says to you is it possible for God to die it's an absurdity you've already said he is eternal he doesn't die so if you said he doesn't die can you then be asked can he die that's an absurdity similarly if you say God has no beginning then can you be asked can God be born it's an absurdity because if God has no beginning he is eternal then to be born to be born means there was a time when you didn't exist and then you came into existence it's the process of birth this is an absurdity.

So no we do not include making a stone which is too heavy for God to lift we don't include that in the things when we say God is able to do all things you were right in your first answer why because we believe that God is greater than all things he is Akbar we say in our call to prayer Allahu Akbar Allah is greater than all things so then if you already said he is greater than all things to ask can he make something greater than himself this is an absurdity it's a contradiction.

Similarly to say that God became a man this is also an absurdity why because man is created man is created so if we say that God who is the creator who is himself uncreated for him to become his creation it's a contradiction in terms if he became his creation then it would mean that he was in need of a creator that doesn't work it means he is no longer God it means whoever it was who created him that's God so it is an absurdity.

So it is only in Islam that we find the concept of God clear there is one unique God he is the only true God everything else besides him is his creation and that creation should worship him alone.

The Preservation of Scripture

The other point which needs to be noted is that the religion of God should be or should have a scripture which is preserved for it to be evidence for people to believe in the religion the scripture needs to be preserved.

Now whenever prophets came in the past they brought with them scripture and they called people to that scripture they called the people to the scripture but God was sending other prophets after them so it was not necessary to preserve the earlier scriptures however when God chose to send a final prophet the last of the prophets then the scripture which came with him had to be preserved now since no other prophets were coming after him the scripture preserved unchanged.

The only scripture attributed to God in this world which has remained unchanged from what we call the ancient religions I mean of course we have people popping up in North America every few years somebody will pop up and say well I am God and I have received revelation and yeah he might write something so we are not talking about those kind of religions we are talking about the ancient religions of the world if we look into the scriptures whether they are Christian scriptures or Jewish scriptures or Buddhist scriptures or Hindu scriptures the ancient major religions of the world the scriptures have not been preserved the scholars in these religions all admit that the scriptures have been changed in time or they were written long after the founder and they can't really be sure what he actually said the founders of the religions.

So it is only in Islam that we have the final message of Islam the scripture sent and preserved as no other scripture before it was remaining until the last day of this world preserved not only in writing that's one level of preservation but also preserved in the hearts of Muslims over a hundred thousand Muslims over the world living today have the whole Quran memorized from beginning to end and if we go back generation after generation the numbers go into the many millions back to the time of Prophet Muhammad may God's peace and blessings be upon him and upon all of the prophets of God.

Universality of the Message

Another point which needs to be noted is that the basic religion should be universal it should not depend on the prophet who brought it because Christians are often asked well if you need to be a Christian to be saved what about the people before Jesus time what about them then they have to work out some elaborate arguments as to why and how and well these people were not sure nobody really knows but it is a problem all of the people all of the generations that came before Jesus where people believed were looked at as servants of God etc but they didn't believe in Jesus Jesus meaning Jesus as a incarnation of God on earth it wasn't a part of their belief system so obviously this whole principle was something contrived brought about at a particular point in time.

Whereas when we look at the principle of Islamic teachings we see that it is applicable from the time of Adam to the last prophet Muhammad may God's peace and blessings be on all the prophets of God.

And we find Allah saying in the Quran: indeed those who believe meaning the Muslims those who follow the Jewish scriptures the Christians and the Sabians any who believe in Allah on the last day and work righteousness shall have their reward with their Lord they will not become overcome by fear nor grief.

Meaning that anyone who may be referred today as Christians because people looking back at the followers of Jesus his disciples they would say they were Christians of course as I said it was Paul and those who were with Paul in Antioch who went on to Greece they are the ones who call themselves Christians but the real followers of Jesus they were not known nor did they call themselves Christians the real followers of Jesus who remain in Jerusalem etc they didn't they didn't use this name they were from the perspective of Islam they were in fact Muslims they were following Islam.

