Not Just Another Faith

“Can someone who professes belief, sin, and if they do then does that take them into hypocrisy?”

“Belief is profession, but if it is more than that, then how does it translate into the visible?”

Asssalamu Aleikum brothers. 

May you have a blessed Jumaa’, and I hope one filled with contemplation. 

The above questions are interesting, and more so when we compare them with the answers given by our Abrahamic cousins. 

However with the prior Nations, the Jews and Christians, belief is an exclusive trait, one to be protected to the exclusion of all else, even that is when they pray for others’ souls. 

Whilst there is a tendency in Islam to follow on from our religious predecessors, two things exert a break on us becoming just another faith. 

One is that we are informed in Surah Araf (the Heights, S7) that all mankind was drawn from the loins of Adam (as), and on the plains of Arafat were made to swear a sacred covenant that we would all only ever worship the One True Creator, who is Infinitely Merciful, Most Gracious . 

That covenant was exactingly similar to the covenant taken from the Jews. But with the Muslim Nation we are told that it was taken from all of the Children of Adam. 

It is this covenant that no man, nor woman, can recall, that exerts itself when any man, or woman, suffers and then calls on God for aid. 

Muslims also believe that it is this covenant that is also reflected in the natural disposition (the fitra) that is evident in all men, and all women, and more easily seen in all children who instinctively know what is right and what is wrong, what is just and what is unjust, what is good and what is bad. 

The second brake on us making our belief an exclusive one; to the exclusion of everyone else; is that it is an article of our faith that we believe that every Nation was sent their own prophet, and that we affirm them all as true. 

That all Nations of the World, and every age, were sent people, from amongst themselves, to remind them of the One True God and the path toward Him. And that therefore true belief is international, having no sectarian nor nationalistic basis. 

And then this belief, in the oneness of mankind and the universality of true belief, was made real and concrete at Israa, and Miraj. 

There the Messenger (saw) was taken in a single night to Jerusalem, there to lead thousands of those international Prophets, and Messengers, representing the whole mankind, in one distinctly Muslim prayer. 

Indeed in one of the most powerful and beautiful verses of Surah Baqara we are informed about the universality of our belief...

“It is not birr ( righteousness) that you turn your face to the east or to the west” (s2, v177) 

which then follows on with an explanation of what true belief looks like, after that is first emphasising, to us, it’s universality. 

Remember, that this verse was revealed in Medina, the city of the Messenger (saw), where the believers initially faced Jerusalem in prayer which was to its North. And then their qibla (direction of prayer) was changed to the Ancient House- at Mecca- to their south. 

And yet the verse here talks of East and West, not North and South. 

Indeed it is our faith that is truly universal, open to all, welcoming of everyone. And that’s truly amazing. 

Evident in our Salat, evident on the Hajj, and evident in our beliefs. 

What I have said here is my opinion. If it is wrong then that wrong belongs to me. 

Knowledge is sought through study and contemplation, not via lectures, nor speeches, nor this above.