We are taught and I believe that we can only learn about God and what God would want from
what HE tells us. Our human minds, as fallible and indecisive, and lacking in so much knowledge as they are, cannot claim to decide what God is like or what He would want merely by using our own feelings or brains without clear evidence from God Himself. This would leave to almost endless “Gods” and life rules, and these could change even within an individual as they grow and learn! For example when I was 16 I might have thought God wanted me to do things completely differently than what I might think at 40, or 80, etc. We as humans with our senses can only even “sense” tiny portions of what surrounds us. Science only gives us part of the story—and even this changes over time with various theories coming in and out of the field. Who are we to claim we can fathom what God would want or command us to do? And how can we know our judgement and what we WANT to do is not clouding our desires? Some argue that God wouldn’t concern himself with certain details of our lives—for example dress and food preparation. How do we know this? A God who is all-powerful certainly has the ability to decide and command these things without tiring or struggling one single bit. Agnostics who say that God couldn’t possibly care what we trivial humans are doing on a speck of dust in the middle of an enormous universe, should consider that God is perfect, all-powerful, all-knowing and thus capable of taking the time and care to advise us of what we should believe and how we should behave—with as much detail as He sees fit. Because of His love for us, He gives us an instruction manual on how to live our lives for the good of ourselves and society. There are some who might see some of these rules as too much, too detailed, micromanaging maybe. Maybe 100 years ago one might want to know, well why does God tell me not to eat pork? Well science has now shown that the eating of pork can have major consequences on our health, up to and including death. So God’s instructions can be for our own good, we just don’t know it or haven’t figured out why it’s bad for us. Or perhaps they can have no other reason than to test our obedience to Him! Our job is to learn from his instruction manual and obey Him.
So how does God tell us about Himself? Through his Prophets and Messengers, from Adam to Muhammad, and including Jesus. How do we know this? From the Quran! And why do we believe the Quran? Many reasons:
· The most important way we can be sure that the Quran is authentic is the fact that when God revealed the Qur’an, He promised to preserve it. “It is We Who have sent down the Quran and surely We will guard it from corruption” (15:9)
· It was revealed to a Prophet—whose Prophecies are many, recorded, and proven
· It has no contradictions or errors
· It contains information that would have been impossible for Muhammad PBUH to know
· Muhammad PBUH was illiterate and could not have composed a linguistically perfect book, which impressed the highly eloquent Arabs of his time
· It was revealed over time and remains consistent in tone and content
· Muhammad PBUH was know to always be truthful and man of integrity—even to his enemies
· Muhammad PBUH was offered riches, women, and power to stop calling people to Islam but he declined all this and instead chose a life of struggle to continue his mission
· It was preserved orally as it was revealed and later written down and checked by many Muslims who had memorized it. Until today there are millions of Muslims who memorize the Quran with direct chains of memorization that span back to the Prophet PBUH himself
· So many people in each generation conveyed it that there can be no doubt of its authenticity.. It was just a handful of people passing it down, it was entire generations memorizing it, verifying it with each other, and passing it down.
· Consistency with science and even pre-empts facts that were only discovered in the last 50 years
· The words of the Quran have remained unchanged and in their original language (a language which is still spoken and understood) since its revelation
· We also have the Hadith which narrate almost every aspect of the revelation and life of Muhammad PBUH, and these Hadith as well have had their sources documented and examined and have been compiled in a strict scientific manner
No other religious scripture can stand up to scrutiny like this. So if you are going to learn about God, you should learn from the best and most reliable resource: The Quran.
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