Absolute Justice, Kindness and Kinship — Page 171
— Part II 166 treat this verse completely out of context and their interpretations are mostly prejudiced and hostile. Some have gone so far in their arrogance as to make it a special target of their negative criticism. They believe that it liberates mankind from the obligation of accepting Islam. According to their interpretation, the only conditions for salvation are that you believe in Allah and the Last Day and that you do good works; it does not matter whether you are a Jew, a Christian or a Sabian—a Sabian is defined as a believer in God who may follow any of the Divine books revealed earlier in any part of the world. In other words they claim that, according to this verse, Islam is not at all essential for the salvation of mankind; whichever faith man chooses to follow will lead him to salvation. They fail to realise that this verse encompasses a wide subject of great depth and universal application. To understand its import, one must study it in the light of other similar verses of the Quran and derive an inference which is fully in line with them. In its flexibility this verse is generally applicable to many different situations without creating any internal contradiction. None of its genuine interpretations can ever be found in conflict with each other or even with any other verse related to the same subject. But to understand this point clearly, a more detailed study of this verse is required from different points of view. First, in application to the time span prior to Islam,