A Question For Muslims And Christians???

Question

This question has been inspired by a different question that I read earlier: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AmpjX6kkhTxRwTTHL4MciUHsy6IX?qid=20070809072124AAFA1Tw&show=7#profile-info-YB7pQx06aa

Muslims and Christians both harbor a belief that they each believe in the one true god and have the one true religion and that everyone else is false. However when the history of Islam and Christianity are viewed in the wider context of the entire history of human civilisation, they are actually young religions that arose relatively recently. Sophisticated civilisation has existed thousands of years prior. Muslims and Christians will have everyone believe that civilisation was barbaric before these religions were born and it was they who civilised. However, the civilisations that they destroyed, in an endeavour to convert them, were actually more sophisticated than what they become after. Example Babylonia, Greece, Byzantine, Vedic India, Zoroastrian Persia etc etc etc.

I have two questions for y'all.

Firstly, according to your religion, only followers of your respective religion can qualify for heaven or paradise or whatever. So with this logic, can one conclude that most of your ancestors (who were neither Muslim nor Christian) are all rotting in hell???

Secondly, If it is true that the god which the Muslims and Christians believe is the only one true god, can y'all kindly explain why such a god made his presence visible only recently (in the context of wider human history)??? And why he kept humanity in the dark for so long?

I don't mean to offend anyone with this question. It is just something that I have always been curious about?

theiny5, what I mean is why did God only send messengers thousands of years after civilised humanity started to flourish. Moreover, it has been scientifically proven that there were humans much before the biblical estimate of when Adam and Eve were around.

Sarah T, if adam was the first muslim prophet, why is Mohammed paraded by y'all as being the founder of Islam???

Dear Maybe, you really don't have to get aggressive and insulting toward my religion. Just to reiterate, the purpose of this question really was NOT to offend y'all neither was it to insult Islam and Christianity. I only posted it because it was something that I had been curious about - that is it. I think that the guy who said that when Muslims are asked something that they cannot answer, they only deal with it by becoming abusive and insulting was obviously right.

I just want to say to "Maybe" that many of the people who currently comprise the Islamic civilisation are actually ONLY muslim because your ancestors were not able to militarily defend themselves from the armies of Jihad. Your ancestors were forced to convert to Islam and that is why many of you are Muslim today. So just remember that. Like I said that, the civilisations that Islam destroyed in an effort to convert them were actually better off before they were Muslim.

Secondly, Hindus worship NONE of those things that you mentioned. I can assure you that we don't worship cows, fire and trees but we worship a monotheistic God just like you abrahamic lot do. Just like Muslims bow down 5 times a day to a black rock, but claim they don't worship the rock itself, with the same logic we don't worship "stone", but the idols are there to "symbolise" god and NOT to "constitute" god. No Hindu is that crazy that there believe the idols are the gods themselves and will come alive.

Answer 1

First of all, although I believe that Christianity is the only true faith, I still believe that it is possible for non-Christians to be Saved & so-called "Christians to be damned.

Secondly, just because a religion is relatively young does not make it unauthentic.

Answer 2

There is only one God, we call Him Allah and other people call Him by other names Jehovah, Yahweh, Ishwar, Bhagwan, etc. There cannot be and there isn’t another God. And He is the only true God. As a Muslim it is my firm belief that there only one God, we call Him Allah, and he is the only and the true God.

Now about the religions being true or false, can you tell me why are you a Hindu? (I still stand by my statement that Hinduism is not a religion) Or for that matter why some body is a Christian or a Jew or a Buddhist or Jain etc? Or why am I a Muslim? I cannot speak for others but I am a Muslim because I have sought and found out that Islam is the only true religion. This is again my firm belief that’s why I am a Muslim. Alhamdolillah and I am not apologetic about it. That is the reason I have always prayed for you and asked you to seek the truth. Please, it is still not too late. Find out which is the true religion with an open mind, (because I find your question itself is full of so many mis-conception, which I will try to answer one by one.) and insha Allah you will not have to ask such questions.

Islam is the religion which, most people wrongly believe, was started by Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). It started even before the humans were born. There are Jinns and many of them were & are Muslims. (I know it will be difficult to digest for a non-Muslim), though the first human Prophet was Prophet Adam (pbuh) and the last messenger was Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). Muslims do not, and I repeat do not, parade Muhammad (pbuh) as the founder of Islam. The religion Islam was completed on him.

Allah (swt) has sent more than hundred and twenty thousand prophets, only a few get a mention in the Holy Quran. Allah (swt) has sent messengers to all the people of the other parts of the world. Who knows how many came to India or other civilization you speak about. He is a just God how could he send prophet to one area and not other places.

Islam has emancipated civilizations and not destroyed them. Your statement is made out of ignorance about the religions.

As to the other part of your questions I think cazouqa, Sarah and others have answered very well so I don’t need to elaborate any further on them. If you need any more clarifications you can e-mail me.

Let me end with a sincere advise I have always been giving you, please seek the truth with an open mind, read for yourself from the original texts and don’t believe in hearsays and the untruth dished out by the biased media, may Allah guide you. Ameen

Answer 3

I don't feel that because someone is not Christian, they are going to hell. I feel that God is just and will judge all people accordingly. I won't assume that anyone will be in heaven or hell, that is not my business, nor my concern.

About the second question, I don't know if that question can be answered to anyone's satisfaction; it would probably raise more questions than answers. I feel that God revealed himself to the first humans, Adam and Eve. I don't know exactly when that was, and honestly when it was is not that important to me. It seems to me that a lot of people assume that God had not been revealed before the time of ancient civilizations, and with good reason since there is not much info regarding His existence from that time. But in the Bible, from the very start man begins rejecting, disobeying, belittling God, etc. Could man have perverted the nature/concept/revelation of God to the point that they believed in the gods they believed in, thus altering the recollection of Him? It seems like people would rather blame God for not revealing himself instead of blaming man for rejecting Him. I don't necessarily believe this as fact...I am sort of just musing on the subject...very interesting topic.

Answer 4

rofl
You are in error. Go study Islam and come back. Your statements that
" Muslims and Christians will have everyone believe that civilisation was barbaric before these religions were born and it was they who civilised."

among others is hugely flawed since Muslims don't believe that Islam was something new to the world with the teachings of Muhammad (pbuh).

""why did God only send messengers thousands of years after civilised humanity started to flourish""~~this is also not something Islam believes. We believe Adam was the first of the prophets and we don't believe the earth is only a few thousand years old as many christians claim. We believe there has been a string of prophets all over the planet, not limited to those mentioned in the bible or Qur'an.

When you actually know about Islam come back and post a question that is based on fact. Thanks.

EDIT: REGARDING YOUR QUESTION. LIKE I SAID, GO LEARN ABOUT ISLAM AND YOU WILL UNDERSTAND. WE DON'T BELIEVE MUHAMMAD (PBUH) WAS THE 'FOUNDER' OF ISLAM. MUHAMMAD (PBUH) WAS A PROPHET IN THE LINE OF MANY PROPHETS SENT BY GOD. HE BROUGHT THE SAME MESSAGE AS EVERY OTHER PROPHET.

Answer 5

the answer to the first question is thts not true if you save a life or do a really good dead then you go straight to heaven there are many more things in islam for going to heaven no matter what religon and the second question's answer is no we do not believe that if some do it's because th bible was the second to last and the quran was the last book to come to earth explaining religon and life so it had they most information and explanation + peole started to listen and build religons after those 2 books

Answer 6

If you can accept evolution, change or technical innovation everywhere else then why should religion be an exception. We live in a dynamic system and change is inevitable. Therefore each tradition may have been O.K. in its own time frame, but we have to move forward. Various evolutionary theories of community development and progress in the form of religion, government and economical trades have been devised and the living world and its operation is becoming more complex and there are no simple answers. Survival of the fittest shall remain the bitter truth.

Answer 7

first of all, Muslims also believe that Judaism and Christianity is a true religion, however there is a corruption happened to these religion by humans. so when Judaism went astray, God sent Jesus with Christianity, and when Christianity went astray, God has sent Muhammad with Islam.


to answer your first Question, God in this verse explains who will inroll in Hell:
[48] 'Truly, it has been revealed to us that the torment will be for him who denies and turns away (from the truth and obedience of Allâh)"
QUran 20:48

a disbeliever is not the one who born in a different religion than Islam, but the one that when God showed him the truth, he throw it behind his back and denied it as he never seen any.

and God will not punish the people of towns while the people are ignorant (unaware):
[131] This is because your Lord would not destroy the towns for their wrong-doing while their people were unaware
QUran 6:131



2nd Question,
God has sent the warning since Adam, Adam told his children about Allah. and God said in this verse that he will not punish anyone unless he sents a massenger:

[15] ..... And We never punish until We have sent a Messenger (to give warning).
Quran 17:15

Answer 8

A very interesting question and I am going to answer it as a firm believer in Islam and Allah:
First of all, Islam never says that all non-believers will burn in hell, it is not for us to decide, this decision is solely in Allah's hand. Even Our Prophet (PBUH) was not allowed to pass judgements of this kind, who are we?

Secondly, He is God, the Almighty, He knows best when to reveal Himself and who to reveal Himself to. Again, we cannot pass judgements. If He wanted humanity to be in the dark for so long.......so be it! What can we say or do about it?

If it wouldn't have been for these two religions, man would still be praying to STONE and worshipping trees, cows, fire, water....oh wait! there are people who still do that!!

Answer 9

Dear friend its a nice question and often asked to the priest in Christian colleges.

1. you said both are new religions.... false

what is new and what is old...according to you.


2. you said god was late in coming down....true
but he send his prophets before his coming from the beginning of the earth. But these stupid human race never followed him, (we still fail to follow his teaching)
that is why he came down.

Answer 10

Before answering your question I would like to tell a story:
A Bhakta who don't know swimming, was drowning in a river and nobody to rescue him and as a last hope he called 'Vishnu' to save his life, on hearing his cries Vishnu prepared to come to him to save his life, but the Bhakta thought Vishnu may be busy in his work and asked help from 'Bramha',on hearing his cries Brahma prepared to come to him to save his life and Vishnu returned to his place thinking that 'Bramha' will rescue him, again the Bhakta change the god and asked 'Shiva' for the help, and 'Brahma' thought that the Bhakta is calling 'Shiva' and he shall be rescued by 'Shiva'and returned, BUT 'Shiva' thought that either 'Vishnu' or 'Brahma' would have come and rescued the Bhakta and did not turned to the Bhakta, which resulted in the death of the Bhakta.

So, when Yourself you are not concluding to whom you are properly thinking as the right 'GOD' why you are keen about others.

Answer 11

At the time Christianity and Islam both civilized the world around them, Christianity in Europe which was ran by barbarians and Islam in the Saudi Arabian peninsula where there were barbaric disorganized tribes.
Why did not God reveal Himself sooner. God choose the Jews to reveal Himself too, I think because He knew the Jews would accept Him. Most society were pagan and Jews have always been faithful in preserving His teachings.
Actually the thing that civilized the world in general was the invention of the printing press and religious books and ideas were disseminated on a wider and wider scale because of that. Today, we have TV, radio, and Internet in addition to books to spread religious ideas.
God is not going to reveal Himself to a people or a person who He knows will reject Him.