God’s religion in the heavens and on earth is one: it is the religion of Islam.

Islam means worshipping Allah alone with no partner. The angels in heaven and human beings and jinn on earth all owe this worship to Him; that is the faith of Islam. In its broad sense, as Shaykh al-Islam defined it—and as Shaykh Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab cited in The Three Principles—it is to surrender to Allah through tawhid (monotheism), to comply with Him through obedience, and to be free of shirk (polytheism).

Islam, then, is the religion of all the prophets and their followers. Every prophet called his people to it, and anyone who follows him upon it is deemed a Muslim, whether he belongs to the earliest generations of creation or the last. Such a person submits to Allah through tawhid and yields to Him in obedience. The prophets’ religion is one, while their legal codes are various and differ according to the needs of humanity in each time and place. The hadith says, “The prophets are paternal brothers; their mothers differ, but their religion is one” (1). The Exalted also says: “For each of you We have made a law and a clear way” [al-Maʾidah 48].

Allah prescribes for every prophet what suits his people and secures their welfare, and He later abrogates those rulings for another community according to its interests. Whoever followed a prophet’s religion before it was abrogated is a Muslim, worshipping Allah by what He had legislated for that prophet. After the mission of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), however, the religion became one, Allah abrogated whatever came before, and the only valid religion is the one he brought. Therefore, it is not permissible for anyone to remain upon a religion