Religion That Is Accepted by God
The word Islam means submission to the command of God and this is something conveyed to all people both by divine messengers and by Fitrat (nature).
God says in Verse 85 of Surah Al Imran: “He who chooses a religion other than Islam, it will not be accepted from him, and in the Everlasting Life he will be among the losers.”
Here God uses the word Islam to introduce to the whole world the religion that He accepts from people.
The message of this verse is that anyone must submit to his divine Fitrat which indeed invites him to all good, truth and love and warns him to stay away from all evil. Otherwise, no excuse from him will be accepted because two messengers, namely divine prophets and the Fitrat have invited him to the right path and if he rejects their invitation, he will be among loses on the Resurrection Day.
From this point of view, all religions are Islam and their followers could be called Muslim. A Muslim Christian would be one who has submitted to the pillars of his religion, which is consistent with his Fitrat. And so is a Muslim Jew and Muslim Zoroastrian.
And also a non-Muslim Christian is a Christian who has not submitted to the tenets of Christianity and has neglected the path of the truth after knowing it.
The world’s mystics consider submission and Islam to be the religion of love and do not recognize any religion but love as the one that leads to salvation. They say there are only two religions: Religion of love for the truth, goodness and beauty, and religion of Kufr which is one of conceit, selfishness, oppression and injustice.
According to Persian Poet Rudaki, our beloved is the Lord of the Universe and what he wants from us is not going to mosques or churches or temples but to love Him wherever we are. This is the common teaching of all divine messengers.
