Urmonotheismus: Prophets to Every Nation 1/3
The name came from smashing the words Ur and monotheism together. Ur was the city in Mesopotamia that Ibrahim (AS) used to live in and monotheism is the worship of one God. Urmonotheismus is the anthropological theory states that all religions devolved from monotheism; man was originally monotheistic, then degenerated into pantheism (everything is divine) or henotheism (one supreme deity and lesser deities) or polytheism (multiple deities), totemism (idol worship), and then animism (spirits). The term was first coined by Andrew Lang in 1898 who opposed the idea of 'revolutionary monotheism'. Urmonotheism is the same as the Islamic point of view, (as Adam was a Muslim), so of course I will be biased. However, I have evidence outside of Islam to support this anthropological theory. Should this theory be true, it would solve the question of timeliness. This is a question that I have made up and (there probably is a real name for it).
It goes like this, "How were you supposed to get to paradise/what was God's way before (or if you don't know about) [insert religion founder name here]". Ask this question to a Christian, he may not have an answer (because it's impossible to believe in the Trinity without knowing about Jesus, so what of the fate of Native Americans?) or he might say "Jesus was a Jew". Ask this to a Jew, he would say, "We are the chosen people," or "Prophets should have come to you". Ask this to a Buddhist/Hindu/East Asian, they would say, "Lol don't piss people off otherwise idk bro." Also, don't ask this to an Atheist.
Well, what did the five greatest prophets in Islam believe in prior to their revelation, as they would only receive revelation if the correct religion is not found in their society? It should make sense that if they were to die before receiving revelation, that they would still have exemplary character and piety.
- Noah (AS) was a monotheist.
- Musa (AS) was a monotheist (his mother was an Israeli who followed the teachings of Abraham and also grew up under the care of Asiya)
- Ibrahim (AS) was a hanif (i.e. a monotheist) in the presence of polytheism.
- Isa (AS) was a Jew-monotheist.
- Mohammad (SAW) was a hanif in the presence of polytheism.
These religions all follow the principle of Tawheed however are not formally Muslims! Both the hanif faith and Judaism have uncompromising monotheism whereas Trinitarian Christianity does not. You might contest that these prophets were the best of men, so how is the layman supposed to get to paradise? The Quran and Sunnah has a direct answer to this.
Allah says, in Surah Yunus verse 47:
And for every nation there is a messenger. And when their messenger cometh (on the Day of Judgment) it will be judged between them fairly, and they will not be wronged.
Also in Nahl 36 it says:
And verily We have raised in every nation a messenger, (proclaiming): Serve Allah and shun false gods. Then some of them (there were) whom Allah guided, and some of them (there were) upon whom error had just hold. Do but travel in the land and see the nature of the consequence for the deniers!
Furthermore in Ghafir 78 Allah says:
Verily We sent messengers before thee, among them those of whom We have told thee, and some of whom We have not told thee; and it was not given to any messenger that he should bring a portent save by Allah's leave, but when Allah's commandment cometh (the cause) is judged aright, and the followers of vanity will then be lost.
To every nation was supposedly sent a messenger to inform them of the nature of their Creator. Furthermore, the Quran and the Hadith tell us that humans were born believing in God (this is supposed to make the messenger's job a bit less difficult).
For example, in Al-A'raf 172:
And (remember) when your Lord brought forth from the Children of Adam, from their reins, their seed, and made them testify of themselves, (saying): Am I not your Lord? They said: Yea, verily. We testify. (That was) lest ye should say at the Day of Resurrection: Lo! of this we were unaware;
It is recorded in the Two Sahihs from Abu Hurayrah who said that the Messenger of Allah said:
Every child is born upon the Fitrah, it is only his parents who turn him into a Jew, a Christian or a Zoroastrian. Just as animals are born having full bodies, do you see any of them having a cutoff nose at birth?
Muslim recorded that `Iyad bin `Himar said that the Messenger of Allah said;
Allah said, 'I created My servants Hunafa' (monotheists), but the devils came to them and deviated them from their religion, prohibiting what I allowed'.
In summary, the Muslims' claims are two and the goal of this investigation/presentation is to support the following two claims in a secular fashion:
- There were messengers who proselytized people to Islam before Mohammad (SAW) to other nations
- Man is born on the fitrah and are therefore naturally monotheistic
I will back up the first claim with two evidences which are below.
- There were monotheistic religions in societies that were not influenced by Abrahamic religions.
- Not only did they practice monotheism, but other nations also independently practiced obscure Islamic traditions.
Then, I will address the second claim directly by referencing three articles.
I will use the next post to address evidence 1 to support claim 1. Now we will examine the aqeedah (belif) of various tribes around the world that are not influenced by Abrahamic monotheism.