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/t...uran-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 -