Losing Faith

[A muslim brother]

Hello, I'm 17 years old and from Australia. I didn't know who to talk to about this so I decided to make a thread in this forum.

For months now I've been having a lot of doubts. I've read about all the miracles and such of the Quran etc and when I do this i do feel some comfort but it's always temporary. I have this sort of paranoia almost all the time and keep thinking I'm in the wrong religion and such. Even whenever i try to fight these feelings i feel as if I'm only doing this because i was born into this religion and am afraid to give it up. I don't know if these are from Shaytan or myself anymore. I try to pray but I never feel any sort of spiritual connection. I don't even feel like a Muslim.

How can we constantly put faith in something we have never seen yet we critisize people doing the same thing but simply putting faith in something else? Aren't we doing the exact same thing as the apparent christians, jews etc? Why do people of every religion claim to be sure they are right when clearly only one of them is. They are supposed to feel the exact same "blessing" or good feeling we are apparently suppose to feel by praying, getting nearness to Allah etc.

I've also done some scientific reading and such. I've read a good deal about evolution and honestly there are actually a lot of flaws in it. But again there are many things which shouldn't be like that if the theory is wrong. For example why is human and monkey genome are so similar if man and ape didn't come from a common ancestor?

Everywhere i go i find more and more questions. I really don't know what to do.

 

[kashif_nazeer]

Hello, I'm 17 years old and from Australia. I didn't know who to talk to about this so I decided to make a thread in this forum.

For months now I've been having a lot of doubts. I've read about all the miracles and such of the Quran etc and when I do this i do feel some comfort but it's always temporary. I have this sort of paranoia almost all the time and keep thinking I'm in the wrong religion and such. Even whenever i try to fight these feelings i feel as if I'm only doing this because i was born into this religion and am afraid to give it up. I don't know if these are from Shaytan or myself anymore. I try to pray but I never feel any sort of spiritual connection. I don't even feel like a Muslim.

How can we constantly put faith in something we have never seen yet we critisize people doing the same thing but simply putting faith in something else? Aren't we doing the exact same thing as the apparent christians, jews etc? Why do people of every religion claim to be sure they are right when clearly only one of them is. They are supposed to feel the exact same "blessing" or good feeling we are apparently suppose to feel by praying, getting nearness to Allah etc.

I've also done some scientific reading and such. I've read a good deal about evolution and honestly there are actually a lot of flaws in it. But again there are many things which shouldn't be like that if the theory is wrong. For example why is human and monkey genome are so similar if man and ape didn't come from a common ancestor?

Everywhere i go i find more and more questions. I really don't know what to do.

Assalamu 'alaikum
Hello dear young brother,
At your age questions do arise in mind with respect to things we believe in.Belief is something which rises high and goes low throughout.That is absolutely normal,as the word for heart in arabic is "qalb",it means in essence something which keeps flipping from one side to another,that is why when we pray we say
"Ya Muqallibul quloob thabbit qalbi 'alaa deenik".
"O turner of hearts,turn our hearts towards your way."
Let my tell you one thing my dear brother,Islam is based on evidences and is not just blind faith,it is a deen based on "baseerah",which is knowledge attained that is so certain as if you can see it with your own eyes.
As it says in Qur'an in Surah Yusuf verse 108,
Qul hathihi sabeelee adAAoo ilaAllahi AAala baseeratin ana wamaniittabaAAanee wasubhana Allahi wama anamina almushrikeenSay (O Muhammad SAW): "This is my way; I invite unto Allah (i.e. to the Oneness of Allah - Islamic Monotheism) with sure knowledge,I and those who follow me. And exalted is Allah ; and I am not of those who associate others with Him."

First of all know that,our human intellect and the work done thereby which comes in the form of philosophy and sciences and other things is a form of manifestation of our animalistic existence and it has reached it's apex.It is a form of approach to understand the world around us.
However unfortunately,human intellect in itself is limited and is confined to boundaries existing only within human perceptions and not beyond,hence it can only explore those boundaries and not what is beyond it.Nor can it,therefore because of the restriction of it being part of the system it is trying to make sense of,he can never figure out the reality of it all.
As Max Planck,a pioneer quantum physicist puts it,in his book "Where is Science going",

Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are part of nature and therefore part of the mystery that we are trying to solve.

