Author: WhyIChoseIslam

Reason #13: Only one religion is the truth?

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God says in the Qur’an the following:

Indeed, the religion in the sight of Allah is Islam… [Qur’an 3:19]

And whoever desires other than Islam as religion – never will it be accepted from him, and he, in the Hereafter, will be among the losers. [Qur’an 3:85]

In this post-modern world, a prevalent belief is that everything is true in its own way and that you can’t disprove anything. You will hear people say, “Preach your truth,” even if it goes against logic, science, and common sense. It sounds nice. After all, there’s so many beliefs, how can we know which is the truth? And there’s so much violence in the world. Wouldn’t it be better to avoid arguments and just say everyone’s truth is fine? In fact, one theory for the rise of postmodernism is that due to the dark side of modern ideologies such as neo-atheism, people realized that just hating on religion won’t solve anything. 

However, there are a lot of harm and negatives that come with the “everything is true” ideology as well. Let’s take religion as an example. People will say “Every religion is true!” or “Every religion is from God.” When one has that ideology, that’s making A LOT of assumptions about God, the biggest of which is that God sent all those religions and that He’s fine with you practicing any of them.

However, if one takes a step back and simply looks at this logically, one will realize that this does not make any sense. Let’s take Islam and Christianity, for example. The first says the verses above, while the latter says that the way to salvation is through Jesus Christ. God sent religions that contradict each other? Take a monotheistic religion and a polytheistic one. How can there be harmony in those? Will God send a religion that says to worship other imaginary beings?

And let’s think about the concept of Hellfire. Many religions say to follow it or you will go to Hellfire. It sounds harsh, but in fact, it makes complete sense!

Why? Because why else should you follow the religion? Why would, for example, Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) preach for over 20 years, face persecution, lose his followers and family members, leave his home land, starve, and face death multiple times, only to say, “Hey guys, you don’t need to really follow me. God is fine with all religions”?

Thus, isn’t it only logical that if a person believes in God, he also believes that He sent down one true religion?

Reason #12: The only difference between humans and animals is the opposable thumb?

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While growing up in high school or watching TV shows, we may have been taught that the only difference between humans and animals is the opposable thumb. You don’t have to be an expert to ask, “Really?” As Kamal El Mekki, a Muslim speaker, once said, “So you’re telling me that the only difference between a man and a zebra is this (showing his thumb)?”

If one were to sit down and make a list of differences, he or she may give up, saying, “Well, some animals can do this too.” However, that is also where there is a lack of true understanding on the matter. Yes, the statement has some truth, but the fact is that animals don’t have even a fraction of the depth we have for each quality. Here’s a small list:

  1. self-control
  2. level of thought processes
  3. intelligence
  4. organization and planning
  5. beauty of speech, with all the variety and nuances of languages
  6. contemplation

When you look at the depth we have for each, is there really a comparison? Is there any animal that can ponder, have self-control, AND plan like us? To be frank, biologists and evolutionists who don’t believe in God don’t have an answer for this. You may have also heard that humans share 50-60% of its DNA with bananas, 85% with mice, or about 60% with fruit-flies. And then of course, one is always told to look at the physical similarities with primates! Yet, putting all these together, one has to ask – does sharing DNA or having similar looks mean we are to be related?

Now where is this leading to? Clearly we are very different from every other creature. No, it does not mean that Islam rejects the theory of evolution. There is a lot in the theory that makes sense and has evidence (even though science is ever-changing with new discoveries). Perhaps, yes, all animals and living organisms are related. But perhaps all are except human beings! And that’s what Islam says – that God created Prophet Adam (عَلَيْهِ ٱلسَّلَامُ) by Himself and then placed him on Earth. When you look at all this from the Islamic paradigm, taking into account the differences mentioned, doesn’t it make sense?