The Two Great Problems That Expose Islam’s Historical Inconsistency

📌 Introduction

Islam claims to be a timeless, unchanged religion, the same today as it was in the 7th century. However, two major problems expose a fundamental break between the Islam of Muhammad and the Islam of today:

1. The Pan-Abrahamic Problem, which shows that early Islam was an inclusive, interfaith movement, whereas today it is exclusivist.
2. The Changing Definition of a Muslim, which retroactively redefines past prophets as Muslims, contradicting both history and Islamic theology.

These two issues expose a deep inconsistency in Islam’s self-portrayal and force modern Muslims into an unavoidable dilemma.

---

1. The Pan-Abrahamic Problem: Islam Has Shifted from Inclusivity to Exclusivity

📖 The Historical Reality: Early Islam Was a Broad Monotheistic Movement

The earliest Islamic movement, under Muhammad, did not define itself as a completely separate religion. Instead, it included:

• Jews and Christians as part of the Ummah (community of Believers).
• An interconfessional identity, where people of different faiths could still be considered "Believers."
• A lack of exclusivity, where salvation was not limited to "Muslims" as we understand them today.

This inclusive character is evident in multiple sources:

✅ The Quran’s Terminology: The Quran frequently distinguishes between Mu’minun (Believers, including Jews and Christians) and Muslimun (Muslims as a specific group). This suggests that the early community saw itself as part of a broader monotheistic movement rather than a distinct new religion.

✅ The Constitution of Medina: This early document, attributed to Muhammad, explicitly recognized Jews as part of the Ummah, confirming that early Islam was not exclusive in its membership.

✅ Early Islamic Inscriptions and Coinage: Historical evidence suggests that early Islam did not yet reject Christian and Jewish monotheists as being outside of God’s grace.

🔄 The Shift: Islam Became Exclusivist Over Time

• After Muhammad’s death, Islam gradually transformed into a religion that rejected Jews and Christians as part of the community.
• Under ‘Abd al-Malik (late 7th century), Islam was redefined as a separate, exclusive faith distinct from Judaism and Christianity.
• The idea that only Muslims could attain salvation became dominant.

📌 The Problem:

If Islam was originally inclusive but is now exclusive, modern Islam is not the same as Muhammad’s Islam.

Modern Muslims must either:

1. Reject the historical evidence and insist that Islam was always exclusivist, contradicting academic research.
2. Admit that Islam fundamentally changed after Muhammad, which would mean today's Islam is a different religion.

There is no easy way out of this dilemma.

---

2. The Definition Shift: The Contradiction in Calling All Prophets ‘Muslims’

❌ The Inconsistency: Islam Uses Two Different Definitions of "Muslim"

Islam claims that all prophets, from Adam to Jesus, were Muslims. However, this claim is based on a convenient redefinition of what it means to be a Muslim:

1. The Broad Definition (7th-Century Usage):

   • In Muhammad’s time, Muslim simply meant "one who submits to God", and this applied to any monotheist.
   • This allowed Muhammad to describe Abraham, Moses, and Jesus as Muslims in the sense of submission.

2. The Narrow Definition (Modern Islamic Doctrine):

   • Today, a Muslim is someone who:
     ✅ Believes in Allah as described in the Quran.
     ✅ Accepts Muhammad as the final prophet.
     ✅ Follows the Quran and Hadith as divine guidance.
   • By this definition, none of the previous prophets were Muslims, since they:
     ❌ Did not know of Muhammad or the Quran.
     ❌ Believed in a different conception of God (e.g., the Jewish God YHWH or the Trinitarian God of Christianity).

🤯 The Contradiction

• When speaking about past prophets, Muslims use the broad definition: "They were Muslims because they submitted to God."
• But when speaking about who qualifies as a Muslim today, they use the narrow definition: "You must believe in Muhammad and the Quran."
• This inconsistency allows Islam to claim continuity with earlier religions while simultaneously rejecting them.

📌 The Problem:

Islam cannot have it both ways without exposing a contradiction:

1. If the broad definition of "Muslim" applies, then Jews and Christians today should still be Muslims—but Islam rejects that.
2. If the narrow definition applies, then none of the previous prophets were Muslims—contradicting the Quran’s claims.

By selectively changing the definition, Islam creates a logical inconsistency that undermines its own theological framework.

---

The Final Nail in the Coffin: Islam Has Changed—So What Are Muslims Following?

If we put these two problems together, the conclusion is unavoidable:

✅ Islam has changed fundamentally since Muhammad.
✅ The definition of “Muslim” has changed to suit Islamic narratives.

This destroys the claim that Islam is an unaltered, divinely preserved religion.

💥 Final Thought:
If the Islam of today is not the Islam of Muhammad, then modern Muslims are following a new religion created after the 7th century.

---

Key Takeaways:

✅ The Pan-Abrahamic Problem proves that early Islam was inclusive, but modern Islam is exclusive.
✅ The Definition Shift shows that Islam manipulates its definitions to claim past prophets while rejecting them in practice.
✅ Together, these two issues reveal a deep inconsistency that undermines Islam’s claims to divine continuity.

📌 Question for Muslims: If Islam has changed so much, is it really the original faith that Muhammad preached?

---

Final Challenge: What Will Muslims Do?

Faced with this evidence, Muslims only have a few options:

1. Ignore the problem and pretend nothing has changed (but this contradicts reality).
2. Deny the historical evidence and reject modern scholarship (but this is dishonest).
3. Admit that Islam fundamentally changed and that today's Islam is different from Muhammad’s (which undermines Islam's credibility).
4. Reform Islam to return to its early inclusivity (which means discarding centuries of Islamic tradition).
5. Accept that Islam, as originally conceived, no longer exists—a position that would force Muslims to rethink their faith.

💥 No matter which option they choose, this problem does not go away.

Conclusion:

Islam cannot claim to be unchanged, unaltered, or divinely preserved while also holding these contradictions.

The question is: How long can Muslims keep running from this reality?