Big Ak, deepest thanks for your responses.
Now, if we follow the notion that only God knows who will enter Hell, why do some Muslims (and to be fair, Christians) rely on the Qur'an (or Bible) to tell them who will go to hell or not? Shouldn't that be up to God alone, and not on the tongue of the ignorant, unknowing mortal, regardless of what the Qur'an (or Bible) says?
It's like, God set down these laws, but we are all sinners, and He knew that as mortals we could not always abide His laws. Some of us on the planet will never know His laws but will nonetheless try and live virtuously (place any religion of your choosing here). The way you go about doing good things in your life, regardless of the (limited) knowledge we can have of a creator-God... I mean, I cannot imagine being Judged and being told, "Well, you lived a good life, you aided the sick and the needy, the downtrodden and the wronged, but you didn't embrace (religion here), so I'm sorry, I cannot let you in."
Hello hope your well! I welcome you to this forum and happy that your wanting an adult debate about these important matters! I' apologise in advance for my essay but you will find it VERY interesting and it will answer your questions as well as give you my experience and knowledge of Islam and life!
Firstly can i just confirm that Islam started from the first man that was created-Adam (Peace be upon him) and was completed by the last of the Messengers of God Muhammed (saw). We as muslims believe in all prophets from Adam (Peace be upon him) till our blessed prophet (Peace be upon him). When another messenger came and anothr revelation came so that replaced the one before it!
The children of Israel which ive sure you read about in the Qur'an were the chosen ones at the time and had MANY prophets (Peace be upon them) and MANY of them were slaughtered and killed just for wanting to convey the truth and for preaching the oneness of God because of the pagan beliefs which were very rampant at the time! When Jesus (Peace be upon him) came with the message from God he tried to re-establish the revelation Moses was given and came with the injeel (old testament). He preached the oneness of God and even according to the earliest manuscripts there was NO evidance of ANYONE at the time of Jesus (Peace be upon him) referring to him as the son of God! This was clearly a belief that was made up after the time of Jesus as there is also NO evidance from the Bible of today to confirm these false notions! Jesus got persecuted by the children of Israel who rejected him and was eventually sent up by Allah because they wanted to kill him and Allah replaced him with someone who looks like him to get crucified but the Jews thought they crucified Jesus (Peace be upon him) for Allah had his own plans for Jesus (Peace be upon him).
After the time of Jesus during Constantines reign thats when Christian changed and pagan and greek mythological beliefs were permeated into Chrsitianity and the following centuries a lot went on in regards to the changing and moulding of Christianity to how people like Constantine,Athanius and Paul wated it to be like! Christian scholars say that Christianity has more influence from Paul than it has from Jesus (Peace be upon him) because Pauls sayings actually contradict Jesus (Peace be upon him) on MANY occasions and aspects.
When the Prophet Muhammed (Peace be upon him) was given prophethood the Jews who were living around the arabian peninsula at the time totally rejected him! The reason why they rejected him? The ONLY reason why they rejected him is because is was NOT born from the children of Israel but because he was born from the Arabs!In their books it is prophecised that wait for the last messenger to come who will bring down the last revelation and will be like a messenger with revelation like Moses born from among his people! This perfectly fits the last Prophet Muhammed (Peace be upon him).
Abraham had 2 sons - Isaac and Ismael. The descendants of Isaac are the Many prophets (Peace be upon them) who were born from the children of Israel like Moses,Soloman,David,John the Baptist,Jesus (Peace be upon them) and also many more. The decendant of Ishmael was ONLY one prophet and that was prophet Muhammed (Peace be upon him). The Jews thought if we accept Muhammed (Peace be upon him) to be the prophet then we are in fact saying that were no the chosen ones anymore? So just for this reason they did not accept the Prophet Muhammed (Peace be upon him) for the race issue! So till this day they are still waiting for the last messenger to come down with the last revelation and MANY of them know that Muhammed was the last messenger but out of Ignorance and arrogance and pride they did not accept and this is also written in the Qur'an!
