The Ideology Of Islam Originated Not From The Arabian Messenger's Deliberations Exclusively But From Mankind's Collective Search Over Millennia For Truth
By
Rashid Samnakay, New Age Islam
8 May 2021
Contrary
To The Belief Of Muslims At Large; The Fact That It Was Not Exclusively Apostle
Muhammad Rasullullah’s Deliberations That Spawned The Ideology Of Islam, His
Book The Scripture Quran At The Very Early Page Confirms It
Main
Points:
1. Belief in
all previous messengers too forms an integral part for being a Muslim.
2. Among those
Apostles before Muhammad's time only a few are named in the Book and others are
not named
3. Islam is
securely tethered to the Pegs in the time capsule of Muhammad the Arab
Messenger
4. Abraham and
his followers were THE Early Muslims following Islam
-------
Contrary to
the belief of Muslims at large; the fact that it was not exclusively Apostle
Muhammad Rasullullah’s deliberations that spawned the Ideology of Islam, his
book the scripture Quran at the very early page confirms it:
2-4: And
those who Believe in that which is revealed to YOU and that which was revealed
to those BEFORE you.
Thus it
establishes the fact that all previous messengers to him had contributed to it
and that Belief in them too forms an integral part for being a Muslim.
As for
those Apostles before Muhammad's time, who contributed to that ideology; only a
few are named in the Book and others are not named, it says. For obvious
reason, that there were too many of them over the millennia to name them all.
Their search to fathom the existence of the Supreme Being, the Creator of the
Universe Rabb and the Code of behaviour of mankind required, evolved in the
ideology of Islam which is just the name in Arabic language for that ideology,
that expanded in stages from the intellectual Big Bang of mankind.
The Section
10 of Surah 6, is a further example of references to this effect. After
referring to Apostle Ibrahim (Abraham) in verse 6-84 at the beginning it
continues:
6-85: And
We gave him Isaac and Jacob. Each did We guide; and Noah We guided before, and
his descendants, David and Solomon and Job and Joseph and Moses and Aron. And
thus We reward those who do good to others.
The rest of
the verses in this Section names some more; Zacharias, John, Jesus, Elias,
Ishmael, Elisha, Jonah and Lot. “ and each one We made to excel the people”!
6-90: These
are they to whom We gave the Book and authority and prophesy.....
It will be
recognised that these names of the Apostles are also given in the Bible. Of
course it is so. The Quran says so too:
10-37.....but
it (the Quran) is a verification of that which is before it and clear
explanation of the Book, ….
It should
be noted that the reference is to the Book – the Word, Dhalikal Kitab.
So, what
are the Issues raised by Muslims?
The first
Issue is the misconception of the Muslim's in general that, Islam and it's
Ideology as given in Quran was promulgated by the Nabi Muhammad Rasullullah
essentially as his original concept. As such, Islam is securely tethered to the
Pegs in the time capsule of Muhammad the Arab Messenger, his book in Arabic language
and the Arabian space particularly the precincts of Makka and Madinah. Thus it
encapsulates Islam into a tiny spec on the planet Earth and narrow pages of
history. The above quoted verses of Quran amply refute this misconception.
However a reference
is given here to show that perhaps it may be the cause of this misconception as
translated by parochialism of a community of people:
6-162 to
164: Say (Qul) Indeed my Lord has guided me to the Right path, the true
Deen(Code), that was followed by Abraham and his followers and he was not a
Polytheist. Say my commitments, sacrifices, living and dying are exclusively
for the Creator/Nourisher (Rabb) of the Universe: He has no associates; of this
I am commanded. (So) I am among the First (Awwal) of the Muslims.
The Qul
is an instruction to the Messenger/Rasool, not only just to verbalise the words
but to affirm the message for himself and then to propagate it. That is a
Messenger's commission.
To infer
from the above Wa Ana Awwal ul Muslimeen. that 'I am the first Muslim'
is naivety perhaps for the purposes of putting the person of Muhammad on a
pedestal for – his cultism- and elevating the place he was born at and the
language in which his Book in written as a holy Icons of religion that is
called Islam.
The fact
that the verses refer to Abraham who was there long long time Before him and
Abraham's ideology makes it clear that the former and his followers were the
referenced Muslims (Muslimeen) and so Muhammad is instructed to include himself
in that group as its ideological member.
As the Arab
Messenger's Book Quran was in Arabic (common sense!) the word Muslimeen in it
is Arabic, meaning those who submit to the system of the stated Ideology, the
ideology named in it as ad Deen ul Islam 5-4. Therefore Abraham and his
followers were THE Early Muslims following Islam, as per the Arabic language.
Nothing there that can be misconstrued.
From the
verse it would mean also that Islam originated from Abraham's time if not
earlier from Noah (and even Adam). To conclude then, Islam the original Kitab/
Logos/Word did not originate from Messenger Muhammad of Arabia's ideology. The
Book Quran verified it, 10-37.
Another
important Issue arises from the belief that the ideology Islam originated as
recently as the sixth century, it regrettably excises all the previous Rusul/Messengers
who contributed towards Islam's development. That belief then also is in
contradiction of Quran's message. For the belief suggests that the Creator of
the Universe Rabb and including human beings, discriminated between its
creation of humans and only inspired a particular desert Arab and his tribe for
the Divine Message for the world. The Creator rejects this notion in many
verses; two examples given are:
2-213:
Mankind is but a single nation and God sent as bearers of good news and as
warners, and He revealed to them the Book with truth that it might judge
between them concerning that in which they differed.......
10-19:
Mankind was but one nation, but differed later. Had it not been for the Word
that went forth before from your Lord, their differences would have been
settled between them.
The unity
of mankind is therefore one of the prime requirement. The differences that
arose in the matter of ideology, as forms of Religions is no cause of enmity
between differing people; as most of them do start with the premise of the
existence of one Supreme Being.
Therefore
the only discrimination the Lord seems to apply is between Believers and
Non-Believers disputing amongst themselves with arms and bloodshed. So He makes
no bones as to which side He barracks for. That is manifestly evident from the
number of Messengers He sent to every nation with the common message, before
the Messenger Muhammad.
As for who
those Messengers not named in his Book are, we can only guess. As He declared
to have sent “To every Nation”, then who are we to differentiate between
Arabian and those in the East, West, North and South and to excise some of them
and not others?
Mankind's
intellectual vision must therefore have expanded riding on the shoulders of
those early Giants from every where. Muhammad ur Rasullullah was therefore the
beneficiary of that ride too and the Quran acknowledges it. Hence to brand him,
in spite of his Book, as the primal source of Islam is to deny the Universality
of Quran's ideology that the Muslims are so keen to have the world believe it
to be so.
When an
outsider looks in the so called “Nationhood of mankind”, what is observed is
its fragmentation in Religions and classes beyond description. The enmity
expressed to the extent that arms conflicts between Believers and non-Believers
shedding blood; and what is more is that this turmoil is in the name of the
same Lord and His Revelations extolling mankind to Reason! It therefore
prompted poet Iqbal to say in Urdu:
Garche
Hai Meri Justujoo Dair-o-Haram Ki Naqsh Band
Meri
Faghan Se Rustkhaiz Kaaba-o-Somanat Mein
Eid
Mubarak to you all.
-----
A
regular contributor to NewAgeIslam.com, Rashid Samnakay is a (Retd.) Engineer
URL: https://newageislam.com/debating-islam/ideology-islam-mankind-search-truth/d/124805
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