There Can Be Muslims Within Every Religion

Salaamun alaykum, dear readers!

This article is about one of the revelations received from God by Rashad Khalifa.

As it was established in one of this masjid’s foundational articles, the Quran stated in verse 3:81 that the prophets all took a covenant to support a messenger who will come after them, confirming their scriptures beyond a doubt. Verse 33:7 stated that the prophet Muhammad himself took this covenant, thus providing double-confirmation that this messenger is to come after Muhammad.

You can read about him in this article here: Quran Declares: New Messenger After Prophet Muhammad – Masjid at-Tajdeed

Purification and Consolidation of All Religions

In 1989, he mentioned that he received a “new proclamation” from God to convey, that people of all religions must purify, unify, and consolidate their religions into one religion: Islam.

He also said God’s new proclamation is that all who believe in God (regardless of whether one is a Jew, Christian, Hindu, Sikh, or whatever other belief system they practice) will be considered as Muslims and be granted salvation if they forget all idols and devote themselves totally to God alone.

He wrote four consecutive newsletters in his “Muslim Perspective” newsletter talking about this new proclamation (the July, August, September, and October 1989 editions). In those newsletters, here are the names that Rashad calls this proclamation:

• “Divine call to all believers in God”
• “God’s designed and perfectly-timed proclamation”
• “This divine proposal”
• “Divine intervention to save all believers in God”
• “New proclamation from our Creator”
• “His invitation to unity”
• “God’s proclamation”
• “Divine plan destined for inevitable enforcement”
• “God’s message of unification and purification”

In short, one does not have to follow the Quran to be considered a Muslim.

Rather, the bare minimum criteria for being saved from the Hellfire according to this new proclamation that Rashad received is to believe and worship God alone.

That means if one is a Hindu for example, they don’t necessarily have to follow the Quran. The way they “purify” their faith is that instead of worshipping multiple gods and goddesses, all of their Hindu rituals and worship practices must be dedicated to the one, almighty God alone.

It’s the same thing for Native Americans or people who follow other indigenous religions: they can continue all of their religious practices and worship rituals and ceremonies, but to purify their faith, those rituals and ceremonies must be dedicated to one God, and they must forget their belief in other divine gods and goddesses.

For Christians, they must reject the divinity of Jesus and dedicate their worship rituals (such as the Eucharist for example) to God alone. Instead of thinking of the Eucharist as eating the “body and blood of Christ”, a Christian must think of the Eucharist as an expression of gratitude for God’s provisions, for example, and dedicate the Eucharist to God alone rather than Jesus. If they want to celebrate Christmas, they must stop thinking of it as celebrating the “birth of God the Son” and just think of it as a day of festivity and increased worship, gratitude, and remembrance of God alone.

For Catholics, they must stop praying to saints as intermediaries, and stop believing in the divinity of Jesus, and instead pray to and worship God alone. The religious practices and rituals can remain unchanged, but the object of devotion or dedication must be switched from other deities, saints, and idols, to God alone, in order for the religion to be “purified”.

When the religion is purified, it automatically gets unified and consolidated under the banner of Islam. That’s because Islam is the Arabic term for submission to God alone. And if a Christian, Buddhist, or Hindu purifies their faith in this manner, they become Muslim (which in Arabic means one who submits, or a submitter) regardless of what they call themselves, because they are devoting themselves to God alone and submitting to the command of God to purify their existing faiths.

There would no need to be divided any longer as they are our brothers in religion just like those who believe in and follow the Quran. They won’t technically be “Mu’min” (believer, which is a higher category than Muslim) but God will still count them as Muslim because they have purified and consolidated their faiths under Islam by dedicating all acts of worship and devotion to God alone.

So there can be Christian Muslims, Jewish Muslims, Hindu Muslims, Sikh Muslims, and more, as long as they purify their current system of belief by switching their object of worship, veneration, and devotion to God alone.

Quranic Evidence

Now if you think this is crazy, or nonsense, or you believe that Rashad Khalifa is a madman, then know that the Quran itself already said this 1400 years before.

Verses 2:62 and 5:69 plainly says that whether one is a Jew, Christian, or convert, any person whatsoever who believes in God and the Last Day, and does righteous deeds, those will be saved, and they will not have any reason to be afraid or grieve. So these verses are quite self-explanatory.

• Just to clarify, the Last Day is the day where everyone will be held accountable by God for their actions.

• [2:62] Indeed, the ones who have believed, and the ones who have been Jews, Christians, and converts, whoever believed in God and the Last Day, and did righteous deeds, their reward with their Lord is thus for them; no fear will be upon them, nor will they grieve.

