The two senses of the word are closely related since this religion of Islam has the principle of total submission to Allah as its cornerstone. When a person betrays any doubt about submitting totally to Allah, he is considered not to be a Muslim, because he does not fulfill the most basic criterion of Islam.

There is more than one reference in the Qur'an to the type of religion which is acceptable to Allah. In all these references, the term Islam occurs. One clear example is found in verse 19 of surah 3, entitled: "The House of Imran" where Allah says: "Indeed, the only true religion in the sight of Allah is Islam." Many scholars are of the opinion that this verse and similar verses refer to Islam in its final form taught by Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, as he conveyed his message. Equally numerous are the scholars who take such verses as referring to Islam in its general sense, namely, self-surrender or total submission to Allah. To them, the aforementioned verse should be translated into English as: "Indeed the only true religion in the sight of Allah is (man's) self-surrender to Him." The two views are not contradictory since the final version of the divine religion, i.e. Islam, emphasizes the principal verses in their general sense of the term Islam, we give them a broader scope as to include the followers of earlier prophets who responded to divine messages and submitted themselves to Allah. As it is well known, all prophets preached essentially the same message, calling on their nations to surrender themselves to Allah. The foregoing applies to verse 85 of surah 3, to which you have referred. If we translate in the stricter sense, we may say that it means: "If anyone seeks a religion other than Islam, it will never be accepted from him, etc." I personally tend to prefer this latter rendering. It must be clear to us, however, that since Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, has conveyed to mankind the religion of Islam as the last and complete version of divine faith, this is the only acceptable form of self-surrender to Allah.

The other verses which you have referred to speak of different communities who shall have nothing to fear in the life to come. Let us take one example from verse 62 of surah 3 which may be translated as follows: "The believers, as well as those who follow the Jewish faith and Christians and Sabians - - all who believe in Allah and the last day and do righteous deeds - - shall have their reward with their Lord; and no fear need they have and neither shall they grieve." These verses should be taken in a historical sense. We know for certain that the message of Islam as preached by Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, abrogates previous messages.

What we have to understand is that Islam preaches tolerance. Over the centuries, Muslims all over the world have shown a degree of religious tolerance which can hardly be equaled by any other religion. When the Islamic state was at the height of its power, religious communities were able to practice their religions without fear of any persecution or disturbance. They could claim their rights even against the opposition of the Muslim ruler. If a dispute is likely to generate strife and troubles, then Islam would do everything possible to prevent it, even if that leads to giving the other party some privileges to which they are not entitled. Islam is not a faith which seeks the suppression of other religions, nor does it stamp out religious freedom. Indeed, it preaches freedom of belief and tries to protect that freedom wherever possible. Before I suggest to you a course of action, I would like to relate an incident which took place 13 centuries ago, in the year 86 or 87 of the Islamic calendar i.e. over 1300 years ago.

When the city of Damascus in Syria surrendered to the Muslim army in the year 14 of the Islamic calendar, it so happened that half of the city surrendered after a fight in which the Muslim army was able to overcome its besieged defenders, while the other half surrendered voluntarily. In the center of the city, there was a very large temple built 4000 years earlier. It had become a church when Syria became Christian about 300 years before the Muslim army took over the city. A peace treaty was drawn out which made a list of the churches to remain in the hands of the Christian population. As to that big church, it was agreed that one half of it would be a mosque and the other half would remain as a church. This was felt to be fair to both parties, since the Muslims could claim half of it as a result of occupying half of the city by force. Several churches were not included in the terms of the peace treaty. These were handed over to the Muslims.

Damascus was soon to become the capital of the Muslim state. More and more of its population was keen to adopt Islam. In the year 86, Al-Waleed ibn Abdulmalik became the Caliph and he wanted to attend to a need which became very pressing. The mosque at the center of the city was no longer adequate to accommodate people in Friday prayers. He wished to get the other half and integrate the two portions into a magnificent mosque. He called in the Christian leaders and requested them to give up that church in return for a large number of properties, including four major churches which were in Muslim hands. His suggestion was met with determined refusal. The Caliph was disappointed, but he could not force the Christians to give up their church.

He later requested them to bring the treaty and read the relevant provisions. As they read out the terms of the treaty to him, he discovered that Saint Thomas's church, which was an even larger church, was not included in the treaty. As such, it was the property of the state, which was now an Islamic one. Al-Waleed told them that since this was the case, he was satisfied to build the mosque in its place. The Christian leaders said: "If the Caliph would leave Saint Thomas's church to us and the other four, we are willing to give up the other half of the church he wishes to have." Thus the matter was settled and Al-Waleed integrated that half of the church into a new mosque which remains until today in the center of Damascus known as the Omayyad Mosque.

