No Compulsion in Religion

God created our physical Universe and everything therein is governed by His laws. No entity in nature can swerve away from its path or give up its function or task which was allocated to it by the Almighty. In other words, everything submits itself to the Will of God readily or reluctantly.

[3:83] Are they seeking other than GOD's religion, when everything in the heavens and the earth has submitted to Him, willingly and unwillingly, and to Him they will be returned?

Everything is submissive to God whether by choice or constraint. The stars and planets, the plants and trees all precisely obey and are faithful to the laws of nature fashioned by God. Insects, birds and animals live by instinct and intuition and lack reason and higher intellect. They may or may not be docile and obedient. They have not asked for freedom of choice and free will for which they would have to be answerable to their Initiator. There is also an unfathomable amount of Angels who are invisible and strictly follow God’s commands.

In God’s visible creation, the human is the only creature who demanded freedom of choice and free will (33:72). God endowed us with faculty of reasoning and intellect. We are capable of doing both good and evil. We can obey and disobey God or do both. We can choose to submit or even object.

[91:6-9-10] The earth and Him who sustains it. The soul and Him who created it. Then showed it what is evil and what is good. Successful is one who redeems it. Failing is one who neglects it.

The Most Merciful gave the human a gift of a conscience and a moral sense to help us make a distinction between right and wrong. Our conscience “pricks” us when we even contemplate to do something wrong.

We have all been given a fixed interim of life on Earth and during our stopover here we are tested and judged by God Almighty. We are on probation and trial. We are all accountable to God for our good and bad deeds for which we will be rewarded or punished.

God instituted religion for the humans. The word “religion” comes from the Latin word “religio” which means “to bind together.” What does it bind? Three ingredients – theology, philosophy and spirituality. Islam has, by the Grace of God, accommodated them all in their correct and rightful proportions. Religion was introduced to uplift moral and social values, and the Monotheism is the natural instinct placed into the people by God:

[30:30]  Therefore, you shall devote yourself to the religion of strict monotheism. Such is the natural instinct placed into the people by GOD. Such creation of GOD will never change. This is the perfect religion, but most people do not know.

Philosophy came about to improve the human’s mental attitude. The knowledge of philosophy is based on doubts and reasoning but when it reaches the boundaries of the future life, it fails in its objectives because there is no place for doubt in that world.

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