07-11-2006, 02:30 AM
Bismillah:
Quote:It does take faith however and faith is required to believe. It takes faith for you to believe in Islam too. To believe that Mohammed was the prophet of God (ALlah) and that for you to be saved you must follow what he says.
A Muslim believes that <b>faith is not complete when it is followed blindly or accepted unquestioningly</b>. Man must build his faith on well-grounded convictions beyond any reasonable doubt and above uncertainty. <b>Islam ensures freedom to believe and forbids compulsion in religion </b>
A Muslim believes that the Quran is the word of Allah revealed to prophet Muhammad through the Angel Gabriel. The Quran was revealed from Allah on various occasions to answer questions, solve problems, settle disputes and to be man's best guide to the truth. The Quran was revealed in Arabic and it is still in its original and complete Arabic version today. It is memorized by millions. So God is asking those who deny the truth of this Qur'an to ponder over its verses and to reflect and He even challenges them to produce a single Chapter like it if they are in doubt of its authenticity. In other words, He is saying to you that if this amazing book was not sent by the Creator of heavens and earth, then you tell me from where does it come?
But when you examine that book, you will just say <b>"this is not the word of a man, this is indeed the word of God"</b> only after studying and checking up the book, your faith will increase and you will believe that it is the truth. we are not requested by God to believe just because He said so, He asked us many times in the Qur’an to ponder, reflect over what He says and creates, ask people of knowledge if we are in doubt about what we read, and to verify the amount of information that are unknown to us etc.. Then and only then you may make up your decision.
on the other hand, I personally asked a Catholic priest in the Philippines about Trinity and he said to me: "Son, I believe that there is a problem about this issue, but we just have to believe in it" this priest is over 70 years old and his grand daughter embraced Islam recently Alhamdulelah but he never complained, in fact he encourages her and told her that "I was going to advise you that if ever you thought to change your religion, the only one you should embrace is Islam".
this grand daughter "sister Sally the former Catholic nun" (I think you can read her story on this board, somebody please help to find the link) she told me that my grand father cannot leave the church because it is feeding him, accommodating him and getting from it many benefits. So if he embraced Islam he would loose all of this.
so blind faith is not required in Islam, Alhamdulelah.
Salam
Wael.