The Quranic Concept of ‘Islam’ and ‘Muslim’ as a Universal Vision - Part Two

By V.A. Mohamad Ashrof, New Age Islam 24 January 2025 Scholarly Perspectives on the Universality of "Islam" and "Muslim" ------ This second part presents a scholarly analysis of renowned academicians, featuring verbatim quotations that demonstrate how the terms "Islam" and "Muslim" convey a universal significance, transcending reified and sectarian religious connotations. Dr. Murad Wilfried Hofmann (1931 – 2020), a great Islamic scholar and German diplomat writes: “Muslims believe that not only Muslims but every good and God-abiding person can go to heaven as it is clearly stated in Q.2:62. The same message can be deduced from Q.2: 111 and 6:52. Muhammad Asad was correct in pointing out that this refers to people of any religion (Asad 1980:252, Note No: 41). Allah and Whoever is worshipped as God by others are identical. Muslims are instructed to say: ‘‘We believe in the revelations which has come down to us and in that which has come down to you; our God and your God is one and the same, and it is to Him we [all] submit’’ (Q.29:46). God has guaranteed the existence of more than one religion for as long as the world lasts. This can be deduced from Q.22:17. In fact, God repeatedly makes it clear that religious pluralism corresponds to His will (Q.42:8), and that it is He who gave every community its direction of prayer (Q.2:148) and its ritual (Q.22:67). ‘‘Had God so willed, He would indeed have guided all mankind aright’’ (13:31; 16:9; 16:93) and would have made them one single community (Q.11:118; 42:8). Q.5:48 is a virtual manifesto of religious pluralism. This verse is no less than a structural guarantee for the survival of more than one religion, and every Muslim should know it by heart. However, this beautiful posture of tolerance in a divinely ordained pluralistic universe is marred when our adversaries and, alas, some Muslims as well, claim, first of all, that ‘‘Islam alone is God’s religion’’ and, second, that this religion is bound to be ‘‘victorious’’ over all others. The first idea, expressed, for instance, in Q.3:19 is based on a misunderstanding of the term ‘‘Islam’’ both here and elsewhere. When the Quran says ‘‘Inna ad-din ‘ind’Allah al-Islam’’, ‘‘Islam’’ has to be understood as it was at the beginning of the Quranic revelation, that is, as ‘‘submission’’ or ‘‘self-surrender’’. It would be an anachronism to read such verses as if they referred to the world religion as it was subsequently to become. Thus Q.3:19, and correspondingly Q.3:85, are to be read: ‘‘The only true religion in the sight of Allah is submission to Him.’’ The second idea is based on several identical verses which, like 48:28, seem to predict that Islam will prevail over every religion, in the sense of replacing them – which would be a contradiction of what is stated elsewhere, for example, in Q.5:48. The verb in question (zahara ‘ala) can, however, also be understood as ‘‘to outshine’’. In that case, the light of Islam, thanks to its higher intensity, shines so strongly that it outshines every other religion. Prevailing, in this sense, does not imply that what is outshone no longer exists. One should therefore read Q.48:28 as follows: ‘‘It is He Who has sent His messengers with guidance and the religion of truth to make it shine over all religion.’’ Nor is the Islamic model diminished by the fact that the Quran mainly encourages friendship between Muslims, not between Muslims and non-Muslims (Q.3:118, 2:120). This is only natural – there is simply more affinity between people who consider themselves as brothers and sisters (Q.49:10; 3:103). (Hofmann, p.238-240) Muhammad Asad, the great exegetist, writes in his magnum opus, “The Message of the Quran” : “Throughout this work, I have translated the terms ‘muslim’ and ‘islam’ in accordance with their original connotations, namely “ one who surrenders [or “has surrendered”] himself to God” and “man’s self-surrender to God”: the same holds good of all forms of the verb ‘aslama’ occurring in the Quran. It should be borne in mind that the “institutionalized” use of these terms – that is, their exclusive application to the followers of the Prophet Muhammad – represents definitely post-Quranic development and, hence, must be avoided in a translation of the Quran.” [note to verse 68:35] Interpreting Q. 23:52, Asad wrote: “As in Q.21:92, the above verse is addressed to all who truly believe in God, whatever their historical denomination. By the preceding reference to all of God’s apostles the Quran clearly implies that all of them were inspired by, and preached, the same fundamental truths, notwithstanding all the differences in the ritual or the specific laws which they propounded in accordance with the exigencies of the time and the social development of their followers.” (Asad, note 28, 584) The same message can be deduced from Q.2:113: ‘‘Thus, according to the Quran, salvation is not reserved for any particular “denomination”, but is open to everyone who consciously realizes the oneness of God, surrenders himself to His will and, by living righteously, gives practical effect to this spiritual attitude.’’ (Asad 1980: note number 92 on Q.2:113). (Asad, 2008) Jeffrey Lang, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Kansas, North America, writes: “The Quran makes it clear in three almost identically phrased passages (2:62; 5:69; 22:17), revealed at three distinct times, that non-Muslims are not automatically excluded from salvation. The early Muslim exegetes sensed a possible conflict here and opined that the Jews and Christians referred to must have been those who lived before the time of Muhammad. However, neither the Quran nor the accepted sayings of Muhammad warrant this interpretation. It is true that the Quran insists that no religion finds acceptance with God but Islam (3:19; 3:85), but one must remember that, at the time of the Revelation, the Arabic word ‘islam‘ did not yet stand for a thoroughly elaborated system of laws and dogmatic principles. To the Arabs, ‘islam‘ meant complete submission or surrender, and in the Quranic context it refers to a sincere and willing self-surrender to God, which is the essence of all true worship of God.” (Lang, p.229-230) Dr. Abdulla Galadari, Professor in Humanities, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi, writes thus: The term ‘Islam’ is mentioned in several places in the Quran [Q. 3:19, 3:85, 5:3, 6:125, 39:22, 61:7]. In almost all of these verses, the term is interpreted as the religion known today as ‘Islam’. However, the Quran also uses terms that are rooted in the word Islam, such as (muslim), (aslam), or other words from the same root while not necessarily being interpreted as the religion known today as ‘Islam’. Scholars, such as Robson (1954), define the term Islam from a broader sense, and not simply the religion known today as Islam. The religion known today as Islam has five main pillars, to witness there is only one God and that Muhammad is His messenger, to pray five times a day towards Makkah, to give alms, to fast during the month of Ramadan, and to make the pilgrimage once in a lifetime, if capable. This is a short summary of what the Islamic religion entails, but does not necessarily define the term (muslim), according to the Quran. The term Islam has various meanings. It means to submit and to surrender. It also means stairways and peace. The Quran calls Abraham a Muslim, and that Abraham taught that to his children and his children’s children [Q. 2:127–133, 4:125, 22:78, 37:103]. What made Abraham a Muslim? Was it that he had done all the five pillars of Islam that would made him a Muslim? It cannot be. He was a Muslim even before he knew where the Ka’ba in Makkah is. Therefore, the criteria that made him a Muslim does not necessarily move in parallel with the religion known today as Islam. (Galadari, 2012) Prof. Abdullah Saeed, Sultan of Oman Professor of Arab and Islamic Studies, correctly observed: “Theological inclusivists often find that their understanding of what islam is in these Quranic verses is supported by some key classical commentators on the Quran. While not all commentators interpret the word islam as used in these verses in a general sense, some prominent commentators do. Al-Tabari (d. 923) interprets islam in Q 5:3 as ‘surrendering to My commands and obedience to Me’. For al-Zamakhshari (d. 1144), islam in Q. 3:85 is a reference to ‘the unity of God and surrendering oneself to Allah Almighty’. Al-Qurtubi (d. 1273) interpreted islam in Q 3:19 as ‘faith and acts of obedience’. Such interpretations of the word islam give theological inclusivists a justification for interpreting the word islam today in a more general sense as simply ‘submission to God’.” (Saeed, 2020). Mun'im Ahmad Sirry, an Indonesian Quranic studies scholar and professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame, summarizes thus: “There are at least three Quranic passages that have commonly been understood to support some kind of exclusionary and intolerant theological orientation. Such verses include the following: Q 3:19: Verily the right religion with God is al islam. Those to whom the Book had been revealed differed among themselves only after Knowledge had come to them, competing in rivalry with one another. Whoso blasphemes against God’s revelations, God is swift at reckoning. Q 3:85: Whoever desires a religion other than al-islam, it shall not be accepted from him; and in the afterlife he will be among the losers. Q 5:3: Today I have perfected your religion; and I have completed My bounty upon you; and I have sanctioned al-islam as your religion. It is only in these three verses that Islam is referred to in the context of Aldin, which is usually rendered as religion. These verses speak of islam as being the only acceptable faith, and thus they have generally been invoked to claim the superiority of Islam to other religions and that the theology and rituals of Islam are the exclusive path to salvation. The Iranian scholar Muhammad Husayn Tabatabai (d.1981) understands islam in Q 3:83 not in its reified sense but rather in its generic sense: submission. It is the din that God revealed to all prophets throughout the ages. He acknowledges some differences in the Sharias of prophets, but the essence is one, that is, submission and obedience to God in the way all of the prophets had delivered. "The differences among these sharias in perfection and deficiency," he asserts, "do not imply contradiction or exclusion, or superiority of one over the others. They are all one in that they are manifestations of submission and obedience to God in all that He demanded from His servants, as conveyed by His Prophets.” Tabatabai then concludes: “It is clear from the preceding that what is intended is that