I’m sure the reaction from my brothers and sisters from other faiths would be to disagree. Before you come into conclusion and reject altogether the statement above, I would request you to consider the reasons provided below rationally, objectively and without dogma. I guess that is fair and vital in order to establish the truth, right?

The first evidence I would like to present is the Qur’an. God says “Say, we believe in Allah and that which has been revealed to us, and that which was revealed to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob and the tribes and that which was given to Moses and Jesus and to other Prophets, from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and to Him we submit” (Qur’an 2:136)

“Abraham was not a Jew nor Christian; but an upright Muslim.” (Qur’an 3:67)

“The same religion has He established for you as that which He enjoined on Noah – that which We have sent by inspiration to you – and that which We enjoined on Abraham, Moses and Jesus: namely, that you should remain steadfast in Religion, and make no divisions therein: to those who worship other things than God, hard is the (way) to which you call them” (Qur’an 42:13)

Keeping in mind Muslim means ‘a person who uses his freewill to choose to truly and fully obey the one true God’, would you agree that all previous prophets were Muslim? Would you also agree the religion they preached was Islam which means‘attaining peace by authentic and willing obedience to Almighty God’?

However human beings are different from other creation. God has blessed us with the faculty of intellect. With this gift of intellect, God has given us the freewill to choose; either to obey God or to disobey God. When we choose to obey God, which in Arabic means ‘Muslim’, then we will be in harmony and peace. On the contrary if we choose to disobey God, which in Arabic means ‘Kafir’, then there will be chaos and confusion. God, being All Loving, All Merciful did not left us alone to make the choices but God continuously give us His Guidance in many ways. We are all born with conscience that tells us right from wrong. God has sent prophets and revelations throughout ages to guide humankind.

Muslim simply means anyone who truly and fully obeys the one and only true Almighty God. Merely claiming believing in God does not necessarily means a person truly and fully obeys Almighty God. The person need to worship ONLY the true God as how God wants to be worshiped and not as what the person thinks God ought to be worshipped.

By this definition, even the sun, the moon and our heart are also ‘Muslim’ as they obey the law of God. The Moon orbits around the earth, the earth orbits around the sun while our heart keeps pumping blood to the body. Imagine if one day the heart ‘decides’ to disobey its purpose of creation, instead of pumping blood it pumps water to the body, what will happen? We would die! Similarly when human beings choose to disobey God then there will be chaos around us.

Contrary to popular beliefs, Islam was not founded about 1400 years ago by Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of God be with him). This is why Muslims take strong offence when Islam is called as ‘Mohamadans’. Islam began since time began. Islam has been the religion since the creation of the first man. In reality Islam has been the one and only religion propagated by all the prophets of God, from Adam to Noah to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac to Moses to Jesus and finally to the last and final prophet of God, Muhammad (peace and blessings of God be with them).

Let us understand what is meant by ‘Islam’ and ‘Muslim’. Islam is an Arabic word which is derived from several Arabic words that share the same root, namely ‘Salaam’, ‘Salim’ and ‘Aslama’. ‘Salaam’ means peace, harmony, tranquility, calm, and serenity while ‘Salim’ means authentic, sound, accurate and free from defects. ‘Aslama’ means to submit willingly, to obey willingly or total surrender. In short ‘Islam’ means ‘attaining peace by authentic and willing obedience to Almighty God’. This is the only way to achieve a state of peace within oneself, between oneself and the creator as well as between oneself and fellow creation.

ISLAM: I Shall Love All Mankind

Most religions in the world acquired its name much later and were named with reference to either a person [Christianity – Jesus Christ, Buddhism – Siddhartha Gautama Buddha, Confucianism – Confucius/ Kung Fu Tse etc], tribe [Judaism – Tribe of Judah] or geographical location [Hinduism – Indus River]. Islam however was not named as such but rather its name was given by God in the Qur’an itself; ⁽¹⁾

“This day have I perfected your religion for you, completed My favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion”(Qur’an 5:3).

“If anyone desires a religion other than Islam (submission to God), never will it be accepted of him” (Qur’an 3:85)

(1)    Muslims believe that the complete Qur’an is the verbatim words of God. However people from other faith may not agree with this statement. We shall discuss further on this matter when we address the topic on Qur’an in future, God willing.

The atheist usually ask me why we cannot see God if God exist. A simple answer to this would be that not necessarily what we cannot see does not exist.

We cannot see God because God did not provide us with the senses to ‘see’ Him. As an analogy, let say I have created a car. Is the car able to see me? The car cannot see me because I did not create the car with the ability to see me. Just because the car cannot see me does that mean I do not exist?

Despite the car cannot see me, I can see the car! Similarly God can see us in spite of we cannot see God. The very fact the car exist also proves that I (the maker of car) also exist. Similarly the existence of our universe is also the fact in the existence of its Creator.

I have been asked how the Muslims can worship impersonal God as it indicates a distant God. Impersonal God does not necessarily imply God is far away and not approachable. Thus the Qur’an explains;

When My servants ask you concerning Me, I am indeed close (to them): I listen to the prayer of every suppliant when he calleth on Me: Let them also, with a will, Listen to My call, and believe in Me: That they may walk in the right way. [Qur’an 2:186]

“It was We who created man, and We know what dark suggestions his soul makes to him: for We are nearer to him than (his) jugular veins.” [Qur’an 50:16]

The four verses of Surah Al-Ikhlas (Purity), chapter 112:1-4 from the Qur’an also serves as the touchstone of theology in Islam. Supposed if you wanted to sell gold to a goldsmith, the goldsmith will first use a touchstone to verify the gold whether it is 24 karat, 18 karat or maybe imitation gold. Not everything that glitters is gold! Similarly if there is any candidate claiming divinity, we will put the candidate thru the above acid test. If the candidate can pass the test, then as Muslims we do not have any problem to worship it as God because the test is so stringent that only the true Almighty God could pass. Any false deity would fail miserably.

Islam is a God centered religion. Anything that a Muslim does, God always comes first and everything else is adjusted accordingly. There for it is very important for a Muslim to being able to distinguish the true God from false deities.

The holy Qur’an offers the solution by giving the most concise definition of God in chapter 112:1-4 which is known as Al-Ikhlas, meaning ‘purity’;

“Say: He is Allah, The One and only. Allah, the Eternal, Absolute (Assamad). He begets not, nor is He begotten. And there is none like unto Him”

Allah is one and only. There cannot be more than one God co-existing at the same time otherwise there will be chaos and they would be fighting with one another. As an analogy, what will happen if a car had two drivers? Now imagine what will happen if the whole universe which is far more complex than the car is govern by more than one God!

Allah is also eternal and absolute. There is no beginning or ending for God. God is also free from any needs. God does not require sustenance but it is He who provides provisions for all. How can the God who has created such an intricate universe Himself be dependent on food for living?

God does not give birth. If God do give birth, then His children too must be God, which means there will be more than one God. God’s children will give birth to more Gods! Then we will have the problem as mentioned earlier.

God Himself must be unborn. The moment we say God is born then we will have at two main problems. First it means God did not exist at one point in time and later He came into existence. Who then created and managed the universe in His absence? Secondly it means God has at least a parent which implies the parent must be greater than God. Is it possible for something else to be greater than God?

God is the Creator while the entire world is His creation. Could the Creator and the creation be the same? Could the character of the Creator and His creation be the same? The creation is subject to time and space whilst the Creator is not limited to time and space. Therefore nothing in our physical universe resembles God.