The Religion of Islam:The Qur’an’s Essential Notion of Din

• Main Author: Mahmoud Khatami
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Religions and Denominations 2012-01-01
• Series: Religious Inquiries
• Subjects: din; type-religion; token-religions; islam; qur’an; unitary religion
• Online Access: http://ri.urd.ac.ir/article_6262_254f810b488fd51ff70d05ac1aca610e.pdf
• ISSN: 2322-4894; 2538-6271

The overall aim of this paper is to highlight a transcendental usage of the Religion of <em>Islam</em>in the Qur’an. I will show that the notion of Islamas a unitary Religion is used in the Qur’an as a genus for religions (<em>adyan</em>) which have appeared throughout human history. This usage will show that there is a sense of Religion which guarantees the essential unity of all religions and prepares us to understand the apparent plurality and conflicting diversity of world religions; however, it is essentially different from the sense which has emerged within the modern discipline of religious studies in Western scholarship which interprets religion as a cultural phenomenon and considers the myriad variety of religions to be mere socio-historical events. In this paper, I will first briefly provide a background on the difficulty faced within this modern Western concept of religion, then I will progress to the Islamic concept of Religion to illustrate a model for understanding the plurality and the diversity of religions, which apparently have their own individual boundaries, yet at the same time enjoy a unitary reality.