Islamic position
Here is what the Qur’an says you are when you turn to God, verse by verse. Every line is something you can say of yourself.
I am made for God
I am a servant of God
“I created jinn and humans only to worship Me” (51:56). The Messiah’s first words were “I am the servant of God” (19:30), and the title he took for himself is the one offered to you.
Worship in the Qur’an covers the whole of a life: the prayer, and also the honest sale, the kept promise and the meal shared with a neighbour. So nothing you do is too small to be done for Him.
I was born on the natural faith
“The nature God made people with” (30:30). The Prophet said that every child is born on that nature, and its parents make it a Jew, a Christian or a Magian (al-Bukhārī 1385). You were born ready to know God, with nothing inherited against you.
The verse goes on: “there is no altering the creation of God; that is the right religion” (30:30). Coming to Islam is coming home to what you were made with, which is why Muslims call a convert one who has reverted.
I am honoured
“We have honoured the children of Ādam” (17:70). Ādam repented and God forgave him (2:37), so his children inherit his dignity and leave his fault with him.
The angels were told to bow to Ādam (2:34). Whatever you have done, you belong to the creature God honoured that way, and your worth comes from Him.
I am entrusted with the earth
“I am placing a successor on the earth” (2:30). You were made to keep it for its Owner.
“It is He who made you successors on the earth, and raised some of you above others in rank, to test you in what He has given you” (6:165). Your health, your money and your children are a trust, and you will be asked about them.
I answer for myself
I carry my own burden
“No bearer of burdens bears the burden of another” (6:164). And God asks of you only what you can bear: “God does not burden a soul beyond its capacity; it has what it earned, and against it what it earned” (2:286).
No one else’s sin was placed on you at birth, and no one else can carry yours away. Ezekiel says it in the Bible you know: “The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son” (Ezekiel 18:20).
The same verse of the Qur’an ends in a prayer you can make your own: “Our Lord, do not take us to task if we forget or make a mistake” (2:286).
My good deeds count
“Good deeds remove evil deeds” (11:114). “Whoever does an atom’s weight of good will see it” (99:7).
A good deed is written as 10 like it (6:160), and an evil deed as one. Your effort is seen and kept, down to the smallest grain of it.
I am near to God
He answers me
“When My servants ask you about Me, I am near. I answer the call of the caller when he calls Me” (2:186). You need no one’s permission to pray.
Notice the grammar. In the other verses that open “they ask you”, the answer begins with “Say”; here God answers you Himself, with nothing between.
He is closer to me than my own neck
“We are nearer to him than his jugular vein” (50:16).
“He is with you wherever you are” (57:4). In the hospital corridor, at the graveside, in the car on the way to work, you are never out of His sight.
My heart rests in Him
“In the remembrance of God do hearts find rest” (13:28).
Remembrance (dhikr) can be as short as subḥān Allāh, “glory be to God”, said under your breath. It needs no building, no priest and no special day.
I am loved when I follow
“Say: if you love God, follow me; God will love you and forgive you your sins” (3:31).
Love here has a shape: following the Prophet in prayer, in fasting, in mercy to the weak. The Messiah set the same test: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15).
I am forgiven
When I turn back
“O you who believe, turn to God in sincere repentance” (66:8). He forgives all sins (39:53), and turns the bad deeds of the one who repents into good ones (25:70).
Al-Nawawī, in Riyāḍ al-ṣāliḥīn, gives repentance 3 conditions: stopping the sin, regret for it, and the resolve not to return; where a person was wronged, their right is restored as well. Then the slate is clean, however many times you fall and turn again.
Directly, with no one between
“Your Lord says: call on Me, and I will answer you” (40:60). The forgiveness is between you and Him.
Islam has no confessional and no priest who absolves. The Qur’an blames the People of the Book for taking “their rabbis and monks as lords besides God” (9:31), and you are free of every such lord.
I am free
Free of every lord but One
When ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim, a former Christian, heard 9:31 and said that they had never worshipped their rabbis and monks, the Prophet asked him whether they had not made lawful what God forbade, and forbidden what He made lawful, and been obeyed in it. “That is their worship,” he said (al-Tirmidhī 3095).
So you obey God, and no council, synod or creed can add to what He made binding. The scholars of Islam teach and explain, and none of them can forgive your sins.