So,we would need an external source or external knowledge to know the truth of it all.That is in the form of revelation.
Do you think,if God created man,would he leave him in dark wandering?No my brother.As Allah puts it in the Qur'an in the interpretation of the meaning,in Surah Al Ibrahim verse 1:

Alif, Lam, Ra. [This is] a Book which We have revealed to you, [O Muhammad], that you might bring mankind out of darknesses into the light by permission of their Lord - to the path of the Exalted in Might, the Praiseworthy -

So comes the revelation.
Now my brother human is born in a state of acceptance of Lordship of Alah or recognition of their creator,which is called fitrah in Islam.You can call it an inner disposition within each and every person with respect to acquaintance of Allah's Lordship.
Read more about it here >> Fitrah

A senior researcher at Oxford's centre for Anthropolgy and minds has conducted a study which stated that humans are born believer in God.This is the fitrah which exists inside them.

Dr Justin Barrett, a senior researcher at the University of Oxford's Centre for Anthropology and Mind, claims that young people have a predisposition to believe in a supreme being because they assume that everything in the world was created with a purpose.He says that young children have faith even when they have not been taught about it by family or at school, and argues that even those raised alone on a desert island would come to believe in God.

"The preponderance of scientific evidence for the past 10 years or so has shown that a lot more seems to be built into the natural development of children's minds than we once thought, including a predisposition to see the natural world as designed and purposeful and that some kind of intelligent being is behind that purpose," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"If we threw a handful on an island and they raised themselves I think they would believe in God."

In a lecture to be given at the University of Cambridge's Faraday Institute on Tuesday, Dr Barrett will cite psychological experiments carried out on children that he says show they instinctively believe that almost everything has been designed with a specific purpose.


In one study, six and seven-year-olds who were asked why the first bird existed replied "to make nice music" and "because it makes the world look nice".
Another experiment on 12-month-old babies suggested that they were surprised by a film in which a rolling ball apparently created a neat stack of blocks from a disordered heap.
Dr Barrett said there is evidence that even by the age of four, children understand that although some objects are made by humans, the natural world is different.
He added that this means children are more likely to believe in creationism rather than evolution, despite what they may be told by parents or teachers.
Dr Barrett claimed anthropologists have found that in some cultures children believe in God even when religious teachings are withheld from them.

"Children's normally and naturally developing minds make them prone to believe in divine creation and intelligent design. In contrast, evolution is unnatural for human minds; relatively difficult to believe."

Now some people bury or corrupt their fitrah and follow other ways,so as to please their desires hence being known as "kafir" one who covers up.
All the atheistic agnostic and polytheistic tendncies is the result of these,hence there are psychological reasons for their beleifs.


Now when the intellect which we discussed earlier,upon this fitrah is guided by fitrah a state of certain knowledge or "baseerah" is achieved.
All we have to do is to reflect upon the signs in the univere and upon the signs in revelations,upon our uncorrupted fitrah..

To read more about it,visit this link >> [LINK]

Your question,why Islam and why not other religions is valid as well.
Read more about it here>> "What about other religions'?

The following book will also be helpful insha'Allah
"The man in the red underpants"

Dont just go on the name,read it

As for the chimp-human question,pigs genome is even closer to human.
Read more about it [here]

Also read Qur'an and contemplate on it as it demands,think over it and reflect.
As Allama Iqbal puts it,
"The main role of Qur'an is to awaken in humans a higher concsiouness with his manifold relations with respect to God and the universe."
When you read with reflection,you will find yourself gettin closer to God every moment,when you eat,when you walk,when you talk to your loved ones.Every moment will be an experience of closeness to God in sha' Allah.
Also when n evil whisper assaults you seek refuge in Allah by saying,"Authubillahi min ash shaytaan ir rajeem"
This is Ramadan,so try offering Qiyam al layl.An intimate moment of solitude and an opportunity to attain closeness to God.
If you need any more help feel free to pm or vm me or other brothers here insha'Allah.
May Allah help you and guide you and us all.Ameen.

 

[Seeking Allah's Mercy]

Listen to the following to see "Why" Qur'an is a miracle.

[video=youtube;Y76Q2AoqF-I]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y76Q2AoqF-I[/video]

And I suggest you spend sometime listening to Ahmed deedat to understand "Why" christians and Jews are not upon the correct religion.

What you are suffering from is the wiswas [Whispers] of Shaytan. It's happens when our Imaan is weak and it's perfectly normal. The fact that when you study Qur'an makes you feel better sort of proves it. Focus more on understanding Qur'an. It's understandable that you don't feel any spiritual connection because you don't understand the "message" you are following.

Inshaa`Allaah work on yourself. It's ramadan, shaytan is chained, so make the most out of it.

