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[quote]Contd…

Furthermore, the Quran gives us the the message of our accountability to the Quran (and nothing else) on Judgement in very clear words in the following verse:

"This (Quran) is a message for you and your people which you shall all be accountable to"  43:44

"Such is a community from the past.  They are responsible for what they earned, and you are responsible for what you earned.  You are not answerable for anything they have done."  2:134

"That was a community from the past. They are responsible for what thay earned, and you are responsible for what you earned.  You are not answerable for anything they did." 2:141

The message of these two verses is once again loud and clear. We are not answerable to anything done by those before us, they had their rules and rites and we have ours.

The Quran also states a very important matter in the following verse:

"O you who believe, do not ask about matters which, if revealed to you prematurely, would hurt you. If you ask about them in light of the Quran, they will become obvious to you. God has deliberately overlooked them. God is Forgiver, Clement." 5:101

God confirms to us here that there are some matters that He has deliberately overlooked, and thus they are not required by us (they may have been required from those before us). God also tells us that if we inquire of them IN THE LIGHT OF THE QURAN, that they will be obvious to us.

This Quranic verse assures us yet again that what is NOT IN THE QURAN has been overlooked by God and thus is NOT REQUIRED OF US.

Besides all the above verses, this glorious verse also renders such phrases as 'details of rituals as given to Abraham’ as irrelevant.  This as well as God's assurance that NOTHING HAS BEEN LEFT OUT OF THE BOOK (6:38), compels us to accept only the details of the rituals that are given in the Quran.  If they are not in the Quran, it is either because God has overlooked them, or because they are a corruption that was never authorised by God.

Were the religious practices given to Abraham preserved, and practised at the time of Muhammad? Are they preserved until today?

If we stick to Quranic evidence we would quickly realise that this claim is totally unfounded.

1-   We are told in the Quran of various groups of people at the time of the revelation of the Quran. God mentions the Jews, also the Nasara (Christians) in various verses.  God also mentions the idol worshippers who worshipped stone idols (e.g. Allaat and Al-Uzzah …. See 53:19).  In all the Quran, there is never a mention of ANY group of believers at the time of Muhammad who followed the pure practices as given to Abraham. To claim that the practices given to Abraham were practiced in their purity at the time of Muhammad is thus an unfounded claim that has no Quranic support whatsoever.

2-  We are told in the Quran repeatedly, how the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians) have corrupted the scripture given to them (see 4:46, 3:78, 2:75, 5:41). In that light it is hard to see how they could have had a preserved scripture to represent the pure practices and laws that God decreed.

3-  We are also told that the rituals, and specifically the prayer, were lost by generations that followed one another …. The claim that the rituals, and specifically the salat, were preserved and passed down generation to generation contradicts the Quranic evidence:

"After them (the prophets of Israel), He substituted generations who lost the Contact Prayers (Salat), and pursued their lusts. They will suffer the consequences." 19:59

Thus the claim that the rituals were preserved and practised at the time of Muhammad is totally without Quranic evidence.

4-   We are told in the Quran that although there was some kind of prayer observed by various factions at the kaba (at the time of Muhammad) yet that prayer was totally corrupt:

"Their Contact Prayers (Salat) at the shrine (Ka`bah) were no more than a mockery and a means of repelling the people (by crowding them out). Therefore, suffer the retribution for your disbelief." 8:35

Obviously , a prayer that is described by God as being full of mockery and a means of repelling the people, could hardly be the same Prayer that was given to Abraham.  This prayer could not be regarded in any sense as a testimony to the preservation of the salat since Abraham.

Moreover, verse 35 and the verses before it speak specifically about the idol worshippers. Hence the reference to their prayer could not be used to imply that the correct prayer was practised at the time of Muhammad. How could the prayer of idol worshippers be a correct prayer?  Yes, it can be said that the Quran informs us that there was some kind of prayer being practiced by the idol worshippers, but in no way does this Salat constitute evidence to

to be continued....[/quote]

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