Topic: Do all paths lead to the same God?
"Imagine, for example, that three blind men are touching an elephant. The first blind man is holding on to the elephant's leg. He explains, "I think an elephant is like the trunk of a great tree." The second blind man disagrees. "No, I believe an elephant is like a snake," he says while holding the elephant's trunk. The third blind man responds, "No, you both are wrong, an elephant is like a wall." (He is touching the elephant's side.) Each blind man thinks he is right and that the others are wrong even though all three of them are all touching the same elephant. In a similar way, is it not possible that all religions are in contact with the same ultimate reality and merely describe it in different ways?"
I know it sounds like a distinctly pagan thing but is it Shirk to believe that all religious paths lead to Allah?
Especially considering (as i understand it) we believe that Moses John Jesus etc were jewish and christian accordingly and God favoured Them. So what effect does this label have? We believe that while they were christian, it was christians praying to the rightful one God and jewish people when it was Judaism, so could they not be still now?
But what about context? Islam wasn't around then so they only had what they had, now that the TRUTH truth has been revealed, they have every oppurtunity to find this out for themselves.
What of eternity? Will devout Jewish/Christian/Sikh people be tried like Muslims?
On a more selfish note, am i a heretic committing sacrilege by asking these questions? I'd thought it was a fine thing to believe till i suggested it in Philosophy and everyone was all ShockHorror.
Does it make you any less of a Muslim to believe non-Muslims are praying to Allah?
Comments
I like this topic especially the beginning.
We just need someone who knows about these things to answer.
Unlike for Christiand and (maybe) for Jews, the label is important for Muslims - the label is mentioned in the qur'an itself instead of being a label created elsewhere by others in order to explain and to group.
As for christians. Jews and others, it is not that there was no truth before Islam - there was. Any messengers sent by God were on the true path. While there may have been differences of some teaching (the time when Prophet Moses (as) met with Khidhr (as)), but the main messages of there being one God was the same, the rest were tailored to meet that time and community.
We believe that over time the messages become corrupted, not that they started off that way.
This gets slightly complicated by the Christians. While believe in One God and we can and do accept that it is the same as the Muslims, can we for the Christians? It is less open and cut because they believe Jesus was God. So at the minimum there is a misunderstanding where they are conflating two things into one.
How will God try people? the "cheating" answer is "however He so wishes". That is also the most accurate. It also gets more complicated - if someone willingly chooses to ignore guidance, should they be tried in accordance to that? What if they genuinely were not convinced? What about circumstance?
There are many questions and there is a speech by Hamza Yusuf that Sully linked to at some point which asks these questions and it was of the idea that "being Muslim is not enough". It was interesting but I do not want to paraphrase as I may have got things mixed up and make things look far more hunky dory than they are.
"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.
RY- do you mind if I copy and paste your answer to someone who keeps asking me questions please?
Go for it, but be aware that it was sort of off the cuff.
Islam is the one way that is close to guaranteed to get people to paradise if they act upon it.
"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.
Thanks.
She will probably ask MORE questions and if she does...I will post them up here.
However jsut to add more - we believe that
1. a person must be monotheistic - shirk being unforgiveable.
2. For people not following Islam, it is generally thought that they must not have come across Islam in its true intent (or not had the possibility to - so ignorance may not be bliss). If however they willingly rejected Islam, that may pose a problem.
Either way, 1: I am not a scholar, 2: God will Judge according to however He so wishes.
"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.
Thanks for feedback guys :]
#Before you look at the thorns of the rose , look at it's beauty. Before you complain about the heat of the sun , enjoy it's light. Before you complain about the blackness of the night, think of it's peace and quiet... #