Sure, everybody is free to choose what to believe.
What is a religion anyway? Allah has created us. He wants us to know him and follow his right path. The path that brings us happiness in this world and hereafter. It is for our benefit that we obey his orders. He has given us the formula. It is up to people to choose and that is free will. Without free will, there will be no test, no punishment and no reward.
What's the test?
I am speechles. When you say Qur'an has little depth i wonder if you really bother to understand it. Let me get it straight that the massage belongs to Allah not to His massangers. Massangers were just, well, massangers. Their duty was to convey God's massage and practice it in their lives to be perfect examples. Islam does not take lessons from their stories but muslims does. Their massage as a whole is "Islam" which is the path for us to follow. If you are talking about the story of past Massangers of Allah you will find plenty of them in the Qur'an. I can not believe that you are not aware of the story of Prophets. How about Chapter Al-i Imran, Marry, Abraham, Hud, Joseph ? The stories of Jesus, Moses and others are all over the Qur'an.
I say from my point of view, sorry if it's is offensive to you. But I do not see how the Qur'an is word of God verbatim as you believe it to be. It would be easier for me to accept it as an inspired word of God like Bible is but there are too many difficulties to be verbatim. I accept this is how muslims understand it. Like I find it offensive to hear words implying christians believe God has a son with Mary. Offensive and also blasphemous, because it is not consistent to how God and the Son are revealed in the Bible. If muslims get this idea in their heads from reading the Qur'an then I how would such misconception be the hand of God.
I meant muslims take lessons.. Not Islam, sorry did I say Islam. That makes no sense of course lesson learnt are for followers.. Muslims and Christians etc. Yes, I am aware of the stories of the prophets in the Qur'an, the accounts of the prophets in the Qur'an seem incomplete. The changes made from the Bible accounts may appear to be small but sometimes have bigger consequences. Why has Mary a sura named for her? That puzzled me. And some of the very few stories of Yeshua were first found in the Gnostics which were not written for hundreds of years after Yeshua.. And have no provenance. Then why are they in Qur'an? It may seem I am being negative in criticism, sorry if that is so. But really I am not a person to accept something that causes me doubt, not when it effects my eternal destination. I'm sure you would not just accept something if you had doubts.
It is up to the person to decide whether he/she will change his/her perception. But, you should understand Qur'an and its massage better before that.
Yes, I see that. If God sends a message that He means you to follow would He make it so difficult for one to understand? Maybe God sends His message differently to different peoples according to their understanding.
I see lots of misunderstanding here. Allah created us and knows us the best. We are prone to sin. Are you not? Adam was the first to disobey Allah's orders and the first sinner of humans. He realised that what he did was wrong and repented and ask for forgiveness. What would have your God done? Dismiss him? Allah knew his hearth and his sincerity, so, He forgave him. Everytime you make a mistake, you repent and try to change your behaviour and try to be a better person. If Allah wouldn't be merciful and accapt our repentence, we all would get worse and worse because of thinking we will not be forgiven. We would loose hope and that is what satan wants us to do.
what do you not understand from what I said? Prone to sin? No.. We are sinners full stop. There is no choice as we inherited a sin nature from Adam our father of humanity. Yes, Adam was the first sinner and we all suffer the consequences of that first sin. You say what would I have my God do? Dismiss him? Yes.. Exactly that, and that is what the Bible teaches God did. If God is Holy then it is the only thing that makes sense. The Bible teaches God does not view sin lightly, yes God is merciful and He loves us so much He does not want not one of His created souls to go to Hell for eternity, in fact God does not put us into Hell we put ourselves into that place. Only God can prevent us going there.
So why does God expel Adam from the garden after his fall into sin? Not just for a short while to teach him the error of his ways but for eternity. Even placing Cherubim with flaming swords to prevent any return by Adam. This was the penalty Adam paid for his sin of disobedience. All sin is disobeying God. The glory and holiness of God demands a penalty for sin against Him, if He does not then God justice is compromised. This is the Bible accounts explains Gods punishment.. Notice the Serpent (Satan) is the only one who punishment is eternal, because of cause God knows who is the main antagonist and why. Adam and Eve were given the chance to redeem themselves and mankind. As sin came into the world through the first Adam its solution comes through the last Adam (Yeshua) that's why Yeshua had to be born of woman... But not of man.
Genesis
14 So the Lord God spoke to the serpent. He said, “Because you have done this,
“You are set apart from all livestock
and all wild animals.
I am putting a curse on you.
You will crawl on your belly.
You will eat dust
all the days of your life.
15 I will make you and the woman hate each other.
Your children and her children will be enemies.
Her son will crush your head.
And you will bite his heel.”
16 The Lord God said to the woman,
“I will increase your pain when you give birth.
You will be in great pain when you have children.
You will long for your husband.
And he will rule over you.”
17 The Lord God said to Adam, “You listened to your wife’s suggestion. You ate fruit from the tree I warned you about. I said, ‘You must not eat its fruit.’
“So I am putting a curse on the ground because of what you did.
All the days of your life you will have to work hard.
It will be painful for you to get food from the ground. 18 You will eat plants from the field,
even though the ground produces thorns and prickly weeds.
19 You will have to work hard and sweat a lot
to produce the food you eat.
You were made out of the ground.
You will return to it when you die.
You are dust,
and you will return to dust.”
That's why it does not seem logical to me for God just to forgive all sin, where is Gods divine justice there? I don't see the scenario of our attitude towards sin becoming worse and worse if we thought God would not be merciful and forgive us. Maybe that is how you see things. How can a person live like that though? It is despair and yes it would lead to loss of hope. We have hope in the Christ, so it's different for christians I guess. We are under grace not law. Yeshua fulfilled the law. Make no mistake there has to be repentance, without it we are not worthy of Gids Grace and for that we would rightly deserve a Christless eternity devoid of Gods love.
Your not seeing the solution does not mean that it is not there. Offcourse, God does not wants us to sin in any way, but he knows our nature. Surely, He will not treat us all the same. The less sin you commit the more reward you get. That is justice. I can see that you are giving some of God's attributions to Yeshua. The thought of Him "being the bridge over the chasm of Sin" just means that. God does not need such a bridge. That is believing in a distant God who needs some intercessors, be it Jeshua or whomever. At the and of the day, you believe that your sins will be forgiven but Yushua will be the means for that. Phew! I think you need to think about that.
We don't hope for rewards for avoiding sin. If we follow Yeshuas commandments then we understand that striving to avoid sin is pleasing to God. We try to live our life to the glory of God. At times we may fail, God knows that... That's why He sent Yeshua as Saviour. I know there is nothing I can do of my person to effect my salvation, I rely totally on Gods grace. I am happy in this as I know God is just, as He is merciful but most of all God is love. That is the most important thing the other is God wants relationship with us.
Peace that you always know Gods love.
Btw, sorry for the long post, and also if it makes no sense to you.
sometimes something is easy to know in your heart but not so easy to explain to others. Like Islam is clear to you because it's what you know.