Similarly if we go back to the time of Moses and his followers his followers they didn't call themselves Jews this term of Jews and Judaism this came about many centuries after them what they were following the true followers was Islam and Abraham who was neither a Jew nor a Christian as Allah mentions in the Quran he was neither a Jew nor a Christian but he followed Islam all of the prophets of God they submitted their wills to God and they called people to submit their wills to God and to worship God alone that is the true religion which is applicable anywhere anytime.

It does not depend on belief in Muhammad some people think mistakenly that if you don't believe in Muhammad anybody before the time of Muhammad then you can't be a Muslim but this is not true it's not true at all if you believe in Jesus in the time of Jesus following his teachings you are a Muslim if you believe in David in the time of David following his teachings you are a Muslim and so on and so forth for all of the prophets of God.

Those Who Did Not Receive the Message

The final point I'd like to mention is a point which deals with a question commonly raised what about those people who didn't hear the message of Islam what about them is it not God's destiny which determines whether people will be in a situation to hear the message or not hear the message is it not God's destiny so does it make sense is it fair that God put some people in a position to hear the message of Islam believe in it and then reward them with paradise for having heard the message believed in it while other people got destined not to hear the message for whatever reason they lived in Alaska message never came to them how many generations as far as we know the message of Islam didn't come to them or maybe in our time since the time of Muhammad there are places in the world where the message of Islam never reached the people.

So what of these people are they then to go to hell because of the fact that they didn't believe when they didn't even hear the message to believe in it or they may be in a situation where the message has come to them in a distorted form I mean if you ask the average Canadian or American for example what they know of Islam the distorted image of Islam which is presented to them could you expect them to believe in it could they be blamed for not believing it in reality.

So then what Islam teaches as Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) explained that for those people who did not receive the message commonly they are referred to as the people who did not receive the message did not come to them either not at all because they were in a region where it didn't reach them at all and the earlier messages to Prophets that were sent in their region had been so distorted they could no longer recognize it or they lived in regions where they did come in contact with Muslims but the image of Islam or the message which was given to them was false.

For example those people who are in England and North America who when the Qadianis came to England and North America to promote Qadianism they promoted it as Islam when they came out of India and Pakistan and they were the first to be involved in what we may call Da'wah calling people to Islam openly the first generation of people who converted to what they thought was Islam they converted to Qadianism Ahmadiyism can we say that the message of Islam reached them? No we cannot say that what reached them was a distortion so the fact that they might have believed that distortion be thinking that it was correct they cannot be held to blame for that.

So Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) said that all of those people people who for example were retarded or they were deaf and dumb nobody could get the message to them they couldn't hear it they couldn't speak to express themselves nobody conveyed the message to them or they died as children because the issue of children do the children of non-Muslims when they die do they go to hell? because their parents were non-Muslims? No. We cannot say that nor can we say some people ignorantly say they go to paradise we can't say that either the children of Muslims we cannot say they are going to paradise or they are going to hell we don't know.

Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) informed us that prior to the final judgment when the resurrection is taking place all of those people who did not receive the message for any of these factors they will be brought back they will be brought back mature individuals and the message will be brought to them to believe in Allah to follow his instructions and they will be given a test they will be told by the one who comes to them the messenger who God sends to give them this final message they will be told to go into what appears to them to be a fire those of them who go into that fire Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) said they will find it gardens of paradise those who refuse are those who had they grown up in this life they would have disbelieved and those are the ones who will go to hell so everybody will have a choice.

Quranic Verse (Surah Al-Isra 17:15):

"And We never punish until We have sent a messenger."

As Allah said in the Quran: and I would not punish anyone until a messenger has come to them.

Summary: Elements of the True Religion

That is complete these are the elements, the basic elements which make Islam the true religion this is the evidence:

1. The name of the religion - it's not taken from people places, things it's a principle

2. The central message of the religion - belief in one God people believe in anyway but it's pure in Islam pure from adultery, it's not adulterated

3. The religion itself is one - which was the same from the time of Adam to the last of the prophets a single religion it's principles are universal they may be applied anywhere because submission is something required of everyone all of the prophets called to it

4. Its scriptures remain pure, unchanged - the message is preserved and it doesn't depend on a particular individual

5. Its teachings span time - and finally its message will be brought to everyone there is no one who will not receive the message so there is no gap where people may say well the message didn't go to these people so how can they be expected to believe

That is the summary of the presentation I wanted to share with you this evening.