the true faith, which is with God and in His presence, is one sacred law (sharia) that differs only in the degree [of comprehensiveness and perfection] in accordance with the different capacities of the different communities. In essence, however, it is one, one in the form which God has implanted it in humankind in their original state (Fitra) of pure faith.” With this understanding, Tabatabai sees no contradiction between Q 2:62 and 3:85, and therefore there is no need for the theory of Naskh. In his exegesis of Q 2:62, the learned scholar asserts, “At the gate of bliss no importance will be attached to names and titles, e.g., whether a group is called the believer or a faction is called those who are Jews or a party is called Sabeans or others are called the Christians. The only important thing is belief in God and the Last Day and doing good.” (Muhammad Husayn Tabatabai, Al Mizan fi tafsir al Quran, (Beirut: Mu’assasaala Alalamil Matbuat, 1970, 6:67) (Sirry, p.296-297) Prof. Dr.Tarik Masud Quadir of Mevlana University, Konya, Turkey, writes: The exclusivists point to the possibility of abrogation of such verses by citing the verse 2:106: We abrogate no verse, nor do We cause to be forgotten, but that We bring one better than it or like it. However, some of the most influential commentators of the Quran, both in the Sunni and Shia communities including the influential Sunni commentator Tabari (d. 310/923), disagree. Tabari holds that the arguments for abrogation cannot apply to verses such as 2:62 or 5:69 where God makes promises of rewards to Jews, Christians, Sabians and to any who believe in God, the Day of Judgment, and do righteous deeds. Tabari argues that abrogation applies only to legal rulings and not to reports (Shah-Kazemi, R. (2006), The Other in the Light of the One: The Universality of the Quran and Interfaith Dialogue, Cambridge, UK: The Islamic Texts Society, p.168). The Quran states that the diversity among human beings and in creation is divinely willed (3:22) and that the diversity has the purpose of making each know the other (49:13). It is more difficult to understand that there is an essential unity in the messages of these revelations (Q.41:43; 4:163-65; 42:13). The unity appears to be with regards to the ultimate purpose or goal of each religion – God: We never sent any apostle without having revealed to him that there is no deity save Me, [and that,] therefore, you shall worship Me [alone] (21:25). In the verse 2:111 the Quran warns against chauvinism of the People of the Book: They say: none entereth paradise unless he be a Jew or a Christian. These are their vain desires. In the verse 4:122 the Quran speaks of God rewarding believers with paradise, without qualifying them as only the followers of the Prophet Muhammad, and then in the following verse the Quran warns that it will not be according to your desires, or the desires of the People of the Book (4:123). It is in light of the above discussion that we ought to try to understand the verse, truly the religion with God is Islam (3:19). It is frequently quoted by exclusivist Muslims to argue that Islam, the formal religion with its particular set of doctrines, laws, and rituals is the only religion accepted by God. However, the Quran appears to use the term ‘islam’ and its verbal form to refer to ‘submission to God’ or ‘to submit to God’ which is also the central focus of the formal religion of Islam taught by the Prophet Muhammad. Thus, Abraham and the disciples of Jesus see themselves as muslims or those who have submitted to God (3:52; 6:163; 5:3). (Quadir, p.127-130) ------- Bibliography Asad, Muhammad, The Message of the Quran, Bristol: The Book Foundation, 2008 Galadari, Abdulla, Diversity in Heaven: Quranic Perspective Beyond Pluralism, The International Journal of Diversity in Organizations, Communities and Nations Volume 11, Issue 3, 2012 Hofmann, Murad Wilfried, Religious Pluralism and Islam in a Polarized World, in “Islam and Global Dialogue” Edited by Roger Boase, Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2005 Lang, Jeffrey, Struggling to Surrender, Beltsville, Md.: Amana Publications, 1995 Quadir, Tarik, Multiculturalism in Britain on the Basis of the Quran, Rumi or the Traditionalist Vision, In Workshop Proceedings: Debating Multiculturalism 1, Editors: Max Farrar, Simon Robinson, Omer Sener, Loncon: Dialogue Society, 2012 Saeed, Abdullah, Inclusivism and Exclusivism among Muslims Today between Theological and Social Dimensions, RSIS-Singapore, November-December 2020 Sirry, Munim, Reinterpreting the Quranic Criticism of Other Religions, In Quranic Studies Today, Edited by Angelika Neuwirth and Michael A. Sells, New York: Routledge, 2016 ------- Part One of the Article: The Quranic Concept of ‘Islam’ and ‘Muslim’ as a Universal Vision - Part One V.A. Mohamad Ashrof is an independent Indian scholar specializing in Islamic humanism. With a deep commitment to advancing Quranic hermeneutics that prioritize human well-being, peace, and progress, his work aims to foster a just society, encourage critical thinking, and promote inclusive discourse and peaceful coexistence. He is dedicated to creating pathways for meaningful social change and intellectual growth through his scholarship. URL: https://www.newageislam.com/debating-islam/quranic-concept-muslim-universal-vision-part-two/d/134417 New 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