It is worth noting that verse 3:19 and 3:85 says the only acceptable religion is Islam, and those who seeks a religion other than Islam will be losers in the afterlife. So if verse 2:62 says anyone who believes in God and the Last Day will be saved and go to Heaven regardless of whether they identify as Jewish, Christian, or anything else, then logically, what do you think that means?

• Obviously, it means any Jew, Christian, Hindu, Sikh, and others who believes in God and the Last Day, and does rigteous deeds, is a Muslim by Quranic law. It is very straightforward.

And why is believing in “the Last Day” a requirement? Why not just believe in God and do good deeds?

• That’s because if believing in God and doing good deeds is a requirement to be saved, there has to one day be a final period of judgement to establish whether a person actually fulfilled the conditions or not, and to reward and punish the people accordingly.

• Thus, worshipping a God that mandates belief and doing good deeds as a requirement of salvation logically necessitates belief in “the Last Day”.

Additionally, God’s invitation to unity that Rashad conveyed (that every person who worships God alone and forgets all idols will be saved) is similar to the invitation to an “equal agreement” given to prophet Muhammad in the Quran, verse 3:64:

• [3:64] Say, “O People of the Book, come to an equal agreement between us and you; that we shall not worship except God, and that we would never associate anything with Him, nor that we would take one another as lords besides God.” If they turn away, then say, “Bear witness that we are Muslims.”

• If you look closely at verse 3:64, it says to tell those who turn away from the “equal agreement” that “we (those who accept the equal agreement) are Muslims”.

But there is an important question: Can you meet the three minimum criteria of salvation (believe and worship God alone, do righteous deeds, believe in the Last Day) but reject Muhammad’s messengership?

• The answer is no. The Quran does not allow following the message without accepting and acknowledging the messengers who sent it (verses 4:150-152). That includes Muhammad, and that also includes Rashad.

• The only exceptions are: (1) if one is genuinely unaware that Muhammad or Rashad Khalifa conveyed this message of unity, and (2) if one has not been informed of any solid proof of their messengership. That’s because verse 2:286 states that no one is assigned any responsibility outside his or her capacity, and having sincere faith in someone without learning the proofs for that person’s messengership is beyond a person’s capacity, unless that person grew up in a Muslim household.

• Otherwise, most Sunni and Shia Muslims (who meet all the minimum requirements, but are unaware of Rashad’s messengership) would be condemned to Hell. And the Muslims who have been made aware that Rashad Khalifa declared messengership have the right to demand proof before accepting him. Any rejection after solid proof has been presented and all doubts have been addressed is, unfortunately, a one-way ticket to Hell.

• [4:150-152] Those who disbelieve in God and His messengers and seek to separate between God and His messengers, saying, “We believe in some and disbelieve in some,” and wish to pursue a path in between; those are the true disbelievers. We have prepared for the disbelievers a humiliating punishment. As for those who believe in God and His messengers and do not distinguish between any of them, He will grant those their rewards. Indeed, God is Forgiver, Merciful.

• [2:286] God does not assign any self except its capacity…

Conclusion

It is very interesting to note how merciful and flexible God is in Islam. There is the age of 40 threshold in the Quran where all who die before 40 years will go to Heaven due to not being held accountable for their deeds or their faith (found in verse 46:15 and revealed through the Messenger of the Covenant). Click this link for more explanation.

There is also the bare minimum requirements found in 2:62 for going to Heaven (believing in and worshipping God alone, believing in the Last Day, and doing good deeds), regardless of what faith system you follow, as long as you acknowledge all of God’s messengers and scriptures upon coming across the evidence that they are from God.

And if you do not even meet the minimum cr0iteria, God will use your personal capacity to determine whether you should be held accountable for not doing so (by taking into account your genetics, intelligence, environment, exposure to evidence, and other personal circumstances) according to verse 2:286, which says no self is assigned except its capacity. The same criterion will be used to evaluate your culpability for any bad deed that you commit.

And also, regarding good deeds, each good deed is rewarded with at least 10 times its actual worth (the Quran also mentions the reward for a good deed possibly being as high as 700 times its worth) but each bad deed is only repaid with what it is actually worth.

• This means it is at least 10–700 times easier to tip the scale (that will measure the weight of good deeds and bad deeds on Judgement Day) on the side of the good deeds.

Wen taking all of this into account, God makes it very easy for the people to avoid Hell. Now the question is whether the people will take up this chance or not.