Is Islam an Exclusivist Belief?

 

 

Demystifying Islam

 by Dr. Ali Shehata

 

Is Islam an Exclusivist Belief?

Returning to the definition of Islam first provided in the opening chapter, Islam is the religion of all people who submit themselves completely to the will of the One God from the beginning of time till the end of the world.  And God has said concerning this belief:

 

And whoever seeks a religion other than Islam, it will not be accepted from him and he will be amongst the losers in the Hereafter. {3:85}

 

And He also reveals in that same surah of the Quran:

 

And verily the only religion in the sight of God is Islam {3:19}

 

So, without doubt, Islam is an exclusivist belief. As seen in the verses of the Quran listed above, whoever comes before the Almighty in the Hereafter believing anything else shall be consigned to eternal punishment. What then if a person lived and the message of Islam never reached them during their lifetime and there was no reasonable way for them to obtain such knowledge? Or if the message of Islam they received - from either a sinful and misguided Muslim person or a biased book - was so distorted with inaccuracy, error and/or hypocrisy that they were, in fact, rejecting this false message and not true Islam? Such people will then be tested by God on the Day of Judgment – but such people are a very small minority.

 

Indeed, God states clearly and repeatedly in the Quran, “And God is not unjust to His servants” {3:182, 8:51, and 22:10} and the Prophet Muhammad pbuh also states in one Hadith,

And no one is fonder of accepting an excuse than Allah. For this reason, He has sent Messengers as announcers of glad tidings and warnings. [Bukhari] 

 

To this end, the insane, mentally challenged and children before the age of puberty will not have any judgment and will have no accountability, because in Islam accountability requires understanding. Thus, God gives mankind all the opportunity to be guided aright, and in the rare case that this guidance doesn’t reach them, nor do they have the ability to sincerely seek it out due to lack of correct information, then He will deal with them justly in the Hereafter. 

 

What makes Islam different in regards to its exclusivity is that, once again, it is the faith of all the believers from the first generation of humanity till its last. When one looks at other faiths in comparison, you find that all other religions tie their salvation – if any – to a certain person or idea that came long after many civilizations had existed on earth. 

 

For example, in Christianity, a person must accept Jesus as their personal savior in order to attain salvation, yet Jesus came near the end of life on earth (according to Christian and Muslim beliefs). Most people agree that if Jesus was really the key to salvation that he should have been sent to people at the beginning of creation, not towards its end. Is it consistent with the justice and logic that God demonstrates all around us that He tie salvation to something that the majority of humanity weren’t able to experience because they lived before its time?  

 

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