Tawakaltu alAllah

The Error of Saying Everyone is a Muslim
By Rashad A. Muhaimin

There is an idea among some American Muslims that everyone is ‘Muslim’ even if that person’s religion may be Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, or even Atheism. This misguided idea is found among certain groups of generally well-meaning Muslims who are being misguided by their so-called Imams and leaders, either out of ignorance or deliberate manipulation. One of the main proponents of this theory is Wallace D. Mohammed and his followers. Due to a total lack of understanding of the fundamentals of Islam, which stems from a blatant disregard for the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah, sallallahu’alayhi wa sallam, and the subsequent understanding of the Qur’an based on it, this concept has festered and has been propagated without any such proof from
the Qur’an and Sunnah. This concept is usually found where Muslims have little or no access to the works of the people of knowledge such as prisons. Among other things, this line of thinking is used as rationalization for not calling the people to Islam. This legitimizes everyone’s belief, regardless of what it is, in the sight of these Muslims. Therefore, when it comes to their relatives, neighbors,co-workers, classmates, etc, they are absolved from their duty to call to Islam. I have been face to face with a Muslim, who claimed his dead Christian mother was in Jannah because she was a ‘Muslim’! When I asked whether or not she had actually taken the shahadah and accepted the religion of Islam, he said no. So when I asked why he felt that she was a ‘Muslim’, he responded, ‘Everyone is a Muslim’. Subhaanallah. Where in the Sunnah of the Prophet, sallallahu’alayhi wa sallam, is this understood to be the case? Where in the Qur’an does Allah say that everyone is Muslim? Where in the history of Islam is this concept found? The weak explanation is that although
everyone is ‘Muslim’, it is those who actually take the shahadah that become ‘conscience’ Muslims or ‘believers’. They have corrupted the categories of religion and have misunderstood the verse of Allah;