O You Who Have Believed!

Reason is a tool that God has bestowed upon all the people of the world, whether they live in China or the Hijaz. God's prophets were not sent to convey mysterious, supra-rational messages from God to human beings; on the contrary, they strove to save people from irrational beliefs and behaviors. A society that lives according to reason and innate nature follows the religion of God's prophets, even if it has never heard the names of the prophets and is not familiar with their books. Conversely, religious sects that constantly utter the name of God and His prophets but hold irrational beliefs and behaviors have departed from the religion of the prophets.

In the Medinan surahs, the Quran addresses the Prophet's companions with this phrase:

- O You Who Have Believed: O those who have believed!

This phrase has also been translated in other ways that are not precise:

- O believers!

- O people of faith!

- O faithful ones!

There is an important point in the original Quranic phrase: the Quran addresses the believers by their action; an action they performed in the past. Bringing faith is an action. An action signifies the performance of a deed or the occurrence of a state at a specific time. Each of the Prophet's companions in Medina knew when they had brought faith. Some had brought faith before the Hijra, some after the Hijra. Some had brought faith in their youth, some in old age. Those who had brought faith had performed the act of faith by their own choice at a specific time. The believers could recount the story of their bringing faith to others.

Unlike the Prophet's companions, if we ask traditional religious people when they brought faith, they do not recall the time and manner of this action's occurrence. Even religious specialists cannot clearly state at what age and after what reflections they brought faith. As far as they remember, they have always had faith. In hereditary religiosity based on "following," no one brings faith; rather, they inherit their beliefs.

The Prophet brought faith, and his followers also brought faith: The Messenger has believed in what was revealed to him from his Lord, and the believers. Before that, the Prophet did not know what faith was: You did not know what the Book is, nor faith. As the Quran explicitly states, the Prophet spent a period in error, and then God guided him: And He found you lost and guided you.

After the Hijra to Medina, there were those who came to the Prophet and claimed they had brought faith, and the Prophet rejected their claim: The Bedouins say, "We have believed." Say, "You have not believed; but say, 'We have submitted.'" In traditional religious sects, too, no one can claim to have brought faith, and if they wish to accept the truth, they must say that they inherited their religious beliefs.

If someone has brought faith at some point in their life, they should be able to divide their life into two periods and say what beliefs they held before bringing faith and what changes occurred in their religious beliefs after bringing faith. One who has brought faith has experienced an intellectual transformation at a stage in their life. The Prophet and all his companions had undergone this inner revolution.

The act of "faith" is like other acts such as "migration" and "struggle." One can be called a believer who has brought faith, just as one can be called a migrant or a struggler who has migrated or struggled. A group of believers participated in struggle, and a group did not. The Quran says these two groups are not equal: Not equal are those believers who sit back—except those who are disabled—and those who struggle. The phrase "those who have struggled" can only be used for those who have performed the act of "struggle." "Those who have believed" also refers only to those who have brought faith.

At the beginning of his mission, the Prophet addressed his audience with the phrase “O mankind” (yā ayyuhā al-nās). If the audience came to believe, they would then be addressed with the phrase “O you who have believed” (yā ayyuhā alladhīna āmanū). Before someone comes to believe, even if, like the People of the Book, they believe in God and are very devout, observant, religious, and committed, they still fall under the category of “mankind” (al-nās) and “the unlettered” (al-ummiyyūn), not “those who have believed” (alladhīna āmanū). The People of the Book believe in God, the Last Day, the prophets, and the angels, yet they too are not “those who have believed.” Part of the traditions of the People of the Book goes back to the prophets, and part consists of rites inherited from their forefathers. As long as people do not critique and reform the inherited traditions of their forefathers, they do not fall into the category of “those who have believed.”

Today we know the companions of the Prophet by the name “Muslims,” but it is interesting to note that the Quran never used the phrase “O Muslims” (yā ayyuhā al-muslimūn) when addressing them, and instead always employed the phrase “O you who have believed” (yā ayyuhā alladhīna āmanū). The attribute “Muslim” (muslim) in the Quran is general and is not the exclusive name for the followers of a particular prophet. Contrary to the traditional view, Muhammad was not the founder of Islam, but its reviver. Islam did not begin with Muhammad.

