How Old is Islam?

       How Old is Islam?

There are many misconceptions about Islam. One of them is that, most of the people think Islam came into existence some 1400 years ago in modern day Saudi Arabia, and prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was the founder of Islam. This is not correct, in fact prophet Muhammad is the last messenger of the Islam, numerous messengers came before who preached Islam. Islam came into existence in this world, with the arrival of first human on this earth. As per Quran, first human on this earth was Adam (pbuh), As per the Quran Adam was a Muslim and he was also a prophet of God.

After Adam, God sent multiple messengers and scriptures throughout the world at different times to guide the humanity. The core message of all the messengers and scripture was the same. Worship Allah alone and follow me (that messenger). This fact is mentioned in the Quran in 16:36 like this, “We surely sent a messenger to every community, saying, “Worship Allah and shun false gods.”

Thus, God sent all the messengers and scriptures with the same core message, that’s why we find fundamental rules of all religions almost same, with the only difference or minor variations only in their finer application and rituals.

But we find many religions in the world today.

There are two reasons for this.

First, normally we know the followers of a messenger either by name of that messenger or by the geographical name of that place, where messenger came.

Secondly after the departure of the messenger, later generations corrupted and distorted the original message, they also invented new rituals and deviated from the original teachings and guidance. So, religion lost its originality and took a totally different form. Because of these two reasons, we now refer those religions with different names.

Though God sent messengers all over the world at different times, Quran has not mentioned the names of all the messengers, and this was said to prophet Muhammad (pbuh) in the Quran, “And We have already sent messengers before you. Among them are those [whose stories] We have related to you, and among them are those [whose stories] We have not related to you.” 40:78

Since the Quran was revealed in present day Saudi Arabia, Quran mentioned the names of only those messengers who were sent in the surroundings of that area.  But in light of verse numbers 16:36 and 40:78 we are sure that Allah sent messengers all over the world at different times, this is the reason why today we find different religions all over the world.

Now we will go over the messages, supplications and communications of some of the messengers, that will make it that they were all Muslims and they preached Islam.

So first we will see about prophet Nuh, he was one of the oldest messengers.

Noah said to his people, “O my people! I am truly sent to you with a clear warning, worship Allah ‘alone’, fear Him, and obey me.  71: 2-3

Next we will see the supplication of Ibrahim (Abraham) and his son Ismail (Ishmael) who was also a prophet (peace be upon them),

Our Lord, and make us Muslims [in submission] to You and from our descendants a Muslim nation [in submission] to You. And show us our rites and accept our repentance. Indeed, You are the Accepting of repentance, the Merciful. 2:128

Now Musa (Moses) (pbuh), – when he was in the court of Pharaoh.

And Moses said, “O Pharaoh, I am a messenger from the Lord of the worlds.” 7:104,

Next Isa (Jesus) (pbuh), it is mentioned in the Quran

(Jesus said) Indeed, Allah is my Lord and your Lord, so worship Him. That is the straight path. 3:51

Hud (pbuh).

He said, O my people, worship Allah; you have no deity other than Him. Then will you not fear Him? 7:65

Salih (pbuh), who was sent to nation of Thamud,

And to Thamud [We sent] their brother Salih. He said, “O my people, worship Allah; you have no deity other than Him.” 11:61

Then Quran mentions many other prophets like, Shoaib, Aiyub, Yunus, Lut, Daud, Sulaiman and many others. They all (peace be upon them) were Muslims.

Muhammad (Pbuh).

Lastly Prophet Muhammad was sent as the last messenger who came with same message “Worship Allah alone”.

From this discussion it becomes clear that God created only one religion and all the prophets sent were Muslims, so Islam is the from the day when first human came to this earth.

If you want to read the Quran you can download it for no cost from our website www.quranforhumanity.org. We have translations of the Quran in more than 100 languages.

May peace and guidance be upon entire humanity.