Islam Questions Those Who Maintain Judaic or Christian Monopoly on Salvation and Can’t Contradict Itself by Asserting Its Own Monopoly
By Dr Muhammad Maroof
Shah
9/18/2020
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IS heaven
like a modern nation state that has restricted entry on the basis of birth in
particular region/religion? Who says God has no reward for other faith
communities? None of the towering scholars holds historical Islam has monopoly
on salvation. Islam that alone is acceptable to God according to the Holy
Qur’an embraces, as metaphysic, all revealed traditions and can’t be identified
with Sharia tagged historical Islam given Sharia has kept changing previously
but salvific efficacy hasn’t from Adam/Noah to Muhammad. The logic of salvation
couldn’t change on any arbitrary date and none has so far fixed that date
either. Islam questions those who maintain Judaic or Christian monopoly on
salvation and can’t contradict itself by asserting its own monopoly.
Salvation
is primarily a function of metaphysical/esoteric core that stays/stayed unchanged
across scriptures. Even if salvation of believers in other religions is
theoretically not conceded, in practice when it comes to pronouncing judgement
on the fate of others, many considerations come into play and somehow salvation
is conceded for religious other and even non-religious other to various degrees
by various influential contributors to the debate in Islamic tradition. The
following points may be noted in understanding the complex issue of salvation
of non-Muslims.
Our
religion provides privileged (though not necessarily exclusive) access to
salvation. We are not committed to denial of salvation of believers of other
traditions in principle as we can’t determine, in a given concrete situation,
whether a particular person or faith community is properly exposed to truth of
our salvific scheme.
Salvation
can be offered in its pristine sense on the terms specified in our tradition.
If it could be shown that it is love/truth/grace that saves and these are
actualized through alternative paths or real objectives of various dogmatic
formulations – and we can’t foreclose debate on such possibilities – we must in
principle remain open to claims that salvation can’t be restricted to one’s own
tradition. We can’t be sure about God’s choice to extend His mercy to any
particular person.
We don’t
know faith or state of a person at the moment of death or even during life as
faith has an existential aspect that is impenetrable to the gaze of the
other/analyst and thus we must suspend judgment. One can count on fingers
persons whose fate is sealed according to traditional canon and about the rest
one can have a goodly opinion or reserve one’s opinion. Since justice has to be
done as God is Justice, the accident of birth in particular religion can’t be
central determining factor in winning salvation. God is sure to institute
reward but can suspend or forgive punishment. There is asymmetry between
duration of His Heaven, promise of reward and mercy and duration of hell and
threat of punishment.
The
following select questions one could ask any defender of monopoly of salvation:
(i) Do you think it is absolutely certain that Islam restricts salvation to
Muslims or non-Muslims can be saved due to the facts that they are not exposed
to Islam in an attractive manner, divine mercy can’t be restricted and their
various excuses/weaknesses could be entertained? (ii) Can you vouch for the
possibility that so many sane persons will deny Islam when Islam is presented
in a truly attractive manner? Isn’t it the case that Islam has yet to be
presented in the attractive manner to major historians, philosophers, social
scientists, writers and politicians of the world or they are just ignorant
arrogant foolhardy complacent people? (iii) Isn’t salvation in principle open
to all sincere seekers – anonymous Muslims? Does Islam save by confession to
belong to a particular community identity or to Truth, Intelligence, Objective
Order, surrendering the self to the One/non-self/Real? Is Islam here inclusive
of previous revealed traditions and thus not identifiable with historical
Islam’s distinctive identity?
(iv) Who
can declare someone unworthy of salvation? Who can assert who has faith and who
has none or who knows truth and then arrogantly denies it? Did God give
exclusive rights to Muslims to determine eligibility of visa documents of
particular cases to heaven?
(v) Do we
need to speculate about future fate or note the present status of a particular
person to have reasonable view of his fate here and hereafter? Does one go to
hell or heaven or one is in hell or heaven really and one’s poverty or riches
get only clearly manifested posthumously? Isn’t virtue its own reward? Aren’t
this and otherworld coterminous? Aren’t all the goodly things here reflections
from the other world? Isn’t God/Heaven in the present moment, in eternal now?
(vi) Given
a Muhammedan is one who realizes the perfections of all the prophets – an ideal
worthy of emulating for every man who can assert that he is truly a Muhammedan
and give each created thing exactly what is due to it and who can be more
inclusivist than a Muhammedan in this sense? Hesitancy to answer all these
questions shows one concedes, in theory or practice, salvation to religious
other. Indeed if God’s Mercy has the last word, we can be hopeful.
Indeed, as
traditions indicate and some scholars argue, hell shall be emptied or cooled or
turned into a place of bliss and none can escape God the Irresistible (resist
His love) in the long run and God arranges return of all and sundry to Him and
to rest in God is salvation. God alone exists or His Face alone remains as
everything else is ephemeral. Saints and sages like Ibn Arabi inform, first
hand, of heaven and hell and illuminate the question of monopoly on salvation
so that one sees for oneself and needn’t just speculate with Ulema that are not
Urafa/Hukama. Monopoly on salvation
is across traditions including Islam by most mystics and traditional
philosophers, artists/poets, most modern scholars of world religions and
significant number of believers as part of their belief system.
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Dr Muhammad Maroof Shah is freelance columnist.
Original Headline: Islam questions monopoly on
salvation
Source: The World News, UK
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-ideology/islam-questions-those-maintain-judaic/d/123067
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Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism