Religion of Submission
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Let us meditate on God, His glorious attributes,
who is the basis of everything in this universe
as its Creator,
who is fit to be worshiped as Omnipresent,
Omnipotent, Omniscient
and self existent conscious being,
who removes all ignorance and impurities
from the mind
and purifies and sharpens the intellect.
[Gayatri Mantra, Yajur Veda]
While every religion has been corrupted by innovations, traditions,
and false, idolatrous doctrines, there may be “Submitters”
within every religion. There may be Submitters who are (at the outset)
Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, or anything else. These
Submitters, collectively, constitute the only religion acceptable
to God. Therefore, all Submitters who are devoted to God ALONE,
and do not set up any idols beside God, are redeemed into God’s
eternal kingdom (2:62). A criterion of the true submitters is that
they will find nothing objectionable in the Quran.
With the advent of this Testament, God’s message to the world
is now complete. We have now received the long awaited answers to
our most urgent questions—who we are, the purpose of our lives,
how we came into this world, where do we go from here, which religion
is the right one, was it evolution or creation, etc.
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Perfect Happiness: Now and Forever
One of the most elusive objectives of every human being is “Happiness.”
The Quran reveals the secret of attaining perfect happiness in this
life and forever. We learn from the Quran that happiness is an exclusive
quality of the soul. Thus, a body that attains all the material
successes it longs for —money, power, fame, etc.—often
belongs to an unhappy person. Happiness depends totally on the degree
of growth and development attained by the soul, the real person.
The Quran provides a detailed map towards perfect happiness for
both body and soul, both in this world and in the eternal Hereafter.
In the numerous verses throughout this proven Testament, God personally
guarantees the believers’ happiness, now and forever:
Absolutely, God’s allies will have
nothing to fear,
nor will they grieve.
They are those who believe
and lead a righteous life.
For them happiness in this life, and in the Hereafter.
Such is God’s inviolable law.
This is the true triumph
[10:62-64]
All Believers Constitute the One Acceptable Religion
As expected from the Creator’s final message, one of the
prominent themes in the Quran is the call for unity among all believers,
and the repeated prohibition of making any distinction among God’s
messengers. If the object of worship is one and the same, there
will be absolute
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unity among all believers. It is the
human factor, i.e., devotion and prejudice to such powerless humans
as Jesus, Muhammad, and the saints that causes division, hatred,
and bitter wars among the misguided believers. A guided believer
is devoted to God ALONE, and rejoices in seeing any other believer
who is devoted to God ALONE, regardless of the name such a believer
calls his or her religion.
Surely, those who believe,
those who are Jewish,
the Christians,
and the converts;
anyone who
(1) believes in God,
(2) believes in the Last Day, and
(3) leads a righteous life,
will receive their recompense from their Lord;
they have nothing to fear, nor will they grieve.
[2:62, 5:69]
Abdullah
References:
John Shelby Spong, Rescuing the Bible From
Fundamentalism (San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFranscisco,
1992).
John Shelby Spong, New Christianity for a
New World: Why Traditional Faith Is Dying and How a New
Faith Is Being Born (San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFranscisco, 2001).
Dr. Rashad Khalifa, QURAN: The Final Testament,
Authorized English Version with Arabic Text, (Islamic Productions,
Tucson, Arizona, 1989).
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