Greetings zzz1234
On the one hand you say you believe in the beautiful religion of Islam, and you're virtually ready to convert, but on the other hand, your questions are related to facts that are generally falsely stated on anti-Islamic sites. Or by people who perhaps might not want you to become Muslim. You could carry on reading these on the internet, or speaking to people who put questions to create doubt in your mind, and you could go around in circles forever, with more and more things you feel need clarifying, as you will find endless false accusations, rebuttals etc. But what will happen of your faith in the meantime? I would advise you to stop reading these sites, if you believe that:
There is only One God. He alone should be worshipped. He is our Creator, Sustainer, and Lord.
He does not beget, nor is He begotten. He has no sons, daughters, spouses, siblings, parents, cousins, or relatives of any sort.
He is eternal and does not die. He does not depend on anyone/anything yet we all depend on Him. He is free of all want and need.
There is nothing like Him. He is all Hearing, all Seeing, all Knowing, all Powerful, Incomparable, the Creator of the Universe.
He did not/does not, become flesh, dwell in human or animal bodies, nor are there any incarnations of Him. He is not mixed up in His creation in any way.
He is not composed of persons, nor a trinity. There are no secondary, lesser, greater, equal, or multiple gods, nor any intermediaries. And no denying of God's existence either.
There are no sharers, associates, persons or parts whatsoever in His exclusive Divinity. Simply, He is One, in every sense.
Islam encourages reflecting, pondering, considering, thinking, asking people of knowledge when we're not sure about a matter. However, if one goes to anti-Islamic sites, and gets endless doubts created in their mind, then are they using their time usefully? Are they likely to find guidance that way, or just get more misunderstandings?
I see you've also previously been advised:
format_quote Originally Posted by
Chase
Stay away from shady books and websites and stick to the Quran and Hadith, those allegations are there to make people like you question their belief.
If you know Islam to be the truth, you are under no duty to have the knowledge to answer all your fathers "questions". There are sites out there that have such questions/allegations/rebuttals etc which he can look at. Until then, tell him that once you're firm in your faith, and have learnt more, then you'll help him in understanding Islam.For now, you'd be well advised to get firmer grounding in the core concepts of Islam, and once you have, then you can start looking into answering such issues. But do not let yourself waiver from the truth, or be distracted by such "issues" and before you know it, you've been misled off the staight path into a never ending quandary.
With regards to:
format_quote Originally Posted by
zzz1234
In 25:2 in the Quran, it says: "These are the tales from the past that he wrote down. They are being dictated to him day and night". Surely this says that he wrote down what was being revealed to him?
The verse you've quoted above, has the reference 25:5, not 25:2, but also, you have missed out the beginning of the verse, which is "And they say:". In other words, it was an accusation made against the Prophet (peace be upon him) by people - it is not Allah stating a fact. This is a prime example of how going to such sites creates confusion, doubt and misunderstandings in your mind.
The only point I'm going to address in this post, is not one you asked here, but in your previous thread, because it's an issue on which the whole of Christianity hinges, and the one that is the most important to you:
Despite wanting to join Islam, as a Christian believing Jesus was crucified and resurrected my whole life is something very hard to quit believing in.
In Christianity, God did not forgive Adam (peace be upon him) for eating from the tree, and not only Adam, but all subsequent generations have to bear a punishment from God, and fell out of grace with God, their relationship with God was severed, and they are born into a state of sin. Because humans are imperfect (partly because of the aforementioned sin), thus to atone for our imperfection and to reconcile people to God and repair the severed relationship, and to forgive (but in reality atone) people's sins, the sacrifice of an innocent man (who also happens to be God) and his slow, bloody, painful and humiliating death comes into play.
With Allah forgiving Adam (peace be upon him) and honouring him and guiding him, as per Islam, none of the above is needed.
Then his Lord chose him and turned to him in forgiveness and guided [him].(Qur'an 20:122)
Simple. In Islam, while guidance and the right way has been shown to us, we, as humans, have the freedom to choose, to err, and to repent sincerely, and should we do so, we will find Allah Kind & Forgiving, forgiving freely and abundantly with just His will, no sacrifice needed, because it is truly forgiveness rather than atonement. For all and any in the posterity of Adam, the door of returning to the right path is always open, prior to death. We give Christians and all non-Muslims an invitation to return to this right path, the path of all the Prophets.
Nobody else is responsible for our sins or carries them away. No innocent person is made to suffer or die for other's sins. Babies are not born in a state of sin, but a state of innocence and purity. There is no concept of original sin, nor of God expecting perfection which cannot be achieved, nor of a broken relationship with God that requires reconciling, nor of ****ation requiring a saviour. Forgiveness is directly from God. Prayer is directly to God. God is the God of all, even of those who don't believe in Him.
None of us can say, "We are saved". This is what the day of judgement is for. We strive with faith and deeds and obedience to God, do our best, and trust in His Promise, and His Justice, and hoping for His Mercy.
For Christians, this may be hard. They believe that by accepting Jesus (peace be upon him) as their saviour they have an assurance of salvation, and view the Islamic position on salvation as being one of uncertainty. As a rough (not exact) analogy, the Christian position, is like one sitting an exam, but somebody has said they'll take all your bad marks for you, and if you let them do that, you'll pass. In the world, this would be viewed as cheating and as unjust. Injustice cannot be ascribed to God. The Islamic position is that of one sitting an exam, doing their best, and then awaiting their results, based on what they've done, and of course hoping for the mercy of God and trusting in His Promise.
We strive, and hope for God's Mercy and trust in Him, for none is more trustworthy than He, but for Christians, it is as though they must have a guarantee from God. We need no such guarantee, and do not feel in any way compromised by not having one, which is a key point where, as demonstrated, they try to catch Muslims. None of us would have a guarantee of passing an exam until we got our results, and this is no different. What greater thing is there than Gods Mercy? We try our best and hope for His Mercy and trust in His Promise, no guarantees needed, as He is not a human who will let us down, or be unjust, on the contrary we will not be wronged by even the spot on a date stone.
Muslims love and respect Jesus (peace be upon him) and believe in him as he was; one of the most noble and purest of humanity to ever walk the earth, and one of the greatest messengers of Allah, sent to the Children of Israel. We do not go to the extreme of rejecting him (as Jews do), nor do we go to the other opposite extreme of deifying him (as Christians do). Neither he, nor any other messenger, was divine, ever claimed divinity, or to be God's son. We believe he was born miraculously of the noble virgin Mary (peace be on her), and that he is the messiah. We do not however, believe that he died or was crucified. He will return to earth near the end of time.
This is an interesting link to read on the "crucifixion" of Jesus (peace be upon him) with evidence from the Bible:
DECONSTRUCTING ISAIAH 53
and if you are interested, a short booklet called Crucifixion or Crucifiction (again, evidenced from the Bible):
https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=h...ci-fiction.pdf
You were also given some useful links in the previous thread too on the crucifixion too. It might be worth giving them another read.
This section has some good links on various topics addressing allegations/misconceptions about Islam. I'm pressed for time now but have a read of the posts (first one is a brief index, others give specific titles) and see which ones are most important to you.
http://www.islamicboard.com/clarific...l-threads.html
And lastly, do ask any relevant questions you have, bearing in mind the advice that has been given.
May Allah guide you to the truth. Ameen.
Peace.