From the Archives: Are All Religions From God?

Note: this was originally translated into English for print in 1903 and the terms used reflect the standard usage of the time.

The following letter was written by the Promised Messiah (as), the Founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, in answer to an old Hindu friend who wrote to him that all religions were from God and that salvation not being the monopoly of any particular religion, a man could attain to it by following any religion. The letter runs thus:

It has given me much pleasure to learn that you have an interest in the all-important question of religion. In fact since this world is like an inn and its inhabitants only travellers who must go back to their real home sooner or later, it is the duty of every one of us to give the deepest consideration to the questions of religion and belief. 

It is also our duty that if a religion is proved to our satisfaction to be from God and a path is known to us as the path of the pleasure of God, we should choose that religion and walk in that path fearless of every disgrace and dishonour and regardless of the ties of close relationship or of the attractions of kindred and wealth. In this manner did the righteous always act and in the cause of truth they bore all sorts of sufferings and persecutions.

In the world we witness false beliefs prevailing along with true ones and wicked deeds practised along with good ones. But the righteous should shun every falsehood and evil. For instance, it is alleged by a certain section of the Hindu community that the Vedas inculcate the doctrine that in case a wife bears no offspring for some years after marriage or gives birth only to female children, her husband should invite a stranger to have carnal knowledge of her, and that this process should be continued until the wife bears eleven male children from the stranger’s seed. 

The followers of the Sakat mat who also trace their religious principles to the Vedas have their religious festivals characterised by horrible scenes of incest and adultery, and they hold these immoral practices as legalised by their mantras. Similarly, there are many other religious systems whose principles and practices are abhorrent to human feelings. It is not possible for a man to be so peaceful as to acquiesce in all these immoral practices. 

The same sad condition is observable in the principles to which different people adhere. Some are addicted to the lowest forms of fetishism, some worship trees, snakes, cats, dogs, fire, sun, moon, rivers, &c., while others worship human beings, as their God. Can we suppose all of them to be on the right path?

It is the duty of men who come into this world for its regeneration to spread the truth upon the earth and extirpate falsehood out of it. If a righteous servant of God were told by dacoits or thieves that he should obtain certain property by extortion or theft, would it be right for him to join with them in the perpetration of such crimes? 

Religion would teach him to eschew such evil deeds, for religion enjoins us to eschew all evil and impure doctrines and deeds, and not to take for our guides books which teach such immoral and impure practices and laws. I cannot understand how a man can honestly live at peace with all forms of religion and admit the truth of their principles knowing them to be false. Such a course would imply that no evil is evil, and false doctrines and evil deeds shall have to be regarded as high truths and virtues. To anyone who would cast a glance at the different forms of religion prevalent in the world, it would be clear that in respect of the knowledge of the Supreme Being, various notions prevail, some of which cannot but believe in the existence of God, and on the opposite are those who look upon men, or animals or heavenly bodies or the physical forces of nature as their God. Again, there are the Arya Samajists who consider themselves as the true heirs of the Vedic religion. They believe in the existence of a nominal Deity Who they hold did not create a single particle of matter, nor brought into existence a single soul or a single germ of life. Matter and soul they regard as having existence independently of the Divine Being, nor do they consider Him the originator of any of their properties or powers. With the creation of this universe they think Almighty God has nothing to do. By referring to this article of their creed, I only wish to point out that for a man of true righteousness, it is simply impossible to subscribe to all the creeds contradicting one another and to believe in them as true. 

My object here is not to point out the error of those who by their false beliefs derogate the Divine glory, dignity and power or legalise immoral practices, but only to show you that a conscientious being cannot treat the pure and the impure alike. To one who purifies himself, the Divine face is undoubtedly revealed, but methods which inculcate a belief in impure doctrines or enjoin immoral practices can surely never lead to God. The love of God is no doubt a certain way to heavenly life, but how can the man entertain true love for God who takes Rama, Krishna or Christ for his God or regards the Divine Being so weak and imperfect as not to be able to create a particle of matter or a soul? 

What is salvation but to know the true and perfect God with all His pure and perfect attributes and to walk in the ways of purity which He has shown us? This is the real salvation and every way opposed to it is a way of error, and no one can attain to true salvation by following error. 

We witness in the world that religious beliefs are in most cases determined by training and habits. A Christian would have no hesitation in calling Jesus his God, while a Hindu would as easily fix upon Rama or Krishna as the true Deity or upon the Ganges as the supplier of all needs, or appoint for himself a God who created nothing and consider matter and soul as co-eternal with God and self-existent like Him. But all these trusts are vain, for they have no argument with them. To find his way to the living God should be the sole object of the seeker after truth. 

