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.
Therefore, if you believe and regularly worship one benevolent and almighty God alone without other deities, believe in a final judgement day, and live your life as a good person by doing good deeds, then congratulations, you are a Muslim (one who submits himself or herself to God) even if you didn’t realize it all this time, and regardless of whatever label you choose to go by or whatever belief system you are following.
Additionally, God’s invitation to unity that Rashad conveyed is similar to the invitation to unity 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 we read this verse together with verse 2:62, we see that any Jew or Christian who accepts this agreement of pure monotheism, they will be considered Muslims by God and will be saved and will have nothing to fear.
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 all the messengers who sent it (verses 4:150-151). That includes Muhammad, and that also includes Rashad.
- With that being said though, God does not assign any self any responsibility beyond its capacity (verse 2:286). That means no one will be held accountable for rejecting Muhammad as God’s messenger until the evidence for his messengership has been clearly explained and demonstrated to them, yet they still rejected him.
- [2:286] God does not assign to any self except its capacity…
- [6:131] That is because your Lord will not annihilate the towns for wrongdoing while their people are unaware.
- [3:105] And do not be like the ones who separated and differed after what came to them of the clear proofs; for those is a great punishment.
- [47:25] Those who turned back in their tracks after the guidance became clear to them; it was the devil who enticed them and led them on.
- [4:40] God does not inflict an atom’s weight of injustice, and if it is a good deed, God multiplies it and grants a great reward from Him.
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 criteria, 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.
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