Used twelve times in the hanif (pl. hunafa’) is a term used to describe Ibrahim/Abraham is the model of the authentic, primordial religion (al-din alhanif), the religion of fitra, the religion revealed at the very origins of the human race. In fact, in the light of this Islamic view, all religions have the same origin, since monotheism, particularly as underlined in the Ibrahimic/Abrahamic religions, can be traced back to the first man on earth, the ancestor of humankind—Adam.
Islam regards itself as the ‘primordial religion’, which is the actual meaning of the Arabic syntagmatic cluster al-din alhanif. As a result, Islamic belief and practice seek to restore humankind to its original, true nature, in harmony with the natural order and belief in the One God. What is more, in the view of today’s leading thinkers on the provenance of Islam, the best way to preserve Islam in its integral form is to preserve the religio perennis or primordial religion (al-din al-hanif) that has its abode in the very heart of Islam, as it does in the heart of all true religious traditional teachings. Behind the multiplicity and diversity of religions lies this primordial religion, the model of hanifiyya, with which everyone is born, only later to become a follower of one or other of these various religious forms. Furthermore, these forms are not evidence of religious falsehood, but of the wisdom of the Divine Providence, taking into account human sensitivities and predilection for one or other of these forms. As a result, the authentic, primordial religion can be only that which is concerned with perfecting the natural human predisposition to perfection and ever-growing awareness of the Presence of God.
Why, though, does the lay such emphasis on Ibrahim/Abraham’s example of this pristine, unadulterated worship of God? The reason is that Ibrahim/Abraham is the common denominator of the Judaeo-ChristianIslamic tradition, and as such the true model to follow and emulate for all the scions sprung from the Ibrahimic/Abrahamic stock. What is more, according to the ayas (2.130–135; 3.65–67, 95–100; 6.79, 161–162; 16.120–124; 22.26–32), the term hanif is in direct opposition to the term mushrik (polytheist), particularly in the following ayas of sura Yunus (10.105) and sura al-Rum (30.29–30). Also, sura (3.67) declares that he was neither Jew nor Christian, whereby the seeks to avoid the dispute over Ibrahim/Abraham and set right our consideration of commonality and sameness, instead of merely squabbling over the matter, over the issue of tahrif, the transformation of this natural predisposition.
The specific feature of this Ibrahimic/ Abrahamic model is that it denotes the fundamental encounter within the horizons of all its sacred traditions and revelations. In the space between these conceptual traditions and/or cultural circles is a range of tertium comparationis in the aspiration to overarch all diversity in the very tension of differences in the quest for this decisive place, the crowning outlook from which the universalism of ahistorical structures of thought would finally yield an utterly clear vision, a unification as the renewal of thought, the aspiration to conceptual evolution at the boundaries. And yet the abandonment of absolutism, of an extreme position in the practical and theoretical sense, and of exclusivism certainly does not mean that we are bound to submit to another form of extremism, the kind that derives from relativism. What the hanifiyya model in fact denotes is the Ibrahimic/Abrahamic wisdom bestowed on the eternal heritage for the life of the world and permanently entrenched in the foundations of the Judaeo-Christian-Islamic tradition.
In an attempt to understand this universalist view of Islam, many are still struggling with the fact that it is little known, an ignorance exacerbated by unoriginal and often banal newspaper headlines about violence and its consequences. However, these days the general view of Abrahamic religions (Islam belongs to the wider Judaeo-Christian tradition) equates them with a radicalized minority, so that the universalist, inclusive Islamic perspective is sidelined, even by some Muslim communities, who should see in it a salvific model and the raison d’être of Islam. For a knowledge of Islam and Muslims, who constitute one fifth of humankind as a whole, has never been so crucial as today, and this is particularly true of its universalist perspective, best reflected in the term hanif. In this light, our post-9/11 experience of coexistence, pluralism and tolerance must be built on mutual understanding and respect, not on ignorance, stereotypes, fear and prejudice.