The world is constrained in the bondage of customs and habits. Everyone who is born in a religion deems it his duty to defend the same. But it can be easily seen that this principle is wrong. A man should adopt the religion which can point out the way to the living God whom extraordinary signs and miracles point out with certainty as the powerful and mighty God. For if God exists (and I swear by Him that His existence is the greatest of all certainties), then He must reveal Himself to His servants. 

The mere guesses of human reason – that this world has a Creator are not sufficient to give satisfaction and make His existence a certainty. The man who trusts in these conjectures has no access to the Divine presence, and he cannot rely upon God with as great a certainty as he counts upon the cash which is locked up in his safe, or upon land and gardens which are the source of income to him, or upon sons on high posts who assist their father by sending in large donations of money every month. Why does he not trust upon God as he trusts upon all these material objects? Only because his faith in God is not a certain faith. 

Similarly, a man who is negligent of his duty to the Divine Being, is bold in the commission of sin and does not fear God as he fears the plague, for instance, not going into a village where its devastating hand is busy at work, or as he fears the snake not daring to thrust his hand into its hole, or as he fears the lion not having the courage to go into a jungle which is its abode. The reason at the bottom of this boldness in the commission of sin is the same unbelief in God, for while admitting God with the tongue, the heart is quite foreign to Him and negligent of Him. 

It is not easy to have a sincere faith in the Divine Being, for unless manifest and clear signs of His existence and power are witnessed, a man cannot understand that there is a God. Almost all men are believers; in God by the word of the mouth, but their deeds show that their hearts are quite strangers to the true belief in Divine existence. True faith requires a certain knowledge as the knowledge of a thing after repeated experience. 

Experience for instance tells us that a very small quantity of strychnia is fatal. This experience giving rise to a certain faith in its power of killing will keep a man back from its use – in a quantity which is likely to cause death. The person, therefore, who is in any way involved in the bondage of sin has no faith in God, for he has not recognised Him yet. 

This world is the scene of many vanities, and most people are satisfied with false principles of logic. The true religion is that which reveals the face of the living God and brings a man to have such near access to him that he sees Him. When thus filled with certainty he is brought into a close and deep connection with God. He is then freed from every sin and impurity and Almighty God is thenceforward his sole trust. He reveals Himself to him by His peculiar signs and His special manifestation and the revelation of His word. From that day, he knows that God is, and from that hour he is purified and cleansed of all his internal impurities. This is the true knowledge of God which is the key to heaven, but this way is not open to anyone except through Islam. This is the Divine promise from the beginning that He will reveal Himself to those who follow His Holy Word. Experience is our greatest witness and experience tells us that except through Islam God never reveals Himself to anyone or honours anyone with His Word or assists anyone with His mighty signs. How can we, in opposition to our clear experience, admit that God reveals Himself in this manner to the followers of other religions also?

Some time ago, Lekh Ram, a Brahman by caste and an Arya by religion, came to me here at Qadian and asserted that the Vedas were the Word of God and that the Holy Qur’an was not His Word. I told him that since he asserted the Vedas to be the Word of God, and that since considering their present condition I did not hold them to be such for they taught shirk and many other impure doctrines, while I knew the Holy Qur’an to be of Divine origin for not only were its teachings free from the impurity of shirk and all other impurities, but by following it the face of the living God was revealed and heavenly signs were manifested, therefore it was necessary that we should agree upon some criterion for testing the truth of these assertions. I pointed out to him an easy way for deciding this point, viz., that with the assistance of his Vedic God he should publish a prophecy concerning me, while inspired by the God who revealed the Holy Qur’an, I should also publish a prophecy concerning him. Upon this Lekh Ram published a prophecy concerning me that I would die of cholera within three years, while my God revealed to me that Lekh Ram would be murdered within six years and thus brought to naught on account of his abuse of the Holy Prophet (sa) of God.

It was also revealed to me that the day of his murder would be next to the Muhammadan festival of ‘Id, and that shortly after his death plague would rage in the Punjab. All these facts of prophecy were published by me very frequently in my books and I further wrote that if the present Vedas were the Word of God, it was the duty of all the Arya Samajists to pray to their God as hard as they could for the safety of Lekh Ram, for it had been revealed to me that Lekh Ram would not be saved. The prophecy about my death from cholera within three years was published by Lekh Ram in his own book. The death of Lekh Ram in the manner predicted at last bore witness to the fact that the Vedas are not of a Divine origin.

