By Name of The God The Merciful The Compassionate.

What Is Faith in the Qur’an, and How Was Its Meaning Polluted?

Faith, from trust and sincerity to historical, sectarian, and political pollution

The central question

Faith in the Qur’an is not merely a religious name. Faith is not simply that a person attaches himself to a group, school, nation, history, institution, congregation, or religious identity. Faith in the Qur’an is a living reality: a relationship between the human being and The God, between the heart and sincerity, between belief and action, between the unseen and responsibility, between the Hereafter and ethics.

The greatest error in understanding faith is to reduce it to a sectarian label, as though whoever gives himself a particular name is a believer, and whoever stands outside that name has fallen outside the circle of faith. The Qur’an does not speak this way. The Qur’an defines faith through The God, the Last Day, righteous action, truthfulness, giving, ṣalāt, taqwā, iḥsān, fulfillment of covenant, reason, reflection, trustworthiness, and conscious submission to the truth.

So the central question of this article is: How does the Qur’an define faith? And then: How was this Qur’anic meaning polluted and narrowed through history, politics, narration, fiqh, inherited religion, and religious exclusivism?

The root of iman: security, trust, and entrusted responsibility

The word iman comes from the root أ م ن, a root connected to security, safety, assurance, trust, and entrusted responsibility. This point is very important, because faith in the Qur’an is not merely a dry mental belief. Faith means that the human being reaches inner security and tranquility before the truth, trusts The God, becomes a trustee of truth, and others are also safe from his hand, tongue, power, judgment, and behavior.

So a believer is not merely someone who utters a correct sentence. A believer must be a trustworthy human being. If faith is real, it must leave an effect in the outward world: it must create safety, preserve trust, avoid betrayal, refuse oppression, not turn the tongue into a weapon of accusation and takfīr, and not use power as a tool for frightening people.

From here it becomes clear that faith is incompatible with violence, compulsion, humiliation, interrogation of conscience, lying, betrayal, cruelty, and the creation of insecurity in society. Whoever, in the name of faith, makes people afraid of The God but does not bring them closer to security, justice, truthfulness, and mercy, has only used the name of faith, not the reality of faith.

Faith is The God’s entrusted responsibility in the human heart. Whoever turns this trust into a tool of power, sect, fear, and monopoly has polluted the meaning of faith.

Faith is not a closed religious label

The Qur’an shows in several very clear verses that the criterion of salvation and worth before The God is not merely the outward name of a group. One of the clearest verses is verse 62 of Surah al-Baqarah:

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَالَّذِينَ هَادُوا وَالنَّصَارَىٰ وَالصَّابِئِينَ مَنْ آمَنَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ وَعَمِلَ صَالِحًا فَلَهُمْ أَجْرُهُمْ عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ وَلَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ al-Baqarah 2:62

Those who believed, and those who became Jews, and the Christians, and the Sabians; whoever believes in The God and the Last Day and does righteous action, their reward is with their Lord; no fear shall be upon them, nor shall they grieve.

The same meaning is repeated in Surah al-Mā’idah:

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَالَّذِينَ هَادُوا وَالصَّابِئُونَ وَالنَّصَارَىٰ مَنْ آمَنَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ وَعَمِلَ صَالِحًا فَلَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ al-Mā’idah 5:69

These verses are extremely important. The Qur’an does not say that an outward name is enough. It does not say that being Jewish, Christian, Sabian, or even outwardly attached to the Muslim community is enough by itself to save a person. It sets the criterion clearly: faith in The God, faith in the Last Day, and righteous action.

So faith in the Qur’an is, from the beginning, an ethical and divine reality, not a sectarian membership card. A person may carry the name Muslim, yet in action be oppressive, dishonest, covenant-breaking, and without taqwā. Another person may be from the People of the Book, yet remain faithful to The God, the Hereafter, and righteous action. Final judgment belongs to The God, but the Qur’an does not allow us to reduce faith to narrow historical and sectarian labels.

