Mere reflection on the history of humans demonstrates that humans have a desire to have religion. Yet there are many religions and each is presenting itself as the “true religion” that will bring solace to the individual. Thus, in this section, the author would like to present what he feels are the four parameters by which one may distinguish the true religion.
 The first parameter is that the religion must have God as its original source. No one can know the details about God except God.  He i s above and beyond the realm of human experience. More importantly, no one knows how He should be worshipped except Him. Although humans are able to come to many sound conclusions about God, no human could logically claim that he has somehow— independent of revelation from God—discovered the way in which God should be worshipped and the way that is pleasing to God. Thus, if the ultimate goal in one’s heart is to truly please and worship God as He should be worshipped, then one has no alternative but to turn to Him for guidance and direction. (Furthermore, no one can know the details of the human soul except for its Creator.)
 Thus, based on this first premise, any man-made religion is not a logical alternative. No matter how hard humans may try, they cannot authoritatively speak about how God i s supposed to be worshipped.
 As a corollary to or further explanation of this parameter, the beliefs and the teachings of the religion must originate with God. This parameter does not mean that one time God played a role in the formation of the religion. No, this parameter means that the entire scope of the religious teachings come from God. There are some religions that may have originated from God but, afterwards, their adherents felt free to rely upon human reasoning to adjust, modify or alter the religion. In the process, they have actually created a new religion, different from that which God had revealed. This, once again, completely defeats the purpose. What God revealed does not need any improvement or changes from humankind.

Any such  change or alteration means a deviation away from what God revealed. Thus, any change or alteration will only take humankind away from the true and proper way of worshipping God. Furthermore, God is more than capable of revealing a perfect revelation for any time or circumstance. If there were any need to alter or change any of God’s laws, the authority for that also rests only with God. In other words, God is free to change some of His laws due to His wisdom and knowledge, for example, out of mercy or as a form of punishment upon His servants. He may do this by sending a new revelation or even by sending a new prophet. With that, there i s no logical problem. But there is a grave problem when humans take it upon themselves to “fix” God’s revelation.
 The violation of this first parameter has been a common practice. It seems that humans want to relegate to themselves ultimate authority. However, it must be understood that this contradicts the very essence of submitting to and worshipping God. One is no longer submitting to and obeying God alone. One is now submitting to God, human leaders and perhaps even one’s own opinions as well. This is the antithesis of pure and devoted worship of God.

 Thus, the first parameter states that the religion originates with God. However, this is not sufficient. The second parameter is that the teachings from God must be preserved in their original form.
 The logic behind this point should be obvious. If the original revelation came from God but was then later tampered and distorted by humans, one now has a mixture of God’s religion and human interpolation. This is no longer God’s pure religion. Although this may seem like an obvious premise, it is amazing to see many people who have not even considered this point, blindly following scriptures or teachings that cannot be historically authenticated.
 The third parameter is that the religion is not abrogated or superseded by a later form of the religion. In other words, God may reveal more than one revelation or send more than one prophet, with the latter repealing or superseding the earlier. Under such circumstances, if one is truly submitting to God, one does not have the right to choose to follow an abrogated teaching and neglect the teaching that God is now demanding to be followed. Again, this would violate the principle of submitting to God and would arrogate to the individual the right to choose what he willed to follow instead of what Allah has decreed.
 The above three parameters are straightforward and obvious.
 In this author’s opinion, though, there is also a fourth parameter. The fourth parameter is that the basic beliefs of the religion have to be something fathomable by humans and not repugnant to human nature. It is inconceivable that the same God who created such order and gave humans the ability to understand and derive lessons from what is around them would then ask of them to believe in matters that are completely unfathomable to them and inconsistent with what the soul can accept as truth.
 The Situation of the Previous Religions

In this section, the author would like to discuss the plight of Judaism, Christianity and Islam within the framework of the above four parameters.
 The first parameter, again, is that the religion must have its original source with God. Again, this means that the beliefs and teachings of the religion must originate with God, without any claim that humans have a right to change or alter them in any way.
 In the Quran, Allah condemns the practice of the Jews and Christians who allowed their rabbis and priests to lay down new teachings or laws in contravention of God’s revelation.

Allah says, “They [the Jews and Christians] took their rabbis and their monks to be their lords besides Allah [by obeying them in things which they made lawful or unlawful according to their own desires without being ordered by Allah], and (they also took as their Lord) Messiah, son of Mary, while they were commanded to worship none but One God, none has the right to be worshipped but He. Praise and glory be to Him, (far above is He) from having the partners they associate (with Him)” (9:31).

 The most widespread form of Judaism known today is called Rabbinical Judaism. This is due to the role that the rabbis, humans, play in forming laws and being an authority in the religion. Much of the religion is based on the Talmud,1 a work compiled of Jewish writings many centuries after the Exodus but supposedly based on the oral tradition passed on from the time of Moses. For traditional Judaism, it is a must to believe in the Talmud.
 According to The Dictionary of the Bible,

“[T]he Talmud is considered, at least by orthodox Jews, as the highest authority on all matters of faith…It is, therefore, hardly an exaggeration to say that the Talmud i s of equal authority with Scripture in orthodox Judaism.”

This equality between Scripture and something which is obviously the work of humans, as the above story from the Rabbi Shammai which forms part of the Talmud demonstrates, is illogical.
 In fact, according to Karzoon, in the Talmud it states that there was a dispute between God and the Jewish scholars. After a lengthy debate with no resolution, they decided to refer the matter to one of the rabbis. After his decision, God was forced to admit that He was mistaken.3 Thus, God is not even perfect with respect to His knowledge. If Jews believe this, it would not be surprising to find Jews turning away from the revelation from God for perhaps “better sources of knowledge”. Thus, even though the revelation to Moses was originally from God, the Jewish faith has allowed humans to step in and overrule such revelation.
 The story of Christianity is even more dramatic. Many call today’s Christianity “Pauline Christianity.” This i s due to the influence that Paul had in forming the beliefs of the Christian Church. It must be noted that there is no evidence that Paul was ever a messenger from God. He was not even one of Jesus’ apostles.
 Instead, he was someone who was persecuting Christians until he saw a vision that led to his conversion to Christianity. When Paul began to spread his new version of Christianity, the leaders of the Church in Jerusalem, including Jesus’ own brother James, opposed him.

Frederick Grant noted, “To this day it remains clear that both Paul, the Greek, and Matthew, the Jewish missionary, had their own independent perspectives which completely differed from the other concerning the actions and teachings of Jesus.” Even given such facts, he was able to establish a new interpretation of the teachings of Jesus—an interpretation that cannot be traced to Jesus nor, by default, to God.The most egregious of such beliefs that he entered into the religion was the belief that true salvation is related to the crucifixion and the shedding of the blood of Jesus.
 Thus, the link between the teachings of the religion and God as its source were broken very early in the history of Christianity.