The Holy Prophet of Islam Mohammad (s.a.w) said:
There will arrive a time for my nation when of the Quran only its lore, meaning its writing or written word, and of Islam only its name will remain. The people will be called Muslims by this name, but they will be the furthest from Islam. 28
That which we wish to bring under discussion and assessment - as far as God bestows upon us success is this sentence from the Prophets tradition:
Of Islam only its name will remain.
The Holy Prophet (s.a.w) made a strange predictions. When we read this forecast certain questions come to mind.
1) What was Islam like during the Prophets time?
2) What happened to his Islam afterwards? In other words how did they empty it of its original content? What form aid they change it to and how did they change its realities to reticence?
3) How did the Holy Imams (a.s) return to the people the true Islam we now possess, in the same form that existed during the Prophets (s.a.w) time?
By finding and understanding the answers to these questions we will discover what our responsibility is towards Islam in the present day and age. The above questions are summarized in the following sentence.
«What was Islam? What happened to it and what must be done now?»
In our previous discussion it was said that we understand from studying Quranic verses that The Lord is a nurturer that promotes and sustains the development of the being subject to his tutelage until it reaches complete perfection or maturity. Providing the necessities of the creature being nurtured is a requisite of lordship and nurturing. We also learned that the Prophets conflicts with their nations and the evil persons of their time were over who possessed lordship or sovereignty. According to the Holy Quran most of them had no dispute over God being Creator.
We read in the Holy Quran:
If you should ask them; who created the Heavens and the Earth? They would certainly answer: Allah! 29
Consequently the conflicts and arguments with the pagans were not for the most part over the matter of creation but rather mainly over sovereignty. This is the main center of the prophets wars with the evil persons and nations buried in ignorance. Victory in this battle is what makes the prophets successful in the establishment of religion.
We said that the lord is obliged to legislate for the life of the beings under his tutelage. This is in principle the most prominent characteristic of lordship. Allah creates and then decrees how his creatures should live. He gives them the laws for living and specifies the manner of their life, also equipping them with the means for reaching maturity guiding them in this direction.
The prophets stood by this very basic, fundamental characteristic saying: O Mankind! Your lord and Nurturer is the Lord of the Heavens and Earth. He has made laws for all living creatures. He has given order to the lives of the heavens and earth and the creatures therein, and he also created laws for you, ascertaining your way of life.
We said previously that every creatures way of life was ascertained according to its own structure and nature. In the case of one of them the Quran speaks of subjugation. The Quran sees inanimate objects obliged and subjugated in the powerful chain of the law of creation. They follow the way to their perfection in this way never straying from it in the least because straying from the way that creation has ascertained for them is equal to their destruction:
Lo! your lord is Allah who created the heavens and the earth in six days, then mounted He the throne. He covereth the night with the day, which is in haste to follow it, and hath made the sun and the moon and the stars subservient by His command. His verily is all creation and commandment. Blessed be Allah the Lord of the Worlds! 30
This verse begins with the words your Lord and after giving examples of his lordship such as the earths rotation and the appearance of day and night, he is praised with the attribute Lord of the Worlds
He constraineth the sun and moon to give service, each running on for an appointed term.....31 (Holy Quran 35:5)
For another group of creatures Divine guidance is in the form of inspiration. Animals live under the influence of Gods inspirational guidance and as thus follow the way towards their maturity, reaching its absolute bounds. The precise, subtle and sometimes extremely complicated way of animal life is all led by the inspiration of their Lord. From the first moment of life until the final degree of maturity, and from then until death animal life continues under the radiation of this form of guidance.
In the Holy Quran we find an example of animal life as thus:
And thy lord inspired the bee, saying: Choose thou habitations in the hills and in the trees and in that which they thatch. Then eat of all fruits, and follow the ways of they Lord, made smooth (for thee).32
However in the case of man, the most superior creature in these three groups, guidance is by revelation. Divine organization goes to work and from its fountain-head revelations are revealed to the prophets by esteemed Angels and their like. Mans way of life is therefore ascertained, giving order to all aspects of his life guiding him towards the way for achieving happiness in the two worlds.
This order or system and set of laws in Quranic Culture is called Islam, it is a religion for mankind based on his nature and the realm of his existence, collating exactly with human disposition, coming from his Lord. This is not just the proper name for the religion and special Divine law of The Last Prophet Mohammad (s.a.w). That which all of the prophets proclaimed; Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, all had the name of Islam This is to the point where the Quran informs us that no name appeared for it before Noah (a.s), but from his time onward the name for all of Gods Divine Laws is Islam.
We discussed this before and we saw that according to Quranic logic
Lo! religion with Allah (is) al-Islam (The Surrender to his will and guidance) Those who (formerly) received the scripture differed only after knowledge came unto them, through transgression among themselves. 33
Hence, a description of Islam may be summed up in this form: «The set of laws that The Lord of Mankind has expounded for him in proportion to his make-up and corresponding to human nature».
From here on our discussion will be about Islam in order to see what this Islam was (meaning mans way of life and thought, beliefs and morality), and what form it took after the Prophets death. We will also see how it was emptied of its original content and what should be done now.
The Holy Prophet (s.a.w) had announced «nothing will remain of Islam but its name». What was this Islam and how did it become so empty and hollow that only its name remains? With an accurate analysis of Islam we will discover it has four types of existence. In other words, Islam in human society, four types of substances:
A) Nominal Existence
B) Conceptional Existence
C) Practical Existence
D) Islamic Society Existence