Allah has made it clear that the faithful must believe indiscriminately in the revelations of every single one of God's messengers

[Guest guest]

shriadishakti , " dr_balwinder "

<dr_balwinder> wrote:

>

> I am happy to say that the Malays in Malaysia are the most

> tolerant Muslims I know and the present government we have (ruling

> since Independence) is very tolerant when it comes to other

> religions.

>

> The only flaw is that there is a law against Muslims converting to

> another religion but not vice-versa. I have no hang up about that

> because I believe Islam is one of the best religions in the world

> and thus see no reason for any Muslim to convert. The way it is

> practiced by some in many parts of the world leaves much to be

> desired and due to these people the religion is nowadays very much

> misinterpreted.

>

> SY is not a religion and thus there is no question of conversion

> for any person practising any faith ....... Jesus Christ , Lord

> Buddha , Prophet Muhammad and all the saints never came to earth

> to start a religion but to give the right direction to human being

> in order to ascent to a higher level.

>

 

Dear believers of Al-Qiyamah,

 

Namaste - i bow to Ruh of Allah who resides in you!

 

The above post speaks for itself and is relevant to the article

appended below. It was appropriately titled on May 28, 2003 as

" Malaysian Style and no conversion required during the Resurrection " .

 

But first i wish to add that i spent more than four decades in

Malaysia, and confirm Dr. Balwinder's assessment of Malays. Thus

these gentle, moderate Muslims of Malaysia came to mind a few days

ago when i quoted Karen Armstrong:

 

" the nature of most Muslims--benevolent, liberal, modest, forbearing,

patient, enduring, frugal, sincere, straight-forward, decent, lovers

of peace and truth, and, above all, trusting in one God and

submitting to His will "

 

After reading Karen Armstrong's article (appended below) it becomes

clear that the Quran never required conversion to Islam. Surah 5:69

declares that " all who believe in God and the Last Day and do

righteous deeds--no fear need they have, and neither shall they

grieve. " " The fact that this appreciation of other traditions is

written into the archetypal myth of Muslim spirituality shows how

central this pluralism was to early Islam.

 

From this point, the Qur'an began to emphasize this shared vision. In

one remarkable passage, Allah makes it clear that the faithful must

believe indiscriminately in the revelations of every single one of

God's messengers:

 

Say: We believe in God, and in that which has been bestowed from on

high upon us, and that which has been bestowed upon Abraham and

Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and their descendents, and that which has

been vouchsafed by their Sustainer unto Moses and Jesus and all the

[other] prophets: we make no distinction between any of them. And

unto Him do we surrender ourselves ('lahu muslimun'). "

 

But many Muslims will still insist on conversion since they

think " that the Qur'an claims that Islam is the one, true faith and

that only Muslims will be saved " . But that obviously was never the

case and Karen Armstrong nails it in Chapter 3 of Muhammad (Prophet

For Our Time) appended below.

 

There is only one way to stop them from this collective falsehood:

Why should these Muslim kaffirs--who today reject all Signs and

surahs of the Holy Quran confirming commencement of Al-Qiyamah and

don't give a damn to the fact that " Allah has made it clear that the

faithful must believe indiscriminately in the revelations of every

single one of God's messengers " --demand that the believers like us--

who after hearing the Great News (Al Naba) have surrendered to

Allah's Call to witness the Resurrection and His self-reproaching

Spirit during this Night of Destiny (Al Qariah)--convert and become

unbelievers like them? For those who have submitted to Allah’s Will

and Command to participate and bear witness to the Resurrection,

converting to Islam today is to revert back to Jahiliyyah. Literally

you become kaffirs like them during this Night of Destiny (Al

Qariah), closing your minds to all other scriptures and paying only

lip-service to a few prophets like Abraham, Moses and Jesus.

 

But why do Muslims want to convert others? Does the Quran say so?

According to Karen Armstrong “There was no thought of forcing

everybody into the Muslim ummah [community]. Each of the revealed

traditions had its own din, its own practices, and insights. " Unto

every one of you have We appointed a [different] law and way of

life, " God told Muhammad:

 

And if God had so willed, He could surely have made you all one single

community: but [He will it otherwise] in order to test you by means

of what he has vouchsafed unto you. Vie, then, with one another in

doing good works! Unto God you must all return; and then He will make

you truly understand all that on which you were wont to differ. [14]”

 

The Quran is thus clearly against this ingrained Muslim compulsion to

convert others to Islam and follow only Prophet Muhammad, to the

exclusion of all other scriptures and prophets.

