Why do YOU believe in Islam?

Well, the title says it all. Why do you as muslims believe Muhammad (saw) was the messenger of God and that the Qur'an was indeed revealed by Jibril as the word of Allah? What makes Islam stand out from the crowd of other religions or atheism/agnosticism?

Detailed points would be nice. I look forward to your replies!

Whilst I was studying psychology, pretty much everything about Islam I had learned up until that point made perfect sense. The concept of unity, prayer, even shaytan all had obvious links with stuff I had personally read about in my psychology classes. Consequently, it turned out to be my favourite subject (although I majored in business and finance respectively)

Then, you look at animal welfare, society, the bigger, global picture and realise how everything connects holistically - again, all concepts that have massive links with psychology (and sociology for that matter) and core aspects to the religion of Islam.

Then there's the economic and business side of things. Particularly ethics and their roles in both society as well as the business field (during my University years, I did an essay on the very subject so I have a fair idea on the matter). Once again, this all connects with the previous aspects and you begin to realise the importance of many practices of Islam; that they are the blueprints for a perfect human society. Yeah you read that correctly.

I also had the benefit of living fairly comfortably, as well as being in the constant presence of a loving and supporting family. I wasn't one of those emo kids with only one parent [because the other was an alcoholic or w/e the stereotype is], or the pindoo who has to feed goats all day and lives in a back-water village, no way mister. My parents and family worked their collective assess off AND still prayed 5 times a day. So basically I had practical and theoretical reasons for believing in Islam.

Islam is not just a set of do's and don'ts; and muslims aren't supposed to be robotic or dogmatic in their faith [despite any patronising media documents or fat mongrels will have you believe!]. Also a lot of things we initially thought, when we were younger, black and white are in fact shades of grey. There's a lot of flexibility in Islam (as you learn more and more, particularly in terms of life experiences, you find this out) and yet at the same time, the religion can be practiced today just as it was in the Prophet's [pbuh] time.

p.s; There were many other factors that influenced my beliefs, but I think these are honestly enough for the purposes of the thread. Unless of course you want to turn this thread into a psychoanalysis of aamirsaab.(That's a joke btw, anyone who makes such a thread gets perma-banned)

aamirsaab said:

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That's a very interesting perspective and not one i've heard before.

Salaam

Its the Quran for me the foundation of Islam is the Quran.

peace

Asalaamu Alaikum,

I don't want to make this a long story, but just want to mention that at one point I left Islam, due to believing what the Anti-islamic sites used to say. When I came back to research it thoroughly, I found that within these sites the following;
- They used unique translations (that were not agreed by anyone else)
- Misinterpreted the context of the statements. The worst part is I felt, that they never ever considered to look at the "time of revalation" or when it came/for what reason. Basically, pick and choose here.
- I tried to google some Hadiths they used, found some that didn't exist (which either means they made hadiths up or they changed the wordings of their original meanings).
- I finally looked at what the Muslim response is.

Just noting that all the misconceptions that these Anti-islamic sites threw at me, I was able to convincingly refute them. But, I wanted to do an in depth research on the whole subject just to be sure (I wanted to find the truth, so i'll give my time for it) -

Regarding your question, just the whole psychological aspect and the historical aspect, after thorough research and even gaining insight from Orientilists, makes me believe that it is impossible that Muhammad(pbuh) could've been an imposter. Even the Encylopedia of Britanica accepts that "through a mass of early sources, it is clear that Muhammad(pbuh) was a very honest and upright man". Read some books on Muhammad(pbuh), even books by Orientilists, read books that spoke of the intelligent reasons as to why he could not be a "madman" or a "liar", making those arguements completly baseless.

This is all brief btw, I did some extensive research on all this, and you couldn't convince anyone anymore.

Then there was the Quran. Putting aside how much sense it made about One God, the Angels, the Messengers, the Scriptures and the Final Day, I did extensive research on the Quranic miracles and what makes the Quran so special.

