Is Islam a new religion?
Prof. Dr. Abdul Haque
It is often said that Islam was a new religion which was against Christianity and Judaism and was introduced to replace these established religions.
No. It is not true. The divine message was always the same.
Question arises that if the divine religion was always the same why so many Prophets were sent?
The reason (we all know) is that the divine religion challenged the authority of powerful persons (such as kings and priests) and preached equality of humans. So, this religion was suppressed and the followers faced hardships. Among those whose interests were compromised, some changed the teachings of the religion to fortify their own interests. So, each time it was necessary to send a Prophet to show the right path to the misled people. According to the Holy Quran, there were 1,24,000 Prophets sent to different nations.
The most prominent Prophets were given written instructions in the form of Zaboor/ Book of Psalms (Prophet Dawood/David [PBUH]), Taura/Taurat (Prophet Moses/Musa [PBUH]) and Bible/Injeel (Prophet Issa/Jesus [PBUH]). Each of these Holy books was more comprehensive as compared to the predecessor and contained more guidelines. It means that Taura was more comprehensive than Zaboor, and Bible was more comprehensive than Taura.
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It is no secret that the present-day versions of the above-mentioned Holy books are different from the original ones.
Talking about Taura:
“Although it is claimed that every single Torah is exactly the same as every other one, it is also accepted that it was corrected and became authoritative between the 7th and 10th centuries CE, and has been preserved and recopied ever since. Some historians claim that there were three versions of Torah: the Hebrew, considered authentic by the Jews and the Protestant clergy; the Greek Septuagint, which was used as authoritative in the Greek and other eastern churches; and the Samaritan Torah, the standard authority for that people. These three versions differ greatly, one from another, even with regard to the lifetimes of the celebrated figures”
(‘Abdu’l-Baha; Authorized translation by Robert Weinberg (George Ronald, Oxford, 1995)..
Talking about the Bible:
“There are currently over 3,142 versions in over 2,073 languages. The teachings of Jesus were interpreted and paraphrased by his followers for 70+ years before being written down in Greek”.
(“2023 Global Scripture Access”. Wycliffe. 1 September 2023. Retrieved 26 September 2023).
“Scholars now believe that the stories that would become the Bible were disseminated by word of mouth across the centuries, in the form of oral tales and poetry – perhaps as a means of forging a collective identity among the tribes of Israel. Eventually, these stories were collated and written down.”
(A history of the Bible: who wrote it and when? History extra-the official website for BBC History Magazine. Spencer Mizen Published: April 7, 2020).
So, it can be said with certainty that human element is present in Taura and more so in Bible. As we learn from Islamic history, in case of Taura, it was more of deletion than addition, i.e., several of the teachings were deleted.
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According to Islamic belief, the Holy Quran was sent by Allah (through his messenger Prophet Muhammad [PBUH] to present once again the teachings of previous Prophets in the original form and to address some new subjects which were not discussed in previous scriptures.
Allah guides Prophet Muhammad [PBUH]in Chapter 2, Verse 136 to convey to the Muslims that they should believe in all previous divine books and Prophets.
In Chapter 5 Verse 48, it is declared that The Holy Quran is the custodian of Taurat and Injeel.
It means that the Holy Quran verify the real contents of Taura and Bible and in fact protect them in the original form.
To ensure that the contents of the Holy Quran are not altered by mischievous priests to meet their own ends, Allah Himself took the responsibility to protect the Holy Quran.
In Chapter 15 Verse 9 Allah declares:
“We are the sender of the Holy Quran and We will protect it.”
And indeed, Allah has protected the Holy Quran and it has been preserved in its original form and not an iota has been changed.
In 2015, experts from the University of Birmingham discovered the Birmingham Quran manuscript (It is part of the Mingana Collection of 3000 Middle Eastern manuscripts), which is possibly the oldest manuscript of the Quran in the world. Radiocarbon analysis to determine the age of the manuscript revealed that this manuscript could be traced back to sometime between 568 and 645 A.D., i.e., it was one of the original written copies of the Holy Quran.
The expert comments are:
“The text witnessed in the two Birmingham leaves almost entirely conforms to the standard text, their orthography differs, in respect of the writing (or omission) of the silent alif (ألف). But it must be noted that the Arabic script at the time tended to not write out the silent alif.”
(22 July 2015 University of Birmingham website https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/news-archive/2015/birmingham-quran-manuscript-dated-among-the-oldest-in-the-world)
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Now let us see what the Holy Quran says on this subject of religions.
Here are some excerpts from the Holy Quran on this subject:
Chapter 3 Verse 19:
“Islam is the only religion”.
Chapter 3 Verse 67:
“Prophet Abraham/Ibrahim [PBUH] was none else but a Muslim.”
To sum up:
- The word Islam means “complete submission and obedience to Allah (God)”. Any religion that preaches so is in fact Islam.
- According to above definition, Islam has its origins in the teachings of Prophet Abraham [PBUH] and all the Prophets conveyed the same message, i.e., “complete submission and obedience to Allah (God)”. So, all the Prophets were Muslims and Moses and Jesus also preached Islam.
- All the persons who believed in one God (Allah) before the declaration of the Prophethood by Prophet Muhammad [PBUH] followed Islam and were in fact Muslims.
- After the declaration of the Prophethood by Prophet Muhammad [PBUH], an additional condition was added, i.e., to accept him as last Prophet (because he was the messenger of the Holy Quran which conveyed complete guidance by Allah so no further messenger was required).
Finally let us compare the beliefs of the believers of the three Abrahamic religions:
The Muslims:
- believe in only one God (Allah).
- believe in all previous Prophets and give special respect to Prophet Ibrahim/ Abraham [PBUH], Prophet Musa/ Moses [PBUH] and Prophet Issa/Jesus [PBUH].
- believe in all previous divine books
- believe that Prophet Muhammad [PBUH]is the last messenger and Prophet
The Jews:
- believe in only one God (Allah). According to the Holy Quran in distant past there were some who declared Prophet Uzair as son of God.
- do not believe Prophet Issa/ Jesus [PBUH] as a Prophet.
- do not believe Prophet Muhammad [PBUH]as a Prophet.
The Christians:
- believe in trinity.
- believe in Prophet Issa/ Jesus [PBUH] as a Prophet.
- do not believe Prophet Muhammad [PBUH] as a Prophet.
The last word:
In Islam, a Muslim can marry a Christian or a Jew provided they believe in only one God (because basically they believe in the same religion which was first preached by Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) PBUH).
These days only Unitarians and Oneness Pentecostals Christians are relevant because all other Christians believe in trinity.