 

[Amir_of_spain]

knowledge is power

Asalam wailkium brother

If i summarise your question i think you're asking a) how is Islam the right religion since every other religion claims to be the right one and b) the role of science in providing the truth. I will give short summary answers as i don't believe long essays is necessary when answering.

a) Firstly if you study Islam and the Quran in dept then you will realise that it is a message that is continuing from before, meaning that it is an extention of the truth that previously became corrupted and distorted, hence Allah says we sent previous messengers to the nations of old, warners sent to various communities throughout different times in the past. Hence if you see things from a holistic point you will realise that all the other religions do contain some truth about God, so we recognise this, specifically when it comes to Christainity and Juadiasm as their messengers and communities are mentioned by name. Thus Islam is simply continuiing where they stopped and left off. So to answer in brief.. yes the other religions do have some truth but Islam provides the ultimate truth it is entirely and completion therefore it is logical for us to upgrade to the complete truth instead of the partial truths of the old religions that have become distorted over time.
When you pray you should mentallity feel like your doing because you need to recogise that during your prayer, whilst you are in your prayer you are praying to an entity which is the cause of the heavens and the earth, the force behind of all our existence. If you read the translation of the quran then you realise the personality of God, how he speaks with authority, justice, greatness, goodness always appealing to us directly. Thus when you perform your prayer then you realise what a great wise powerful being you are praying to.

b) Science is great to explain how things work but can never answer the ultimate questions such as what is the purpose and meaning of life? What and how are we meant to live life? What is the role and function of the human being. How do we address ethics and law? So science cannot answerr these questions because they are non physical, non experimental questions. Also realise science should point to God as the world we live in is both complex yet beautiful, design which points to a designer, as such things cannot occur from random chance events. As for evolution, we agree with everything except for 2 points... 1) creation came from god directly not from random events 2) Humans are seperate created organisms even though we share similar features with other life.

And peace be with you.

Amir of science.

 

[strive-may-i]

Assalaamu Alaikum,

Firstly Welcome. We are all in a quest and at different levels of awareness in this quest. May almighty allag help and guide us all in right direction.... Ameen

You see "a piece of creation." a masterpeice. You start asking which hand and mind produces such a piece of art. Your eyes and mind divert away from the piece of art, now wanting to know the artist behind this work.. The quest has begun...

-- The first conclusion is the masterpiece formed on its own.
-- Now , the reports say this was produced by - 'Creator'.
-- Then, another report says though it seems its from Creator, Creator took the help -from other Creators .
-- Then, another investigation says Creator correct, but its not a person, not an intelligence like ours but something else.
-- Then there is another brilliant write up from a 'thiretic' 100 years back, which tries to give credit to Ceator, Thiretic gives his/her spin on how Creator produced the masterpience and also goes on to guess exactly how Creator looked like. what he ate etc etc,.
Now at this stage 'thierics' version looks more convincing argument for source of that masterpiece... But Nobody could prove it wrong or right. It has some flaws. So you continue the quest....

-- Then on deeper investigation, you hit upon another source which also hints its from Creator. Not just that it has the ability to produce the masterpiece. In addition, you also end up getting more insights which puts more weightage to this another source. The hints , the references all add up ..... This source also tells you cannot produce such a similar Masterpiece. Nor does it tell how to make a similar creation,

Which statement gets more weight and credibility?

Now lets add, this new source, fundamentally refutes the claims of 'thiretic'. And every other report out there which try to theoretically explain and reproduce by watching the similarities and differences among the various masterpieces newly discovered.

What conclusion does it lead you to ...

Now lets add some more, the quest was to test you and how you use your intelligence, you have to take a stand before the validity of the quest period ends. Since you are assessed for your worth, at the end of validity period, you take a stand, lets say you rely now on the source from the creator and start applying some aspects of it to further your quest and you arrive at a harmonious and better understanding of the masterpeice, the reason behind its existence and the nature of its creator.... Would you throw away this fundamental understanding?

**
Hello, I'm 17 years old and from Australia. I didn't know who to talk to about this so I decided to make a thread in this forum.

.......I've also done some scientific reading and such. I've read a good deal about evolution and honestly there are actually a lot of flaws in it. But again there are many things which shouldn't be like that if the theory is wrong. For example why is human and monkey genome are so similar if man and ape didn't come from a common ancestor? ...

Seek answers, dont settle at the questions. One step at a time.

**Everywhere i go i find more and more questions. I really don't know what to do.