- Looked at many translations to make sure there wasn't any "mis-translating" to fit any criteria. This was especially important for the Scientific stuff, which I was pretty interested in. I looked at what Orientilists say, even went down to the textbooks. Also did some hard research on claims about the Quran being a work of copying or stealing idea's, found this to be easily refuted with the arguement only being that of an ignorants.
- Did research upon when the certain revelation of a certain Quranic statement was revealed.
- The Challenge "produce a surah like it", I saw some Christian sites "thinking" they have produced something like it, only these Christians seemed to believe this (or the site users for that matter). Once Googled, I saw clear refutes about how the sounding and use of grammer was completly different to the unique style/sound of the Quran. I did this for quite a few to make sure this challenge wasn't under contraversy (ie Someone's met the challenge, but no one wants to acknowledge them). And I found there to be none, in 1400 years no one has met the challenge. I did find quotation of Great Arab poets and literaturist, both Muslim and Non-Muslim speaking about the uniqueness and impossibility of being able to imitate the Quran.
- Did some research on Quran style, although I didn't do much research (was already convinced at this pont), I found some incredible stuff. This relates to the uniqueness of the style, the sound and that it couldn't be regarded as a "poetry" or anything like that, it was in it's very own criteria as far as Arabic goes.
- It helps when pretty much every Arabic jew/Christian have quoted saying that the Quran (in admittance) is the highest level of Arabic literature in the world today. Which is interesting if you want to say that an illiterate man could somehow become the author of the most important book in the world/produce the highest work of literature.
- Also helps when top Scientists talk about the Quran, when there's really no Scientist with a good academic (or any for that matter) that has spoken out against the Quran or made a book to refute it. Whilst on the contrary many Scientists have made a book about it, highlighting the mystery behind it's Scientific accuracy.

- Also researched into Christianity/Judaism to see the link, that Islam does quite amazingly "complete" both religions by removing the contraversy/illogics and introducing that which is easy to understand and makes most sense.

Found some pretty amazing things, no matter how small it is. For example; there's a very unique liguistic miracle in the chapter of Mary(pbuh), the verse also at the end of each sentence ends the same and still somehow maintains the story and the sense of it all. There's another verse, where the word "middle" is used, "coincidently" this word is found right in the middle of that chapter (counting all the lines) it's on the middle line. Um, there's another one I remember of opposite words, like man/woman, jin/angel being mentioned the same time.

Here's more interesting Quranic lingustics worth noting - http://www.islamic-life.com/forums/tafsir-sciences-quran/divine-linguistic-miracle-quran-gems-2914

Anyways, I'd like to think I really dug deep, as deep as I could, looked at everything and (even though I came in with a bias/refute islam attitude) it changed when I wasn't able to do it. I mean, finding out that these anti-Islam sites have such falsity in their claims, then finding all these intellectual orientilists, supporting many of the claims in favour, doing general research - It just made me more convinced then anything else that this is the truth. I feel that if anyone with a sincere need to find the truth, that really wanted to subject a religion based on logic and intellects then if they looked at Islam, deeply researched it, they would become a Muslim like me. I still have alot to learn, but the more I do, the more in love I am with this religion! Anyways, the Quran always speaks of using your intellect, reflecting and observing - makes no suprise that it's the intellects that are going into this religion, Scientists, Mathemeticians, Doctors, even Atheists etc.


Oh and on an ending note, I like this -

That is exactly what i was looking for, jazakallah.

I feel silly because I don't quite know how to answer that because there are so many reasons, all of which are so appealing that I can't sum it up in a short snappy sentence alhumdulillah I was fortunate to be born into a Muslim family, "islam isn't just a religion, it's a way of life" and that in it's own right is what makes Islam so special to me. it's not something which starts in march and ends in may - but something that stays with you forever!

I never wanted to be a Muslim and fought it for the first 65 years of my life. I grew up as a very strong Catholic, my goal was to be a Priest. I attended Seminary to be a Priest. Became disillusioned with Catholicism, but still tried to be a Christian. Tried a Military career as a combat pilot. After the Military became a psychologist with a few short excursions off into the fields of biology and engineering. But tried to live as a fundamental Evangelist and made a pest of myself through out North Africa and the Mideast, doing my best to convert Muslims. faced Death on at least 4 occasions none of which I should have lived through 3 times because of terminal illness and one because of a plane crash that I should not have survived. Nor should have had a normal life from the injuries after somehow surviving.

I fought becoming a Muslim, never had any desire or belief to be so. But in 2005 an incident happened that brought me to my knees and I said the Shahadah then and there without having even seen a Muslim for over 30 years. That story is in the story of reverts.

I know there is a God(swt) because of the Miracles that spared my life when there was no logical way I could have survived. I know the God(swt) is Allaah(swt) and I know the religion he sent to mankind is Islam because of the way I found my path to it. I should be neither alive nor Muslim, but Allaah(swt) in his mercy did not give up on me and sent me guidance to the path. Masha Allaah I know he is and I know Islam is the truth because of the way I came to it, beyond all odds of ever being Muslim.