Many observant Muslims believe that Islam has been corrupted with piles of innovations and falsehood, but the religion belongs to God and we cannot change anything to it from our end. In fact, Islam is a religion being practices of God’s religion of Monotheism cannot be corrupted except to abandon it. Thus, the real picture is those who are supposed to practice Islam have abandoned it inventing a new faith (religion) for them, while we know that there are about 4,300 religions in the world. According to the survey of adherents.com in 2019 there is over 1.9 billion Muslims as followers of Islam in the world, which is 24.9% of the world’s population, being the Quran is a source of knowledge and guidance revealed through Prophet Muhammad in 13 B.H (609 A.D). Even a vast number of people who are adherent to Islam or claim themselves Muslims do not practice except Muhammedanism based on hadith and sunnah discovered about 200 years after the death of Prophet Muhammad, and the Satan has adorned their deeds to them on the earth.
Monotheism and Submission
God has designed religion for humanity for their safe return to Him and has given Monotheism on which He has created mankind (30:30) and its Arabic counterpart is haneefan, which is not popular, not even among the observant Muslims except translating it to “upright”, which does not make any sense in the contexts. Thus, Monotheism being a name of a religion given by God has not got attention of many people, even we are born with it, and God has established a conviction in our hearts that there is no god except God (laa-ilaaha illaa allah):
[30:30] So, you (Muhammad) shall establish yourself to the religion of Monotheism (haneefan), an instinct of God which on it He has created mankind. There is no change of God’s creation. That is the established religion, but most of the people do not know.
[22:31] Monotheists (hunafaa-a) belong to God, not being those who associate partners with Him; and whoever associates partner(s) with God, then it is like that he had fallen from the sky, then the bird snatches him, or the wind blows of him to a far-off place.
[16:120] Indeed, Abraham has been a community of Monotheism (haneefan) being obedient to God, and he was not with the idol worshipers.
[4:125] And who has better religion than one who has submitted himself to God, and he is a good-doer and has followed a religion of Abraham, Monotheism (haneefan)? And God has chosen Abraham as a friend.
Submission being practices of Monotheism, were first given to Prophet Ibrahim who has been honored to be a father of Islam (22:78), and those who practice Submission are submitters, and its Arabic counterpart is Islam, which is popular being a name of a God given religion, even the Arabic word, Islam or al-islam is a verbal noun according to the Arabic grammar indicating practices of God’s religion of Monotheism:
[3:19] Indeed, the religion with God is Submission (Islam); and has not differed those who have been given the scripture except after what has come to them the knowledge out of jealousy between them. And whoever disbelieves in God’s revelations, then indeed, God is swift in the reckoning.
[3:85] And whoever seeks other than Submission (Islam) as religion, will not be accepted from him, and in the Hereafter, he will be with the losers.
[22:78] And you all shall strive in God of His true striving. He has chosen you and has made no difficulty upon you in the religion, a religion of your father Abraham. He (God) has named you the submitters (al-mus’limeena) before and in this that the messenger would be a witness over you, and you would be witnesses over the people. So, you shall establish the salat prayer and shall give the zakat, and shall hold fast to God; He is your Protector, so has been the excellent Protector and has been the excellent Supporter.
[2:132] And Abraham had enjoined his sons and Jacob with it: “O my sons, God has chosen the religion for you, so do not die except when you are submitters (mus’limuuna).”