This is only one instance. Thousands of similar supernatural signs have made it as clear as daylight that the religion of Islam is the only true religion in the world, and that other religions are either the inventions of human beings, or being originally from God became corrupt afterwards. Dear friend! I cannot accept the truth of your assertion without any argument for it. In this world’s claim for the most trifling amount cannot be sustained unless sufficient proof is produced. How can then any weight be given to assertions for whose truth no argument is produced. God is one and His will is one how can He then be the object of beliefs contradicting one another?  How are we to believe the truth from anything about Him, viz., that Christ is God, or that Rama is God, or that Krishna is God, or that God is such a weak and powerless Being that He is not the Creator of a single particle in the universe? We can only accept the religion which has the light of proof with it and that religion is Islam. If you say that the great miracles and heavenly signs shown in Islam, are also shown in other religions, we would gladly listen to you provided that you bring forward proof of it. But it will never be possible for you to point out any living man of any religion who can be set against me in the blessings and heavenly signs granted to me.

You say in your letter that Almighty God has given an equal share to the believer and unbeliever in this world. The reason of this is that Almighty God has invited everyone to Himself, and, therefore, has bestowed on all powers, the right use of which can lead them to the desired goal. But experience shows us that unless a person walks in obedience to Islam, these powers are abused and therefore the goal is not reached. It is no doubt true as you say that it is very difficult that all people should follow one religion, but for the true seeker every difficulty is removed. Your illustration of travellers by the train and travellers on foot trying to reach the same destination does not apply in a religious matter, and the analogy does not hold true. There is only one way to find God, viz., to attain to certainty by miracles and signs. True faith and purity of soul depend upon this. How can he reach God or be true in faith upon Him who has yet no certainty of his existence. There is no plurality of ways to find out God as this world. There is only one way and that is certainty with regard to God on which also depends the purity of soul. But no religion except Islam has the means of certainty.

You write further on in your letter that God is infinite and, therefore, we cannot know Him except by doing away with the restraints of shara’ (law). Now shara’ is an Arabic word and it means a way, and hence particularly the way to God. Your argument is, therefore, reduced to this that to find God, we must leave the way which leads to Him. I leave it for you to consider the reasonableness of this assertion. As your remark, “Of caste and profession no one will question thee; worship God and of God shalt thou be,” Islam takes no exception, for it does not make any distinction on the score of caste or nationality. Everyone who seeks God, will find the way to Him to whatever nationality he may belong. But it is not true to say that everyone can find the way to God to whatever religion he may belong, for unless the true and pure religion is followed, the way to God is not found. Religion and nationality are two quite different things.

Then, drawing a wrong conclusion from your remark quoted above, you say: “This is the reason why the followers of the Vedas have not set on salvation the condition of following any particular person.” The truth of this remark is not clear, for the person who does not consider it necessary for salvation to follow the author of the Veda, cannot admit the authority of the Veda but must regard it false. For instance, if a person does not admit the truth of the principles and injunctions of the Veda, rejects the Niyoga, i.e., the immoral practice of allowing the wife to have illegal connection with strangers for the sake of children, or condemns the principle that Good is not the creator of anything but that everything is like God self-existent, or considers the worship of fire, sun, moon, &c., as mere fetishism and thus rejects the Veda as waste paper, so much so that he does not look upon the God presented by the Veda as the true God, will he be entitled to salvation or not? If he is, we would like to see the verse quoted from the Veda from which such a conclusion is drawn; but if he is not, then your assertion does not hold good. 

For, what we say is simply this that the person who does not believe in the truth of the injunctions of the Holy Qur’an shall not get salvation and shall lead his life like a blind man in this world. Almighty God says:

[1] وَمَن يَبۡتَغِ غَيۡرَ ٱلۡإِسۡلَٰمِ دِينٗا فَلَن يُقۡبَلَ مِنۡهُ وَهُوَ فِي ٱلۡأٓخِرَةِ مِنَ ٱلۡخَٰسِرِينَ

which means that the person who shall not follow the religion of Islam which the Holy Qur’an preaches, will never be acceptable in the sight of God, and after death he shall be one of the lost. To say that the Veda does not require us to follow any person is not true, for to follow a book is the same as to follow its author. If the Hindus do not follow the Veda, what does all this noise about it mean? Your last assertion that great men have been in every religion, does not carry any weight unless it is shown that some such great man who can show signs is living at the present time in any religion except Islam. Was Pandit Lekh Ram one of the great men, because his loss is bewailed by the Arya Samaj to this day?’ 

QADIAN: 14^th June 1903.

MIRZA GHULAM AHMAD

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ENDNOTES

1. The Holy Qur’an, 3:86.

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(First published in The Review of Religions in July 1903.)