The definition of faith at the beginning of Surah al-Baqarah

The beginning of Surah al-Baqarah defines faith in a very condensed and foundational way:

ذَٰلِكَ الْكِتَابُ لَا رَيْبَ ۛ فِيهِ ۛ هُدًى لِّلْمُتَّقِينَ الَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِالْغَيْبِ وَيُقِيمُونَ الصَّلَاةَ وَمِمَّا رَزَقْنَاهُمْ يُنفِقُونَ وَالَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِمَا أُنزِلَ إِلَيْكَ وَمَا أُنزِلَ مِن قَبْلِكَ وَبِالْآخِرَةِ هُمْ يُوقِنُونَ أُولَٰئِكَ عَلَىٰ هُدًى مِّن رَّبِّهِمْ ۖ وَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْمُفْلِحُونَ al-Baqarah 2:2–5

Here faith is recognized through several signs:

Faith in the unseen: meaning that the human being does not reduce reality only to what the eye sees and what brings immediate benefit.

Establishing ṣalāt: meaning preserving a living connection with The God, remembrance, orientation, humility, and continuous return to the center of truth.

Giving from what The God has provided: meaning that faith appears in wealth, social responsibility, and the movement beyond self-centeredness.

Faith in what was revealed to the Prophet and what was revealed before him: meaning that Qur’anic faith sees the continuity of revelation and does not separate itself from the history of guidance.

Certainty in the Hereafter: meaning that the human being does not see life as without account, without final consequence, and without responsibility.

So faith at the beginning of al-Baqarah is not merely “belief.” Faith is a complete existential structure: the unseen, ṣalāt, giving, continuity of revelation, the Hereafter, guidance, and success.

Faith in the verse of birr: beyond the direction of prayer and outward ritual

In verse 177 of Surah al-Baqarah, the Qur’an separates righteousness and faith from religious formalism:

لَّيْسَ الْبِرَّ أَن تُوَلُّوا وُجُوهَكُمْ قِبَلَ الْمَشْرِقِ وَالْمَغْرِبِ وَلَٰكِنَّ الْبِرَّ مَنْ آمَنَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ وَالْمَلَائِكَةِ وَالْكِتَابِ وَالنَّبِيِّينَ al-Baqarah 2:177

Righteousness is not that you turn your faces toward the east or the west; rather, righteousness is that one believes in The God, the Last Day, the angels, the Book, and the prophets.

But the verse does not stop there. The continuation of the verse connects faith with giving wealth, caring for relatives, orphans, the needy, the traveler, those who ask, freeing human beings, establishing ṣalāt, giving zakāt, fulfilling covenant, and remaining patient in hardship, loss, and crisis.

So Qur’anic faith is not only the direction of prayer, a religious slogan, or an outward ritual form. Faith must become social justice, covenant-keeping, patience, giving, and human responsibility. If faith in society becomes limited to outward signs while the poor, the orphan, the captive, the oppressed, and the distressed human being are forgotten, that faith has moved away from the Qur’anic definition.

The definition of faith in the last two verses of Surah al-Baqarah

At the end of Surah al-Baqarah, the Qur’an again gathers the meaning of faith in a very deep way:

آمَنَ الرَّسُولُ بِمَا أُنزِلَ إِلَيْهِ مِن رَّبِّهِ وَالْمُؤْمِنُونَ ۚ كُلٌّ آمَنَ بِاللَّهِ وَمَلَائِكَتِهِ وَكُتُبِهِ وَرُسُلِهِ لَا نُفَرِّقُ بَيْنَ أَحَدٍ مِّن رُّسُلِهِ ۚ وَقَالُوا سَمِعْنَا وَأَطَعْنَا ۖ غُفْرَانَكَ رَبَّنَا وَإِلَيْكَ الْمَصِيرُ al-Baqarah 2:285

The Messenger believed in what was revealed to him from his Lord, and so did the believers. All believed in The God, His angels, His books, and His messengers. We make no distinction between any of His messengers. And they said: We hear and we obey. Your forgiveness, our Lord, and to You is the return.

