As-salaam alaikum
Okay, so I'm in the second chapter and the fourth verse interested me (that would be 2:4, right?).
"And who believe in that which has been revealed to thee and that which was revealed before thee, and of the Hereafter they are sure."
I looked at the footnotes and it explained that this is the the fourth of the fundamental principles of Islam: a belief in all prophets and truths in all religions worldwide, "that God has always been made known to man through Divine revelation, and that revelation is a universal fact."
That intrigues me. If I'm understanding this right, you believe that all religions are inspired by God, right? And if so, what do you think of people of other religions?
This is a good question, for some added insight here's another exegis on the highlighted verse "And who believe in that which has been bestowed from on high upon thee, [O Prophet,] as well as in that which was bestowed before thy time: [5] for it is they who in their innermost are certain of the life to come! [Surah Bakarah Ayah 4]"
M Asad said:
This is a reference to one of the fundamental doctrines of the Qur'an: the doctrine of the historical continuity of divine revelation. Life - so the Qur'an teaches us - is not a series of unconnected jumps but a continuous, organic process: and this law applies also to the life of the mind, of which man's religious experience (in its cumulative sense) is a part. Thus, the religion of the Qur'an can be properly understood only against the background of the great monotheistic faiths which preceded it, and which, according to Muslim belief, culminate and achieve their final formulation in the faith of Islam.(Quran Ref: 2:4 )
Emphasis mine. This verse and the verse preceding it are related to verse 2:2 which is proclaiming that this is the book wherein there is no doubt for those who are conscious of Allah, so that these people who find guidance in the Qur'an have these attributes (such as being in constant prayer, spending the rizq provided by Allah on others and those who believe that there were Prophets before Muhammad and as the Prophet Muhammad being the culmination of all these revelatory scriptures and messengers)
dendrophilous said:
The next few verses talk of disbelievers. Is this in reference to people who don't believe in God, or people of other religions in general?
Two types of people are introduced those who disbelieve (kuffar) in 2:6 and those who give lie to their belief (the hypocrites called munafiqoon) in 2:8. Of those who disbelieve
M Asad said:
In contrast with the frequently occurring term al-kafirun ("those who deny the truth"), the use of the past tense in alladhina kafaru indicates conscious intent, and is, therefore, appropriately rendered as "those who are bent on denying the truth". This interpretation is supported by many commentators, especially Zamakhshari (who, in his commentary on this verse, uses the expression, "those who have deliberately resolved upon their kufr"). Elsewhere in the Qur'an such people are spoken of as having "hearts with which they fail to grasp the truth, and eyes with which they fail to see, and ears with which they fail to hear" (7:179). - For an explanation of the terms kufr ("denial of the truth"), kafir ("one who denies the truth"), etc., see note 4 on 74:10, where this concept appears for the first time in Qur'anic revelation.(Quran Ref: 2:6 )
And for additional information on this term for disbelief and the disbelievers
M Asad said:
Since this is the earliest Qur'anic occurrence of the expression kafir (the above surah having been preceded only by the first five verses of surah 96), its use here - and, by implication, in the whole of the Quran - is obviously determined by the meaning which it had in the speech of the Arabs before the advent of the Prophet Muhammad: in other words, the term kafir cannot be simply equated, as many Muslim theologians of post-classical times and practically all Western translators of the Quran have done, with "unbeliever" or "infidel" in the specific, restricted sense of one who rejects the system of doctrine and law promulgated in the Quran and amplified by the teachings of the Prophet - but must have a wider, more general meaning. This meaning is easily grasped when we bear in mind that the root verb of the participial noun kafir (and of the infinitive noun kufr) is kafara, "he [or "it"] covered [a thing]": thus, in 57:20 the tiller of the soil is called (without any pejorative implication) kafir, "one who covers", i.e., the sown seed with earth, just as the night is spoken of as having "covered" (kafara) the earth with darkness. In their abstract sense, both the verb and the nouns derived from it have a connotation of "concealing" something that exists or "denying" something that is true. Hence, in the usage of the Quran - with the exception of the one instance ((in 57:20) where this participial noun signifies a "tiller of the soil" - a kafir is "one who denies [or "refuses to acknowledge"] the truth" in the widest, spiritual sense of this latter term: that is, irrespective of whether it relates to a cognition of the supreme truth - namely, the existence of God - or to a doctrine or ordinance enunciated in the divine writ, or to a self-evident moral proposition, or to an acknowledgment of, and therefore gratitude for, favours received. (Regarding the expression alladhinakafaru, implying conscious intent, see surah 2, note 6.) (Quran Ref: 74:10)
So what to learn from this? Firstly that when we are talking about the kuffar it is not a simple disbelief in Islam but rather actively concealing belief from your own self (as stated by Asad above). What you must remember is that the Qur'an was spread by the Prophet orally and transmitted to both the disbelievers and believers alike. The original Meccan kuffar were those who plae candle wax in their ears "so as not to be swayed by the magic of this utterance" and those who would witness the Prophet and hold his values to be just be go on disbelieving givings excuses such as "we cannot abandon the religion of our fathers". So a kaffir requires active disbelief when presented with the message and it is actually a warning to those who are reading the Qur'an presently as well, to approach it with an open heart as opposed to those who would bury and conceal this message.
dendrophilous said:
What do you think happens to people of other religions after death? Does Allah still smile upon them too, because their religion was still inspired by him?
I think it's important to first consider a few premises before asking this question of what Muslims think happens to others
1. God exists
2. We exist to worship God as every other creation does, we are unique in that our worship is done from our own will.
3. Islam is the last revelation by God sent to humanity detailing how to worship him.
Now my brother Union has posted verses of great relevance and correctly stated that there is no crime which is unforgivable aside from shirk because it debases the idea of God himself as well as our principle motive in worshiping him. As Asad states "God's transcendental oneness and uniqueness aims at freeing man from all sense of dependence on other influences and powers, and thus at elevating him spiritually and bringing about the purification [of man]" but this is ideal for man to purify himself by depending on Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala (the Golorius and Exalted) is vitiated by shirk (which is multifaceted and includes things like worship of wealth and all the material things this world has to offer but instead at this point we should simply understand it as something that distracts from the absolute transcendence of Allah from anything else).
Imam Ghazali (a great theologian and commentator of classical Islam and giant of Islamic mysticism) said after our Prophet was sent, people who do not believe are divided into three categories:
1st category: Those who did not hear the call of the Prophet and who were not informed about the Prophet. This group will definitely go to Paradise.
2nd category: The people who saw the state of the miracles shown by the Prophet and heard about his high ethics but who did not believe. This group will definitely go to Hell.
3rd category: It is the group between those two groups. They heard about the name of the Prophet But they did not hear about his characteristics. More precisely, They had known our Prophet ,since they were young, as God forbid an impostor whose name is Muhammad and who claimed to be a prophet. They heard nothing but negative propaganda about the Prophet; just like our children who heard about Musaylama al-Kadhdhab as an impostor who claimed to be a prophet.
Imam Ghazali does not make a definite judgment about them but he adds the following In my opinion, their state is like that of the first category; That is, like those who did not hear about our Prophet because they heard the name of our Prophet with the attributes that are opposite to his characteristics. This does not lead a person to think about it and to investigate it. (from
this article which also goes in greater detail as well as the beliefs of two other great Imams of Islamic creed)
You might also be interested in this short video which further explains the above
[youtube]fqZpNj76HtI[/youtube]
Are Paul Walker & Nelson Mandela Going To Hell?
