But if one believes that there is only one God who is revealed by many different inspired prophets, then we should be able to learn more about God’s will and gain insights into our own unique revelation, from other revelations of that one God. Since all monotheistic scriptures come from the one and only God, we should view other scriptures as potentially enriching our understanding and appreciation of our own scripture.
But if one believes that there is only one God who is revealed by many different inspired prophets, then we should be able to learn more about God’s will and gain insights into our own unique revelation, from other revelations of that one God. Since all monotheistic scriptures come from the one and only God, we should view other scriptures as potentially enriching our understanding and appreciation of our own scripture.
One of Islam’s six main beliefs is the belief in a Day of Judgement when the life of every human being will be assessed to decide whether they go to heaven or hell. The Qur’an promises: “Every soul will taste death. Then to Us [God] will you be returned” (29:57).
On the Day of Judgement, every individual human being will be resurrected to account for their lives. God describes this event in the Hebrew Bible, in the Greek Gospels, and in the Arabic Qur’an: “On that Day, people will come forward in separate groups to be shown their deeds: whoever has done an atom’s weight of good will see it, but whoever has done an atom’s weight of evil will see that” (Qur’an 99:6-8).
God will weigh everyone’s good and bad actions according to His Mercy and His Justice, forgiving many sins and multiplying the reward for many noble deeds. One who excels in goodness will be rewarded generously, but one whose evils and wrongs outweigh his virtues will be punished.
“They [atheists] did not recognize the true worth of Allah. (So) on the Day of Resurrection the whole earth will be in His grasp, and the heavens shall be folded up in His Right Hand. Glory be to Him! Exalted is He from all that they associate with Him. And the Trumpet shall be blown and all who are in the heavens and the earth shall fall down dead save those whom Allah wills. Then the Trumpet shall be blown again, and lo! all of them will be standing and looking on.
“The earth shall shine with the light of its Lord, and the Scroll (of deeds) shall be set in place, and the Prophets and all witnesses shall be brought [forth], and judgement shall be justly passed among them, and they shall not be wronged; and everyone shall be paid in full for all that he did. Allah is best aware of all that they do” (Qur’an 39:67-70).
Today there are many people who have difficulty believing in God’s resurrection; although many of them seem to believe that geneticists in the near future will be able to resurrect whole extinct species. There were similar doubters in the past as the Qur’an states:
“Should [every] man not consider that We created him from a [mere] sperm-drop – then at once he is a clear adversary [challenging God] and he presents for us [Jews, Christians, and Muslim believers] an example [of dry decayed bones] and forgetting his [own] creation says, ‘Who will give life to bones while they are disintegrated?’ Say, ‘He [God] will give them life who produced them the first time; He is, of all creation, All-Knowing'” (36:77-79).
Actually, spiritual resurrections of individuals occur all the time. People who were dead to God’s presence, have been revived and found faith. Christians call this ‘being reborn’. And believers in God are often able to overcome deadly loses; as Matthew 27:52-53 states: “The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city [Jerusalem] and appeared to many people.”
Jews and Muslims also speak of being spiritually revived from death dealing behavior; and finding faith due to sincere repentance, reform, and revitalization. The job of all religious leaders is to encourage their people to believe that God’s miracles can lift them up to higher levels of life. Prior to the worldwide final Day of Resurrection, there are many examples of individual and group spiritual resurrection.
A previous example of a mass resurrection and revitalization of the Jewish people who come forward as a separate group during the Babylonian exile highlights this very concept. The Qur’an (2:243) refers to them: “Have you not considered those who left their homes in many thousands, fearing death? Allah said to them, ‘Die’; then He restored them to life. And Allah is full of bounty to the people, but most of the people do not show gratitude.”
Prophet Ezekiel, who was among the thousands of Jews who were exiled from their homes in Israel, saw that the exiles felt totally hopeless; defeated, deeply depressed, and despaired of re-building a new life in Babylonia, or returning to their homeland in Israel. Then God gave Prophet Ezekiel this vision:
“The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ I said, ‘Lord, you alone know’.
“Then He said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord’.
“So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
“Then he said to me…’This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live’. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.
“Then he said to me: ‘Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off [from life].’ Therefore prophesy and say to them: This is what the Sovereign Lord says:
“My people, I am going to open your [spiritual] graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your [spiritual] graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord’” (Hebrew Bible Ezekiel 37:1-4).
Of course, Prophet Muhammad’s message is more universal than Prophet Ezekiel’s message, but that is due to the radically different circumstances in Biblical times when Israel arguably held the only ongoing monotheistic community in the world. Instead of understanding differing sacred texts as complementary, polemists made the texts contradictory; and declared the other religion’s sacred text to be false or defective in some way.
The goal was not to modestly try to harmonize various monotheistic religious perspectives of the one and only God; but to self-righteously exaggerate religious differences, well beyond any reasonable understanding of the two sides.
But if one believes that there is only one God who is revealed by many different inspired prophets, then we should be able to learn more about God’s will and gain insights into our own unique revelation, from other revelations of that one God. Since all monotheistic scriptures come from the one and only God, we should view other scriptures as potentially enriching our understanding and appreciation of our own scripture.
If religion is to promote peace in our pluralistic world we must reject the zero sum game ideology of Aristotle’s universal unchanging Truth, and develop the pluralistic teachings that already exist within our sacred scriptures. After all “all prophets are brothers. They have the same father (God) but different mothers (mother tongues, motherlands and unique historical circumstances that demand all the differences in their scriptures)” (Muslim, Book #030, Hadith #5836).
Both Jews and Muslims are also taught that our suffering, failures, and adversities are only tests from God, who has said, “Be sure we will test you with some fear and hunger, a loss in wealth and lives, and the fruits (of your labors), but give glad tidings to those who patiently persevere, when afflicted with calamities, to God we belong and to Him shall we return” (Qur’an 2:155-7).
Note that the Qur’an (2:243) states: “Have you not considered those who left their homes in many thousands, fearing death? Allah said to them, ‘Die’; then He restored them to life”. The exile was God’s will, the necessary consequences of the many sins of the rulers of the Jewish People. Thus, the sins and crimes of the political and religious leaders of the Jewish People in Israel will be punished during the Babylonian exile and then the the Children of Israel will return:
“Her priests do violence to my Torah and profane my holy things; they do not distinguish between the holy and the common; they teach that there is no difference between unclean and clean; and they shut their eyes to the keeping of my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them. Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey; they shed blood and kill people to make unjust gain. Her [false] prophets whitewash these deeds for them by false visions and lying divinations. They say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says’—when the Lord has not spoken. The people of the land [nobility and landlords] practice extortion and commit robbery; they oppress the poor and needy and mistreat the foreigner, denying them justice” (Ezekiel 22: 26-29).
The exile was foretold and so too was the restoration; for God is always urging His mercy to overcome His anger.
As the great sage Rav said: “God says: May it be My will that My mercy will overcome My anger; and may My mercy prevail over My [strict] attributes; and may I conduct myself toward all my children, with the attribute of mercy, beyond the letter of the law”.
The same lesson is taught in a hadith kudsi: “When Allah created the creatures, He wrote in the Book, which is with Him over His Throne: ‘Verily, My Mercy prevailed over My Wrath’” (Al-Bukhari).
We do not have to wait until we die to be revived and live again; we can become revived and live again right now.