In this verse, faith has several foundations:

Faith in The God; faith in the angels; faith in the books; faith in the messengers; making no distinction between The God’s messengers; hearing and obeying; seeking forgiveness; and belief in the final return to The God.

Here again, faith is not a tribal identity. Faith means entering the complete stream of revelation, not building walls between the messengers of The God. A believer cannot turn his own prophet into a tool of sectarian superiority and then belittle the other messengers. The Qur’an says: لَا نُفَرِّقُ بَيْنَ أَحَدٍ مِّن رُّسُلِهِ.

The next verse also shows that faith is connected to The God’s mercy and the capacity of the human being:

لَا يُكَلِّفُ اللَّهُ نَفْسًا إِلَّا وُسْعَهَا al-Baqarah 2:286

The God does not burden any soul except according to its capacity.

So Qur’anic faith is not compatible with coercive burdening, constriction, psychological torture, religious obsession, or loads beyond human capacity. Any religious system that turns faith into an unbearable burden has moved away from the spirit of this verse.

Faith is higher than outward Islam

One of the most important verses for understanding the difference between faith and outward Islam is verse 14 of Surah al-Ḥujurāt:

قَالَتِ الْأَعْرَابُ آمَنَّا ۖ قُل لَّمْ تُؤْمِنُوا وَلَٰكِن قُولُوا أَسْلَمْنَا وَلَمَّا يَدْخُلِ الْإِيمَانُ فِي قُلُوبِكُمْ al-Ḥujurāt 49:14

The Bedouins said: We have believed. Say: You have not believed; rather say: We have submitted, for faith has not yet entered your hearts.

This verse is decisive. The Qur’an explicitly says that a person may have entered outward submission at a political, social, or religious level, while faith has not yet entered his heart. So faith is not merely outward membership. Faith is not simply saying, “I am Muslim.” Faith must enter the heart and show itself in action.

The next verse introduces the true believers in this way:

إِنَّمَا الْمُؤْمِنُونَ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا بِاللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ ثُمَّ لَمْ يَرْتَابُوا وَجَاهَدُوا بِأَمْوَالِهِمْ وَأَنفُسِهِمْ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ ۚ أُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الصَّادِقُونَ al-Ḥujurāt 49:15

The believers are only those who believed in The God and His Messenger, then did not fall into doubt, and strove with their wealth and their selves in the way of The God. They are the truthful ones.

Here faith is measured by truthfulness. The true believer is not the one who merely claims; it is the one whose faith becomes visible through stability, striving, giving, ethical risk, and sincerity.

Faith without righteous action is not Qur’anic faith

In the Qur’an, faith is repeatedly joined with righteous action. This pairing is not accidental. The Qur’an does not want to turn faith into an ineffective belief inside the mind. If faith is real, it appears in action.

وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ أُولَٰئِكَ أَصْحَابُ الْجَنَّةِ ۖ هُمْ فِيهَا خَالِدُونَ al-Baqarah 2:82

And those who believed and did righteous actions, they are the companions of the Garden; they shall remain therein.

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ سَيَجْعَلُ لَهُمُ الرَّحْمَٰنُ وُدًّا Maryam 19:96

Those who believed and did righteous actions, The Merciful will appoint for them love.

This pattern is repeated throughout the Qur’an: faith + righteous action. So Qur’anic faith is not merely mental affirmation. Faith must build ethics, bring justice, produce mercy, create trustworthiness, and separate the human being from corruption, oppression, arrogance, and lying.

If someone calls himself a believer while people suffer from his hand and tongue, if he seizes power in the name of religion, if he humiliates women, children, the poor, and opponents, if he produces violence instead of mercy, such a person may carry the name of faith on his tongue, but in action he has violated Qur’anic faith.

Faith and reason: conscious submission, not blind imitation

Faith in the Qur’an is not built by disabling reason. The Qur’an does not ask the human being not to understand and then submit. It asks him to see, hear, think, take lesson, reflect deeply, and then submit before the truth.