Advent of Mullah in Islam and discovery of Hadith
History tells us that the period of Harun ar-Rashid marks one of the great periods of Islam. Until the death of Harun ar-Rashid in 809 CE, there was nothing like ‘Fatwa’ or ‘Sharia Laws’ in the Muslim domain, even when appointing Harthama as the governor of Khorasan, Harun ar-Rashid gave him a copy of the Quran and not a book of Sharia laws. But the table was turned around when al-Ma’mun, one of the sons of Harun ar-Rashid, recruited a huge number of mercenary, Judges and administrators from Turkey to prevent an Arab revolt. Unlike the Arabs, the Turks had little or no idea of the message of Islam and these circumstances allowed those Turks to justify Caliphs’ actions as adherent to Islamic legislation under the pretext of Prophet Muhammad’s precedents, known as the ‘Hadith’. Over the years, various Caliphs’ imprints of ruling crept into Islamic laws, ethics and customs despite the fact that a large number of the Hadith had severe contradictions with the Quran. The Hadith got eventually more prominence than the Quran itself. Fatwa and Sharia Laws took over general consensus. In about a century, the Islamic domain was made to appear as what existed in Christian Europe before the fifteenth century. Islamic lands were seen as an outer darkness of barbarism and unbelief from which there was nothing to learn or to fear.
History also tells us that attempts were made by the corruptors of Islam being inspired by the Satan to invent hadith and sunnah based on Muhammad’s saying and practices at the time when he was among the believers and also immediately after his death, but they were not successful for direct interference of prophet himself and Caliph Omar after him. But about 200 years after the death of Prophet Muhammad a huge number of hadith had been invented, and this time the distorters of Islam were successful not to have any protest or opposition against them. Thus, there are about 50 Hadith books and so many contradictions in them that it is almost impossible for anyone to go through all the books of hadith without getting confused and totally lost, especially if the person wants to examine what each different sect has to offer. That’s why the so-called Islamic universities are established to offer academic degrees in studying hadith to raise “learned men” of the religion. These students literally waste their time to learn all the details of their living in accordance with the supposed sayings and deeds of the prophet such as how to sleep, how to cut their nails or even how to step in and step out of the mosque as well as to explain the invented Islamic festivals including the fairy tales to many prophecies in the Quran. These ill-educated people organized themselves and claimed them to be religious experts having thorough and detailed knowledge of Islam. Thus, they took religion as their profession serving in the newly created religious institutions including mosques to lead the salat prayer as well as to lead the funeral prayer and other Islamic festivals as invented by them. Thus, they were recognized as religious leaders (scholars) and the Muslims began to follow the corrupt teachings and innovations of their religious leaders and fall into idol worship, even it is an unforgiveable sin.
Muhammedanism and Muhammedans
The Islamic faith has changed over the period of time since when Islam is powered by the revelation of the Quran through Prophet Muhammad updating its rites and laws. It is well known to the world that there are 2 major groups in Muslims: Shia and Sunni along with sub-divisions in each group. Thus, Muslims are divided and sub-divided yet claiming Muslims belonging to Islam while the majority over the world belongs to Sunni group. Even there exists many groups and sub-groups but claiming them Muslims despite God’s warning in the Quran (6:159, 30:32, 42:13). Despite Hadith collection being an satanic inspiration (6:112-113, 31:6, 39:23, 45:6) there had been a movement of hadith scholars in the late 8th and 9th century who considered the Quran and Hadith to be the legislative authority in matters of law and creed and applied the exegetic principle of tafsir bi-al-ma’thur to interpret the Quran with hadiths claiming that the Qur’an needs the Sunnah more than the Sunnah needs the Qur’an, even though the Quran is clear, complete, and fully detailed as stated in the Quran, and it can be fully understood without recourse to the hadith and sunnah. Thus, those who follow alleged Hadiths and practice what has been authorized by the hadith scholars become Muhammedans belonging to a faith of Muhammedanism for excessive focus on Muhammad as a person but not as a prophet, then there would be focus on the Quran. Even they focus on the faith appending his name to it: there is no god except God, Muhammad is a messenger of God disregarding the faith of Monotheism for the Muslims as given in the Quran: there is no god except God (laa-ilaaha illaa allah) as well as the phrase in the Quran that God is too High: Glory to God and He has exalted Himself too High what they associate (sub’haana allahi wa-ta’aalaa ammaa ush’rikuuna):
[6:159] Those who have divided their religion to become sects do not belong with you. Their matter will be with God, then He will inform them of what they had done.
[30:32] Of those who divided their religion and have become sects, every party is rejoicing of what they have.
