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What Is The Minimum Criteria To Be Called As Muslim
Sir who completely follows Islam as deen they are Muslim.
I want to know if the people of below category are also Muslim
1. Having all 3 tawhid but through other religion. Eg many Hindu will not do idol worship and believe in One God. Just like us. But they don’t have imaan in Rasool and they don’t call themselves Muslim.
Are they Muslim?
2. If anyone has tawhid and also believe in Phophet Muhammad. But does not believe in other Imaan e markan. They don’t convert religion as Islam formally. Are they also Muslim?
I heard from Dr. Zakir Naik that whoever submit will to almighty God he is Muslim.
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14 Replies
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What Is The Minimum Criteria To Be Called As Muslim
updated 2 years, 9 months ago
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This matter is very complex and now muslims living abroad and marrying in other faiths has resulted in lot of young people, with religious mindset, mire and more confused and in the end they don’t want a “label” of muslim or Hindu
1.Firstly, religion is private, it’s between u and ur God and so only you can decide what u believe. We can’t say if someone is muslim or not. Only exception is legal issues like divorce, marriage, inheritance etc. court will decide if someone should be dealt with as a muslim.
Lot of Hindus do not believe in idols, many famous people openly refuted idol worship. Denying idol worship isn’t Tauheed. Tauheen is a concept encircle ones whole existence. I do not mean rituals like namaz but an attitude towards life and people. If oneness of God is a philosophical idea in the brain without any effect on how one live his/her life, it’s an idea of God but not tauheed
2. Basic requirement to be muslim, whoever believes will be considered muslim. However someone believes but doesn’t follow, he remains a muslim but considered sinful
who believe in the unseen, establish prayer, and donate from what We have provided for them,and who believe in what has been revealed to you ˹O Prophet˺1 and what was revealed before you, and have sure faith in the Hereafter.It is they who are ˹truly˺ guided by their Lord, and it is they who will be successful.Al Baqara 2:2-5
Hadith Jibraeel (part of it)
‘Muhammad, tell me about Islam.’ [Muhammad, may God bless with him and grant him peace,] said, ‘Islam is that you witness that there is no god but God and that Muhammad is the Messenger of God, and you establish the prayer, and you give the Zakat, and you fast Ramadan, and you perform the hajj to the House if you are able.’ He said, ‘You have told the truth,’ and we were amazed at him asking him and [then] telling him that he told the truth. He said, ‘Tell me about Iman.’ He said, ‘That you affirm God, His angels, His books, His messengers, and the Last Day, and that you affirm the Decree [predestination]
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I would say the minimum is Toheed. For details of Toheed look at the translation of Sura Ikhlas and Ayat-ul-Kursi.
Once a person accepts the statement of Toheed, he becomes a Muslim. From there it is a journey of strengthening belief and thereafter everything is built upon it to be a better Muslim.
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Actually many Hindu believe in all 3 tawheed. Because tawheed is written in all religion. Believe in oneness, no idol worship call with proper name. I think they are also Muslim.
Even I saw a video of zakir Naik calling Guru Nanak as Muslim based on his believe in tawheed
Or at least people with imaan e markan are Muslim. Namaz and other things makes them a better Muslim.
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I am wrong I think
I only stated what I know. I know it is said that Tauheed is the only requirement for being a Muslim, it must be true but my knowledge is limited so I couldn’t verify the source. The ayah in the quran mentioned tauheed + akhira
Indeed, the believers, Jews, Christians, and Sabians—whoever truly believes in God and the Last Day and does good will have their reward with their Lord. And there will be no fear for them, nor will they grieve.[2:62]
Indeed, the believers, Jews, Sabians and Christians—whoever truly believes in God and the Last Day and does good, there will be no fear for them, nor will they grieve.[ 5:69]
For a person who never heard or didn’t get time to study Islam or Muhammad SAW but believed in tauheed will be considered muslim insha Allah
But someone who met muslims, had the intellectual ability to understand Islam, never did that but remained a believer of oneness of God. I am not sure but hope Allah will be merciful as He is most merciful of all.
