The Religion of Isaac and Abraham

The next verse to look at is Sūrah 2, verse 133. The verse says: were you witnesses when death came to Jacob, Yaʿqūb? Behold, he said to his sons: what will you worship after me? They said: we shall worship your God and the God of your fathers, of Abraham, Ishmael, and Isḥāq, or Isaac — the one true God, to whom we submit.

In the Arabic it says: wa naḥnu lahu muslimūn — and to Him we are Muslims. So here is an idea about the previous tradition; because it should be remembered that this is the Qurʾān coming, and the Prophet Muhammad is teaching this Qurʾān, and there is an idea, certainly in most people's minds, that Islam is the religion of Muhammad. This is the idea that most people have. What is being emphasised here is something else: this is the religion also of Isaac, of Abraham, because they are saying: we are submitting to your God and the God of those who went before you, and we are Muslims. So the second definition is Islam as guidance from prophets. Islam as guidance from prophets, irrespective of one individual prophet, like the Prophet Muhammad, or Jesus, or Moses, or Buddha, if he was one, or Krishna — who knows; there are prophets we do not know about. The Qurʾān says: some of them We have told you their stories, and others We have not. But there is definitely an idea in the Qurʾān that Islam is the teaching of all of these prophets.

Now the third aspect is Islam as the religion of the Prophet Muhammad. So the Qurʾān is telling us that every creature is in submission to God; the Qurʾān is telling us that previous prophets were teaching Islam as a religion; and then there is the idea that this is the religion, because there is a verse in the Qurʾān that says: today I have perfected your dīn, and I am content with Islam as your religion.

That was on the final ḥajj, the pilgrimage of the Prophet; he said this in front of a multitude. So this is that the final form of this Islam was perfected in the Prophet Muhammad. This is how the Muslims view Islam.

Now one will meet many Muslims who might not have this idea, because, like many Christians, they have never studied their book; they have never really — they are nominal Muslims. They were born Muslim. They might believe it because their fathers told them that this is true; or because, like many people in this country, they have fond childhood memories of Christmas, things like that, and so they relate to Christianity, or to their Judaism, whatever it may be. For many people this is really, at bottom, why they are what they are: because they were born into a certain environment. So a person born in Sri Lanka might be Buddhist; born in China, a Taoist or a Confucianist; born in America, a person could be following any of a myriad of teachings — even, now, paganism. There is a woman in Santa Cruz who is raising her child as a pagan, quite consciously. They have altars to different gods, like the moon goddess, and things of that kind in the house, and that is how she is raising her child. And this will become more and more common as people begin to break off. The homogeneity of previous periods is really breaking down; as one of the poets said, the centre is no longer holding. We are really seeing a breakdown of what some would call the grand narrative of cultures. That is probably not true in the Muslim world to the extent that it is in the West, for a number of reasons; but certainly here it is being seen.