Ever since the Industrial Revolution, Europe and American societies have moved away from religion and decided that religion had no place in shaping human life. In the West, the capitalist system emphasized the freedom of the individual and considered faith and worship personal matters which might remain isolated from the political and economic fields. The sphere of influence of religion was further reduced, so as to banish it altogether from the social order. What results do we see there?

In the West, where democracy has ensured a genuine chance for people to replace their government, we see a frequently changing cycle, with the electorate deciding to change directions every few years. Thus, a right-wing government is replaced by a left-wing one, which is replaced a few years later by another right-wing government. An economic problem of rising inflation is succeeded by a more acute problem of rising unemployment. Money supply is tightened or relaxed as fits the outlook of the government in power which is bound to rely on support from either the business community or trade unions. It may be argued that there is enough flexibility in the system to tolerate such changes and allow the people to choose the direction in which they wish to go. While this is true and the flexibility is commendable in principle, the frequency of change and the rapid cycle of rising unemployment following close on the heels of sharp inflation causes a great deal of suffering. It is often the case that the government of the day wants to appease its own constituency, be it big business or powerful trade unions. Therefore, the measures it takes and the legislation it enacts seldom take the interest of the whole community into consideration. Rarely a piece of legislation is calculated to serve the community as a whole. The people face a dilemma which they try to solve by voting an unpopular government out of power and replacing it with a government which soon loses popularity. In Britain, for example, it is always expected that any by-election which takes place in the second or third year of the life of a parliament would go against the government in power. This phenomenon is known as "protest vote" against the government. As the time for general elections approaches, the government in power starts to take popular measures in order to try to win the next elections.

There is no doubt that the most important achievement of Western civilization is the importance it attaches to the freedom of the individual. Over the years, this has brought up the best in people. Freedom is certainly necessary for man to allow his talents and skills to have full play and to yield their best fruit. One cannot but admire the principle of freedom which is valued so highly in the West. However, Western societies have erred in giving little to discipline which should run side by side with personal freedom. Thus, moral values have been allowed to lose their grip on people's conduct and the concept of unrestrained social behavior was given full sway. One of the results of such philosophy was the permissiveness which was given in the sixties of this century the title of the "sexual revolution". A by-product of this permissiveness was the spread of wanton, permissive and perverted sexual behavior which has increased the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases, the most recent of which is AIDS.

In the Eastern bloc, communism has ruled for over 70 years in the Soviet Union and for nearly half a century in other East European countries. In these countries, people lived under ruthless dictatorships with little or no hope of ever enjoying the type of personal freedom every human being yearns for. When we compare the capitalist system of the West with the communism of the East, from the point of view of the material well-being of society, we find that communism has allowed members of the party and top officials in the government to get a large share of the nation's wealth and imposed a life of poverty and deprivation on the rest of the population. One of the most flagrant examples was that of the Romanian dictator, Ceausescu, who led a life emperors would be shy to contemplate while his nation suffered from starvation. The bankruptcy of communism has been made so obvious for all people to see, once the process of reform was allowed to operate. On the other hand, capitalism allows people to enjoy the fruits of their efforts but its financial system, which is based on usury, is geared to allow the rich to be better off and gives the poor little chance of improving their lot. Because of the widening gap between the rich and the poor in capitalist society, it was necessary for capitalist countries to introduce a system of social security which offers housing subsidies and health insurance to people of low income. It must be said, however, that none of these benefits could be gained without hard struggle.

It is such examples that explain to us the relevance of divine guidance in our age and indeed, in every period of human society. Allah has provided us with guidance which does not shackle us so as to prevent our advancement, but keeps us on the route to progress while ensuring a respectable standard of living for every one. Moreover, it is balanced between our material and spiritual needs. It allows a disciplined and responsible sort of personal freedom which allows man's talents to flourish but gives them the right guidance which ensures that they work for the betterment of man as the creature Allah has chosen to be in charge of building life on earth. Without divine guidance, man is likely to go astray, erring in the side of spiritualism or materialism. When one of these two elements is overemphasized at the expense of the other, the result is human sufferings.

You ask whether Muslims would have been worse off had they not been practicing Islam. The answer is two-fold. First, generally speaking, Muslims implement Islam only partially today. Indeed, only a small part of Islam is implemented in the lives of Muslims. Nevertheless, they would have been much worse off without such partial implementation. Secondly, if Muslims were to lead a truly Islamic life, they would indeed be much better off, not only spiritually but also materially. Allah's promise to humanity will always come true. If human beings were to implement divine guidance, Allah would grant them abundance of every good thing in life. This promise is repeated several times in the Qur'an. We need not have anything in addition to that in order to believe that the implementation of Islam will result in prosperity and happiness. Allah's promise always comes true.