“Humanity had been a single community, and Allah sent (unto them) Prophets as bearers of good tidings and as warners, and revealed therewith the Scripture with the truth that it might judge between people concerning that wherein they differed.” [Sûrah al-Baqarah: 123]
Many Western researchers maintain that human beings did not come to
know the religious creeds they know today all at once, but rather that
their religious beliefs evolved and developed over a stretch of many millennia.
It is not surprising that people would come to this conclusion who do not have
at their disposal revelation from Allah that expounds for them the history of
religious thought in clear and unambiguous terms.
What is surprising is to see these ideas being advocated by people
who consider themselves – and are recognized by others – as Muslim researchers.
Among them is `Abbâs Mahmûd al`Aqqâd, the author of a book entitled Allah,
which explores the origins of religious belief. He holds that the religious
beliefs of people progressed in accordance with the advancement of their
scientific knowledge.
He writes: “The earliest beliefs of the people were in conformity with their
way of life, as was their scientific knowledge and their level of technology.
The earliest scientific understandings of people and their earliest artifacts
were no more advanced than their earliest religious beliefs and practices.
Neither were they more accurate.”
Indeed, he considers their religious evolution to be more difficult
than their scientific advancement. He writes: “It makes sense that
human attempts with religion would be more arduous and protracted than their
attempts made in the path of science and technology. This is because the nature
of existence in the absolute sense is far more difficult and remote a subject
than the investigation of specific problems of the physical world which science
resolves on some occasions and technological progress resolves on others.”
Likewise, he argues that the concept of God did not come to people
all at once: “If we look to the origins of religions in the earliest
days of paganism, we do not find an absence of religion, nor that they were
seeking something impossible. It simply shows us that the comprehension of the
greatest of all realities is something that cannot take place within a single
historical era.”
He then goes on to present the opinions of various researchers regarding the
origins of religious belief. Among those researchers are those who argue that
the reason religious beliefs came about was on account of people’s weakness
before the forces of nature. Other researchers focus on totems, arguing that
some tribes would take an animal as a totem, claiming that it the father of
their tribe. Others might take a tree or a rock and treat it as something
sacred.
Unfortunately, these and many other theories proposed by researchers in the
West have been circulated by other Muslim writers like Mustafâ Mahmûd and have
been embraced by a number of Muslims studying in this field. They have fallen
into error for various reasons:
1. They assume that people were guided to religious belief on their own
without someone to guide them and teach them. Anyone who holds this assumption
is forced to draw the conclusion that people’s concept of Allah developed in
the same way that their scientific and technical knowledge developed.
2. When they researched into early religions, they found only those deviant
and corrupted faiths and made those religions their focus of study. How could
they arrive at the truth when all they were looking at were essentially
examples of deviations from the true religion.
There is no book on Earth that accurately describes the origins of religion
besides Allah’s Book. The Qur’an provides us with an abundance of information
on the topic.
There are many reasons why we cannot hope to acquire accurate knowledge on
this matter from any other source.
1. We know little about human history more than five thousand years ago. We
know far less about what took place when we go back ten thousand years. Going
back even further, our historical knowledge quickly drops to nothing. Therefore
most of the information about the origin of religions is lost to us.
2. The facts that people have inherited from the past have been mixed with a
lot of falsehood, submerged in oceans of forgery, additions, and alterations.
We can see this clearly in that attempting to write a wholly accurate
historical account of a person or a group of people of our present times is one
of the most difficult of tasks. How much more difficult is it to try and deal
with a topic that stretches back to the dawn of human history?
3. An important aspect of the history of religious belief is not of Earthly
origin. Its domain is with Allah. Therefore, the one who can give us an
accurate account of this history without any doubt is Allah.
“Nothing on Earth or in the heavens is hidden from Allah.” [Surah Al
`Imrân: 5]
The Qur’âns Account:
Allah teaches us that He created Adam as an independent and complete
creation and then breathed in him of his spirit and made him to live in Paradise. Allah permitted him and his wife to eat of
whatever they like except the fruit of one tree. Then Satan, their avowed enemy
deceived them and convinced them to eat from that tree. In obeying their enemy,
they disobeyed their Lord. Allah sent them out Paradise
to the Earth. Before doing so, Allah promised them that he would send down to
Adam and to his progeny guidance from Himself, so that they would know their
Lord, know the Law, and know what is expected of them.
Allah
also promised that those on Earth who respond favorably to His guidance will be
guided and will attain everlasting felicity in the Hereafter. Likewise, he
forewarned those who would be haughty and disobey that theirs would be wretchedness
on Earth and disgrace in the Hereafter.
Allah says: “We said: Go forth from this (state) all; so surely there will
come to you a guidance from Me, then whoever follows My guidance, no fear shall
come upon them, nor shall they grieve. And (as to) those who disbelieve in and
reject My communications, they are the inmates of the fire, in it they shall
abide.” [Sûrah al-Baqarah: 38-39]
Allah also says: “He said: Go down hence, both of you, one of you a foe unto
the other. But when there come unto you from Me a guidance, then whoever
follows My guidance, he will not go astray nor come to grief. But he who turns
away from remembrance of Me, his will be a narrow life, and I shall bring him
blind to the assembly on the Day of Resurrection. He will say: My Lord! Why
have You gathered me (hither) blind, when I had sight? He will say: So (it must
be). Our revelations came unto you but you did forget them. In like manner you
are forgotten this Day.” [Sûrah TâHâ: 123-126]
The First Generations Were upon Monotheism
After Adam and Eve came to the Earth, they and their progeny were upon pure
monotheism.
Allah says: “Humanity had been a single community, and Allah sent (unto
them) Prophets as bearers of good tidings and as warners, and revealed
therewith the Scripture with the truth that it might judge between people
concerning that wherein they differed.” [Sûrah al-Baqarah: 123]
When Allah says that humanity “had been a single community”, He is referring
to a community of faith. All people were upon monotheism and the religion of
truth.
Abû Umâmah relates that once, a man asked Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon
him) and asked him: “Had Adam been a Prophet?”
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) answered: “Yes.”
The man asked: “How much time passed between him and Noah?”
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) replied: “Ten centuries”
[Sahîh Ibn Hibbân (6190). Mu`jam al-Tabarânî al-Kabîr
(8/188-119 #7545). Mustadrak al-Hâkim (3093).
Al-Hâkim says:
“This hadîth is authentic according to the conditions set forth by Muslim.” Sheikh
Muhammad Asad al-Dârânî says: “Its chain of transmission is authentic.” –
marginal notes to Sahîh Ibn Hibbân (14/69)]
Ibn `Abbâs said: “between Adam and Noah were then centuries, all of which
were upon Islam.” [Tafsîr al-Tabarî (2/335-336)]
If we assume that the century being referred to here is one hundred years,
then we are dealing with at least 1000 years. It might even have been longer,
since Ibn `Abbâs specifies the meaning to be ten centuries “upon Islam”. There
might have been more centuries wherein deviation had occurred.
It is also possible that the Arabic word qarn that means
“century” is being used here in this hadîth to mean “generation”. The word
appears with this meaning in the Qur’ân.
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