How Islam Differs from Other Religions - Part II
May 14, 2018 Jalal HB No comments
This is the second post on the subject of how Islam differs from other religions and faith. In fact this post was to be more specific on many issues, but while searching for queries that non Muslims have and their view point about Islam, I came across some concerns which I thought I must talk out first before proceeding on certain specifics.
This concern is about outright negation of religion of Islam. A comment caught my eye which said that this man made religion, pointing towards the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is nothing but based on illogical framework, which could only a many could write. Well this is something which I took seriously as we as Muslims believe in all holy scriptures before the Holy Quran and respect all prophets and messengers of Allah sent before the last of the prophets Muhammad (peace be upon him).
And this notion is not new as prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) had confronted with the same opposition at the time of his revealing the word of Allah as revealed unto him more than 1400 years ago. And this sometimes dejected the prophet of Allah. and it were these times, when Allah revealed His assurance and condolence to his prophet:
[But] those who have disbelieved say, "You are not a messenger." Say, "Sufficient is Allah as Witness between me and you, and [the witness of] whoever has knowledge of the Scripture - (Qur'an Surah Ar Ra'ad 13:43)
"O People of the Scripture, there has come to you Our Messenger to make clear to you [the religion] after a period [of suspension] of messengers, lest you say, "There came not to us any bringer of good tidings or a warner." But there has come to you a bringer of good tidings and a warner. And Allah is over all things competent." (Qur'an Surah Al Madinah 5:19)
And now note this:
"And [mention] when Jesus, the son of Mary, said, "O children of Israel, indeed I am the messenger of Allah to you confirming what came before me of the Torah and bringing good tidings of a messenger to come after me, whose name is Ahmad." But when he came to them with clear evidences, they said, "This is obvious magic." (Qur'an, Surah As-Saf 61:6)
Those who label Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) to have written Qur'an himself, it may be added that that Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was totally illiterate and expecting someone who did not know how to read and write coming up with such soul searching verses as contained in the Holy Qur'an is simply unbelievable. There had to be some divine power which was author of such scripture, the same way the earlier scriptures were revealed by Allah on earlier messengers.
Yet again comes the concept of crucification of Prophet Eesa (Jesus, may peace be upon him). I have already written a separate post on the issue. But a few words here again. While followers of Bible believe that the Christ was actually crucified and was then lifted up by the God on the third day, we as Muslims believe that it was not Prophet Eesa who was crucified but someone who resembled him as clearly narrated in the Qur'an:
"That they said [in boast], 'We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah'; but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no [certain] knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not." (Surah An Nisah 4:157)
On this negation, I have read many comments by the followers of the Bible who say that if we accept what Islam says about non-crucification of Christ, the whole central idea of Christianity would collapse.
And this is exactly the case. Every holy scripture has been an update on the previous scriptures and Allah has revealed his commandments slowly and gradually. What is contained in Bible about crucification is what people of the time "WITNESSED." They had no idea how Allah safeguarded his prophet from undergoing the agony of crucifixion and thus had someone else looking like Christ been crucified while Christ was taken up alive up in the heavens. For Allah, who has created this universe, the magnitude of which is far beyond our knowledge, replacing Prophet Eesa with someone who looked exactly like him that even his mother and friends could not feel the difference is something very easy and simple. Allah simply commands:
To be ("kun!" !كن), and it is (fa ya kūn فيكون)
"(Allah,) The Originator of the heavens and the earth. When He decrees a matter, He only says to it, "Be," and it is." (Qur'an, Surah Al Baqara 2:117)
Does after reading the verse above from Holy Qur'an there remains a doubt in the endless powers of the Allah Almighty the creator of this universe to do things much beyond our comprehension?
And it is this truth contained in the Holy Qur'an by virtue of which millions of followers of other faiths and religions have embraced Islam for they have found the enlightened path shown to them through commandments of Allah as contained in the Holy Qur'an revealed unto Prophet Muhammad.
Thus there is no harm in changing one's faith when one comes across the truth or an update on what we already know through the older scriptures - just like we have updates of our softwares everyday.
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