[42:13] He decreed for all of you the religion what He enjoined for Noah, and what we inspired to you (Muhammad), and what we enjoined for Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. That you shall uphold the religion, and you are not to divide in it, is difficult for the idolaters what you (Muhammad) call them to it. God chooses to Himself whomever He wills and He guides to Himself whoever turns.
[6:112] Thus, we have permitted the enemies of every prophet, the devils from the human and the jinn to inspire in each other the fancy words (zukh’rufa al-qawli), in order to deceive. Had your Lord willed, they would not have done it. You shall disregard them and what they fabricate.
[6:113] This is so that the hearts of those who do not believe in the Hereafter listen to it, and accept it, and thus, they commit what they are committing.
[31:6] And among the people, there are those who accept the idle tales (lah’wa al-hadeethi) to mislead from the path of God without knowledge, and to take it for a mockery. These have incurred a humiliating retribution.
[39:23] God has revealed a scripture of the best hadith being consistent to each other. The skins of those who fear their Lord shiver from it, then their skins and their hearts soften up to God’s message. That is God’s guidance; He guides with it (Quran) whoever He wills, and whoever God sends astray, then there is no guide for him.
[45:6] That is of God’s revelations that we recite to you (Muhammad) with the truth. Then, in which Hadith other than God and His revelations do they believe?
Conclusion
God has created us and He knows best what we need to believe and what we need to practice for our successful return to Him. Thus, He has established Monotheism in our hearts and we are born with it, and Submission is its practices were first given a complete set to Prophet Ibrahim honoring him to be a father of religion, while Prophet Muhammad through whom the Quran has been revealed was inspired to follow a religion of Ibrahim giving him no authority to add or modify, and the Quran has made it clear to have no confusion that our religion is Islam being practices of Monotheism.
The history of changing the centrality of the Quran in the religious life of the Muslims dates back to the time of Muhammad, who prohibited the writing of hadiths and one of his companions and successor, Umar also prohibited the writing of hadith and destroyed existing collections during his rule as Caliph. Eventually, the centrality of the Quran in Islam has been changed with the advent of Mullahs and the discovery of the so called hadith and sunnah. Thus, the hadith literature which exists today is apocryphal, as it had been written three centuries after the death of Prophet Muhammad, which cannot have the same status as the Quran, need no Arabic to reflect.
In fact, those who practice Islam and follow Islamic law and guidance based on the Quran expecting God’s guidance are the Muslims while those who follow and practice their religion based on the alleged Hadith and Sunnah expecting intercession of Muhammad on a day of the Judgment are the Muhammedans. Since Islam is God given practices for the Muslims, and there is no room for humans to contribute anything to it. Thus, the Muhammedans have abandoned Islam belonging to Muhammedanism but still they claim themselves Muslims just to confuse others, while the Satan has adorned their work to them to make them losers. They have taken control of the masjids all over the world to pray therein in their way, while they have established the so-called Islamic universities to offer academic degrees in studying hadith to raise “learned men” of the religion, who are very aggressive in spreading Muhammedanism and are also engaged in giving the same status of the hadith literature to the Quran establishing fact(s) through hadith and science to defeat God.
It is unfortunate that the terms, Muhammedanism and Muhammedan once were used to abuse Islam have come back in the Islamic domain for following man-made laws and rituals as well as for focusing on the faith appending Muhammad’s name as a messenger of God, even distorting the message in Quran (47:19) to give him the status equal to God for Islamic teachings other than the Quran given as guidance and the statute book for the Muslims. Thus, the vast majority who claims them Muslims turn into Muhammedans being their faith of Muhammedanism making them different from Islam and Muslim, and if anyone says he does not believe in hadith, they will fall from the sky.
Hence, if the Muslims can practice Islam belonging to God’s religion of Monotheism isolating them from Muhammedans and Muhammedanism as well as disregarding what is being unduly presented to the world through most people, the Muhammedan scholars, organizations, social media and countries may deserve the blessing of God as promised in the Quran.
Peaceful Friday, salaam and God bless.
Tafazzal (02/03/2023).