Mulla Sadra
Member
You've got the Catholic definition of a cult.
A cult is an organization that claims God has entrusted it with keeping or restoring God's truth. It makes its claims to truth not on the merits of the truths themselves but on the authority they believe God has given the organization to determine truth.
That's why I say Islam, the Catholic Church, the Mormon Church, the Watchtower Society, and a few cultic Protestant churches are cults.
Note: someone may counter that Islam is not an organization so doesn't fit the definition but it uses the same tactics as a cult nevertheless. Just try to question whether Mohammed was God's prophet in a mosque and you'll see what I mean.
I guess that note may mean me somehow, or I just like to quote and reply people.
I am not sure if English-speakers do this or not, but usually when there's a conflict about a (word) Arabic-speakers go to dictionaries (we have specific known resources to go after, especially ones that are specialized in the meanings of words within Quran -- as being the highest literature script we have in Arabic).
I went back to Dictionary.com , don't know if that's good or not, but it said Sociology meaning :
a group having a sacred ideology and a set of rites centering around their sacred symbols. (This link)
I tried Bible dictionaries, but they didn't give any results, so I think the word didn't come up in their bibles.
Collins Dictionary, my offline dictionary, gave a [more famous] meaning :
A cult is a fairly small religious group, especially one which is considered strange.
I guess, the first is more scientific (it got "Sociology" near it, good enough......:think
Do you have a good resource to go after to know a more accurate meaning ? not one implied by Catholics or Muslims but a scholar/Sociologist ?
And if we do go by the meaning you wrote, it depends on how you give meaning to the second part of the definition ( It makes its claims to truth not on the merits of the truths themselves but on the authority they believe God has given the organization to determine truth. )
How can we reach "merits of the truths" so we can judge ?