Muhammad followed the “religion of Abraham” (millat Ibrāhīm) in faith. Abraham, too, initially accompanied and spoke the language of the sun-worshippers and moon-worshippers: “When he saw the sun rising, he said, ‘This is my Lord’” (Quran 6:78). For those who were born “Muslim” based on the rule of adherence and have been Muslim for as long as they can remember, it is difficult to accept that a prophet like Abraham was once, in his childhood, a companion and co-religionist of the polytheists. Contrary to the efforts of traditional exegetes to change the meaning of Quranic verses that refer to the initial misguidance of some prophets and their natural accompaniment of ethnic traditions, followed by their departure from the religion of their forefathers, the stages of intellectual development of great prophets like Abraham and Muhammad, as described in the Quran, are closer to reality and truth. This is precisely what turns them into models for the reform of religious traditions: “There has certainly been for you an excellent example in Abraham and those with him” (Quran 60:4).

After a time, the religion of the prophets turns into inherited rites and, in its historical course and geographical expansion, becomes contaminated with all kinds of distortions and innovations, losing its original legitimacy. This inherited, windfall religion, which is transmitted from fathers to children without any effort, is not something one should be proud to follow or consider a cause for happiness and salvation. The polytheists and the People of the Book in the Hijaz, hundreds of years after Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, still imagined that their beliefs and practices conformed to the religion of the prophets. Muhammad observed their great deviations and sought to critique and reform them.

Although the majority of the religious are traditionalists, and no one can forcibly prevent them from the path of their forefathers, they too must learn to tolerate the differing views of dissidents who critique their beliefs. The prophets were the dissidents of the ancient world, and their views were very strange, anomalous, and distressing to the traditionalists: “Has he made the gods into one God? Indeed, this is a curious thing!” (Quran 38:5).

One of the consequences of traditionalism in religion is the distortion of the “Book.” The traditional beliefs of parents are transmitted to the child before the teachings of the Book, and upon reaching intellectual maturity, the child may realize that some traditional beliefs are inconsistent with the Book. In such cases, one must either change the tradition and harmonize it with the Book—a difficult task for traditionalists—or change the meaning of the Book’s phrases and harmonize them with tradition, which is an easier task. An example of inherited religious beliefs is the claim that prophets and religious leaders committed no errors or sins, and if verses of the Quran refer to their sins, they change the meaning of the verses to make them compatible with tradition. Verses from the Torah and the Gospel that more clearly contradict this belief are dismissed on the grounds of the Torah and Gospel’s lack of authenticity, thus denying the very Books that the Quran has confirmed. Part of the Prophet’s criticism of the People of the Book was that what they claimed contradicted the Book, and they twisted the words of the Book: “And indeed, a party of them distort the Book with their tongues so that you may think it is from the Book, but it is not from the Book” (Quran 3:78).

Contrary to common assumptions, the Arabs of the Hijaz were very devout before Muhammad's mission, following their forefathers, and Muhammad's intellectual conflict was precisely with these traditional devout people. Numerous verses of the Quran show that the people of the Hijaz not only believed in God, but considered Him alone the creator and administrator of the world. The Quran criticized these very devout people and called them polytheists (mushrikun). The polytheists were traditional devout people who inherited their religious beliefs and practices from their forefathers.

A polytheist (mushrik) means one who ascribes partners to God; therefore, a polytheist primarily believes in God. Someone who does not believe in God cannot be a polytheist. Translating mushrik as

The polytheists' belief in a God who created the world and manages affairs was like the belief of the Prophet and his companions. According to the verses quoted from the Quran, the polytheists held the belief that God is the Creator, the Provider, the Disposer of affairs, the Owner, the Protector, the Giver of life, and the Bringer of death. The polytheists did not attribute these attributes to their intercessors. Nevertheless, in their religious rituals, the polytheists also resorted to their intercessors. We clearly observe this behavior today in the rituals of the People of the Book. In their view, the Creator and Provider is God, but the saints are also means of reaching God, and they seek their needs through them. Since the saints have departed from the world, the polytheists are compelled to make statues or symbols of them and engage in supplication with these symbols. The Quran says that if all these idols were gathered together, they could not create even a fly: Indeed, those you invoke besides Allah will never create [as much as] a fly, even if they gathered together for that purpose.

