No Islam as a “Religion” — Only Submission as a Verb

What the Qur’an Actually Means by “Islam” and “Muslim”

Introduction: Islam Isn’t a Religion. It’s a Verb

Let’s get one thing straight from the outset: the word Islam in the Qur’an doesn’t mean a religion. It doesn’t refer to a denominational system with mosques, imams, rituals, holidays, and five pillars. It isn’t an institution. It isn’t a brand name. The word Islam means submission — full stop. It’s a verb, not a badge. Likewise, Muslim in the Qur’anic sense doesn’t mean someone who belongs to a formalized religion called “Islam.” It simply means “one who submits” — someone who yields to truth, to God, to justice. No tribal markers. No rituals. No sects.

This means that “Islam” in the Qur’an is a universal state of obedience — not a unique religious system founded by Muhammad. This isn’t interpretation; this is linguistic fact, verified by both the Arabic structure of the Qur’anic text and comparative historical analysis.

And that fact carries devastating implications: the Islam practiced today has almost nothing to do with what the Qur’an meant by the word. The moment “submission” was turned into an organized, ritualized, tribal identity, its original meaning was lost. The religion known today as “Islam” is not the message of the Qur’an. It is a retrofitted post-Muhammad construction.

Let’s prove that, using only hard evidence.

Section 1: What the Word Islam Actually Means

The Arabic root of Islam is S-L-M — the same root as salaam (peace) and tasleem (submission). In Classical Arabic grammar, the form aslama means to submit, to surrender, to yield.

Qur’an 3:19: “Indeed, the religion with God is submission (al-islam).”
But read literally, this verse is saying: “The way with God is submission.” It does not name a religion, but a state of being.
Qur’an 22:78: “It is He who named you the submitters (muslimeen) before and in this [Qur’an]…”
That statement obliterates the notion that “Muslim” means follower of Muhammad. It predates him. It’s a label of orientation, not of religious affiliation.
Qur’an 2:128: Abraham and Ishmael say, “Our Lord, make us submitters (muslimayn) to You.”

Note the verb function again. They are not saying, “Make us part of a religion.” They’re saying, “Make us surrender.”

Conclusion: Linguistically, Islam in the Qur’an never meant a religion. It meant action — conscious submission to truth, to God’s will, to justice.

Section 2: Abraham, Moses, Jesus — All “Muslims”?

Modern Muslims are taught that Islam began with Muhammad in 7th-century Arabia. But the Qur’an itself repeatedly says otherwise.

Qur’an 3:67: “Abraham was neither a Jew nor a Christian, but he was a hanif — a submitter (muslim) — and not of the idolaters.”
Qur’an 5:111: Jesus’ disciples say: “We believe, and bear witness that we are submitters (muslimoon).”
Qur’an 10:84: Moses said: “My people, if you believe in God, then trust in Him — if you are submitters.”

The Qur’an retroactively applies the label Muslim to every sincere believer who submitted to divine truth, even before Muhammad existed.

This is not theology — it’s internal textual logic. If all past prophets were Muslims, and the term wasn’t introduced by Muhammad, then “Islam” is not a Muhammadan religion. It’s a disposition of the righteous, not a branded institution.

Conclusion: The Qur’an denies that Islam started with Muhammad. The word simply identifies those who submitted to God — Abraham, Moses, Jesus — all included.

Section 3: There Was No Institutional Religion in Muhammad’s Time

Even if one argues that Islam evolved into a religion later, one must still confront this:

During Muhammad’s life, there was no Qur’an as a compiled book.
There was no Sharia law.
There were no hadiths, schools of jurisprudence, or formal doctrines.

Muhammad preached what he claimed were divine recitations. They were oral, decentralized, and not yet canonized. There were no codified rituals or institutions beyond general injunctions to monotheism, charity, and morality.

The evidence from early Islamic history confirms this:

Fred Donner, in Muhammad and the Believers, argues convincingly that Muhammad led a movement of monotheist reform, not a distinct religion. His followers included Jews and Christians who identified as "submitters" to God, not as sectarian Muslims.
The term mu’minoon (believers) appears more frequently than muslimoon in early verses, suggesting the early community was defined more by faith than by identity.

What emerged decades after his death — the ulama class, the legal schools, the imperial caliphate — were political and institutional extrapolations, not continuations of Muhammad’s original message.

