Usually people explain the differences between the religions of successive prophets in evolutionary terms. God’s religion, they say, was first revealed in a simple, incomplete form and it gradually developed until it took on a complete form. But there are no grounds for such an explanation. It is quite clear from the Quran that the reason for the different forms which God’s religion has taken over the ages is the trial of man. No evolutionary process is involved. This can be seen from the following verses:

We have ordained a law and assigned a path for each of you. Had God pleased, He could have made you one nation: but it is His wish to prove you by that which He has bestowed on you, so vie with each other in good deeds. (5:48)

The same thing has been said with regard to the change of the direction of prayer (qiblah) from Jerusalem to Makkah.

Each one has a goal towards which he turns. Emulate one another in good works. …We decreed your former qiblah only in order that We might know the Prophet’s true adherents and those who were to disown him. It was indeed a hard test, but not to those whom God guided. (2:143,148)

In reality, Shariah—or the form of religion—is a living expression of true faith in God. But when a certain form of religion has been followed by successive generations, it loses its soul. It becomes a conventional system of rituals without any deep connection with the human psyche. When this happens God alters the form of religion; He abrogates the old system so that people can forsake conventional belief for faith which is based on a true awareness and a conscious decision. When God reveals a new religion, it becomes clear who was worshipping God consciously, and who was not. Those who follow convention remain set in their ways; those who follow reality bow to God’s will.

When living faith in God degenerates into stagnant ritual, it cannot earn God’s pleasure. That is why God has sent successive Prophets to the world, and made the paths that they have ordained for man different. In reality, the religions of all the Prophets were one and the same faith. There is no other reason for the different forms that they have taken except that man be put to the test. □