One of the roots of the pollution of faith was that reason and reflection were pushed aside, while blind obedience to narration, school, congregation, ancestors, and power was placed in the position of faith. But the Qur’an repeatedly calls the human being to reason and understanding, and it criticizes those who have disabled their tools of knowing:

وَلَقَدْ ذَرَأْنَا لِجَهَنَّمَ كَثِيرًا مِّنَ الْجِنِّ وَالْإِنسِ ۖ لَهُمْ قُلُوبٌ لَّا يَفْقَهُونَ بِهَا وَلَهُمْ أَعْيُنٌ لَّا يُبْصِرُونَ بِهَا وَلَهُمْ آذَانٌ لَّا يَسْمَعُونَ بِهَا al-A‘rāf 7:179

And We have certainly brought forth for Hell many of the jinn and humankind. They have hearts with which they do not understand, eyes with which they do not see, and ears with which they do not hear.

This verse shows that misguidance is not only lack of information. Sometimes the human being has the tools of understanding but does not use them. He has eyes but does not see. He has ears but does not hear. He has a heart, but fiqh and understanding are not active within it.

So Qur’anic faith is not sacred-looking ignorance. Faith is conscious submission. A person who accepts something out of fear of the crowd, fear of the cleric, fear of the family, fear of the school, or habit inherited from ancestors has not yet entered faith in the Qur’anic sense. Faith has meaning when the human being stands before the truth, questions himself, reflects deeply, and then submits with sincerity and humility.

Faith is not confined to a closed community

The Qur’an has a very precise language when dealing with the People of the Book. It does not present them all as pure and faultless, nor does it consider all of them absolute enemies of The God. The Qur’anic criterion is truth, oppression, faith, righteous action, and the judgment of The God.

In Surah al-‘Ankabūt, it says:

وَلَا تُجَادِلُوا أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ إِلَّا بِالَّتِي هِيَ أَحْسَنُ إِلَّا الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا مِنْهُمْ ۖ وَقُولُوا آمَنَّا بِالَّذِي أُنزِلَ إِلَيْنَا وَأُنزِلَ إِلَيْكُمْ وَإِلَٰهُنَا وَإِلَٰهُكُمْ وَاحِدٌ وَنَحْنُ لَهُ مُسْلِمُونَ al-‘Ankabūt 29:46

Do not argue with the People of the Book except in the way that is best, except those among them who do wrong; and say: We believe in what was sent down to us and what was sent down to you. Our God and your God is One, and to Him we submit.

This verse sees faith within the shared space of revelation. It says that we believe in what was revealed to us and what was revealed to you. So the Qur’anic believer is not someone who begins the history of revelation only from himself and erases everyone before him. The believer sees the continuity of guidance.

In Surah al-Mā’idah, the Qur’an also says:

لِكُلٍّ جَعَلْنَا مِنكُمْ شِرْعَةً وَمِنْهَاجًا ۚ وَلَوْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ لَجَعَلَكُمْ أُمَّةً وَاحِدَةً وَلَٰكِن لِّيَبْلُوَكُمْ فِي مَا آتَاكُمْ ۖ فَاسْتَبِقُوا الْخَيْرَاتِ al-Mā’idah 5:48

For each of you We appointed a way and a method. Had The God willed, He would have made you one community, but He tests you in what He has given you. So compete with one another in good works.

This verse does not say that all differences are unimportant. But the Qur’anic answer to difference is not hatred, cursing, elimination, and monopoly; the Qur’anic answer is competing in good works.

So Qur’anic faith is not a closed identity that the human being turns into a tool of superiority. Faith means being responsible before The God, revelation, the Hereafter, and righteous action.

