Hello!
I am a Christian, and decided to sort of branch out and learn new things. Particularly, I wanted to learn about Islam and hopefully spread some Christian ideas while learning Islamic ones (let’s be honest, a lot of Christians and Muslims don’t know very much about each other’s religions) but while searching the web, a thought crossed my mind. A scary thought. What if I’m wrong? What it my religion was the wrong one. I was originally very agnostic, but recently found Christianity, and the main reason for me it learn about it was, “why take the chance of going to Hell?” So I learned about it and converted and really got into the faith. But what if I’m wrong? I know most of you think I am wrong, and that you are right, but why? None of us want to go to hell, and all of us should want to worship His righteousness and love him. So I made an account here and I’ve decided to ask questions. So, why do you believe in Islam? Is it simply a matter of faith? Is it simply out of fear of Hell? I WANT to follow God’s path. I WANT to do his will so I can get into heaven. But I Feel likes it’s just a guessing game.
Selamun aleykum Kaden.
First I want to say that you are asking the right questions. getting answers to them will make your faith stronger. It is a good thing to have faith out of fear of hell and to do good deeds just because your religion orders you to do it. but do you know what is even better than that? To have faith just because you want to please God...to do good things just because you want to and because God also loves that.
Why is Islam the right religion and every other religion wrong?
You have to know the history here, why different religions exist and how they developed.
We believe that Allah (God) is the ultimate creator. He created the universe, solar system and stars, the Earth, life, us humans, but also every law of nature, gravity, etc.
Scientists say that the Big bang was the beginning of everything. That may be true, but still...even the big bang (if that IS true) is designed, programmed, created, and initiated by God.
So God is still in the background in this.
The same with evolution...if that turns out to be true, then God is in the background, using evolution as a tool to create the different species.
The thing is that the true religion has to be in harmony with laws of nature, reality, truth and justice towards anyone.
Now, the Bible and Quraan both say that Adam as was the first human on Earth. That God created us out of dust, clay and earth. Scientists say evolution. this may seem to contradict each other, but if you think about it, animals also turn back into dust, clay and earth after they die. So, there is definitely a link there. How the process really took place, we can only guess at the moment and investigate more...but the point here is, that both scenario's are just point of views of the same event. they do not contradict each other.
So, Adam as was the first human to walk the earth. And he knew God was his creator because he had direct connection with Him. He preached about God to his children as a prophet. He teached them the purpose of their creation and what they had to do to please God. After generations and especially after Adam as has passed away, people started to add new items and "innovations" to their daily rituals started to wander off the right path and so the new religion have been born and started to develop.
This continued until the original message was totally lost or almost lost and a new prophet was necessary to teach the right path and call people back to the one and only religion. sometimes a new prophet introduced new laws because humans have been developing and discovered new things.
Alcohol could not be made forbidden in Adam as time because it was not even discovered yet. After that prophet died, people started to wander off again after a few generations.
Some prophets came to a specific group of people to guide them back to the right path...others were global prophets.
How many prophets came to us to guide us back, no one knows. it may be a hundered or ever several thousands...we do not know...but what we DO know that every civilization, tribe, or group of people, no matter how isolated they live, received a prophet or at least received the divine message at some point in the history.
In short...every religion that exists now originated from the one and only true religion. every true prophet send to us teached us the one and only religion.
That is why Christianity, Judaism and Islaam have so many prophets. that is also why the "stories" in the Bible, Thorah and Quraan are basically the same.
So, we now know how the different religions existed and all of them are human made and false, except for one...but which one?
It is the one that every prophet has been preaching.
The Jews somehow do not acknowledge Jesus as as the new messenger of God. They stick to their own laws in the Thorah Given by Moses as and Talmud and reject Jesus as.
But Jesus as DID come to Earth to preach the divine message and to guide us back to the truth. The Jews DID witness the various miracles of Jesus as...how he healed the sick, walked on water, and turned the dead back to life.
How he was born from a virgin mother, and how he saved his mother by testifying as a few days old baby. But still the Jews would not accept Jesus as as the new prophet.
Both Jesus as and Moses as came down with new laws. Moses as brought us the Thorah and Jesus as brought us the Gospels.
The same with Muhammed sas. He also came to the earth to teach us one final time the true path. several times he preached that he was the last prophet to be send to us and that the only one after him that comes back to the earth was Jesus as and the he will follow the rules in the Quraan, that he will fight the Dajjal (antichrist) and eventually die a normal death on earth like all of us....and then the day of judgement will fall.
So Muhammed sas is the last prophet and it is our task to go with this final step in religion, acknowledge Muhammed sas as our prophet and follow the Quraan.
Every prophet had their own miracles to prove the people that their message was divine...the performed miracles all happened by the will of God.
Muhammeds sas miracles is, unlike the miracles of other prophets, timeless.
his greatest miracle was the Quraan. If you would investigate it, you would see that it could only be a miracle how a illiterate sheepherd managed to recite and teach the entire quraan to the people flawlessly...how it got spread around to the people right away, how it got preserved correctly...how even ordinary people could correct the imaam when he made a fault in recitation in prayer etc.
There is no second version of the Quraan existing and it is in perfect harmony with our knowledge and science.
I am not saying that other religions and do not contain any truth, but all other religions including Christianity and Judaism contain false innovations in them...like Christians nowadays believe in Jesus as being the son of God.
We are all sons and daughters of God if you want to see it that way...and Jesus as was no different in that. The only thing is that Jesus as was born without a father...just like Adam as was born without a father and mother...but that is just a simple miracle to God.
By making Jesus as a God, Christians make ordinary people like Matthew, Luke and John raise up to the level of prophets and treat their work as revelations of God and as absolutely true....and that is one of the main reasons of the huge amount of direct contradictions in the Bible.
So that is why I know Islaam is the one and only true religion...and everything else is faulty.
To answer your other questions:
No, it is not just a matter of faith nor out of fear of hell nor it is a guessing game for me. I can see the miracles all around me...it is the most logical explanation...and it makes sense.