Regarding legal issues, like can such a person marry a muslim man/women. I do not know
Hopefully some learned brother or sister can educate me and others
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Being a Muslim in the sight of God can vary from person to person, depending upon the specific circumstances and knowledge they’ve been given. Thus the accountability falls in the following tiers:
– In the absence of teachings of Prophets, every human being will be held accountable on the basis of innate guidance buit-in w.r.t one creator and innate ability to distinguish good from evil and acting accordingly.
– In case one gets acquainted with the teachings of the Prophets (sws), belief in Hereafter will also become a matter of accountability.
– In case one get acquainted with the teachings of Prophet Muhammad (sws), belief in His prophethood also becomes a matter of accountability.
This has been described in different places in Quran:
وَإِذْ أَخَذَ رَبُّكَ مِن بَنِي آدَمَ مِن ظُهُورِهِمْ ذُرِّيَّتَهُمْ وَأَشْهَدَهُمْ عَلَى أَنفُسِهِمْ أَلَسْتُ بِرَبِّكُمْ قَالُواْ بَلَى شَهِدْنَا أَن تَقُولُواْ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ إِنَّا كُنَّا عَنْ هَذَا غَافِلِينَ أَوْ تَقُولُواْ إِنَّمَا أَشْرَكَ آبَاؤُنَا مِن قَبْلُ وَكُنَّا ذُرِّيَّةً مِّن بَعْدِهِمْ أَفَتُهْلِكُنَا بِمَا فَعَلَ الْمُبْطِلُونَوَكَذَلِكَ نُفَصِّلُ الآيَاتِ وَلَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ (174-7:172)
And remember when your Lord brought forth from the loins of the progeny of Adam their children and made them testify against themselves. He said: “Am I not your Lord?” They replied: “We bear witness that You are.” This We did lest you should say on the Day of Judgement: “We had no knowledge of that,” or present the excuse: “Our forefathers had already adopted idolatry and we later became their children so will You destroy us on account of what these false-doers did?” [We have fully explained things here] and thus do We explain Our revelations [so that people are left with no excuse to deny the truth] and so that they may return to the right path. (7:172-174)
فَأَقِمْ وَجْهَكَ لِلدِّيْنِ حَنِيْفًا فِطْرَةَ اللَّهِ الَّتِیْ فَطَرَ النَّاسَ عَلَيْهَا لَا تَبْدِيْلَ لِخَلْقِ اللَّهِ ذَلِكَ الدِّيْنُ الْقَيِّمُ وَلَكِنَّ أَكْثَرَ النَّاسِ لَا يَعْلَمُوْنَ. مُنِيبِيْنَ إِلَيْهِ وَاتَّقُوْهُ وَأَقِيمُوْا الصَّلَاةَ وَلَا تَكُوْنُوْا مِنَ الْمُشْرِكِيْنَ. مِنَ الَّذِيْنَ فَرَّقُوْا دِيْنَهُمْ وَكَانُوْا شِيَعًا كُلُّ حِزْبٍ بِمَا لَدَيْهِمْ فَرِحُوْنَ.
So, [now that these facts have become evident] following one God continue to point your face [like your father Abraham] towards his religion. Follow the nature created by God [O Prophet!] on which He has created people. This nature created by God cannot be changed.This only is the straight religion but most people know not. [Follow it] by turning towards God all of you and keep fearing Him and be diligent in the prayer and be not among the idolaters – the idolaters who created divisions in their religion and became divided into factions. Each faction is engrossed in what it has. (30:30-32)
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَالَّذِينَ هَادُوا وَالنَّصَارَى وَالصَّابِئِينَ مَنْ آمَنَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ وَعَمِلَ صَالِحًا فَلَهُمْ أَجْرُهُمْ عِنْدَ رَبِّهِمْ وَلَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ
[It is evident from this that the law of retribution is absolutely unbiased. Therefore,] those who profess faith in Muhammad and those [before them] who became Jews and those who are called Christians, and Sabaeans – whoever among them believes in Allah and in the Last Day and does righteous deeds – shall be rewarded by their Lord and [in His gracious presence] they shall have nothing to fear nor shall they grieve [there]. (2:62)
However, when a person truly believes in the Prophethood of Prophet Muhammad (sws) then he must confess his faith whenever the situation demands except when one is being persecuted (in that case migration becomes a religious obligation). The state will only consider that person a Muslim, who explicitly claims to be one and openly professes his faith, and all the personal laws of Islam (Divorce, Marriage, Inheritance etc.) will only apply to such person.