Traditional religious people, alongside the doctrinal innovations of their forefathers, also introduce vile and immoral behaviors into religion. The Quran speaks of those who, when they commit an indecent act, say they learned it from their forefathers and that God has commanded it: And when they commit an immorality, they say, "We found our fathers doing it, and Allah has ordered us to do it." An example of such innovated religious behaviors, whose practitioners think they are doing a righteous deed by performing them, can be seen in the image below. Children also inherit these behaviors in imitation of their parents and in the name of religion and creed.

Not only the common people, but also the religious leaders who arise from among those same common people prescribe such vile behaviors. In truth, this religious ritual had no ugliness in the past, and even today it is mostly prevented out of deference to the modern world. The Prophet's criticisms of the ignorant Arabs are of the same nature: criticism of ignorant and sometimes shameful behaviors that emerge in the name of religion.

The polytheists were not horned and tailed creatures, but ordinary human beings like others. The prophets were also human beings like others who arose from among the people of their own community and strove to reform the religious beliefs and behaviors of their society. The polytheists among the People of the Book are present today and are generally harmless and moral people, but Muhammad disputed with these very polytheists over the incorrect beliefs and behaviors they attributed to religion. The rituals of the Age of Ignorance and the Prophet's critique of these rituals must be analyzed from this perspective.

Inherited religious rituals, whether authentic and worthy rituals or deviant and unworthy ones, are transmitted to children involuntarily in childhood through parents and the environment. Even in a ritual like prayer, which is among the important and common precepts of all of God's prophets, this unconscious transmission takes place, and there are objections to this unconscious transmission that we have also mentioned in previous discourses. While the Quran correctly stipulates the necessity of the Prophet's language conforming to the language of his people, a non-Arabic-speaking child recites incomprehensible words in Arabic during prayer. For a child or even an adolescent, the question is usually not raised as to why they must speak to God in a foreign language, or why the holy book they must follow is expressed in a language they cannot even read correctly and fluently. Raising these questions and striving to solve them requires intellectual maturity and the existence of a reformist spirit in religion.

The unconscious and involuntary transmission of religion from parents to children can gradually introduce serious deviations into religion, the most significant of which is resorting to superstition in the guise of faith. In the image below, you see a metal vessel known as the “Prayer Bowl” or “Forty-Key Bowl.” This bowl, a cultural artifact from the Safavid era, is inscribed with Quranic verses, religious prayers, and the names of religious leaders. A number of keys are also attached to it, symbolizing the unlocking of problems. The needy and afflicted, by resorting to such objects that represent a fusion of superstition and religion, seek a way to solve their difficulties. Such bowls were also used for fortune-telling and divination. Since the Safavid period, it has become customary to carve similar symbols and install them in the shrines of religious leaders, dignitaries, and their descendants, to which people appeal for help.

In jurisprudence, it is imagined that the prophets were sent to combat painting and sculpture, and thus fatwas are seen declaring the prohibition of sculpting and painting living beings, which have neither rational nor Quranic justification. These fatwas, like many other jurisprudential views, are superficial and literalist. After forbidding the use of statues and images of saints in religious rites, traditionalists reproduce the very beliefs and behaviors of the People of the Book regarding intercessors in new forms. These beliefs and behaviors, like other traditions, are transmitted from parents to children in childhood.

In its polemic with the People of the Book, the Quran does not need to prove God; rather, it strives to negate all but God: Say, “O People of the Book, come to a word common between us and you: that we worship none but God, and that we associate nothing with Him, and that we do not take one another as lords besides God.” The central slogan of the Quran is “There is no god but God,” which emphasizes the negation of the gods added to the one God of the Torah and the Gospel. The Quran seeks to make those who believe in God as the Creator and Sustainer understand that objects like statues and symbols of saints, and individuals like Jesus and Mary, even if they are honored by God and among His close ones, possess no power over anyone’s benefit or harm, and praying to them is not permitted in religion. Gabriel and Michael are also among those close to God, but no prophet ever appealed to them or sought their aid. The prophets worshipped only God and sought help only from Him.

