“Make No Distinction”
How the Qur’an’s Warning Was Betrayed and Buried Under Muhammadism
The Qur’an repeats, in multiple places, a deceptively simple doctrine: do not make distinctions between God’s messengers. It appears as a core principle of belief, not an optional theological flourish. The text goes so far as to brand those who do make distinctions as disbelievers — kafirūn in the Qur’an’s uncompromising terminology (4:150–152). And yet, when we look at the actual lived religion of Islam, we see the exact opposite: the systematic elevation of Muhammad, to the exclusion of all other messengers, until the entire religion is popularly known not as the “religion of Abraham” (as the Qur’an itself insists) but as “Muhammadism.” What Christians did to Jesus — turning a prophet into the center of worship and the focal point of identity — Muslims have done to Muhammad.
The hypocrisy is so blatant that it cannot be excused as an accident of culture. It is baked into the history of Islam, the way theology was constructed, and the way power consolidated around the person of Muhammad. To read the Qur’an itself alongside the lived doctrine of Islam is to see a religion at war with its own scripture.
This essay will unpack the Qur’an’s repeated insistence on non-distinction, the meaning of faḍḍalnā (favoring) versus preference, the explicit condemnation of prophet-ranking, and the inevitable slide into idolatry that arises when the text’s warning is ignored. It will then show how Islam, in practice, followed the same trajectory as Christianity: from prophet to pseudo-deification, from divine message to cult of personality. By the end, the claim that Islam faithfully follows the Qur’an’s teaching on prophets collapses entirely.
The Qur’an’s Baseline: “We Do Not Distinguish”
The foundational verse is unambiguous:
لَا نُفَرِّقُ بَيْنَ أَحَدٍ مِّن رُّسُلِهِ
lā nufarriqu bayna aḥadin min rusulihi
“We do not make a distinction between any of His messengers.”
(Qur’an 2:285)
This line is not presented as an optional pious opinion. It is recited as part of what the believers themselves are supposed to say, in submission to God’s command. In other words, a true believer is marked not by devotion to one messenger over another, but by a refusal to separate them into hierarchies of preference.
The Qur’an doubles down in another passage, this time threatening those who deviate:
إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ يَكْفُرُونَ بِٱللَّهِ وَرُسُلِهِ وَيُرِيدُونَ أَن يُفَرِّقُوا بَيْنَ ٱللَّهِ وَرُسُلِهِ وَيَقُولُونَ نُؤْمِنُ بِبَعْضٍ وَنَكْفُرُ بِبَعْضٍ وَيُرِيدُونَ أَن يَتَّخِذُوا بَيْنَ ذَٰلِكَ سَبِيلًا (150)
“Those who disbelieve in God and His messengers and want to make a distinction between God and His messengers, saying, ‘We believe in some but not in others,’ seeking a middle way — (4:150)أُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ هُمُ ٱلْكَـٰفِرُونَ حَقًّا وَأَعْتَدْنَا لِلْكَـٰفِرِينَ عَذَابًا مُّهِينًا (151)
“They are truly disbelievers, and We have prepared for the disbelievers a humiliating punishment.” (4:151)
The Qur’an could not be clearer: to say “we prefer this messenger over that one” is not a minor slip but an act of kufr. And yet the reality of Islam today is that Muhammad is not simply a messenger among others; he is the Prophet, our Prophet, the best of creation, the intercessor on Judgment Day, the one without whom Islam collapses. In practice, Muslims affirm the very thing the Qur’an condemns: they prefer one messenger above the rest.
The Apologetic Escape Hatch: “But God Himself Favored Some”
When confronted with these verses, Muslim apologists reach for a convenient sleight of hand. They point to verses such as Qur’an 2:253:
تِلْكَ ٱلرُّسُلُ فَضَّلْنَا بَعْضَهُمْ عَلَىٰ بَعْضٍۘ
tilka l-rusulu faḍḍalnā baʿḍahum ʿalā baʿḍ
“We favored some of these messengers over others.”
And they conclude: see? God Himself created a hierarchy. Therefore, we too can rank them. Therefore, it is legitimate to say Muhammad is the “greatest prophet.”
This argument collapses under scrutiny. The Qur’an’s wording does not use yuʾthir (to prefer) or raghiba fī (to desire, lean toward). The word is faḍḍalnā — from faḍl, meaning bounty, grace, abundance. It is a descriptive statement about the differing gifts God chose to bestow: some were given miracles, some were spoken to directly, some given Scripture. This is not “preference” in the sense of emotional favoritism, but the objective distribution of roles. God “favored” them with different tasks — but nowhere does the Qur’an tell human beings to adopt that favor as license to exalt one prophet over another.
In fact, the very verses that mention God’s favoring also caution against human factionalism. Immediately after noting that some prophets were favored with unique gifts, 2:253 says:
“If God had willed, their successors would not have fought each other after clear signs had come to them. But they differed — some believed, others disbelieved.”
In other words: human attempts to weaponize prophetic differences lead not to piety but to schism and violence. The lesson is to resist the urge to elevate one over another, not to indulge it.
Abraham, Not Muhammad, as the Qur’an’s Anchor
If any prophet is spotlighted in the Qur’an, it is Abraham. Over and over, the text calls Islam the “religion of Abraham” (millata Ibrāhīm), not the religion of Muhammad.
