Absolute Justice, Kindness and Kinship — Page 172
Freedom of Conscience in Matters of Faith 167 this verse provides us with an excellent example of how the Holy Quran treats every other religion with absolute justice in a manner which is totally unrivalled in any other Scripture. This verse promises people of all ages, prior to the revelation of the Quran, that regardless of the religion they subscribed to, or by whatever name it was called, as long as they believed in Allah and the Last Day and performed good deeds as their religion required of them, Allah assures them peace and salvation. He promises that they will fear not, nor will they ever grieve. So far as all earlier faiths are concerned, this verse gives glad tidings of salvation to all people belonging to them, provided they sincerely act upon their teachings and also believe in the inevitability of the Day of Judgement. The second aspect of this verse applies to all those people who, despite living at the same time as the Holy Prophet sa , did not receive the message of Islam. In this respect they are placed in the same category as the people of earlier eras. For them the message becomes: All humans, wherever they reside in the world, should rest assured that as long as the message of Islam has not reached them, or is not conveyed to them in a convincing manner such as leaves no room for rejection, Allah will not deal with them unjustly. They will be judged by the standards of their respective religions. As we find in S u rah al-Baqarah: