Why Islam?

From: www.islamreligion.com


Why Islam?
Description: From a Muslim convert to all seekers of
truth.By Laurence
B. Brown, MDPublished on 05 Feb 2007 - Last
modified on 29 Mar 2011 Viewed: 78160 (daily average:
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> Beliefs of Islam
> What is Islam
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 one of the reasons why we
have a chain of revelation. Ask yourself: wouldn’t God send another revelation
if the preceding scriptures were impure? If preceding scriptures were
corrupted, humans would need another revelation, to keep upon 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,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 Quran. 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 truth, 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 Quran, read books and study good websites. 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.

Copyright © 2007 Laurence B.
Brown; used by permission.
About the author:Laurence B. Brown, MD,. 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.