Question:
Salam,
Dear Shaykh,
What is the opinion of scholars about the person (claims to be Muslim) who says following:
“I think all religions have the same source. They lead to the same source. All religions basically talk about compassion and about justice, which is basically what differentiates from the animal kingdom… And in my opinion, all the Prophets sent by The Almighty on this earth delivered the same message. And basically the core message of religions is the same. And so, you know, we should respect each other’s religion. There should not be a competition. People should be each to his own. And I find this religious nationalism basically against the ethos of religion, of spirituality. And I find that, you know, when one religion tries to condemn another religion and tries to say that one is superior to the other, I think that’s where the problems begin.”
Wa-Salam.
Answer:
Alaykum Salam,
All religions do have the same source and do lead back to the same source; they do talk about compassion and justice; all the Prophets did deliver essentially the same message so that the core message of religions is indeed the same. In Islam it is impermissible to disagree with any of the preceding.
We must respect others but wrong-doers deserve no respect. We do compete in goodness and for goodness. Religion is not exclusively a private matter; it is also a public matter; we do not lose the balance. Nationalism is indeed separate from the ethos of religion and spirituality, and can definitely be against that ethos.
There is no such thing in reality as “one religion trying to condemn another religion” because in reality religion is one and it is surrender to the Almighty; however, mutual condemnation or competition in worldly terms is exactly that. It is from world-oriented discourse even when it claims to be speaking in the name of religion. It is anti-religion in the disguise of religion since the net result is to drive people away from religion.
Hajj Gibril Haddad
