If you were to approach someone on the street today and ask, “Who is a Muslim?”, the answer would probably seem obvious. A Muslim is usually understood as a person who follows Islam, reads the Qur’an, performs salah, fasts, and belongs to the contemporary Muslim community. This is how the word is most commonly understood today.
However, the Qur’an uses the concept of muslim more broadly than modern religious classification does. Therefore, it is important to look not only at whom modern people consider Muslim, but also at whom Allah Himself calls a Muslim in the Qur’an.
Ibrahim Was a Muslim Long Before the Qur’an
Let us begin with Ibrahim. The Qur’an says:
“Ibrahim was neither a Jew nor a Christian. He was a hanif, a muslim, and he was not one of the polytheists.”
3:67
This immediately calls the familiar definition into question. If a muslim is exclusively a person who belongs to a religious community that emerged after the Prophet Muhammad, then how could Ibrahim have been a muslim? He lived long before Muhammad and, obviously, could not have been a follower of the Qur’an.
The Qur’an itself explains what is meant. When the Lord said to Ibrahim:
“Submit,” he replied, “I have submitted to the Lord of the worlds.”
2:131
The Arabic text here uses the same root associated with the word muslim — س ل م. What matters is not merely the etymological similarity, but the fact that the Qur’an itself connects Ibrahim with the concept of muslim before the Qur’an appeared: 3:67 explicitly calls him a muslim, while 2:131 shows his response to the command to submit to God.
Therefore, at least in Qur’anic usage, the word “muslim” cannot be reduced exclusively to a person belonging to the historical Muslim community of the seventh century. Ibrahim was a muslim before that community existed.
Ibrahim Was Not the Only One
The Qur’an uses this concept in relation to other people who lived before Muhammad as well. Ibrahim and Ismail pray:
“Our Lord! Make us submissive to You, and from our descendants make a community submissive to You.”
2:128
Ibrahim and Yaqub then instruct their descendants:
“Do not die except as those who are muslims.”
2:132
When Yaqub asks his sons whom they will worship after his death, they reply:
“We will worship your God and the God of your fathers — Ibrahim, Ismail, and Ishaq — one God, and to Him we submit.”
2:133
Again and again, the Qur’an uses the same concept for people from different generations. Then we encounter a particularly important verse:
“He has called you muslims before and in this.”
22:78
Here the Qur’an explicitly connects the current recipients of revelation with the earlier tradition of Ibrahim and says that Allah called people muslims “before and in this.” In other words, the Qur’anic concept of “muslim” clearly does not begin with the appearance of the Qur’an.
What About Isa?
When Isa sensed disbelief from some of his people, he asked:
“Who are my helpers on the way to Allah?”
His disciples replied:
“We are the helpers of Allah. We have believed in Allah. So bear witness that we are muslims.”
3:52
These were followers of Isa who lived before the Prophet Muhammad. They could not have belonged to the historical Muslim community that formed later, yet the Qur’an records their words: “We are muslims.”
This leads to a natural question: if a muslim is exclusively a follower of Muhammad, why does the Qur’an use this word for the followers of Isa? Perhaps the problem is not with these people, but with our modern definition of the word itself.
What Happened to the Earlier Revelations?
To understand this, we need to examine how the Qur’an speaks about the Torah and the Injil. It is sometimes claimed that the Qur’an simply declares the earlier Scriptures to have been completely corrupted and instructs people to reject them. But that is not what the Qur’an itself explicitly says.
Regarding the Torah, it says:
“Indeed, We sent down the Torah, in which was guidance and light.”
5:44
Regarding the Injil, it says:
“And We gave him the Injil, in which was guidance and light...”
5:46
Thus, the Qur’an presents the Torah and the Injil as revelations sent down by God and containing guidance.
At the same time, the Qur’an does speak about human interference. In 2:79, it condemns those who write something with their own hands and then say, “This is from Allah.” In 3:78, it speaks of those who distort the Scripture with their tongues so that people take their words to be part of the Scripture. In 5:13, distortion of words and the forgetting of part of what people had been reminded of are mentioned, while 5:15 speaks of concealing much of the Scripture.
