The Increasing Alteration of Religious Doctrines in General
The division into various groups, as described in the previous chapter, did not affect only the Islamic community as we have seen. As explicitly mentioned in the hadith of the firaq, this is a general phenomenon that affects all narrated religious doctrines.
This fragmentation is also mentioned in the Qur'an – fundamentally in accordance with descriptions found in the Torah and the Gospel. After the death of their respective prophets عليهم السلام, the communities increasingly became divided in matters of religion.
According to Islamic understanding, the prophetic doctrine of monotheism has been present among humanity since the time of Adam عليه السلام, the father of mankind. However, in each prophetic community, due to the aforementioned disruption in religion, the doctrine of true monotheism gradually faded into oblivion – until the one Creator renewed it again and again through a new messenger.
Anyone who has studied the history of the Abrahamic religions inevitably knows that they suffered greatly from this severe fragmentation. Only someone unfamiliar with these religions and their history would dispute this fact.
An example of this is the history of Christianity, whose followers soon developed significant differences in fundamental religious matters in the early period of Christianity. These differences eventually led to enmity, violence, and exile.
For instance, Christians were divided on the question of whether Jesus was a prophet, God, the son of God, or a human being with a special divine spark. Naturally, these questions led to numerous other issues. Debates over whether the will of God and the will of Jesus were one and the same, or not, resulted in serious disagreements with correspondingly severe consequences.
As we have seen, the Islamic community was also not spared from severe disruption in matters of faith. However, since the Islamic source texts were narrated with great authenticity, this did not lead to a significant and fundamental alteration of the texts themselves. Rather, the actual content and true meaning of these texts gradually faded into oblivion for many followers of Islam.
As already demonstrated, this soon resulted in people who considered themselves members of Islam adopting beliefs that were in no way compatible with the general doctrine of the prophets عليهم السلام.
Over the centuries, this led many followers of Islam to gradually fall into acts of polytheistic association, which is the very opposite of pure monotheism. Many statements, practices, and ways of thinking that were classified as polytheism from the perspective of early Islamic theology can still frequently be found today among individuals or groups who believe themselves to be adherents of Islam.
Despite the alteration of doctrine, Islam considers its own original teaching, or the original teachings of Musa/Moses عليه السلام and 'Isa/Jesus, to be the true doctrine of the one Creator. For a Muslim, there can fundamentally be no doubt that these two figures were highly honourable prophets who conveyed the true monotheism with absolute clarity.
The question that must therefore arise for Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike is: What was the actual, original doctrine of Moses عليه السلام, Jesus عليه السلام and Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم?
For any adherent of these religions, the logical conclusion of this question can only be a return to the earliest sources.
This very return to the Islamic sources is therefore the core and objective of the present book.