March 2004: Page 1, 2, 3, 4

Submitters Perspective

Page 2

Religion of Submission

cont'd from page 2

 

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.

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

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).