Therefore, the Qur’an does provide grounds for the idea of human distortion, concealment, and incorrect transmission of revelation. But here it is important not to make another logical leap: the statement “human interference occurred in the Scriptures” does not mean that “the entire previous Scripture became useless.” The Qur’an does not explicitly make that conclusion. On the contrary, it continues to speak of the Torah and the Injil as Scriptures connected with divine revelation.
The Qur’an as a Criterion
This is where one of the most important functions of the Qur’an appears. In 5:48, it says that Allah revealed to Muhammad the Scripture confirming what came before it and serving as a criterion over it.
This is an important formulation. The Qur’an does not say, “Nothing existed before us.” It says that previous Scripture exists, that the new revelation confirms it, and that it stands over it as a criterion.
The resulting picture is therefore not “the Torah is completely wrong, the Injil is completely wrong, and the Qur’an is an entirely new religion.” It is a more complex sequence: God sent revelation to people, people received it, human interpretations and distortions became mixed with revelation, and then new revelation came, with the Qur’an becoming the final criterion.
This is precisely what makes the concept of muslim more interesting than a simple modern religious label.
The People of the Book Are Instructed to Follow What God Revealed to Them
There is another point that is difficult to reconcile with the idea that the previous Scriptures were simply useless and no longer had any significance. The Qur’an says:
“Let the people of the Injil judge according to what Allah has revealed therein.”
5:47
And then:
“Say: ‘O People of the Book! You have no basis until you uphold the Torah, the Injil, and what has been revealed to you from your Lord.’”
5:68
At the same time, 5:48 calls the Qur’an a criterion over the previous Scripture. Therefore, the picture cannot be reduced to the simple statement that “everything old has been abrogated.” The text simultaneously contains recognition of previous revelation, criticism of how people have dealt with it, and the emergence of the Qur’an as a criterion.
This is considerably more complex than the familiar scheme.
Then Why Does the Qur’an Say, “Whoever Seeks a Religion Other Than Islam...” ?
We can now turn to a verse that is often used as a straightforward argument:
“Whoever seeks a religion other than Islam, it will never be accepted from him, and in the Hereafter he will be among the losers.”
3:85
At first glance, everything seems obvious: there is Islam, there are other religions, and Allah accepts only Islam. Therefore, one might conclude that only the modern Muslim religious identity is true, while everyone else stands outside the path of God.
But in order to reach this conclusion, we must first answer a fundamental question: what exactly does the Qur’an call Islam?
By this point, we already know that Ibrahim was a muslim even though he lived long before the Qur’an; that his descendants were instructed to be muslims; that the followers of Isa called themselves muslims; that Allah called people muslims “before and in this”; that the Torah and the Injil were sent down by God and contained guidance; that the Qur’an confirms the previous Scripture and serves as a criterion over it; and finally, that the People of the Book are instructed to uphold what God revealed to them in their Scriptures.
Therefore, before using 3:85 as a slogan meaning “only we are Muslims,” it is necessary to understand what Islam means within the Qur’anic context itself.
Islam Does Not Begin with the Qur’an
The Qur’an does not present Islam as the name of a religion that first emerged with Muhammad. It places itself within an already existing line of revelation and connects that line with Ibrahim. In 22:78, the current recipients of the Qur’an are called muslims, while the verse also speaks of “the religion of your father Ibrahim” and says that Allah called people muslims “before and in this.”
Therefore, in the Qur’anic sense, muslim is not simply the name of a later historical community. The text itself connects this concept with a person who submits himself to God and follows His guidance. This is why Ibrahim can be a muslim, and this is why the followers of Isa can call themselves muslims.
However, this does not mean that every contemporary person who calls themselves Christian or Jewish is automatically a muslim in the full Qur’anic sense. The Qur’an simultaneously criticizes certain beliefs and actions among the People of the Book and speaks about those who reject the truth.
Therefore, the thesis of this article is not that a single term automatically turns any person into a “Muslim” or guarantees their salvation. The point is different: the modern social meaning of the word “Muslim” cannot be mechanically inserted into every instance where the Qur’an uses the word muslim.