The People of the Book and recognition of the Prophet of the Qur’an

Here, an important knot must be untied. When the Qur’an says about the People of the Book that if they believe in The God and the Last Day and do righteous action, their reward is with their Lord, this does not mean that the revelation of the Qur’an or the mission of the Prophet becomes unimportant. The Qur’an itself regards its Prophet and Book as truth. But the issue is that The God’s judgment is not based only on a name or religious identity card; it is also based on sincerity, awareness, access to the truth, a person’s response to the truth, and the absence of conscious stubborn denial.

The Qur’an speaks of People of the Book who recognize the truth of the Qur’an when it is recited to them:

al-Qaṣaṣ 28:52–53 teaches that some of those who were given the Book before the Qur’an believe in it when it is recited to them, saying that it is the truth from their Lord and that they had already been submitters before it.

This verse shows that People of the Book who have understood the truth of their own religion with sincerity and submission can recognize the continuation of the same light in the Qur’an when they encounter it in a clear and pure form.

But not all people see the Qur’an in a pure and clear form. Many people see the Qur’an through the veil of Muslim behavior: through the veil of the Taliban, ISIS, religious violence, compulsion, humiliation of women, child marriage, killing the apostate, takfīr, harsh fiqh systems, and governments that have placed the name of Islam upon oppression. If someone encounters such an image and distances himself from it, we must cautiously ask: has he fled from the truth, or has he fled from an image that human beings falsely constructed in the name of the truth?

Therefore, the criterion is conscious and arrogant denial of the truth, not merely geography, family, religious name, or the failure of the message to arrive in a healthy form. Whoever has the truth made clear to him and then denies it through rejection, arrogance, interest, or hostility is in great danger. But someone to whom the message of truth has arrived polluted, incomplete, frightening, or distorted, his judgment belongs to The God, who knows what is within the breasts.

We have no right to distribute salvation and destruction among human beings like administrative stamps. Our duty is to clarify the criterion of the Qur’an, not to sit in the place of The God.

The People of the Book, changing religion, and caution in judgment

Sometimes it is asked: if the People of the Book have not believed in the Prophet of the Qur’an, does their righteous action have any value before The God? And if someone who considered himself Muslim later moves toward a religion from the People of the Book and does righteous action, how will The God judge him?

To answer, we must first set aside a common error. The Qur’an does not define faith through later religious phrases such as “complete faith” and “incomplete faith” in the way later religious literature often does. The Qur’an mostly shows the components of faith; it clarifies what true faith is recognized by.

In one place, it gives the criterion as faith in The God, faith in the Last Day, and righteous action: al-Baqarah 2:62. The same meaning is repeated in al-Mā’idah 5:69. So when speaking about the People of the Book, the Qur’an does not make the criterion only a religious name. The criterion is faith in The God, faith in the Last Day, and righteous action.

But regarding someone who considered himself Muslim and then moves toward Christianity or Judaism, the matter is not simple. If this movement is based on conscious denial of the truth, hostility toward The God, worldly interest, fame, arrogance, or escape from moral responsibility, then its danger is great. But we are not judges of hearts. We do not know exactly what a human being has distanced himself from: the Qur’an, or an image that Muslims built in the name of Islam.

A person may have become disgusted with compulsion in religion. A person may have distanced himself from a religion that, in the name of The God, deprives women of school and university, gives children into marriage, threatens human beings for thinking, or frightens people through killing and takfīr. In such a case, the important question is: has he fled from The God and the Qur’an, or from an oppression that we built in the name of The God?

So the Qur’anic answer is this: the criterion of faith before The God is not an outward name; it is The God, the Hereafter, righteous action, sincerity, taqwā, and the human being’s response to the truth. If someone knowingly denies the truth, his danger is great. But if someone has been wounded by the polluted image that human beings built in the name of Islam and has sought refuge elsewhere in search of The God, ethics, dignity, and tranquility, his final judgment belongs to The God.

The Qur’an has not allowed us to become owners of final judgment over people’s hearts. The God knows intentions, wounds, fears, misunderstandings, the level of awareness, a person’s access to the truth, and his hidden sincerity. We can only clarify the criterion of the Qur’an and invite people to the Qur’an itself, to The God, to the Last Day, to righteous action, to justice, to truthfulness, and to mercy.

