ATTESTATION “THERE IS NO DEITY BUT GOD” IS UNIVERSAL WHILE RELIGIONS’ EXOTERIC CODES ARE DIFFERENT
What can be said is that Islam is in the Quran, but we understand the Quran only if we follow the path of the Prophet. That is the essence of religion: there is no deity but God, and Muhammad is the Messenger of God. There is no other way to enter the religion of Islam. That is to say, the phrase “No deity but God” is the attestation of monotheism. However, monotheism is like this house: it has a gate. When you come to this house, you knock on that door, and then they open and allow you to enter―there are no other (proper) ways to enter. We understand from the phrase “No deity but God and Muhammad is the Messenger of God” that, here, the Prophet is the gate to God. The realization of the attestation “No deity but God” is the reason for the revelation of the Quran. All the Prophets introduced this idea―none of the Prophets, from Adam to our Prophet, introduced anything other than the attestation “No deity but God.” Our Prophet says: “The best that I and the Prophets before me introduced, is: No deity but God.” Every Prophet has his own religious exoteric code, but they were all unanimous on the attestation, “No deity but God.” Adam’s exoteric code is different than that of Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad. The exoteric codes of Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad are different. The reason is that exoteric codes come to the people while they are in a particular condition, such as that which we have referred to in the course of our talk about women during the pre-Islamic times. Codification is not expected to ignore all of the prior circumstances and teach people to shift from their current state of ignorance directly into the highest state. Codification aims towards that height but makes people advance step-by-step.
It goes without saying that your child develops according to your child’s age, and you cannot assign a child to do something now that your child can only be capable of doing it the following year. The child must wait for the following year in order to undertake age-appropriate assignments. As you are nurturing and bringing up your child, you would notice what your child is capable of doing. Likewise, religious exoteric codes make people progress in (suitable) steps. The major progress made is evident when you comprehend that Adam’s Islamic exoteric code allowed his daughter to marry her brother, while in our Islamic exoteric code, at the time of our Prophet, a girl is, of course, not allowed to marry her brother. As well, a young man is not allowed to marry his niece, meaning that the prohibition has extended beyond the sister. The reason for this is that in the past, in the (original) community of Adam, there were not a lot of people, there were (only) his daughters and sons. In our present time, where people are many, the next of kin have become unmarriageable, lest the relationship between men and women be based solely on the marriage (of two people). There are two (essential) types of relationships: the relationship of a woman as a wife, and the relationship of a woman as a man’s daughter, sister, or niece. Such relationships involve care, benevolence, and pure affection. Islam has come to promote these relationships. As well, the present time allows it because people are becoming so plentiful. So, it is no longer a necessity for a young man to marry his niece, let alone his sister. It is in this manner that the religious exoteric codes make people advance, step-by-step.