Islam Is Not Arabization
If Islam in the Qur’anic sense is primarily connected with a person's relationship with God, another question arises: why is it sometimes presented as requiring a change of culture? Why should a person necessarily begin speaking Arabic, adopt the culture of Arabia, or abandon their own national identity?
The Qur’an does not say that God created people according to a single cultural model. On the contrary:
“And among His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth and the diversity of your languages and your colors.”
30:22
And 49:13 says:
“We have made you peoples and tribes so that you may know one another.”
The diversity of peoples and languages is not presented as an error that must be eliminated. Therefore, accepting the Qur’an does not require a person to stop being Russian, Azerbaijani, Turkish, Japanese, or a member of any other culture. Islam is not Arabization. The Qur’an was not revealed as a command to erase human identity.
What Should a Person Do with the Previous Scripture?
This is precisely where the Qur’an's role as a criterion becomes important. Imagine a person who grew up in a Jewish or Christian tradition. They already have a religious heritage: texts, ideas about God, stories about prophets, moral principles, and traditions.
The Qur’an does not necessarily tell such a person simply to say, “Everything that came before was false. Forget everything and start from zero.” Instead, it provides another tool — a criterion. A person must compare and examine, distinguish divine revelation from human additions, consider where a unified line of revelation is preserved, and identify where people have attributed their own ideas to God.
This is consistent with the way the Qur’an speaks about the previous Scriptures in 5:44–48.
Why Is There So Much in Common Between the Scriptures?
If the Torah, the Injil, and the Qur’an come from the same God, the presence of common ideas is not surprising. On the contrary, it would be strange to expect complete opposition. Monotheism, human responsibility, justice, mercy, good and evil, prophets, judgment, and accountability for one's actions run through the different revelations.
The Qur’an itself presents itself not as a denial of the entire previous history, but as a confirmation of what came before it. Therefore, similarities between the Scriptures can be viewed not as a problem, but as a natural consequence of a common line of revelation.
What Changes with the Coming of the Qur’an?
It is not God who changes, nor does a new human race emerge, nor is there a requirement to destroy all previous forms of human culture. What changes is the source of the final criterion: humanity is given the final Scripture through which what has been transmitted from previous revelations can be examined.
This is why the Qur’an becomes a criterion for evaluating what people preserved, changed, concealed, or interpreted from the earlier Scriptures. This does not necessarily mean, “Destroy everything that came before.” Rather, it means something else: do not accept a human tradition merely because it is ancient, but do not reject divine revelation merely because it came before the Qur’an either. Compare and examine.
So Who, Then, Is a Muslim?
If we follow not the modern social definition but the Qur’an’s own usage, the picture becomes considerably broader. A muslim is not simply the name for a person who was born into a Muslim family, attends a mosque, or belongs to the modern historical community.
The Qur’an calls people from different eras muslims. Ibrahim is a muslim, his descendants are instructed to be muslims, and the followers of Isa say, “We are muslims.” In 22:78, it is said that God called people muslims “before and in this.”
Therefore, the modern meaning of the word “Muslim” and the Qur’anic concept of muslim cannot be assumed to be completely identical. And once this is understood, the title of this article no longer seems quite so strange.
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Why, According to the Qur’an, Are Christians and Jews Also Muslims?
If by “Muslim” we mean exclusively the modern historical religious identity, then a Christian or a Jew is, of course, not a Muslim. But if we ask, “Whom does the Qur’an itself call a muslim?”, the answer becomes much more complex.
The Qur’an applies this concept to Ibrahim and other people who lived before Muhammad, as well as to the followers of Isa. Therefore, the question is not so much which modern group a person identifies with, but what Islam itself means in the Qur’anic language.
This is fundamentally important. If Islam in the Qur’anic context primarily means submission to God, then the emergence of the Qur’an does not have to be understood as a demand for humanity to suddenly change its cultural and human identity.
The Qur’an continues the line of revelation, confirms what came before, and becomes the criterion. It brings the human being back to a question that was posed long before Muhammad: to whom do you truly submit yourself — to God or to human tradition?
And perhaps this is precisely why, before saying, “You are not a Muslim,” we should first open the Qur’an and ask: “Whom does Allah Himself call a Muslim?”