The Prophet of Islam himself brought no new message from some new God, but called on people to return to faith in the one true God of Ibrahim/Abraham and a way of life that they had forgotten or from which they had strayed. Since it is not a new revelation, the contains many references to the narratives and figures of the Old and New Testaments, and Islamic belief, in the midst of a polytheistic society, meant in fact the return to a forgotten past, a return to the faith of the true monotheist Ibrahim/Abraham. This is why Muslims see themselves, along with Jews and Christians, as the descendants of Ibrahim/ Abraham, descendants belonging to different branches of the same religious family. It is true that there are marked differences between the biblical and the Islamic narratives of Ibrahim/Abraham, even as regards the term hanif itself and what it signified in the early days of the Islamic community and in pre-Islamic times. However, what cannot be contested is that the and Islam respect Jews and Christians as the children of Ibrahim/Abraham, and have invariably regarded them as ‘People of the Book’ (ahl al-kitab), since all three monotheistic faiths trace their origins back to the same ancestor, Ibrahim/Abraham (3.84). It is evident that Jews, Christians and Muslims, believers who pray to the same God, the God of Ibrahim/Abraham, must become aware of the differences in their modes of worship and their worldviews, and must respect and tolerate those differences. The encounter between them presents a major cultural challenge, but facing that challenge is also the duty of every adherent of these Ibrahimic/Abrahamic traditions. If mutual understanding between the members of these traditions is ever to come about, an essential part of the package must be knowledge of this quintessential concept of primordial religion, al-din al-hanif. As a result, the invites the members of the Ibrahimic/Abrahamic family to say: ‘O People of the Book! Come to common terms as between us and you: that we worship none but Allah; that we associate no partners with Him; that we erect not, from among ourselves, lords and patrons other than Allah’ (3.64).
hanif (pl. hunafa’) is a term used to describe Ibrahim/Abraham is the model of the authentic, primordial religion (al-din alhanif), the religion of 
lay such emphasis on Ibrahim/Abraham’s example of this pristine, unadulterated worship of God? The reason is that Ibrahim/Abraham is the common denominator of the Judaeo-ChristianIslamic tradition, and as such the true model to follow and emulate for all the scions sprung from the Ibrahimic/Abrahamic stock. What is more, according to the 
ayas (2.130–135; 3.65–67, 95–100; 6.79, 161–162; 16.120–124; 22.26–32), the term 
(3.67) declares that he was neither Jew nor Christian, whereby the 
seeks to avoid the dispute over Ibrahim/Abraham and set right our consideration of commonality and sameness, instead of merely squabbling over the matter, over the issue of tahrif, the transformation of this natural predisposition.
contains many references to the narratives and figures of the Old and New Testaments, and Islamic belief, in the midst of a polytheistic society, meant in fact the return to a forgotten past, a return to the faith of the true monotheist Ibrahim/Abraham. This is why Muslims see themselves, along with Jews and Christians, as the descendants of Ibrahim/ Abraham, descendants belonging to different branches of the same religious family. It is true that there are marked differences between the biblical and the Islamic narratives of Ibrahim/Abraham, even as regards the term 
and Islam respect Jews and Christians as the children of Ibrahim/Abraham, and have invariably regarded them as ‘People of the Book’ (ahl al-kitab), since all three monotheistic faiths trace their origins back to the same ancestor, Ibrahim/Abraham (3.84). It is evident that Jews, Christians and Muslims, believers who pray to the same God, the God of Ibrahim/Abraham, must become aware of the differences in their modes of worship and their worldviews, and must respect and tolerate those differences. The encounter between them presents a major cultural challenge, but facing that challenge is also the duty of every adherent of these Ibrahimic/Abrahamic traditions. If mutual understanding between the members of these traditions is ever to come about, an essential part of the package must be knowledge of this quintessential concept of primordial 
invites the members of the Ibrahimic/Abrahamic family to say: ‘O People of the Book! Come to common terms as between us and you: that we worship none but Allah; that we associate no partners with Him; that we erect not, from among ourselves, lords and patrons other than Allah’ (3.64).