Islam was completed and perfected meaning that it had no room for innovations and that is why Islam is EXACTLY the same today as it was when it first came into existance! The Talmud is not even a divine revelation but the practises of People of that era. The Qur'an is the ONLY book in existance which is STILL the same from when it was first revealed and the reason for this is because as it was being revealed MANY of the companions of the prophet memorised it and kept it preserved in their hearts aswell as it being written down! This meant that when it was being compiled together and reproduced it was 100% accurate to the originalre revelation! From when it was first revealed till now there have ALWAYS been people who have memorised it and kept it preserved in their minds!
The Qur'an is the most memorised book in the history of mankind! Linguists who have studied the Qur'an confirm that the Qur'an has a very unique structure to it and it has such an amazing structure to it that if one was to add anything to it or delete anything from it then one can straight away tell that it has been added to or deleted from because of the amazing structure which does'nt allow one to change the structure at all! That is the reason WHY it was written in the language its written in- Classical Arabic because it is such a unique,deep and meaningful language that is not susceptible to being changed at all without one noticing great differences from! Because millions and millions have learnt it from the time of revelation till this day further adds to its authenticity and protection from being changed in anyway shape or form!
When it was first revealed Arabic poetry was very famous at the time and Arab poets were startled as to the uniqueness of the poetic language of the Qur'an! It is so amazingly unique yet it carries so much wisdom and guidance for mankind!
Many of us do not speak Arabic as a first language and i know MANY people who have learnt how to read Arabic! Allah says in the Qur'an that he has made the language of the Qur'an easy to read and understand! My friend who is a white convert can read it better than me and it did'nt take him long at all! Never think anything is impossible because one can do anything! Before i went college i thought its going to be impossible to go there and learn because its going to be so complicated etc but when i got there i thought why did i worry all that time? Before i went university i thought its going to be so complicated and hard and how am i going to handle it? But when i got there i thought why did i worry all that time? So before you attempt something NEVER think you can't do it because trust me its NOTHING like what you think! More people are turning to Islam than ANY other religion or bellief and i have heard stories from people all over the world on how they accepted Islam! It is NOT hard at all to learn to read arabic and learn how to worship Allah! Talk to people who have converted and they will tell you would an absolutley amazing feeling it is! One who accepts islam will have every sin wiped clean and it is like they are a new born baby completly sinless! Just read the inspiring stories of converts and they will tell you how amazing the feeling is of feeling SO close to God and having a true purpose to life and feeling contentment and happiness which is something money or anything else can NEVER buy!People search their whole entire lives trying to find true happiness and contentment but they look in the wrong places! Allah says in the Qur'an that you will find contentment in NOTHING else but my remembering me! So true because contentment and true happiness ONLY come from Allah!
We Muslims are all one brotherhood meaning that we are part of one body! If one part of the body is in pain then we all feel the pain! That is why you will get outraged Muslims at times but forgive their emotion and passion for that is the love we have for our beloved Prophet Muhammed (Peace be upon him). But of course as humans we are not infallible and can sometimes do things which are wrong but if we sued the Qur'an and the sunnah in every part of our lives then we would know that doing these kind of things is not in Islam for the prophet got stoned with rocks after he tried to convey the truth to pagan Arabs and he bled so much that the blood stick his feet to his shoes and he fell crying not because of the pain but because he was worried about the non believers because they did not accept the truth! When the angel Gabriel and the angel of the mountains that were surrounding that city came to him they said give me a commandment and i will crush the city between the 2 mountains! The Prophet (Peace be upon him) said i am only here to spread the truth and save these people from hell but i will not want any harm to come to them because maybe their children will accept islam! Then he asked Allah " Oh Allah forgive them for they know not".
Look at how much love he had for the non believers and how much mercy and patience he had! He did'nt take revenge at all but he showed his concern and most of us Muslims do care about the non believers that they accept the truth so that they may gain salvation!
We love all the prophets of Allah so don't think otherwise because they all came to invite to the oneness of God and to the way of the lord! Many of them went through trials we cannot imagine just to propogate the truth to others! Many got slaughtered and killed! They have the highest position in the next world because they were the prophets of God!
It is so sad that the creator of the universe and everything it contains should be rejected by many who instead follow their won desires and live their "life to the full" or follow the laws of Darwin who's dogma has been scientifically disaproved!
