A Convert to the Religion of Islam is not a Revert to Al-Islam

Abraham was an ordinary person like you and I. He was the son of an idol maker. God chose him as a Messenger of God (Qur’an 16:121) after He saw that Abraham was not afraid to question what he, his father and his community leaders believed (6:74, 26:75, 37:83-87). This is because God thought highly of those who used their intellect, vision, etc, to determine the Truth (Qur’an 38:45-46, 39:9). 

Therefore, before God chose Abraham as His Messenger, Abraham did the following:

1.  He refused to worship the idols of his father because he reasoned that the idols did not have God-like attributes of God. (Qur’an 6:74, 21:52, 26:72-73).

2.  When he wanted to know from his father why he worshipped idols which could not hear or benefit him, his father said he saw his ancestors do so. (21:53, 26:74).

3.  To Abraham such a belief system based on tradition, which did not make sense, was not worth following. (21:54).

4.  And when he began to study the worship of the celestial bodies, he noticed that they too did also not have God-like attributes of God because they functioned according to the Laws of the One Who had created them. (Qur’an 6:75-83, 37:88-89)

5.  From this knowledge of the celestial bodies, Abraham deduced that the Creator of our entire universe was God and that he (Abraham), as the vicegerent of God, had to follow the secular and scientific path of all God’s creations, which reflected the “Deen of Allah” (God’s Way of Life), (Qur’an 3:83, 3:19).

6.  Unlike the Atheists of our time, Abraham was able to deduce from “the laws of Nature and the wider universe” that the Creator of our universe was God, because he (Abraham) was “haneef (a person of pure natural belief)”, (Qur’an 3:95, 4:125, 6:161, 16:120, 16:123).

7.  In other words, he did not establish any knowledge of his Faith by following the “blind faith” methodology of Religion or the “science-based, evidence-based” methodology of Modern Science. 

8.  He established “certainty of knowledge” according to the methodology of ilm-ul-yaqin (certainty of knowledge by inference or reasoning), ayn-ul-yaqin (certainty of knowledge by seeing and observing) and haqq-ul-yaqin (absolute knowledge, like this is laptop, etc), like plants and animals do. 

Therefore, in view of the above, when God asked Abraham to “Become Muslim (ie submit his will to the Will of God), Abraham said, “I am Muslim (ie I have submitted to the Lord of the worlds”, (Qur’an 2:131, 2:127-130, 2:132, 3:84).

During the time of Abraham, the most basic form of Revealed Knowledge was God’s Work in “Nature and the wider universe”, (Qur’an 6:75-79). Since “the laws of Nature and the wider universe” did not change with space and time, all Messengers of God used it with the Guidance of God (Word of God) to establish one Standard way of life (AdDeeni Haneefan) for all humans, both secular and religious.

For example, all Messengers of God did not “worship” God. They “served” Him as “vicegerents” in the same way the sun, moon, stars, mountains, trees, etc., “served” God for the purpose He created them, and did not “worship” Him. Likewise, they established “certainty of knowledge” according to the methodology of ilm-ul-yaqin, ayn-ul-yaqin and haqq-ul-yaqin, like plants and animals do.

In the light of this, their “salaat” was not a “prayer”. It was a “pledge” to God that they will function in all aspects of their lives according to the “Word of God” only, which they recited in the standing position of their “salaat”, (Qur’an 7:29). And likewise, their “imam” or “Aalim” was not a “religious teacher”. He was a “reason and science teacher”, and so on.

Some of their reasons for using the Word of God in the context of God’s Work in Nature were as follows:

1.  It was to establish one Standard way of life (AdDeeni Haneefan) for all humans, both secular and religious, over all time and place.

2.  It was to establish the Truth and Reality of human life outside the man-made knowledge of Religion and Secularism.

3.  It was to remain in touch, as vicegerents of God, with the Deen of Allah (Qur’an 3:83), which was reflected in “the laws of Nature and the wider universe”. 

4.  It was to remind them that they belonged to the animal kingdom and that they had to establish a higher level of human civilization based on “the laws of Nature and the wider universe” with the Guidance of God.

Abraham was a perfect example of a Revert to Islam. After rejecting the idols of his father, he did not take to the worship of the celestial bodies as an alternative. He investigated them thoroughly to deduce that they also did not have God-like attributes of God and it was their Creator, and of the universe Who was God.

In addition to the above, the Qur’an states, “God created different nations and tribes (of different sights and sounds) from a single male and female”, (Qur’an 49:13). Here we are told not to despise the people of different sights and sounds because their sights and sounds are their God-given Diversities in their pure form just like those of ours and that we must help them preserve their national identity within their national borders by integrating and assimilating with them according to the injunctions of the Qur’an.  

Therefore, in the context of the above, when one recites the Shahada, one fails to become a Muslim according to the Creeds of Abraham and the worldview teachings of Tawhid (unity and universality), because one fails, not only to establish one Standard way of life (AdDeeni Haneefan) for all humans, both secular and religious, outside the realms of Religion and Secularism, but also because one fails to protect the ethnicity (the God-given diversity) of all nations and tribes within their national borders.

For example, when one recites the Shahada and Converts to the Religion of Islam, one is not doing anything good but plunging from one Religion to another, which has more religious sects than Judaism and Christianity and which does not tolerate the ethnic diversities of other nation as a Convert. This is because it asks the Convert to change his or her name to a so-called Muslim name, keep a beard and wear a kurtha as a Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (s) if he is a male, and don the headscarf, hijab, niqab, etc, if she is a female, which is totally against the knowledge of the Qur’an.

Therefore, the best way to Revert to Islam (submit your will to the Lord of the worlds), like did Abraham and all the Messengers of God in all the nations of the world, would be to take your Book of God, which was Revealed to your Messenger of God, and use it in the context of God’s Work in Nature to establish one Standard way of life for all humans, both secular and religious. In this way you will not break your relationship with your family, community and Church, Temple, fear Islam, etc, to create a world which will free all of us from Religion, Secularism and ethnic division or racism.

AK Sayed