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Thank you for a comprehensive answer brother Umer.
So, in summary, to be a Muslim a person’s beliefs and acts need to be aligned with his knowledge of Islam.
In the absense of any knowledge of Islam (which is extremely rare these days) a person is a Muslim if he believes in one god and follows innate guidance of right and wrong.
Was this the case with prophet Ibrahim?
Still it seems like in the absense of any knowledge, just belief in one god seems to be the minimum criteria without the requirement of following the innate knowledge of right from wrong because even with the knowledge of right and wrong people make mistakes for various reasons.
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Prophet Ibrahim (sws), despite surrounded with polytheism all around him, had this conscious realization of one creator. The only problem was precision in deciding who is that one creator for which there’s whole scheme of prophethood and revelation.
Right and wrong refers to the very basics of good and evil which form universal morality among all people. And Quran refers it to as fully ingrained in one’s ‘nafs’ at the time of its creation.
وَنَفْسٍ وَمَا سَوَّاهَا فَأَلْهَمَهَا فُجُورَهَا وَتَقْوَاهَا قَدْ أَفْلَحَ مَنْ زَكَّاهَا وَقَدْ خَابَ مَنْ دَسَّاهَا (91: 7-10)
And the soul bears witness and the perfection given to it, then [God] inspired it with its evil and its good that he succeeded who purified it and he failed who corrupted it. (91:7-10)
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So at least a person says the kalma in public. And believes in all Imaan e markan. Will be accepted for marriage? Even if namaz,roza and all not started yet?
The world is filled with weired people. Even some people believe in kalma but not in other Imaan e markan.
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I don’t understand the term “imaan e markan“, please elaborate?
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Believe in Allah,messangers, angel,books of Allah,destiny and day of judgement is Imaan e Markan.
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Evangeline, your comments about some people beliveing in one thing but not all is interesting.
According to the definition of minimum that is required to be a Muslim is based on a person’s knowkedge of Islam. Once they have the knowkedge they need to believe in all to be a Muslim.
Does that mean these people should not be called Muslims because they only believe in Toheed and reject some or all of other required beliefs with full knowledge?
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Belief in God is absolute in nature however, belief in prophethood is subject to both knowledge and circumstances of a person. But once one believes in a Prophet then belief in Angels, belief in the hereafter and belief in divine book(s) naturally ensue because thay are all necessary for belief in prophethood; they’re more like branches of this belief. Your statement that “some people believe in kalma but not in other Imaan e markan” is hard to grasp becaue believeing in kalma means that one also believes in the prophethood of the Prophet Muhammad (sws) and with that, belief in Divine Books, belief in Angels, belief in the Hereafter automatically ensue.
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So in Summary, in my understanding now, the minimum for someone to be called a Muslim is as follows.
1. For the one who never knew about Islam is to follow his innate guidance of believing in one Allah and trying to do good deeds based on the innate guidance of right and wrong.
2. For all others, they need to believe in all of the required items below.
One Allah
Angels
Holy books
Prophets and prophet Muhammad as a last prophet
Last day
Predestination
Resurrection after death
I agree with the above, but if the above is true then it goes against Ghamidi Sahib’s stance where he says Qadianis and any other who wants to call themselves Muslim will be considered as Muslim.
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All these five tenets of Belief are to be confessed internally (‘batin’) by a person, on the outset, whenever someone says they’re a Muslim, it implies that they believe in all these five tenets. Next comes the matter of what if someone has added another tenet into this belief system. If such a tenet is based on interpretation of a person derived from Quran or Hadith (being a source of Islam to him), then that belief can be totally repugnant to Islam, but it is still based on wrong interpretaion of the sources of Islam. Therefore, in that case, we will go back to the sources to point out their mistake, but their claim of being a Muslim will still be considered as such.
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