Qur’an 2:130: “Who but a fool would turn away from the religion of Abraham?”
Qur’an 2:135: “Say: No, [ours is] the religion of Abraham, upright, who was not of the idolaters.”
Qur’an 4:125: “Who is better in religion than one who submits himself to God, does good, and follows the religion of Abraham, the upright? God took Abraham as a close friend.”
If Islam were truly about Muhammad, the Qur’an would have named it after him. Instead, it anchors the faith in the figure of Abraham — precisely to avoid the trap of prophet-centered idolatry. The text screams: “Don’t make Islam into Muhammadism.” And yet that is exactly what happened.
From Caution to Cult: The Slide Into Muhammadism
How did Muslims end up violating their own scripture so openly? The process is almost identical to what happened in Christianity.
Initial respect. Jesus and Muhammad were first treated as messengers of God, pointing away from themselves toward the divine.
Exclusive focus. Over time, followers grew obsessed with the human figure — quoting his words, recounting his stories, shaping identity around loyalty to him.
Pseudo-deification. The prophet became indispensable, seen as flawless, sinless, beyond ordinary human criticism.
Intercession. The prophet was imagined as the one who could intercede on Judgment Day, rescuing followers from hell.
Expanded veneration. Devotion spilled over from the prophet to his family, disciples, saints, clergy, imams.
Institutionalization. Whole religious systems were built around loyalty to the prophet’s name, not direct submission to God.
Christianity enshrined Jesus as God incarnate. Islam, terrified of repeating that, loudly insists Muhammad is “just a man.” But then it turns around and declares him the best of creation, the one who will intercede for sinners, the infallible model whose words (hadith) become a second scripture eclipsing the Qur’an itself. The form differs; the substance is the same. The prophet has become an idol.
The Escalation of Distinctions
Once Muhammad was exalted above all others, the domino effect was inevitable:
Family: The Prophet’s wives, daughters, and descendants (Ahl al-Bayt) gained sacred status. Entire sectarian splits, such as Shiʿism, emerged around their veneration.
Companions: The ṣaḥāba were elevated as quasi-saints, their every action canonized. To criticize them became taboo.
Successors: The “righteous caliphs” (al-khulafāʾ al-rāshidūn) were glorified, with their names now literally engraved in gold inside the Kaʿba’s precincts.
Transmitters: The compilers of hadith became gatekeepers of salvation, their chains of narration treated as sacred relics.
Imams and Scholars: Figures like al-Shāfiʿī, Mālik, and al-Bukhārī were elevated as authorities whose words effectively rivaled revelation.
Modern Preachers: Today, social media “shaykhs” and televangelists are followed with cult-like devotion.
Every step is a further betrayal of the Qur’an’s warning: do not make distinctions. But distinctions multiplied, metastasized, and hardened into dogma.
The Qur’an’s Threat Revisited
Let’s revisit the bluntness of 4:150–152. The Qur’an does not mince words:
Those who make distinctions are “truly disbelievers.”
They face a “humiliating punishment.”
Only those who believe in God and all His messengers without distinction are promised reward.
By the Qur’an’s own definition, mainstream Islam is guilty of disbelief. Its sermons exalt Muhammad almost exclusively. Its creed (shahāda) mentions Muhammad alongside God — and no other prophet. Its rituals revolve around his sayings and example more than the Qur’an itself. In practice, the faith is Muhammad-centric. By the Qur’an’s own criteria, this is kufr.
Why This Hypocrisy Matters
Some might dismiss this as pedantic: what harm is there in loving Muhammad most? But the Qur’an itself explains why distinction-making is dangerous: it leads to factionalism, idolatry, and deviation from God.
Christianity became obsessed with Jesus to the point of deifying him, splitting into sects over his nature, and replacing God with the Son as the focus of worship. Islam repeated the pattern, just with different rhetoric. The result is the same: God recedes into the background, the messenger dominates the foreground.
This hypocrisy is not trivial; it transforms the religion itself. Islam, as practiced, is no longer the “religion of Abraham” but a cult of Muhammad. The Qur’an warned of this very trap, and Muslims fell headlong into it.
Conclusion: Islam Against Its Own Text
The Qur’an says: lā nufarriqu bayna aḥadin min rusulihi — do not distinguish between God’s messengers. Mainstream Islam says: Muhammad is the greatest of them all, the seal, the best of creation, the one whose name is paired with God in the creed, the only one worth constant remembrance.
The Qur’an warns: those who make such distinctions are disbelievers. Islam, in practice, makes those distinctions every single day, in every sermon, every creed, every ritual.
The result is not the pure monotheism the Qur’an envisions but another form of prophet-idolatry, parallel to the Christian elevation of Jesus. The name may differ, the theological formulas may be tweaked, but the dynamic is identical.
The uncomfortable truth is this: if Muslims took their own scripture seriously, they would have to dismantle the cult of Muhammad entirely. They would have to stop saying “our Prophet” and start saying “our prophets.” They would have to cease ranking, stop making exclusive claims, and return to what the Qur’an itself calls for: direct worship of God, in continuity with the line of messengers, none exalted above the others.
But history shows they will not. The addiction to distinction is too strong, the cult too entrenched, the hypocrisy too normalized. Which means, by the Qur’an’s own judgment, Islam as practiced today stands condemned: guilty of the very disbelief it projects onto others.
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