So faith must not be turned into a tool for quickly condemning human beings. Faith is a divine trust, and final judgment concerning it belongs to The God.

The Ka‘bah and Hajj are not under the monopoly of a religious gatekeeper

Even regarding al-Masjid al-Ḥarām and the Ka‘bah, the Qur’an does not use monopolizing language. In Surah al-Ḥajj it says:

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا وَيَصُدُّونَ عَن سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَالْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ الَّذِي جَعَلْنَاهُ لِلنَّاسِ سَوَاءً الْعَاكِفُ فِيهِ وَالْبَادِ al-Ḥajj 22:25

Those who disbelieved and obstruct from the way of The God and from al-Masjid al-Ḥarām, which We made for the people, equal are the resident therein and the one who comes from outside.

The Qur’anic expression is lil-nās: for the people. Not for a state, not for a dynasty, not for a religious class, not for an ethnicity, and not for those who present themselves as the only gatekeepers of the Abrahamic path.

Elsewhere it says:

وَأَذِّن فِي النَّاسِ بِالْحَجِّ al-Ḥajj 22:27

And announce Hajj among the people.

Again, the address is al-nās, the people. The Qur’an presents Hajj with a universal and Abrahamic call. The House of The God must not become the monopolized property of religious, political, or sectarian powers.

In Surah al-Mā’idah, we also read:

جَعَلَ اللَّهُ الْكَعْبَةَ الْبَيْتَ الْحَرَامَ قِيَامًا لِّلنَّاسِ al-Mā’idah 5:97

The God made the Ka‘bah, the Sacred House, a means of standing and support for the people.

These verses are very important for understanding faith. If faith in the Qur’an is defined by The God, the Hereafter, righteous action, taqwā, and submission to the truth, then no group has the right to turn the House of The God and the path of Abraham into its own identity property. Those who, in the name of “Muslim,” in the name of fiqh, in the name of the state, or in the name of protecting religion, present themselves as gatekeepers of The God and humiliate or deprive other God-seekers must be measured against these verses.

The Taliban logic, and every logic like it, becomes dangerous precisely here: it turns religion from the way of The God into the property of a group; it reduces faith from a living truth to obedience to a structure; and it turns the House of The God from “qiyāman lil-nās” into a tool of control and monopoly.

The Qur’an does not approve of such monopoly. Qur’anic faith connects the human being to The God; religious exclusivism places the human being under the authority of self-appointed guardians of religion.

How was the meaning of faith polluted?

The meaning of faith was polluted when sectarian and political definitions entered the field in place of the Qur’anic definition.

Faith was polluted when the name of the group took the place of sincerity of heart and righteous action.

Faith was polluted when human narrations, historical memories, chains of transmission, inherited fiqh systems, and religious powers sat beside the Qur’an or above the Qur’an.

Faith was polluted when human beings, instead of asking “What has The God revealed?” began asking: “What did our fathers say? What has our school ruled? What does our congregation approve?”

The Qur’an shows this same disease in Surah Luqmān:

وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمُ اتَّبِعُوا مَا أَنزَلَ اللَّهُ قَالُوا بَلْ نَتَّبِعُ مَا وَجَدْنَا عَلَيْهِ آبَاءَنَا Luqmān 31:21

And when it is said to them, “Follow what The God has sent down,” they say, “Rather, we follow what we found our fathers upon.”

Faith was polluted when inheritance took the place of revelation; when historical tradition, instead of being measured by the Qur’an, became itself the standard by which the Qur’an was measured; when hadith, fiqh, narration, school, power, tribe, and politics turned faith from an ethical reality into a closed identity.

Faith was polluted when governments realized that the name of religion could become a tool of taxation, monarchy, obedience, and control. In such an atmosphere, being a believer no longer meant sincerity, taqwā, and righteous action; rather, it came to be understood as belonging to a particular class, school, government, or congregation.

