Refuting the idea of the Unity of Religions

In the manual of sacred law,'Umdat al Salik by Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri,there is a list of acts that entail leaving Islam. Point number 20 is:


"..to deny that Allah intended the Prophet's message(salla Allhu alehi wa salam)to be the religion followed by the entire world(al-Hadiyya al-Ala'iyya(y4),423-24).)



There is also,in 'Umdat al Salik, a section on 'The Abrogation of Previously Revealed Religions' which includes the statements of various scholars, along with their proofs, which refute the idea of the unity of religion. It reads as follows:

w4.3 (Imam Baghawi:)


The Prophet(Allah bless him and grant him peace)said:
"By Him in whose hand is the soul of Muhammad, any person of this community, any Jew, or any Christian who hears of me and dies without believing in what I have been sent will be an inhabitant of hell"

This is a rigorously authenticated (sahih) hadith that was recorded by Muslim(Sharh al-sunna)

W4.4 (Ibn Kathir:)

Allah Most High says:
Surely those who believe, those of the Jewry, the Christians, and the Sabaeans-whoever has faith in Allah and the Last Day, and works rigfhteousness, their wage awaits them with their Lord, and no fear shall be upon them, and neither shall they sorrow" (Koran 2:62)

Suddi states that the verse "Surely those who believe, etc." was revealed about the former companions of the Salaman the Persian when he mentioned them to the Prophet(Allah bless him and grant him peace, relating how they had been saying, ""They used to pray, fast and believe in you, and testify that you would be sent as a prophet." When he had finished praiseing them, the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) replied, "Salamn, they are the denizens of hell", which came to discomfit Salman greatly, and so Allah revealed this verse.



Further Elaboration On Those Who Continue To Follow The Previous Revelations,In Spite Of Being Aware Of The Message of Muhammad (Allah bless him and grant him peace)

Ibn Naqib:

Shirk or ascribing associates to Allah Most High means to hold that Allah has an equal, whereas He has created you, and to worship another with Him, whether it be a stone, human, sun, moon, prophet, sheikh, jinn, star, angel or other.(p1.1,'Umdat al Salik)

The Quranic verses concerning the enormity of shirk (ascribing partners to Allah)"are very numerous, it being absolutely certain that whoever ascribes associates to Allah and dies in such a state is one of hell's inhabitants, just as whoever believes in Allah and dies as a believer is one of the inhabitants of paradise, even if he should be punished first."

(p1.3,'Umdat al Salik)

"Allah does not forgive that any should be associated with Him, but forgives what is other than that to whomever he wills"(Qur'an 4.48)


Belief in the prophethood of Muhammad(Allah bless him and give him peace) is an essential component of faith, without which one's testimony of faith will be rejected


Imam al-Ghazali (rahim Allah) says, as quoted in 'Umdat al Salik:

"Allah, Most High sent Muhammd(Allah bless him and give him peace), the Qurayshite unlettered prophet, to deliver His inspired message to the entire world, Arabs and non-Arabs,jinn and mankind, superseding and abrogating all previous religious systems with the Prophet's sacred law, except for the provisions of them that the new revelation explicitly reconfirmed. Allah has favoured him above all the other prophets and made him the highest of mankind, rejecting anyone's attesting to the divine onesness by saying, There is no God but Allah", unless they also attest to the Prophet by saying"Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah". He has obliged man and jinn to beleive everything the Prophet(Allah bless him and grant him peace)has informed us concerning this world and the next, and does not accept anyone's faith unless they beleive in what he has told us will happen after death."
(v2.1)