One Ever-True Religion for Mankind

‘God’s standard Religion is one, as God is One’

Yusuf Ali

Sura- 30 [Ar-Rum, Mecca 84 ]

Asad’s Translation:

30:30 AND SO, set thy face 25 steadfastly towards the [one ever-true] faith, turning away from all that is false, 26 in accordance with the natural disposition which God has instilled into man: 27 [for,] not to allow any change to corrupt what God has thus created 28 - this is the [purpose of the one] ever-true faith; but most people know it not.

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Translation:

فَأَقِمْ وَجْهَكَ لِلدِّينِ حَنِيفًا...

30:30. So set thou thy face steadily and truly to the Faith:

...فِطْرَةَ اللَّهِ الَّتِي فَطَرَ النَّاسَ عَلَيْهَا...

(Establish) God’s handiwork according to the pattern on which He has made mankind:

...لَا تَبْدِيلَ لِخَلْقِ اللَّهِ...

no change (let there be) in the work (wrought) by God:

...ذَلِكَ الدِّينُ الْقَيِّمُ ...

that is the standard Religion:

... وَلَكِنَّ أَكْثَرَ النَّاسِ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ ﴿٣٠﴾

but most among mankind understand not.

Transliteration Fa aqim wajhaka lid dini hanifa_ fitratal la_hil lati fataran na_sa alaiha_ la_ tabdila lihalqil la_h za_likad dinul qay yimu wa la_kin na aksaran na_si la_ yalamu_n

Picktall’s Translation:

30: 30 So set your purpose [O Muhammad] for a religion as a man by nature upright – the nature of God, in which He has created man. There is no altering [the Laws of]) God’s creation. That is the right religion, but most men know not.

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مُنِيبِينَ إِلَيْهِ وَاتَّقُوهُ ...

30:31. Turn ye back in repentance to Him, and fear Him:

... وَأَقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ ...

establish regular prayers,

... وَلَا تَكُونُوا مِنَ الْمُشْرِكِينَ ﴿٣١﴾

and be not ye among those who join gods with God, --

مِنَ الَّذِينَ فَرَّقُوا دِينَهُمْ وَكَانُوا شِيَعًا...

30:32 [Ali]. Those who split up their Religion, and become (mere) Sects, --

...كُلُّ حِزْبٍ بِمَا لَدَيْهِمْ فَرِحُونَ ﴿٣٢﴾

each party rejoicing in that which is with itself!

C3544. A good description of self-satisfied sectarianism as against real Religion.

See n. 3542 above.

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Amatulla’s comment –

This is the universal definition of the one ever true faith for mankind: complying with one’s conscience is the one ever true religion.

30:32 - Right after giving the definition of one ever true faith the Quran is giving this verse of human tendency of splitting a faith into sects and forget the fundamental commonality all humans possess disregarding dinul hanifa and its primary goals to unite mankind and not to divide it.

Ali’s comments:

C3543. "Repentance" does not mean sackcloth and ashes, or putting on a gloom pessimism.

It means giving up disease for health, crookedness (which is abnormal) for the Straight Way, the restoration of our nature as Allah created it from the falsity introduced by the enticements of Evil. To revert to the simile of the magnetic needle (n. 3540 above), if the needle is held back by obstructions, we must restore its freedom, so that it points true again to the magnetic pole.

C3540. For Hanif see n. 134 to 2:135.

Here "true" is used in the sense in which we say, "the magnetic needle is true to the north."

Those who have been privileged to receive the Truth should never hesitate or swerve but remain constant, as men who know.

C3541. As turned out from the creative hand of Allah, man is innocent, pure, true, free, inclined to right and virtue, and endued with true understanding about his own position in the Universe and about Allah's goodness, wisdom, and power.

That is his true nature, just as the nature of a lamb is to be gentle and of a horse is to be swift.

But man is caught in the meshes of customs, superstitions, selfish desires, and false teaching. This may make him pugnacious, unclean, false, slavish, hankering after what is wrong or forbidden, and deflected from the love of his fellow-men and the pure worship of the One True God.

The problem before the Prophets is to cure this crookedness, and to restore human nature to what it should be under the Will of Allah.

C3542. In 9:36, I translated Din Qaiyim as "straight usage." Here the meaning is wider, as it includes the whole life, thoughts and desires of man.

The "standard Religion," or the Straight Way is thus contrasted with the various human systems that conflict with each other and call themselves separate 'religions" or "sects" (see verse 32 below).

God’s standard Religion is one, as God is One.

Asad’s comments -

24 For an explanation of God's "letting man go astray", see note 4 on the second sentence of 14:4, as well as note 7 on 2:7.

25 I.e., "surrender thy whole being"; the term "face" is often used metonymically in the sense of one's "whole being".

26 For this rendering of hanif, see note 110 on 2:135.

27 See 7:172 and the corresponding note 139. The term fitrah, rendered by me as "natural disposition", connotes in this context man's inborn, intuitive ability to discern between right and wrong, true and false, and, thus, to sense God's existence and oneness. Cf the famous saying of the Prophet, quoted by Bukhiri and Muslim: "Every child is born in this natural disposition; it is only his parents that later turn him into a 'Jew 1 , a 'Christian', or a 'Magiari." These three religious formulations, best known to the contemporaries of the Prophet, are thus contrasted with the "natural disposition" which, by definition, consists in man's instinctive cognition of God and self- surrender (islam) to Him. (The term "parents" has here the wider meaning of "social influences or environment").

28 Lit., "no change shall there be [or "shall be made"] in God's creation (khalq)", i.e., in the natural disposition referred to above (Zamakhshari). In this context, the term tabdil ("change") obviously comprises the concept of "corruption.