 

Shri Mataji has also made it clear that this conversion business is

nonsense as religious " faith can become such a blinding effect on

people that you develop absurd types of groups which call themselves

as Christians, Hindus, Muslims—whatever you may say—and are

extremely, extremely exclusive, blind, and fanatic. "

 

Just like the Quran, She too invites all religious beings to accept

and learn from each other's religion and prophets, and vie with one

another in doing good works! According to Her there is no difference

in the universal message of the prophets because " what Christ said,

what Krishna said, and what Muhammad said is nothing but Advaita,

that you have to become One with God. " The Quran too speaks with the

same voice. In fact " one of the first passages in the Qur'an to

emphasize the words " islam " and " muslim, " which both derive from the

verb 'aslama': " surrendering oneself entirely to someone else's

will. " [10] The verse continues: For if one goes in search of a

religion other than self-surrender (islam) unto God, it will never be

accepted from him, and in the life to come, he shall be among the

lost. [11] "

 

The Quran is talking about nothing else but Advaita i.e., to become

One with God! Only after Self-realization/Kundalini awakening

(Baptism of Allah/ Sibghatu I-Lah) does that self-surrender during

Al Qadr (Night of Destiny) become a reality. How much does the Ummah

know about the Baptism Of Allah (Sibghatu I-Lah)? Next to nothing!

 

“The Baptism of God, and who is better than God to baptize? Him do we

worship” (chap. ii). this is the translation from the Quran… The

spiritual baptism is the direct work of God Himself. As a fuller or a

laundress washes the linen or any other object with water; as a dyer

tints the wool or cotton with a tincture to give it a new hue; and as

a baptist blots out the past sins of the true penitent believer, so

does God Almighty baptize, not the body, but the spirit and the soul

of him whom He mercifully directs and guides unto the Holy Religion

of Islam. This is the “Sibghatu I-Lah,” the Baptism of Allah, which

makes a person fit and dignified to become a citizen of the Kingdom

of Allah and a member of His religion.” Encyclopaedia of Islam, Mufti

M. Mukarram Ahmed, page 214

 

Shri Mataji has made it absolute clear that in order to participate

in the Resurrection all religions, their prophets and holy scriptures

must be unconditionally accepted. That is why today there are

thousands of Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Christians, Muslims, Sikhs,

Jains and others who—after Self-realization/Kundalini awakening

(Baptism of Allah/ Sibghatu I-Lah)—are taking part and bearing

witness to the Resurrection and His self-reproaching Spirit. (Allah

too has made it clear that the faithful must believe indiscriminately

in the revelations of every single one of God's messengers.)

 

On the other hand the vast majority of kaffirs, both Muslim and non-

Muslim, do not even know the Resurrection is taking place. Shri

Mataji questions the Muslims; “Are they going to miss it?” Those who

do not indiscriminately follow the revelations of every single one of

God’s messengers, as directed by Allah, surely will. And if you do

not follow His Ruh who has collected, promulgated, recited and

explained the Signs and surahs commencing Al-Qiyamah, without

question you will. Period!

 

regards to all,

 

jagbir

 

 

 

 

------------------------

 

" The story of the night journey reveals Muhammad's longing to bring

the Arabs of the Hijaz, who had felt that they had been left out of

the divine plan, into the heart of the monotheistic family. This is a

story of pluralism. Muhammad was abandoning the pagan pluralism of

Mecca, because it had degenerated into the self-destructive arrogance

and violence of jahiliyyah, but he was beginning to embrace

monotheistic pluralism. Muhammad was abandoning the pagan pluralism

of Mecca, because it had degenerated into the self-destructive

arrogance and violence of jahiliyyah, but he was beginning to embrace

monotheistic pluralism. In Jerusalem, he discovered that all the

prophets, sent by God to all peoples, are " brothers. " Muhammad's

prophetic predecessors do not spurn him as a pretender, but welcome

him into their family. The prophets do not revile or try to convert

each other; instead they listen to each other's insights. They invite

the new prophet to preach to them, and, in one version of the story,

Muhammad asks Moses for advice about how frequently Muslims should

pray. Originally, God wanted salat [the ritual worship performed five

times a day by Muslims] fifty times a day, but Moses kept sending

Muhammad back to God until the number of prescribed prayers had been

reduced to five (which Moses still found excessive). [8] The fact

that this appreciation of other traditions is written into the

archetypal myth of Muslim spirituality shows how central this

pluralism was to early Islam.

