Title: Submission to what we Understand to be True Question: When sharing your view about searching for and submitting to what we perceive and understand to be true (be it Christianity or Judaism or whatever we see as God's truth), I hear the counter-argument (from my Muslim friends) that if a non-Muslim person truly asked God for guidance, he/she would one day enter the folds of Islam. Now there have been many, many Christians who have lived their entire lives as good Christians who truly perceived the Bible to contain God's truth. My friends then say that if such people truly believed, they would have been divinely guided to or converted to Islam somewhere along the line. I disagree with them because I believe that God's guidance is not channeled solely through the religion of Islam. Suppose a pious person in Alaska wishes to have a relationship with God. The person, knowing no other alternative, attends church and achieves spiritual fulfillment, dying as a good Christian. Would it really be fair to insist that the person was only deceived by the devil the entire time, because if the person had truly received guidance, he would have flown to a place where Islam is practiced and immediately converted? I think such a view grossly oversimplifies the complexities of human understanding and God's ways of guidance. Is it necessary that true guidance be dispensed ONLY through the religion of Islam? Please offer your opinions on this. What might I be able to tell my skeptical friends? Thank you, Omar Answer: My dear Omar, whether or not a person is true, honest and sincere in accepting and submitting to the truth is not only beyond the scope of my knowledge but would not even be effected by my opinion about that person. It is not according to my opinion regarding any person that God would decide the destiny of that person but according to His own absolute and unblemished knowledge. In view of these facts, I have never been interested in trying to determine the fate of people in the hereafter or their status with God. I am only interested in understanding the Qur'an and the teachings of the prophets of God and trying my best to live a life, which is in consonance with my understanding of the Qur'an and the Sunnah . In principle, it is clear from the Qur'an that those, who are not guilty of any of the sins punishable by the eternal abode of the hereafter, who believe in God and the hereafter and do good deeds, whether they be Jews, Christians, Sabeans or Muslims, they shall be blessed with the eternal bliss of God's Paradise. I hope this helps. Regards, Moiz Amjad October 7, 2001