THE TRANSCENDENTAL UNITY OF RELIGIONS FROM AN ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVE
by Dr Fatimah Abdullah [View Writer's Profile]

Abstract
In general no religion teaches evil to its followers. Most religions disseminate good values to their adherents. However it should not be inferred from this premise that to all religions are valid, revealed or representing the eternal truth. If man is created by an Almighty and Merciful God who cares for the righteous way in which he should conduct his life on earth, then He must have provided him with a set of teachings to do that. Thus it is God alone who has the full right to prescribe and determine the knowledge He reveals about His nature and the way His slaves should worship Him. It is only He who sends down the teachings that regulate the ethical life of humans and the way they should manage their way of life.

Unlike other religions Islam did not go through the so-called historical process of reification. Islam, since the time it was revealed to the final Prophet (pbuh), was already perfected from the very beginning requiring no historical explanation and evaluation in terms of the place it occupied and the role it played within the process of development. All the essentials of religion, that is, the name, the faith and practice, the ritual, the creed and system of beliefs were conferred by Revelation and exemplified by Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) throughout his life-time. Some modern scholars and orientalists have capitalized on the fact that nearly all religions, irrespective of their content, propagate good deeds and prohibit evil doings, to develop an erroneous conception that at all religions come from the same source and hence though they may look externally different, they are in fact internally only various faces of the same reality. They are all valid and that at a transcendental level there would be no difference between them. This is what is known as the belief of the transcendental unity of religions. This paper is written to argue against this belief and to expose its flaws from an Islamic point of view.

Introduction

The theory of the Transcendental Unity of Religions (TUR) is related to the concept of religious pluralism. They view that all religions are equal but use the various approaches to arrive the Truth. This subject is of immediate relevance and urgency as it embraces not only the relationship between the Muslims and non-Muslims but also it poses serious challenge to the Islamic faith of the Muslims. Hence, it requires proper response from Islamic perspective. On the other end the crux of religions is peace harmony and balance not violence and aggression. Unfortunately due to some of the propagator of wars and violence religions has been misconstrued. Under the name of Islam some groups of Muslims have abused the concept of jihad which originally to establish justice to the extreme.

The Transcendental Unity of World Religions

According to them the existence of various religions only constitutes variant conceptions and perceptions of, and responses to, this one Ultimate divine reality. Since all religions come from one source, each religion contains within itself a measure of the absolute truth and at the same time is a valid method and means for the attainment of that truth. Therefore all religions share equal validity. Since, as they claim all religions are equally valid and true, no one has the right to condemn or degrade a religion other than his own. Thus transcendentalism teaches that every religion is equally right. They consider the variety of world's religions as alternative ways or means along which men and women can find salvation, spiritual liberation, fulfillment and happiness provided they live and practice their own respective religions wholeheartedly and sincerely.

This belief was unfortunately accepted by a number of Muslim scholars who were inappropriately convinced that this is the true tolerant position of Islam towards the people of the book and other religious faiths.

Ancient and modern Muslim scholars have indicted this extreme non-judgmental outlook to religion that unites those who worship idols and animals with those who worship God. However, in our contemporary time, al-Attas stands as one of the strongest critics of this deviance. In his monumental work, Prolegomena he clearly and convincingly shows that this claim springs from a misconception of Islamic metaphysics, particularly that which is based on wahdat al-wujËd.

Misconception of the Term Islam

Some orientalists and supporters of this modern concept of transcendent unity of religions have deliberately limited islÉm to mean only submission in its general sense thus ignoring all the other meanings such as it being the name as well as the definition of the religion revealed to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) as well as other significations. Since all religions submit to God or to some other deity in some way or the other, then, according to them, all religions are transcendentally united. This approach logically involves shirk , a dangerous attitude of mind which the Qur'Én vehemently rejects. Moreover, the same approach leads to the misconception that Islam, understood as submission, is the umbrella for all other religions, and as such it awakens another state of mind that represents the Medieval idea of a privileged group. For the defenders of this approach argue that it is only the very few who can transcend the exoteric differences between religions to arrive at the esoteric unity of all religious forms in their generic essence. This statement is clearly reflected in the writings of Frithjof Schuon, as introduced by Huston Smith in which the latter affirms that:

There is a unity at the heart of religions. More than moral it is theological, but more than theological it is metaphysical in the precise sense of the word earlier noted: that which transcends the manifest world. The fact that it is thus transcendent, however, means that it can be univocally described by none and concretely apprehended by few. For this few the problem of the relation between religions is, by it, solved; for the many the generic is abstract and the concrete is not generic, and only what is concrete can be loved and worshipped.
Drawing a line between the esoteric and the exoteric Schuon maintains that there is no fundamental distinction between religions. Commenting on this view Huston Smith says:

It is not, so to speak, a line that, reappearing, divides religion's great historical manifestations vertically, Hindus from Buddhists from Christians from Muslims, and so on. The dividing line is horizontal and occurs but once, cutting across the historical religions. Above the line lies esoterism, below it exoterism ...religions are alike at heart or in essence read ("esoterically") while differing in form ("exoterically").

Hasan Askari for instance, mistakenly equates the spiritual experience of the Prophet, i.e., the experience of the Oneness of God with the mystical experience of Buddha.

On the other hand, al-Attas argues that:

We do not admit in the case of IslÉm of a horizontal dividing line separating the exoteric from the esoteric understanding of the Truth in religion. We maintain rather a vertical line of continuity from the exoteric to the esoteric; a vertical line of continuity which we identify as the Straight Path of islÉm-ÊmÉn-iÍsÉn without there being any inconsistency in the three stages of the spiritual ascent such that the Reality or transcendent Truth that is recognized and acknowledged is in our case accessible to many.

In refusing to accept the meaning of the word islÉm as the name of the religion revealed to Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and practically limiting it to a vague concept of submission, Cantwell Smith and such scholars as Frithjof Schoun and Jane Smith wish to bring IslÉm under their broad umbrella of the unity of religions.

Against this conviction we maintain that there is no evolutionary process as far as the understanding of the concept of Islam is concerned. Unlike other religions Islam did not go through the so-called historical process of reification. Islam, since the time it was revealed to the final Prophet (pbuh), was already perfected from the very beginning requiring no historical explanation and evaluation in terms of the place it occupied and the role it played within the process of development. All the essentials of religion, that is, the name, the faith and practice, the ritual, the creed and system of belief were conferred by Revelation and exemplified by Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) throughout his life-time (al-MÉidah: 5).