This live is nothing but an illusion for we will wake up when we die and regret our actions for eternity! So let us not be of those that regret our lives for eternity lets find the truth and act upon it as soon as we can for when death overcomes us it is then too late!
The fact is God created us not so that we can follow our own desires and live how lives how we want to live, but God ONLY created us for one reason and that is to worship him! As simple as that! Even the Prophets (Peace be upon him) uncle Abu Talib who raised him all his life and was like his second father becasue the prophets (Peace be upon him) father died early on. But in his death bed Abu Talib could'nt say the shahada(Proclamation of faith) in his dying seconds and the reason is because it was not in the will of Allah! Allah knows best whos hearts would accept the truth and who's hearts would'nt! So he is the one that guides one to the truth! I can spend my life convincing you that Islam is the truth but if Allah does not will you to have guidance and to accept Islam then it will not happen! Simple as that! Everything is in the will of Allah!
Thats what Islam is!- That we TOTALLY submit to the will of Allah! Because he is the all knowing creator and master of the universe and our sustainer and the sustainer of all life in the universe!So the example of the prophets (Peace be upon him) uncle is clear that even he is destined for hell because he did not accept that Allah is one and that his last messenger his Muahmmed (Peace be upon him). So what does that say for the whole of mankind who die without having faith? What is the point of doing good actions if we don;t believe in the creator himself? What is the point of good actions of we don;t aorship the one who created us and gave us EVERYTHING! He feeds us sustains us gave us health,wealth and families i ca go on and on for centuries how much hes done for us!If we can't accept him and believe in him and his words and creations then how can we expect to get salvation? Allah does not need anything from us but we need him! Everything we do is for our own good and benifit!
This life is a test for us and Allah says in the Qur'an that if he wanted to he could give guidance and faith to ALL mankind but he knows best who deserves it and who does'nt because he can see in the deepest regions of our hearts and know us better than we know ourselves! We are know one to question him because we don't even know much about our own bodys let alone anything else! Allah is testing us in every aspect of our lives. He gives us trials to see how we will react he gives us pain illness etc.
Allah made us weak human beings, he made us weak to our own desires and natuarally prone to sin! But that is why we can repent for our sins and if one sincerely repents with the intention that one will not do it again then he will forgive us as he is the most merciful and compassionate! If your read the Qur'an then you would know this! How many times does he mention in the Qur'an how merciful he is and for us not to worry that if we sincerely repent that he will forgive us! Because he created us weak and HE WANT US TO TURN TO HIM IN REPENTANCE!
He is so merciful that once an old man was on his death bed and this old man trangressed all his life and never practiced islam at all was just Muslim by name! He started saying on his death bed "Oh Allah forgive me please", The angels came to him and said "look at you old man never turned to Allah your whole entire life but now you turn to him when your about to die!" Allah told the angels to be quite and said "Even if my slave was to live for another 100 years and never turn to me but still ask for my forgiveness then i will forgive him!" This just shows the mercy of Allah! He is VERY forgiving that we can't imagine! But the people who he wants to punish he does not give them the ability to ask for forgiveness! He knows best!
Remember we cannot say what is fair and what isnt because Allah is giving us a clear and fair choice either to accept the truth and gain eternal bliss or don't accept it and have eternal torture. What an amazing offer that is! Spend 70 years average of our lives being obedient to our beloved compassionate creator and have ETERNITY OF BLISS or do what we want and believe what we want to believe in and have an ETERNITY OF TORTURE! I know whch one i would rather have! So it is upto us! Allah says in the Qur'an that there is no compulsion in religion! Either accept the truth for own benifit or reject it to our own detriment! Its upto us for Allah is giving us a clear choice!
It is your choice what you do but i have told you all of this from the will of Allah because he is wanting to guide you! You can either accept the guidance and walk towards Allah and he will RUN towards you or you can reject it and live your life how you want but on the day of judgement you can't say that you were not told about the truth of Islam because i have spent all this time trying to explain to you for your own benifit because what am i going to gain from it? Its upto you now! If you need to know anything else then please don't hesitate to ask! Thank you for reading and im sorry i wrote so much!
This is a weblink of one of the threads that i created in which i compiled together a vast collection of short clips of very inspiring stories of Converts to Islam from around the world in which they tell their stories!
http://www.sunniforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=42460