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Traditional religion is a part of cultural heritage, just as language is a part of cultural heritage. No one can say that after examining the various languages of the world, they found Persian to be the sweetest language, believed in it, and chose it for their speech. One’s mother tongue is transmitted from parents and environment; the individual does not choose it and does not come to believe in it. According to the law of filiation in traditional jurisprudence, we might be able to consider ourselves Muslim from the moment of conception, but we cannot say that we came to faith at the moment of conception or at birth. Coming to faith is a voluntary act, and reason and freedom are its prerequisites:

- Had your Lord willed, all those on earth would have believed, all of them entirely. Would you then compel the people until they become believers? It is not for any soul to believe except by the will of God, and He places defilement upon those who do not use their reason. (Yunus: 99-100)

Coming to faith hinges on the critique and reform of traditional religiosity, which is usually accompanied by mental distress and provokes the angry reaction of traditionally devout people. Muhammad and his followers were among the few in history who, in the true sense of the word, came to faith and paid a heavy price for it. After the prophets, billions of people who have an inherited religion still consider themselves followers of the prophets, without having come to faith as they did.

A look at religions and sects across the world shows that the overwhelming majority of people inherit their religious beliefs, like other cultural traits, from their family and environment: “Indeed, we found our fathers upon a religion, and we are, upon their traces, guided.” Some inherited cultural traits, such as one’s mother tongue, require no correction in adulthood, but others, such as erroneous religious customs, do require correction.

The first and most important reference for a human being’s guidance is their intellect. Reason is a tool that God has granted to all people of the world, whether they live in China or the Hejaz. God’s prophets were not sent to convey mysterious, supra-rational messages from God to humans; on the contrary, they strove to save people from irrational beliefs and behaviors. A society that lives according to reason and innate nature follows the religion of God’s prophets, even if it has never heard the prophets’ names and is not familiar with their books. Conversely, religious sects that constantly utter the name of God and His prophets but hold irrational beliefs and behaviors have departed from the religion of the prophets.

Given the emphasis of God’s prophets on rationality and avoiding blind imitation of forefathers, each generation must critique and reform the religious traditions of the previous generation so that small, emerging deviations do not become large, entrenched ones. Even if we assume that our forefathers remained completely faithful to the religion of the prophets and no deviation from their rulings and teachings occurred, it is still wrong to halt at certain secondary matters and insist on implementing some of the prophets’ local rulings in a different time and place.

This important Quranic statement, that the religion of Muhammad is the same as that enjoined upon Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, paves the way for fundamental reforms in traditional religious thought. Thousands of years after Noah, Muhammad’s call was still the same as Noah’s call: “And We certainly sent Noah to his people, and he said, ‘O my people, worship God; you have no deity other than Him; will you not then fear Him?’” Despite the sending of many prophets, religious traditionalists have still not been able to grasp their message and come to terms with this simple call of God’s prophets, which forms the backbone of all their teachings, and in every era they invent new idols: at one time the sun and the moon; at another time Jesus and Mary; and at another time statues and graves.

Contrary to the view of so-called Islamic sects, the Quran has taught the believers not to make distinctions between the prophets and to have faith in all of their books. This is while the religious identity of Quran-centric sects, like that of the People of the Book sects, is defined around a specific prophet and a specific book. The emphasis on the superiority of a specific prophet, the use of terms like “the Greatest Prophet” and “the Most Noble Prophet,” and the denial and disparagement of the books of other prophets are all contrary to the Quran and show that the traditional beliefs of Shias and Sunnis fundamentally differ from the beliefs of Muhammad and his followers.

It might be imagined that focusing on a specific prophet and a specific book leads to convergence and prevents division, but what is observed in practice shows the incorrectness of this notion. Given the multiplicity of prophets, each group of traditionalists, by defining their religion around the teachings of a specific prophet, not only transforms the common religion of the prophets into various religions and fails to grasp the common message of the prophets, but also within each of these religions, they argue with one another over the behavioral and verbal details of that specific prophet and splinter into different sects. The division of traditional religions and sects is one of the signs of the distance of the followers of these religions and sects from the single religion of God’s prophets, a division that is heavily criticized in the Quran.

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Religion and Freedom (17): O You Who Have Believed!

Author: Abolfazl Arjomand

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Source: Niloufar Website

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