Islam: One Direction, One people, One God from Planck's Constant

In response to my article Islam is the Fastest Growing Religion - Not, a reader left the following comment: "Different sects Christianity does not even considers their other sects as Christian, they don't share similar Book, Similar God, Theology... As for Islam, We have one God, One Book, One Pilgrimage Gathering Area, One direction, Five Times a Day prayers...."

One Direction

I would like to examine some of these claims. Let's take the "One Direction" angle. The truth is, the Qiblah wasn't always facing Mecca ¹; in fact, the Prophet Muhammad said, "What is between the east and the west is qibla." Anything near that direction is fine. So, Ahmed, get over this one, unique, magic direction nonsense.

Muslims have One God

So let me get this straight, Ahmed, when speaking to possible Muslim converts, you insist that Allah, as presented in the Quran, is the same God revealed in the Holy Bible, that is, the God of Islam is the God of Abraham and therefore the God of Scripture. Yet, in replies to my articles, you insist that the Christian and Jewish God is not the Allah you worship. Which is it?

Muslims are not divided into Sects as Christians and Jews are

That's patently untrue.

Religion Facts, Islamic Sects, Subdivisions & Groups
Islamic sects are not simply "denominations," if that word is understood to mean various valid approaches to the same religion. Members of one Islamic group do not usually recognize members of other groups as fellow Muslims, and open conflict between sects is not uncommon.

Take for example, Abdus Salam, the first Pakistani Nobel Laureate, and the first Muslim Nobel Laureate in science (1979 Physics). One would think that Pakistani Muslims would be proud of Professor Salam. One would be wrong. Because he is a member of the Ahmadiyya sect, Salam is held in contempt among fellow Pakistanis because Ahmedis are not Muslims according to the Constitution of Pakistan ².

As a whole, Islam may seem less divided than Christianity and Judaism, however in fact there are many, many, conflicting sects: Ahmadiyya (of which there are two movements), Shi'a (further subdivided into "Twelvers," and the "Seveners"), Sufis (further subdivided into the Rifaiya, the Qadiria, the Bedawiya, the Burhaniya, and the Shadhiliya), and Sunni (further subdivied into schools of thought: the Hanafi, the Maliki, the Shafi'i and the Hanbali). And I'm leaving out wahhabis, and other sub-sects and sub-subsects.

There are more divisions in Islam than slices in a pork salami. Push your story, Ahmed, about One Islam to those who also believe the nonsense that Islam is a religion.

The Quran is One Book

Who're you trying to kid? Before Mohammed became a conqueror, that is to say, while he was running for office and preached in Mecca, he wanted to persuade the Jews and Christians of Arabia to take up his religion. During these years he praised the God of Abraham and insisted that the God of the Jews, Christians and Muslims was the same God. The Quran during the Meccan period was a kind God and the People of the Book were respected.

By the time he was king of the sand-hill, the Medina period, he got a little testy because the Jews and Christians rejected his claim of being a prophet and so the Medinan Surahs display a hatred of the People of the Book.

There are thus two Qurans, the first one written in honey, and the second, written in vinegar. Compare the two:

Surah 29:46 (Meccan) And dispute ye not with the People of the Book … but say, "We believe in the Revelation which has come down to us and in that which came down to you; our God and your God is One; and it is to Him we bow."

Surah 5:73 (Medinan) They are unbelievers who say, "God is the Third of Three...No god is there but One God."

Since most Muslims in the third world are ignorant and uneducated, they repeat the nonsense they were taught in school that Islam is One Direction, One people, One God.

The real world begs to differ.

Notes

(1):

The Religion of Islam, One Direction, One people, One God
There are more than 1.5 billion Muslims in the world, and each time they pray, they turn their faces in one direction, towards Mecca. The Islamic term for this direction is qibla. When a Muslim prepares to pray, no matter where he is, he turns towards the qibla, the direction of the Kaba. The Kaba is a small cube shaped building in the courtyard of the mosque known as Masjid Al Haram, in the city of Mecca, in the country of Saudi Arabia.
“For every nation there is a direction to which they face (in their prayers). So hasten towards all that is good. Wheresoever you may be, God will bring you together (on the Day of Resurrection). Truly, God is Able to do all things. And from wheresoever you start forth (for prayers), turn your face in the direction of Al-Masjid-al-Haram (at Mecca), that is indeed the truth from your Lord. And God is not unaware of what you do.” (Quran 2:148-149)

Muslims do not worship the Kaba, or its contents, it is simply a focal point. Muslims worship One God, the Most Merciful, and the Most Wise. God decreed that when Muslims pray they all face one direction. It is a sign of unity that encapsulates the unity embedded in the religion of Islam.

...

The qibla was not always oriented towards Mecca. The first Muslims prayed towards the al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Around sixteen months after Prophet Muhammad and his followers migrated from Mecca to the city of Medina, the qibla was changed to the Kaba. According to accounts by Prophet Muhammad's companions, the change happened very suddenly. During the noon prayer, Prophet Muhammad, may God praise him, received a revelation from God instructing him to, "Turn your face towards the Masjid al Haram".

(2):

ALL THINGS PAKISTAN, Dr. Abdus Salam: Beyond Physics
And what did the constitution say? It said that the Ahmedis are not Muslims, that they may not call themselves Muslims, nor say the kalima or use any of the symbols of Islam. The original amendments to the constitution were passed by Z A Bhutto, a ‘liberal socialist-democrat’, and subsequent tightening of the law was done by the great patriot General Zia-ul Haq. Thus both the civilians and the khakis had connived in the great betrayal of Dr Salam.
After the great scientist was buried in Chenab Nagar, his tombstone said “Abdus Salam the First Muslim Nobel Laureate”. Needless to say, the police arrived with a magistrate and rubbed off the ‘Muslim’ part of the katba. Now the tombstone says: Abdus Salam the First Nobel Laureate.