My understanding is that mainstream Christians think non-Christians can go to heaven as long as they didn’t have the chance to become Christian—e.g. Moses, or some undiscovered Amazonian tribe—as long as they lived righteously. The mainstream Islamic position, however, is that Islam is really obvious, so even if you never heard of the prophet Mohammed you should still be able to work out most of the stuff based on reason alone (!) so you’ve got no excuse. So while Christians view Moses, Abraham, etc as precursors to Christianity, Islam views them as actually having been Muslim. For Muslims, the first Muslim was Adam (of Adam and Eve fame).
So it’s not that Jews, Christians and Sabaeans get grandfathered in for having the updated version. Rather, it’s that they are still worshipping the right God, even though they’ve distorted his teachings and those of his prophets, which is surely pushing their luck. The “People of the Book” thing is way less tolerant than it sounds.
that Islam is really obvious, so [...] you should still be able to work out most of the stuff based on reason alone
That would be really weird given that so far as I can tell Muslims don’t hold (e.g.) that all the prophets (Moses, Jesus, etc.) were aware of anything like the whole of Islam despite being actually on a mission from God. Does “most of the stuff” here mean something like “what Islam, Judaism and Christianity have in common”?
Muslims believe that the teachings of Moses, Jesus, etc were perverted by the Jews and Christians. In particular they definitely do believe that Moses taught the same things that Mohammed did—this is explicitly stated in the Qu’ran, which repeatedly treats Moses as a parallel for Mohammed. So the fact that the Biblical Moses isn’t a Muslim is irrelevant—you have to go by the Qu’ranic Moses. That’s why Hollywood films about Old Testament prophets are frequently censored in the Middle East, because they are telling ‘inaccurate’ (i.e. non-Qu’ranic) stories about Islamic prophets, see e.g. here and here.
So I knew that Muslims believe that earlier prophets’ teachings were compatible by Islam before they were corrupted by the Jews and Christians. Are you saying, beyond that, that they believe the earlier prophets actually had something like the whole of Muhammad’s message, before Muhammad?
That seems a little unlikely to me. (E.g., for sure Moses didn’t have the Qur’an, and I wouldn’t expect “There are vitally important things in the Qur’an that weren’t known before it” to be controversial among Muslims. But I’m very willing to be corrected.)
Are you saying, beyond that, that they believe the earlier prophets actually had something like the whole of Muhammad’s message, before Muhammad? That seems a little unlikely to me. (E.g., for sure Moses didn’t have the Qur’an)
I don’t know exactly what the man-in-the-street believes, but yes, Islam teaches that they had something like the whole of the message. It also teaches that all of the prophets had the Torah, and indeed that the Torah and other earlier revealed scriptures talk about Mohammed. The special thing about the Qu’ran isn’t that it’s a unique account of God’s word—supposedly God gave his word to mankind over and over, but mankind kept polluting it. The special thing about the Qu’ran is that it’s the final and incorruptible version.
You’re right that it is an obviously silly belief, but I am not an expert as to how the contradictions are worked out. For example, did Adam teach the necessity of Hajj? Surely no, because Abraham built the Ka’aba, and he came later. But if Adam’s religion was missing one of the pillars of Islam, then how was he a Muslim? But really it’s no sillier than any manner of Christian doctrines that no-one remarks on.
Surely no, because Abraham built the Ka’aba, and he came later. But if Adam’s religion was missing one of the pillars of Islam, then how was he a Muslim?
My understanding is that mainstream Christians think non-Christians can go to heaven as long as they didn’t have the chance to become Christian—e.g. Moses, or some undiscovered Amazonian tribe—as long as they lived righteously.
Well, Dante put the righteous pagans in Limbo (the 1st circle of hell). As for Isrealites, they got to heaven because they were followers of G-d after all.
My understanding is that mainstream Christians think non-Christians can go to heaven as long as they didn’t have the chance to become Christian—e.g. Moses, or some undiscovered Amazonian tribe—as long as they lived righteously. The mainstream Islamic position, however, is that Islam is really obvious, so even if you never heard of the prophet Mohammed you should still be able to work out most of the stuff based on reason alone (!) so you’ve got no excuse. So while Christians view Moses, Abraham, etc as precursors to Christianity, Islam views them as actually having been Muslim. For Muslims, the first Muslim was Adam (of Adam and Eve fame).
So it’s not that Jews, Christians and Sabaeans get grandfathered in for having the updated version. Rather, it’s that they are still worshipping the right God, even though they’ve distorted his teachings and those of his prophets, which is surely pushing their luck. The “People of the Book” thing is way less tolerant than it sounds.
That would be really weird given that so far as I can tell Muslims don’t hold (e.g.) that all the prophets (Moses, Jesus, etc.) were aware of anything like the whole of Islam despite being actually on a mission from God. Does “most of the stuff” here mean something like “what Islam, Judaism and Christianity have in common”?
Muslims believe that the teachings of Moses, Jesus, etc were perverted by the Jews and Christians. In particular they definitely do believe that Moses taught the same things that Mohammed did—this is explicitly stated in the Qu’ran, which repeatedly treats Moses as a parallel for Mohammed. So the fact that the Biblical Moses isn’t a Muslim is irrelevant—you have to go by the Qu’ranic Moses. That’s why Hollywood films about Old Testament prophets are frequently censored in the Middle East, because they are telling ‘inaccurate’ (i.e. non-Qu’ranic) stories about Islamic prophets, see e.g. here and here.
So I knew that Muslims believe that earlier prophets’ teachings were compatible by Islam before they were corrupted by the Jews and Christians. Are you saying, beyond that, that they believe the earlier prophets actually had something like the whole of Muhammad’s message, before Muhammad?
That seems a little unlikely to me. (E.g., for sure Moses didn’t have the Qur’an, and I wouldn’t expect “There are vitally important things in the Qur’an that weren’t known before it” to be controversial among Muslims. But I’m very willing to be corrected.)
I don’t know exactly what the man-in-the-street believes, but yes, Islam teaches that they had something like the whole of the message. It also teaches that all of the prophets had the Torah, and indeed that the Torah and other earlier revealed scriptures talk about Mohammed. The special thing about the Qu’ran isn’t that it’s a unique account of God’s word—supposedly God gave his word to mankind over and over, but mankind kept polluting it. The special thing about the Qu’ran is that it’s the final and incorruptible version.
You’re right that it is an obviously silly belief, but I am not an expert as to how the contradictions are worked out. For example, did Adam teach the necessity of Hajj? Surely no, because Abraham built the Ka’aba, and he came later. But if Adam’s religion was missing one of the pillars of Islam, then how was he a Muslim? But really it’s no sillier than any manner of Christian doctrines that no-one remarks on.
Well, according to this article:
Well, Dante put the righteous pagans in Limbo (the 1st circle of hell). As for Isrealites, they got to heaven because they were followers of G-d after all.