Why Islam?
>From Dr. Laurence B. Brown to all seekers of truth
Let's talk frankly. Almost never do non-Muslims study Islam until they have
first exhausted the religions of their exposure. Only after they have grown
dissatisfied with the religions familiar to them, meaning Judaism, Christianity
and all the fashionable "-isms" - Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism (and, as my young
daughter once added, "tourism") - do they consider Islam.
Perhaps other religions do not answer the big questions of life, such as "Who
made us?" and "Why are we here?" Perhaps other religions do not reconcile the
injustices of life with a fair and just Creator. Perhaps we find hypocrisy in
the clergy, untenable tenets of faith in the canon, or corruption in the
scripture. Whatever the reason, we perceive shortcomings in the religions of
our exposure, and look elsewhere. And the ultimate "elsewhere" is Islam.
Now, Muslims would not like to hear me say that Islam is the "ultimate
elsewhere." But it is. Despite the fact that Muslims comprise one-fourth to
one-fifth of the world's population, non-Muslim media smears Islam with such
horrible slanders that few non-Muslims view the religion in a positive light.
Hence, it is normally the last religion seekers investigate.
Another problem is that by the time non-Muslims examine Islam, other religions
have typically heightened their skepticism: If every "God-given" scripture we
have ever seen is corrupt, how can the Islamic scripture be different? If
charlatans have manipulated religions to suit their desires, how can we imagine
the same not to have happened with Islam?
The answer can be given in a few lines, but takes books to explain. The short
answer is this: There is a God. He is fair and just, and He wants us to achieve
the reward of paradise. However, God has placed us in this worldly life as a
test, to weed out the worthy from the unworthy. And we will be lost if left to
our own devices. Why? Because we don't know what He wants from us. We can't
navigate the twists and turns of this life without His guidance, and hence, He
has given us guidance in the form of revelation.
Sure, previous religions have been corrupted, and that is why we have a chain
of revelation. Ask yourself: why would God send another revelation if the
preceding scriptures were still pure? Only if preceding scriptures were
corrupted would God need to send another revelation, to keep mankind on the
straight path of His design.
So we should expect preceding scriptures to be corrupted, and we should expect
the final revelation to be pure and unadulterated. If impure, it too is due to
be replaced, for we cannot imagine a loving God leaving us astray. What we can
imagine is God giving us a scripture, and men corrupting it; God giving us
another scripture, and men corrupting it again
and again, and again. Until
God sends a final revelation He promises to preserve until the end of time.
Muslims consider this final revelation to be the Holy Qur'an. You consider it
worth looking into. So let us return to the title of this article: Why Islam?
Why should we believe that Islam is the religion of rruth, the religion that
possesses the pure and final revelation?
Oh, just trust me.
Now, how many times have you heard that line? A famous comedian used to joke
that people of different cities cuss one another out in different ways. In
Chicago, they cuss a person out this way, in Los Angeles they cuss a person out
that way, but in New York they just say, "Trust me."
So don't trust me - trust our Creator. Read the Qur'an; read books and study
this website. But whatever you do, get started, take it seriously, and pray for
our Creator to guide you.
Your life may not depend on it, but your soul most definitely does.
http://www.leveltruth.org/articles.asp
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Copyright © 2007 Laurence B. Brown.
The author can be contacted at [email protected]. He is the author of The
First and Final Commandment (Amana Publications) and Bearing True Witness
(Dar-us-Salam). Forthcoming books are a historical thriller, The Eighth Scroll,
and a second edition of The First and Final Commandment, rewritten and divided
into MisGod'ed and its sequel, God'ed.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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