Faith and the community of believers in the experience of Madinah

If we look at the early experience of Madinah, we see that the first society was not merely a closed sect in the later sense. Madinah was built upon covenant, bay‘ah, civic responsibility, and coexistence among different groups. The identity of “the believers” in the beginning had a wider capacity: a capacity that could place God-believers, People of the Book, ḥanīfs, and followers of Qur’anic revelation beside one another within a civic and ethical order.

In the famous historical report known as the Ṣaḥīfah of Madinah or the Covenant of Madinah, the society of Madinah is not defined only on the basis of one sectarian name; rather, it is formed on the basis of covenant, shared security, defensive responsibility, and civic order. In this document, different groups, while preserving their religious identities, are placed within a shared political and social structure. This point must be understood with historical caution, because the Qur’an is our final criterion; but this historical experience still shows that the model of Madinah was not the model of eliminating everyone else and building a sectarian garrison.

From a Qur’anic perspective, the principle is clearer: the Qur’an does not confine faith to an ethnic or sectarian name. The Qur’an measures human beings through The God, the Hereafter, righteous action, oppression, taqwā, fulfillment of covenant, and ethical responsibility.

In Madinah, the issue was not simply that everyone had to be reduced to one religious name. The issue was that society should be formed upon covenant, justice, security, the right to live, and shared responsibility. This is closer to the spirit of the Qur’an than the logic of later empires that turned religion into taxation, monarchy, classification of people, and political control.

Faith cannot be produced through compulsion

The Qur’an has a decisive principle concerning religion:

لَا إِكْرَاهَ فِي الدِّينِ al-Baqarah 2:256

There is no compulsion in religion.

If faith is produced through compulsion, fear, sword, prison, humiliation, threat, takfīr, humiliating jizyah, social pressure, or governmental force, then it is no longer faith; it is only outward obedience to power.

Faith must enter the heart. The Qur’an said this in al-Ḥujurāt 49:14: وَلَمَّا يَدْخُلِ الْإِيمَانُ فِي قُلُوبِكُمْ — faith has not yet entered your hearts.

So every system that makes people “believers” or “Muslims” by force is in truth only producing outward appearance, not faith. Faith is the work of The God, the heart, sincerity, choice, understanding, and action; it is not the product of a machinery of compulsion.

Returning to Qur’anic faith

If we want to purify faith from historical and sectarian pollution, we must return to the definition of the Qur’an.

Faith means:

faith in The God; faith in the Hereafter; faith in revelation and the continuity of the messengers; faith in the unseen; establishing ṣalāt; giving from provision; righteous action; fulfillment of covenant; taqwā; iḥsān; avoidance of oppression; reasoning and deep reflection; trustworthiness and security; conscious submission to what The God has revealed; and humility before the final judgment of The God.

Faith is not a name for religious arrogance. Faith is not a tool for eliminating others. Faith is not the property of any people, state, school, jurist, shaykh, mullah, caliph, sultan, or armed group. Faith is a reality that The God measures in hearts and makes visible in actions.

Whoever oppresses in the name of faith has polluted faith. Whoever claims the House of The God as his own property in the name of faith has polluted faith. Whoever buries the Qur’an under narration, fiqh, power, or the tradition of ancestors in the name of faith has polluted faith. Whoever humiliates the People of the Book, God-seekers, the poor, women, children, opponents, and seekers of truth in the name of faith has moved away from the language of the Qur’an.

The Qur’an carries faith toward mercy, justice, truthfulness, the Hereafter, righteous action, and The God. Every definition of faith that leads the human being toward oppression, arrogance, monopoly, compulsion, and sectarianism must be measured again before the Qur’an.

Qur’anic faith begins in the heart, appears in action, is connected to The God, is answerable to the Hereafter, and is recognized through goodness and justice. This faith is not the property of the Taliban, not the property of empires, not the property of jurists, not the property of sects, and not the property of those who imagine themselves to be gatekeepers of The God’s door.

Faith is The God’s trust in the human heart. No one has the right to turn this trust into a chain of identity, power, and monopoly.