Q: Why does the urantia book not mention anything about the destructive influence of Islam? And also if Muhammed was a prophet or not. Approximately more than a billion people worship “Allah” but no mention about Islam?

A: Thanks for your note about Islam in The Urantia Book. If you do a search for Islam or Mohammed (Urantia Book spelling) in the book (see the top right of any page on our site), you will find a handful of references that you might find interesting.

The Urantia Book is a product of the early years of the 20th century; it was completed in 1934. In those times, Islam was not the focus of worldwide attention as it is now; perhaps the revelators could not see, or declined to reveal, the future of its influence throughout the world. As it is, it does have the “One God” concept in its favor, so in that regard, it does have value. Even though its teachings may have elements of violence, not all adherents of Islam are violent, from what I can see.

What The Urantia Book says about Islam is mostly by way of information, although it does comment of some of its pros and cons:

95:7.6 The strength of Islam has been its clear-cut and well-defined presentation of Allah as the one and only Deity; its weakness, the association of military force with its promulgation, together with its degradation of woman. But it has steadfastly held to its presentation of the One Universal Deity of all, “who knows the invisible and the visible. He is the merciful and the compassionate.” “Truly God is plenteous in goodness to all men.” “And when I am sick, it is he who heals me.” “For whenever as many as three speak together, God is present as a fourth,” for is he not “the first and the last, also the seen and the hidden”?.

And the teachings of The Urantia Book do the same for other religions, such as Buddhism, Taoism, Shinto, Judaism, and others. We read about the strengths and weaknesses of these beliefs and this information encourages us to think for ourselves and come to our own conclusions. The primary emphasis in The Urantia Book is on Christianity, though, and you’ll find plenty of information about its pros and cons as well. The emphasis on Christianity is of course, because it is the religion that emerged following Jesus’ bestowal, and is the evolutionary religion that has been most influential in the world insofar as the teachings of Jesus.

But when you look at history, you can see that even Christianity and the Old Testament scriptures have some elements of violence and destruction, too, which have resulted in untold milllions of people being violently killed in the name of God over the centuries, even though Christianity is described as the religion about Jesus, the world’s greatest peacemaker.

In the end, all formalized, man-made, and institutionalized religions are flawed. You can read more about this idea in the following section of The Urantia Book: “Weakness of Institutional Religion”; and in this section as well: “Institutional Religion”; In fact. I recommend that you read through the whole of paper 99, The Social Problems of Religion, by clicking either of these links, for more enlightenment about this issue.

The only religion that can be truly progressive going forward is the religion of personal spiritual experience, which is the religion OF Jesus – the religion that Jesus himself followed and which he taught. You can read about that religion of revelation HERE and HERE. This personal religion, built upon the gospel of Jesus, can inform and upstep any and all evoluitionary religions and will one day “rule this very world.”

Jesus taught:

143:1.4 “Love is the greatest of all spirit realities. Truth is a liberating revelation, but love is the supreme relationship. And no matter what blunders your fellow men make in their world management of today, in an age to come the gospel which I declare to you will rule this very world. The ultimate goal of human progress is the reverent recognition of the fatherhood of God and the loving materialization of the brotherhood of man.”

And this is truly the “good news” that will save our world one day. In the meantime, we must work in our own spheres of influence to overcome all evil through the power of love and goodness, as Jesus taught.