Difference between Deen and Religion

• Introduction
• Islam aims at changing life and producing ne man and a new society, both committed to God
and to the welfare of mankind. That is why Islam is not a religion in the limited sense of the
word; rather it sis a complete code of life and a culture-producing factor.

• Religion
• Combination of rites and rituals
• EB Taylor an Orientalist, non-Muslims who have researched on Islam
o “Belief in spiritual things is religion”.
• The aim of religions is satisfaction and getting spiritual ease

Difference between Semitic and non-Semitic religions

• 2 opposing theories of the origin of humans
o Abiogenesis: spontaneous generation; life comes from non-living things
▪ Aristotle
o Biogenesis:
▪ The theory that the Quran posits
▪ Life comes from living things
▪ First man – Adam
• From the descendants of Adam and then Noah:
o Semitic religions are those that originated from Saam, a descendant of Hazrat Noah
o Abrahamic religions
o Divine religions or Revealed religions
o Islam, Christianity and Judaism
• Non-revealed religions are non-Semitic
o Most non-revealed religions are based simply on belief in spiritual things and are
composed of rites and rituals
•

• Deen:
• Social System
• Concept of Economy
• Political system
• Moral and ethical system
• Judicial system
• Culture and civilization
• Rights of people upon people
• Rights of Allah SWT upon people
• The Quran uses and explains the word Deen to us:
o Surah Taubah Verse 33:

▪
▪ “It is He who has sent His Messenger with guidance and the religion of truth to
manifest it over all religions”
▪ Allah sent His Messenger with a system of life so this system of life could
become dominant over pre-existing systems of life
o Surah Al-i Imran Verse 19:
▪ “Indeed, the religion in the sight of Allah is Islam.”

▪
▪ But the word used is Deen, system of life
▪ All Prophets of Allah came to convey this system of life
▪ The kalimah of the Prophets contained la-ilaaha-ilAllah in common
▪ The practice of the system of life is the second part of kalimah, the belief in
Risalat – the way of practice
▪ Basic principles are the same; method is different
• Fundamental beliefs are same
o Tawhid
o Risalat
o Akhirat
• Method changes due to evolutionary process of the world
o Surah Al-i Imran Verse 85:
▪ “And whoever seeks a religion (Deen: way of life) other than Islam, it will never
be accepted of him”
 ▪ Allah does not accept that you adopt another way of life
o Surah Momin Verse 26:
▪ “Fir'aun (Pharaoh) said: "Leave me to kill Musa (Moses), and let him call his Lord
(to stop me from killing him)! I fear that he may change your religion, or that he
may cause mischief to appear in the land!"
▪ Pharaoh did not follow any religion; here Deen refers to a system of life
• All Prophets brought a system of life
o Surah An-Nasr
▪ “And you see that the people enter Allah's religion (Islam) in crowds”

▪
▪ System of life
• Deen does contain the idea of rituals and worships but that is a small part of it
o As compared to religions which are based primarily on rituals

Difference between Islam as a Deen and other Semitic Divine Religions

• The other Abrahamic religion don’t exist in this world in their pure and true form
• Lots of alterations have been made

System of Life is only in Islam

• Christianity does not contain idea of Politics, Economy
o Christians say that Christ had no interest with that stuff
o Their true teachings have been tarnished
• Islam contains concept of Politics and Economy
o Maeeshat is found in the Quran
▪ Used several times in the Quran
• Quran contains teachings for Morality and Social evils
o Islam contains a social system
• Answers for every topic are in the Quran
o You’ll get basic principles from there
o Hadith will contain the details
• Islam gives guidance on all aspects of life for a person from birth to death, hence it is a system of
life
o Business
o Political System

Islam is the perfected form of Allah’s guidance and prescribed system of life
• Surah Maidah, Verse 3
o This day, I have perfected your religion for you, completed My Favour upon you, and
have chosen for you Islam as your religion.
▪ Revealed to Prophet at time of Farewell Pilgrimage
 • Islam as Deen:
Contains aspect of worships
• Religion is entirely based on worships and spiritual things
• Religion is a part of Deen
• Deen is totality and Religion is partiality
• Religions don’t present system of life
• Deen describes this
• But on the whole it is a system of life that shows you
o how to develop
o how to interact with people (muaamlaat)
o Economy
o How to run political system
o Morality and ethics
• Worships are one part of Deen
o But Islam is not all about worships
• Namaz is the most significant worship
o Maximum one and a half hours during the day
o This is being dealt with by the religious aspects of Deen
o For the rest of the day your Deen is giving you guidance
o There is no distinction between Deeni and Dunyaawi zindagi
• In religions, there is a clear distinction between worldly life and religious life
• Islam does not leave you free to deal with your Social life
• 24 hours of your day comes under influence of Deen
• If you keep divine guidance with you then you are following Islam as a system of life