Aqeela Shanzay Zaffar, Glasgow
Allah states in the Holy Qur’an: “And I have not created the jinn and the men but that they may worship Me.” (51:57) [1]
Since life started on earth, numerous individuals have claimed to be in direct communication with God Almighty. They gave guidelines and principles on how we should live our lives. These individuals have come to be known as Prophets of God. As time goes on religions have formed and developed according to their local context and knowledge, this has inevitably resulted in very different ideologies and practices being formed despite almost all claiming to be from God. It is for this reason that some people question that are all these religions from the same God? Why are there so many religions to begin with?
The Promised Messiah (peace be on him) has beautifully answered these questions in his book “The Philosophy of the Teachings of Islam” where he wrote about the progressive development of humankind by following Islam.
He wrote: “When I reflect upon the Holy Word of God, I find that in its teachings it seeks to reform the natural conditions of man and to raise him to step by step to higher spiritual levels. In the first place, God desires to teach man the elementary rules of behaviour and culture and thus to change him from the wild condition of animals and then to bestow upon him elementary moral conditions which can be described as culture or civilization. Then He trains him and raises him from the elementary moral conditions to a high moral stage. All this is in truth is one stage, which is the reform of natural conditions, and the only difference is one of degree. The All-Wise God Almighty has presented the moral system in such a way whereby man should be able to move from a lower moral level to a higher moral level. The third stage is that man should be devoted to winning the true love and pleasure of his Creator and the whole of his being should be devoted to God. It is at this stage that the faith of Muslims has been named Islam, which means to be wholly devoted to God and to keep nothing back.” [2]
Religion is a human necessity or a manual for humankind so the number of religions we see today is not because God wasn’t able to send one religion (God forbid) but it was because human development had not reached a stage to accept a universal faith. The foundation message brought by the Prophets of all religions was to worship One Omnipotent God. This can be proven if we explore the history of Australian Aborigine tribes.
A genetic study had found that Aboriginal Australians are descendants of the first people to leave Africa up to 75,000 years ago, confirming that they are the oldest continuous culture on the Earth.[3] Around five hundred to six hundred such Aboriginal tribal units had their independent history of social and religious development, throughout an age of twenty-five to forty thousand years, in complete isolation from each other except for occasional marginal contacts at the boundaries of their territories. But these contacts were so brief and ineffective to transfer their ideologies, beliefs, myths and superstitions to each other.
His Holiness Mirza Tahir Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him) has written in great detail in his book “Revelation, Rationality, Knowledge and Truth” about the concept of God prevalent in the Australian Aborigine tribes: He wrote: “In all the tribes of Australia including the Aborigine tribes, without exception, there exists a belief in one Supreme Power, who is the first cause of all creation. Their descriptions differ on minor points and their terminology varies slightly, but according to the consensus of the sociologists and anthropologists, they all invariably believe in the existence of that ultimate first cause called ‘High Gods’—another name for Allah, God, Brahmâ and Parmatama etc.” [4]
So by following religion, humankind evolved and developed in the most beneficial way, not only in the spiritual domain but also with regards to material and worldly progress.
All religions that have come in the world were sent by God Almighty through His honourable Prophets. “Oneness of God” was the origin of ALL religions. The Prophets in the past were only sent for specific nations, tribes and people and so the teaching brought by those Prophets was incomplete. However, as humankind evolved in its intellectual, spiritual, material and worldly progress, God Almighty introduced a unique and perfect religion, Islam, to the world which became the pinnacle of religious evolution because it combined the best features of the earlier teachings with the everlasting and comprehensive teachings of its own.
As said by Allah Almighty in the Holy Qur’an: “Therein are the everlasting teachings.” (98:4) [5]
References:
[1] https://www.alislam.org/quran/98:4
[2] The Essence of Islam Volume I: “Progressive Development by Following Islam”, Page 12 https://www.alislam.org/books/Essence-1.pdf
[4] Revelation, Rationality, Knowledge & Truth by Mirza Tahir Ahmad: Part III, “The Concept of God among the Aborigines of Australia”. https://www.alislam.org/library/books/revelation/part_3_section_2.html
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