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Other religions
Allah does not accept that people, whom He has made and equipped, should in turn deny Him and His very existence. The religion with Allah has always been “Islam”, the voluntary surrender to Him by which man achieves peace with Allah, himself, and his surroundings. Yet, people have frequently altered this one true religion to suit their own needs. Humans have little patience with what they don’t understand, and often they try to bring the divine down to earth, making images of God and trying to explain His existence and workings in human terms. The fact remains, however, that whilst Allah knows all about us, we know little about Him other than what He has made known to us. The creature can never understand the Creator.
Islam
upholds the freedom of belief, and the Qur’an clearly states
that there should be no compulsion in religion. A person’s
belief is between him and God. However, Islam is more than a
belief system, it is a religious, moral, social, political,
economic ideology, and for that reason it will restrict
practices of other faiths where they threaten to undermine its
social order and the well-being of its citizens. Certain
religious practices, like human sacrifice, for example, will
never be permitted, even though adherents of a particular
religion may think them justified. Other practices might only
be permitted in the privacy of people’s homes or places of
worship. Islam would not tolerate the public display of idols,
as these are an insult to Allah, the only God and Creator.
Principally, Islam distinguishes two categories of
other religions: those of a monotheistic tradition (known as
the people of the book, because their religion is based on
earlier revealed scriptures), and the polytheists. The public
worship of the people of the book, like Jews and Christians,
is safeguarded in an Islamic society, and their places of
worship are protected. Even though Christianity has moved away
from the original monotheistic teachings of Jesus, followed
Paul in abandoning the laws of the Old Testament, and
introduced the Trinity, which became Church doctrine some
three centuries after Jesus, Muslims are not permitted to
desecrate the crosses which form part of Christian religious
expression. The Qur’an denies that Jesus died on the cross,
Islam does not have a concept of original sin nor the need for
its redemption by an innocent, and calling Jesus the son of
God is considered blasphemous – nonetheless these matters are
left for Jesus himself to sort out when he returns near the
end of time. Christian and Jewish communities may also retain
their own legal code with regard to personal and family laws
and disputes amongst members of their own faith. Public
proselytising and attempts to convert Muslims would, however,
not be tolerated.
The
situation is different with polytheistic religions, for these
are considered human inventions. The worship of man-made idols
is seen as a degradation of the human spirit, and whilst
nobody can be forced to give up superstitions and false
beliefs, the public display of such practices is not
considered to be conducive to the common good. For the same
reason, whilst Islam permits the inter-marriage between
Muslims and people of the book, it does not permit Muslims to
marry polytheists. This may at first looks appear to be
discriminatory, but we do not live in a value-free world, and
a marriage of a believer in the one God and an idolater would
be even more unworkable than that of a communist and a
capitalist, unless, of course their convictions are no more
than labels they attach to themselves. For a Muslim, belief is
not something you are born with and retain as a birthright.
Belief has a practical dimension and is very much reflected in
what we do and how we interact with the world around us.
[Next: Worship through action: The five pillars
]
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