Free of despair
“Do not despair of the mercy of God” (39:53). Despair is the one door the Qur’an keeps locked: “none despairs of the mercy of God except the people who disbelieve” (12:87).
I am guided
I ask for guidance every day
You will say al-Fātiḥa at least 17 times a day in the prayer, and its centre is a request: “Guide us on the straight path” (1:6). The Qur’an answers it in the next line it opens: “This is the Book in which there is no doubt, a guidance for those who keep their duty” (2:2).
I am given light
“God is the light of the heavens and the earth” (24:35). The Qur’an calls itself a light sent down (4:174), and the Injīl given to ʿĪsā guidance and light (5:46).
I am tested, and I am not left alone
My trials have a purpose
“Do people think they will be left alone on saying ‘We believe’, and not be tested?” (29:2). The test is fear, hunger and loss, “and give good news to the patient, who say, when calamity strikes them, ‘We belong to God, and to Him we return’” (2:155-156).
Ease comes with hardship
“With hardship comes ease. With hardship comes ease” (94:5-6). The Qur’an says it twice, in two verses, so that you hear it twice.
I am provided for
“There is no creature on the earth but its provision is from God” (11:6). “Whoever keeps his duty to God, He makes a way out for him, and provides for him from where he does not expect” (65:2-3).
I will meet Him
“O man, you are labouring towards your Lord, and you will meet Him” (84:6). The meeting is the end of the road for everyone, and the believer goes to it as a servant going home to his Master.
The believers are “those who know they will meet their Lord, and that to Him they will return” (2:46). That knowledge is what makes the prayer light for them.
I belong to the community of the prophets
“This community of yours is one community, and I am your Lord, so worship Me” (21:92). Ibrāhīm, Mūsā and ʿĪsā are its prophets (2:136), and the disciples of ʿĪsā called themselves Muslims (3:52).
What you can do
Start with the words you already have. When you wake, thank Him; when you eat, say bismillāh, “in the name of God”; when you do wrong, say astaghfiru Allāh, “I ask God’s forgiveness”.
Learn al-Fātiḥa, the 7 verses of the opening chapter, and its meaning. It is the prayer every Muslim says in every unit of the daily prayer, and it asks for one thing: the straight path.
Find the nearest mosque and go on a Friday. Sit at the back if you wish; no one will ask you to leave, and someone will ask whether you want to learn the prayer.
Pray to God tonight, in your own words, with no one between you and Him. Read the passages on the Messiah in Islam, and when you are ready, the testimony is on Why Islam?
Questions about the servant of God
Does Islam teach original sin?
Islam teaches that Ādam repented and was forgiven (2:37), that every child is born on the natural faith (al-Bukhārī 1385), and that no soul carries the burden of another (6:164).
What does “servant of God” mean?
ʿAbd Allāh: one who worships God and obeys Him. The Qur’an gives the title to its prophets, ʿĪsā among them (19:30; 4:172), and to every believer (25:63).
Can I pray to God before I become Muslim?
Yes. God answers “the call of the caller when he calls Me” (2:186), and the verse makes no exception. Ask Him to guide you; the Qur’an says He guides those who strive towards Him (29:69).
Who is my intercessor before God?
“To God belongs all intercession” (39:44), and no one intercedes with Him except by His permission (2:255). You go to Him directly, and on the Day of Judgement He gives the right to intercede to whom He wills.
Sources
- The Qur’an: 1:6; 2:2, 30, 34, 37, 46, 136, 155-156, 186, 255, 286; 3:31, 52; 4:172, 174; 5:46; 6:160, 164-165; 9:31; 11:6, 114; 12:87; 13:28; 17:70; 19:30; 21:92; 24:35; 25:63, 70; 29:2, 69; 30:30; 39:44, 53; 40:60; 50:16; 51:56; 57:4; 65:2-3; 66:8; 84:6; 94:5-6; 99:7.
- Al-Bukhārī, al-Ṣaḥīḥ, 1385 (Kitāb al-janāʾiz), on the child born on the natural faith.
- Al-Tirmidhī, al-Jāmiʿ, 3095, on ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim and 9:31.
- The Bible: Ezekiel 18:20; John 14:15.
- Al-Nawawī, Riyāḍ al-ṣāliḥīn, the chapter on repentance.