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5.3. Did Allah start Islam?
The noun "beginning" has been omitted in the Koran. However, the verb "he begins" or "he began" does occur in 14 verses of the Koran and most of these verses refer to Allah himself. None of them says that Allah begins Islam or that he began Islam. However, if you look at what Allah begins according to these Koran verses, then you can indirectly discover how Allah, when he begins what he begins, makes Islam necessary and possible. Let us look at some of these Koran verses, which use the verb "he begins".
The first example constitutes a template for the other occurrences, which follow the same pattern. We include the context of this model statement or repeated slogan of the Koran: "12 (Truly) the (ruthless) violence of your Lord is fierce. 13 (Truly) he is the one, who begins (and) then he repeats it. 14 And he is the forgiving one, the affectionate one, 15 the one who owns the glorious throne, 16 the one who (intensely) does what he wants." (Sura al-Buruj 85:12-16) The key phrase here is, "he (i.e. your Lord or Allah) is the one, who begins (and) then he repeats it". The fact that Allah exactly repeats what he did earlier is key to the teaching of the Koran on creation.
To better understand this vague phrase in the context of the meaning of the concept of Islam as "submission" we look at the following example, which is part of a key passage of the Koran about Allah's acts of creation: "3 (Truly) your Lord (is) Allah, who has created the (many) heavens and the (one) earth in six days. Then he has retired (lit. he has leveled himself) upon the throne, (from where) he regulates the command. There is no intercessor (who is allowed to intercede) except after his permission. This is how Allah (is) unto you, your Lord. Therefore, worship him (slavishly). Won't you (allow) yourselves to be admonished in a remembering way? 4 Unto him is your return. (This is) a promise of Allah (in) justice (that you will return to him). (Truly) he begins creating, then he repeats it (i.e. the act of creating in the resurrection), in order to repay in justice (lit. in equable installments) those, who have believed and have done the good (deeds). And those, who have counter-believed (or disbelieved), them awaits a beverage of (infernally) hot (liquid) and a painful torture, for that against which they have believed." (Sura Yunus 10:3-4) The key phrase is here: "he begins creating, then he repeats it, in order to repay in justice." Here the context is that Allah repeats his acts of creation in the event of the resurrection. This only makes sense if we keep in mind that Allah in the Koran never completed and finished creating the earth and all that is in it, including humans. As we have seen above (see 4.5g) in relation to the question, why the Koran has omitted all the genealogies from the Torah of Moses, every human being is personally created by Allah in separate steps of creation from his procreation through the stages of pregnancy to the act of the delivery of him to become a newborn baby. Each of these are acts of direct creation by Allah. When a person is born it is the finishing stage of Allah beginning the creation of that person. Much later, after Allah has killed that human being at his death and after this person has spent eons in his grave, Allah finally repeats his creation of that person in resurrecting him from the dead at the end of times, so that this person will get repaid for what he or she did, either good or bad, while alive on earth. This is the creation-context of the concept of "submission" i.e. of Islam in the Koran. Every being in the heavens and earth must submit, voluntarily or by coercion, because Allah started his, her or its creation, when it was born and he will repeat his acts of creating that being at the end of times in the resurrection. This is how he makes sure that each person gets repaid for what it has actually done while alive. This means that Allah does not start the Islam of every creature, but by staring the life of this creature in personally creating it, he establishes the basis, why that creature must submit to him. Even if he or she does not submit, this creature will nevertheless be recreated the way Allah had begun creating it at its birth, to receive the recompense of what that person did. And foremost among the things that this creature did will be the question if that creature has submitted to Allah or not during its lifetime. Only in this submission, in this Islam, can the creature hope in any way to find a favorable judgment by Allah in the End.
Koran verses with virtually the same phrase (Allah begins creating and then repeats it) can be found in Suras al-A'raf 7:29 -- Yunus 10:29 -- Yunus 10:34 -- al-Anbiya' 21:104 -- al-Naml 27:64 -- al-'Ankabut 29:29 -- al-Rum 30:11 -- al-Rum 30:27 -- Saba' 34:49. From these we here quote the following, where Muhammad is arguing with his polytheistic opponents: "Say, 'Are there among your associated (divinities) some, who start creating, then repeat it (later)?' Say, 'Allah begins creating, then he repeats it (in the resurrection). So, why do you allow yourselves to be led into (deluding) lies?' " (Sura Yunus 10:34) According to this verse it is the key mark of distinction between Allah and the gods worshipped by the Arabs in Muhammad's time, that Allah alone begins creating and then will repeat this creation at the resurrection.
So, can Islam be started? No and Yes.
NO, Islam cannot be started, because Islam as submission is something only creatures must do and they cannot start being created on their own. They are by definition creatures already as soon as they become alive. And the fact that they are created is the only real reason, why they have to submit. So, no creature can start Islam, because their nature as creations is all it takes to make submission / Islam to Allah necessary and possible, and this nature is already given in the living existence of each person as a creation of Allah. This means that neither Noah, nor Abraham, nor Moses, nor Christ, nor Muhammad were able to start Islam according to this teaching of the Koran, because they were all creatures and their very createdness necessitated and enabled their submission to their creator.
But also, YES, Islam, i.e. submission, is made possible and thus indirectly started by Allah, because Allah starts the creation of every person at its birth and this way, he establishes the necessity and the possibility of that person submitting to him as his or her creator. If Allah would not continuously create people, there would be no reason or even possibility to submit to such a creator, who promises to repeat his act of creation in the resurrection to punish or to reward this re-created creature. In a certain sense Allah's creation of a new person makes a new instance of submission to him as creator possible and thus he starts the Islam of that person, when it is created. He continually enlarges the possibility of submission, i.e. Islam, by creating additional people, and thus continuously starts new instances of Islam in those persons. They are all existentially dependent on him and therefore they should better submit to him or else!