United Submitters International

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The United Submitters International (USI) is a religious group, founded by Rashad Khalifa. Submitters considers themselves to be adhering to true Islam, but prefer not to use the terms "Muslim" or "Islam," instead using the English equivalents: "Submitter" or "Submission." Submitters believe Khalifa was a messenger of God.

Specific beliefs of the USI include: the dedication of all worship practices to God alone, upholding the Quran alone, and rejecting the Islamic traditionalist hadith and sunnah attributed to Muhammad. The main group attends "Masjid Tucson" [1] in Arizona, USA.

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[edit] Central Beliefs

  • God alone possesses all power; no other entity possesses any power that is independent of Him.
  • The Qur'an is the literal word of God, and is to be upheld on its own
  • The vast majority of the Bible is God's truth, confirmed by the Qur'an
  • All worship must be devoted to God alone; no human beings play any role as partners or intercessors at God
  • All worship practises must be devoted to God alone; no human beings may be mentioned besides the name of God in proclaiming faith or during prayer
  • Islam as the world knows it today has been corrupted beyond recognition by adherence to hadith and sunnah, which are falsely attributed to Muhammad
  • Rashad Khalifa was the consolidating and purifying "Messenger of the Covenant"
  • God put an authenticating code in all His scriptures based on the number 19

[edit] Numeric patterns in the Qur'an

Between 1968 and 1990, Submitters used computers to analyze the frequency of letters and words in the Qur'an. In 1974, their most notable member Rashad Khalifa claimed that he discovered an intricate numerical pattern in the text of the Qur'an involving the number 19.

Critics of the code argue that the method of counting is arbitrary and that it is impossible to verify the counts given by Khalifa.

[edit] Rejection of hadith and sunnah

Submitters follow the Qur'an alone, arguing that it is complete, perfect, and fully detailed. Appendix 12 of their translation of the Qur'an reads:

"The Prophet's sole mission was to deliver Quran, the whole Quran, and nothing but Quran (3:20; 5:48-50, 92, 99; 6:19; 13:40; 16:35, 82; 24:54; 29:18; 42:48; 64:12). Delivering the Quran was such a momentous and noble mission that the Prophet did not have any time to do anything else. Moreover, the Prophet was enjoined in the strongest words from issuing any religious teachings besides the Quran (69:38-47). He was even enjoined from explaining the Quran (75:15-19) - God is the only teacher of the Quran (55:1-2) and the Quran is the best Hadith (39:23 & 45:6). These Quranic facts are manifested in the historical reality that the words and actions (Hadith & Sunna) attributed to the Prophet did not appear until the second century after his death."

[edit] Rejection of two Qur'anic verses

While Khalifa's early publications claimed that the numerical code he saw in the Qur'an confirmed that the Qur'an was perfectly preserved, errors were found in his earlier counts. In the end, to keep the counts of certain critical words, Khalifa denounced two verses (Sura 9:128–129, the last two verses of that Sura) of the Qur'an claiming that the numerical patterns he found in the Qur'an showed the verses to be false. He also pointed to a tradition found in Sahih Bukhari, that these verses were only found in one version of the ninth sura when the Qur'an was compiled and standardized (Bukhari, vol. 6, book 61, number 509). While Hadith is considered forbidden as a source of religious teachings, Submitters considered it can be a useful source of history to derive a lot of information about historical events and local customs and traditions during the early centuries of Islam. Therefore it is also cited along with numerical calculations to argue their case for the rejection of two Qur'anic verses.

[edit] Claiming to be a messenger of God

Controversy surrounding Khalifa deepened when he declared himself a fallible human being messenger of God. He claimed to be the Messenger of the Covenant, allegedly prophesied in the Bible (Malachi 3:1-2) and the Qur'an (3:81), sent to purify and consolidate all God's messages into one, supported by the claimed "mathematical miracle" of the Quran.

[edit] Prayer

Submitters believe that it was wrong to mention any name besides the name of God in any of the worship practices, including the contact prayer and the testimony of faith. The usual forms of prayer and testimony includes mentioning the name of Muhammad. Submitters argue that mentioning the name of humans in the worship practises is idolatry, or setting up partners beside God.

[edit] Further reading

[edit] Websites of Submitters

[edit] Detractors

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