 

From this point, the Qur'an began to emphasize this shared vision. In

one remarkable passage, Allah makes it clear that the faithful must

believe indiscriminately in the revelations of every single one of

God's messengers:

 

Say: We believe in God, and in that which has been bestowed from on

high upon us, and that which has been bestowed upon Abraham and Ishmael and

Isaac and Jacob and their descendents, and that which has

been vouchsafed by their Sustainer unto Moses and Jesus and all the

[other] prophets: we make no distinction between any of them. And

unto Him do we surrender ourselves ('lahu muslimun').[9]

 

You could not be a muslim unless you also revered Moses and Jesus.

True faith required surrender to God, not to an established faith.

Indeed, exclusive loyalty to only one tradition could become 'shirk',

an idolatry which puts a human institution on the same level as God.

This is one of the first passages in the Qur'an to emphasize the

words " islam " and " muslim, " which both derive from the verb 'aslama':

" surrendering oneself entirely to someone else's will. " [10] (p.99)

The verse continues:

 

For if one goes in search of a religion other than self-surrender

(islam) unto God, it will never be accepted from him, and in the life

to come, he shall be among the lost. [11]

 

This verse is often quoted to " prove " that the Qur'an claims that

Islam is the one, true faith and that only Muslims will be saved.

But " Islam " was not yet the official name for Muhammad's religion,

and when this verse is read correctly in its pluralistic context, it

clearly means the opposite.

 

The Qur'an depicts one prophet handing on the revelation to another.

The message passes from Abraham to Ishmael and Isaac to Moses, and so

on, in a continuous narrative. The Qur'an is simply a " confirmation "

of the previous scriptures, [12] and the Torah, the Gospel, and the

Qur'an are simply moments in God's continuous self-disclosure:

 

" Verily, those who have attained to faith [in this divine writ], as

well as those who follow the Jewish faith, and the Sabians,* and the

Christians--all who believe in God and the Last Day and do righteous

deeds--no fear need they have, and neither shall they grieve. " [13]

 

There was no thought of forcing everybody into the Muslim ummah

[community]. Each of the revealed traditions had its own din, its own

practices, and insights. " Unto every one of you have We appointed a

[different] law and way of life, " God told Muhammad:

 

And if God had so willed, He could surely have made you all one single

community: but [He will it otherwise] in order to test you by means

of what he has vouchsafed unto you. Vie, then, with one another in

doing good works! Unto God you must all return; and then He will make

you truly understand all that on which you were wont to differ. [14]

 

God was not the exclusive property of one tradition, but was the

source of all human knowledge: " God is the light of the heavens and

the earth, " Allah explained in one of the most mystical verses in the

Qur'an. The divine light could not be confined to any individual

lamp, but was common to them all, enshrined in every one of them:

 

The parable (ayah) of this light is, as it were, that of a niche

containing a lamp; the lamp is [enclosed in glass], the glass

[shining] like a radiant star: [a lamp] lit from a blessed tree--an

olive tree that is neither of the east nor the west--the oil whereof

[is so bright that it] would well-nigh give light [of itself], even

though fire had not touched it--light upon light. [15]

 

Muhammad (Prophet For Our Time)

Chapter 3, 'Hijrah', p. 97-100

Karen Armstrong

Harper Perennial - London, New York, Toronto and Sydney

ISBN-13 978-0-00-723248-2

ISBN-10 0-00-723248-9

 

[8] Ibn Ishaq, 'Sirat Rasul Allah', 271, in Guillaume, 'Life of

Muhammad'.

 

[9] Qur'an 3:84, cf. 2:136, Asad translation.

 

[10] Toshihiko Izutsu, 'Ethico-Religious Concepts in the Qur'an'

(Montreal and Kingston, ON, 2002), 189.

 

[11] Qur'an 3:85, Asad translation.

 

[12] Qur'an 12:111.

 

[13] Qur'an 5:69, Asad translation.

 

[14] Qur'an 5:48, Asad translation.

 

[15] Qur'an 24:35, Asad translation.

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