Today I have concluded for you your religion, and I have completed my blessing upon you, and I have approved Islam as your religion. (THE QURAN 5: 3)
Some people have taken this verse to mean that previous religions were incomplete, and that they were only made complete with the religion of the final Prophet of Islam, Mohammed. But this interpretation is mistaken. By ‘conclusion of religion’ in this verse is meant conclusion of the Book of God which had been revealed to Prophet Mohammed over a period of 23 years. This is the last verse of the Quran to be revealed and marks the completion of the Book of God in Arabic. The meaning of this verse is not that the religion which God had been sending down since the beginning of human history had gradually been developing and had now taken on its final and complete form. Instead, it is the revelationary completion of the Quran in Arabic that is referred to, not the evolutionary completion of divine religion as a whole.
The Quran was the only divine Scripture to bring about a revolution of such universal proportions that a large and strong community gathered in support of it and ensured that the Book of God was preserved in its original form.
There is, essentially, one Book of divine guidance. That Book has been called Ummul Kitab (The Essence of the Book) in the Quran. The divine scriptures were editions of this Ummul Kitab, revealed to the different Prophets. The difference between one Scripture and another is one of language and style. There is no question of one Scripture being complete and another incomplete.
After the final Prophet, however, the only way to salvation is by means of the Quran and Islam. Following previous scriptures and religions cannot earn one salvation, now. But there is only one reason for this: the fact that the Quran is preserved in its original form whereas other religious scriptures are not. The Quran still exists as it was revealed, but previous Scriptures have been altered and are not now as they originally were. This difference between the Quran and other Scriptures is a historical fact that cannot be doubted on any academic grounds. Clearly, only that edition of the Book of God which exists in its original form will be a source of guidance and salvation for man. Scriptures which have been altered by man—which do not even exist in their original form or language—will never be able to provide man with guidance and salvation.
How was it that the Quran was preserved whereas previous Scriptures were not? The only reason for this is that in this world a powerful community is required to preserve the Book of God—a community which is able to ward off every threat to the integrity of the Scriptures. The Quran was the only divine Scripture to bring about a revolution of such universal proportions that a large community gathered around it—a community that was strong enough to ensure that the Book of God was preserved in its original form.
The fact is that the Quran is preserved in its original form whereas other religious scriptures are not.
The scale of the revolution which the Quran brought about is unprecedented in human history. During the Prophet’s lifetime Islam had spread throughout the Arabian Peninsula. Within one hundred years of the Prophet’s death his followers had subdued most of the inhabited world. The enemies of monotheism were—on a universal level—either obliterated or vanquished.
Islam continued to dominate the world scene, until eventually man entered the age of the press. Now, there was no possibility of any changes or additions being made in the Book of God. The task of preservation of the Quran had been accomplished for all time.
