Islamic Timeline of RevelationOpen in flowchart →
Religion / branch / eraPhase 1 · Adam to IsaMain personality

Original Tawheed (Pure Monotheism / Islam of all Prophets)

التوحيد الأصلي

From the creation of Adam (unknown/traditional) date disputed

The root of the whole tree: in the Islamic worldview humanity began as one community on pure monotheism. Every later religion is understood either as a renewal of this message by a prophet or as a drift away from it.

Biography

Islamic theology holds that the religion (din) of every prophet from Adam to Muhammad was one: submission (islam) to the One God, Allah, with no partner. The Quran states that mankind was once a single community and then differed, so Allah sent prophets as bearers of good news and warners (2:213; 10:19). It also describes a primordial covenant in which the descendants of Adam testified to Allah's lordship (7:172), and a natural disposition (fitrah) toward recognising the Creator (30:30).

The Prophet ﷺ said that every child is born upon the fitrah, and it is the parents who make the child a Jew, Christian or Magian (Sahih Bukhari 1385; Sahih Muslim 2658). In a hadith qudsi, Allah says He created His servants as hunafa (inclined to pure monotheism) and devils then led them astray (Sahih Muslim, hadith of Iyad ibn Himar). A report from Ibn Abbas, recorded by al-Tabari and al-Hakim, states that ten generations (qurun) between Adam and Nuh were all upon Islam before differing arose; scholars differ on whether qarn here means generation or century.

The Quran affirms that a messenger was sent to every nation (16:36; 35:24) and that the core message of all of them was 'there is no god but Me, so worship Me' (21:25). The laws (shari'ah) differed by era, but the creed was constant (42:13; 5:48). On this view, the branches in this flowchart represent either (a) renewals of Tawheed through revelation (Torah, Zabur, Injil, Suhuf of Ibrahim) or (b) gradual alterations: veneration of righteous people becoming idolatry, worship of celestial bodies, dualism, deification of prophets, or loss and corruption of scripture.

Note for the interface: this node is a theological root, not a historically dated event. Academic history of religions does not generally accept primordial monotheism as a proven thesis (though an 'Urmonotheismus' theory was argued by Wilhelm Schmidt in the 20th century); the flowchart presents the Islamic theological framing.

Sources & explanation

۞ Qur'an

2:213 10:19 7:172 30:30 16:36 21:25 35:24 42:13 3:19 3:85

Links open quran.com.

📜 Hadith verified on sunnah.com

  • Sahih al-Bukhari 1385 Sahih

    Every child is born upon the fitrah (natural disposition); it is the parents who make the child a Jew, Christian or Magian.

  • Sahih Muslim 2658b Sahih

    No child is born except upon the fitrah; then the parents make him a Jew, Christian or Magian.

  • Sahih al-Bukhari 3443 Sahih

    The Prophet ﷺ said he is the closest of people to Isa son of Maryam, and that the prophets are paternal brothers — their mothers differ but their religion is one.

💬 Explanation Unverified

Engineer Muhammad Ali Mirza's perspective

Methodological note (not a direct quote): Engineer Muhammad Ali Mirza's widely known approach is to build narratives primarily on the Quran and Sahih Hadith, to set aside Israiliyat (Judeo-Christian lore absorbed into later tafsir) and weak or fabricated narrations, and to avoid sectarian framing. Applied to this node: The root of every branch is the Quranic statement that all prophets taught the same Tawheed (21:25; 42:13); later religions are assessed against the Quran and authentic Sunnah rather than against later sectarian or folkloric literature.

Further references

  • Quran 2:213
  • Quran 21:25
  • Quran 30:30
  • Quran 7:172
  • Sahih Bukhari 1385
  • Sahih Muslim 2658
  • Sahih Muslim (hadith of Iyad ibn Himar)
  • Tafsir al-Tabari on 2:213 (report of Ibn Abbas)
  • Mustadrak al-Hakim (report of Ibn Abbas)

Connections

Leads to

Linked with