Why Are There Different Religions If Islam Is the Only True Religion?
Answered by Shaykh Abdul-Rahim Reasat
Question
Why are there different religions if Islam is the only true religion? Please answer with strong references from the Quran and hadith.
Answer
In the name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful.
All praise belongs to Allah, Lord of all beings, and may peace and blessings be upon our master Muhammad.
I pray you are well.
The only religion sanctioned by God is Islam. Every other religion was either made by human beings or is an altered form of a superseded version of Islam.
Allah Most High said, “Certainly, Allah’s only Way is Islam. Those who were given the Scripture did not dispute ˹among themselves˺ out of mutual envy until knowledge came to them. Whoever denies Allah’s signs, then surely Allah is swift in reckoning.” [Quran 3:19]
Allah sent prophets and messengers to teach humanity how He wants them to live according to His religion. After receiving certain knowledge of what Allah wants, people changed these teachings for their own selfish reasons. Allah allowed them to continue down their roads as a test, but He also sent other prophets and messengers to guide humanity back to the religion He wants them to follow.
A clear example of this alteration of an established religion is Christianity. The Prophet Jesus, peace and blessings be upon him, was sent to the Jews. His teachings were meant to turn them back to applying the Torah properly and to direct them to focus on Allah and the afterlife.
Not long after, Paul changed the essence of his teachings radically, to the point that it is unrecognizable when compared to Judaism. The application of the rulings of the Torah was no longer necessary; Jesus was seen as divine, or the Son of God; and belief in his divinity was sufficient for salvation. None of these teachings was there when Jesus was himself calling people to Allah on earth.
This doesn’t mean that either of these two religions, as they are today, is endorsed by Allah. The only endorsed religion is Islam. Islam has superseded all other religions, so even if a religion was valid at a certain point in history, it no longer remains so. This is an established truth claim of Islam, and it is backed up by evidence and sound reasoning.
So the answer to your question is that the only valid religion is Islam. People, through their free will – which they will be judged on – constructed other religions for their own reasons and they proliferated. It doesn’t render them valid.
May Allah keep our hearts firm on His religion. Amin
Related Answers
One. Does the Qur’an Affirm the Validity of Practicing Judaism and Christianity? — Ustadh Salman Younas: Islam alone is accepted (3:85, 3:19), and how to read the Baqara verse on Jews, Christians and Sabians.
Two. Can Truth Be Found in Every Religion? — Ustadh Salman Younas: Elements of truth in other traditions versus perennialism; Islam abrogated what came before.
Three. Why Did Allah Most High Allow Past Revelations to Be Corrupted? — Shaykh Faraz Rabbani: Video answer on the wisdom behind the altering of earlier scriptures.
Four. How Can We Have Free Will if Allah Guides Whom He Wills? — Shaykh Faraz Rabbani: Divine will, guidance and human choice.
Shaykh Abdul-Rahim Reasat began studying Arabic Grammar and Morphology whilst studying for a degree in English and History. After graduating, He traveled to Damascus and studied Arabic, Hanafi Fiqh, Usul al-Fiqh, Theology, and Logic with Shaykh Adnan Darwish, Shaykh ‘Abd al-Rahman Arjan al-Binsawi, Shaykh Husayn Darwish, Shaykh Muhammad Darwish, the late Shaykh Rashad Shams, and others. He then moved to Amman to continue his studies in those fields, as well as in Tafsir, Quranic Sciences, Hadith Methodology and Commentary, Prophetic Biography, Prophetic Perfections and Traits, Rhetoric, Arabic Literature, and Tajwid. His teachers include Shaykh Ali Hani, Dr. Hamza al-Bakri, Dr Salah Abu al-Hajj, Dr Mansur Abu Zina, Shaykh Ahmad Hasanat, Shaykh Ahmad Jammal, and others.