Conclusion: Islam as we know it today did not exist in Muhammad’s lifetime. It’s an anachronism projected backward.

Section 4: The Institutional Hijacking of a Verb

Here’s the real shift:

Original Islam = action (submission, trust, alignment)
Post-Muhammad Islam = identity (religious membership, rituals, tribalism)

The Qur’an never mentions the Five Pillars. It never commands formalized Friday prayer at a mosque. It doesn’t name a single hadith. It doesn’t endorse any school of law.

All of those emerged later — from Abbasid power structures, juristic interpretations, and political needs. They reified submission into a system — with authority, hierarchy, law enforcement, and control.

A verb was turned into a noun. A universal concept became an exclusivist brand. And in that process, the original meaning — voluntary, moral, internal submission — was buried.

This is not accidental. Institutional religion always converts verbs into nouns — because you can’t tax, control, or regulate a verb. But you can weaponize a noun.

Conclusion: The Islam of Muhammad was hijacked — turned from personal surrender to a branded legal-political machine.

Section 5: Linguistic Analysis — Islam ≠ al-Islam

Arabic does not capitalize proper nouns. So when al-islam appears in the Qur’an, it simply means “the submission,” not “Islam the religion.”

This distinction is vital. The Qur’an’s usage of definite articles is consistent and contextual. Nowhere does it define al-islam as an institution. There is no verse stating:

“This day I have named your religion Islam.” (not in the Qur’an)
“Follow the religion of Islam as established by Muhammad.” (again, not there)

Instead, it says things like:

Qur’an 5:3: “This day I have perfected your deen (way of life) for you, and completed My favor upon you, and approved submission (al-islam) as your deen.”

Even here, the phrase refers to the state of submission, not an institutional name. And the verse addresses a context of dietary laws — not the declaration of a new religion.

Conclusion: Qur’anic grammar supports the view that “Islam” is a concept, not a codified religion.

Section 6: Historical Consequences of the Shift

Turning submission into a religion had severe consequences:

Loss of universality: The Qur’an’s call to submit was meant for all humans. Institutional Islam became tribal and exclusionary.
Rise of authoritarianism: Once “submission” was defined by clerics and enforced by law, it lost its voluntary character.
Scriptural contradictions: The Qur’an speaks of freedom of conscience (“Let there be no compulsion in religion” – 2:256). Post-Qur’anic Islam introduced apostasy laws, blasphemy punishments, and rigid orthodoxy.

Today, the majority of Muslims equate being Muslim with ritual performance, legal adherence, and tribal loyalty — not with personal moral surrender to truth.

That’s not Islam. That’s the brand.

Conclusion: The Qur’an’s verb-based ethos was replaced by an institutional noun-based system — and that system often contradicts the original message.

Final Section: The Islam of Muhammad Is Extinct

The Islam described in the Qur’an was not a religion. It was a call to moral, spiritual, and rational surrender — to truth, to justice, to God. It was not legalistic. It was not sectarian. It was not tribal.

What exists today as “Islam” is something else entirely: a post-Qur’anic construction built by dynasties, jurists, clerics, and states.

It calls itself a religion.
It enforces rituals.
It polices thought.
It contradicts the very text it claims to uphold.

The original Islam is extinct. As extinct as the dinosaur. It does not exist today, not even among so-called reformers. Because they too begin with the assumption that Islam is a religion to be interpreted — not a verb to be lived.

If you want to return to the Qur’an’s message, you won’t find it in modern Islam. You’ll have to strip the noun back to its verb. Submission, not identity. Truth, not tribe.

That’s where the Qur’an began. And that’s where truth still waits.

📌 Disclaimer

This post critiques Islam as an ideology, doctrine, and historical system—not Muslims as individuals. Every human deserves respect; beliefs do not.

Sources and References:

Fred Donner, Muhammad and the Believers: At the Origins of Islam, Harvard University Press, 2010.
W. Montgomery Watt, Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman, Oxford University Press.
Arthur Jeffery, The Foreign Vocabulary of the Qur’an, Baroda.
Qur’an, multiple verses as cited.
Gerd-R. Puin, Qur’anic textual studies from Sana’a manuscript analysis.

INVESTIGATING ISLAM

Sunday, August 3, 2025