So many questions.
The same global tragedies which led him to quit Islam are the same tragedies which led many non-Muslims (even atheists) to embrace Islam. His own personal tragedies shattered his faith, while there are many others that have endured far worse than him and are hanging on firmly to their faith. Nobody likes punishment. Even when we ourselves commit a transgression, we do not want to face the consequence. We don't want to pay that ticket fine, or take a corrective course, or do community service hours, or serve time in prison, etc etc. It's within our human nature to find punishment in any form to be distasteful. However, at the same time, it is also within human nature to desire a system of justice. And that's why even those that do not believe in God are not wholly above desiring justice when a wrong has taken place, when a crime or a transgression has been taken place. Allah made us. He knows our natures; He knows that we require the motivation that comes from rewards as well as the warnings of consequences to keep us on the straight path and to keep us safe.
So there has to be a balance of hope and fear. The alternative of there only being LOVE without any consequence whatsoever leads to the notion that one can do whatever the hell they want, they can hurt people left, right, and center.....and it's all good because God loves you and you are only heaven bound. The same folks that complain that Allah is not like the god of Paul'ene Christianity who can only love and never punish........are the same folks who will want some sort of justice from God when they are wronged by someone. Insaaf/justice are innate desires.
When we focus only on one thing, our perspective becomes skewed. It becomes warped. Allah derives no pleasure from torturing us in hell. If He did, then why does He warn us over and over and over again to do what it is right. Why did he bother sending one book after another and 124,000 messengers for the guidance of mankind? Guidance in and of itself is a reflection of mercy. Why is that when we intend to do a good deed but are unable to do it....Allah still rewards us? Why is it that when we commit a sin, He counts it as only one misdeed? Why is it that when we commit a good deed........He rewards it manifold? Why is it that Allah has established immense rewards for single acts of worship? Why is that the Allah has allotted 10 points for every letter of the Quran that is read and the one who stumbles and reads with difficulty is rewarded even more? Sounds more like a God that is very eager to reward us. Why is it that the man in this video did not contemplate upon the questions that I have asked in this paragraph? His video ONLY focused on fire and brimstone and not once did he mention the examples of Allah's leniency and system for rewarding that I have listed. That indicates a skewed perspective. It indicates a bias. This is a man who claims to have read the Quran, who attended an Islamic university, who helped to write tafseer..........and you're telling me that this man conveniently forgot the examples of Allah's mercy in the Quran and hadith.....and only zeroed in on the details of hell-fire?
When this man was sitting in a uni and learning about about the trials that were faced by the Prophet SAWS and the sahaba......trials that were much harsher than his own personal trials.............why didn't he think at that point that "Allah is so cruel. How could He have hurt His own messengers like that? I'm leaving Islam now." Why come to that conclusion years later? And even then he conveniently omitted all examples of Allah's mercy, Allah's benevolence, Allah's favors in his video...? Why have blind faith in stories like Noah's Ark, Jonas and the Whale when life was good.......and then now all those stories have become a problem? Why question evidence for Solomon and his temple now when you've had 2 divorces, lost one child to death and the other to mental illness? Why did you not question the lack of evidence (for that and other things) much earlier? So.....it's blind faith when life is going smoothly.....and shattered faith......when things are going poorly? The mettle of faith is tested with trials. As for Soomon's temple, Israel and Trump are working hard toward its reconstruction....even at the cost of destroying Masjid ul Aqsa. Why? Because the reconstruction will signal the emergence of the Jewish Mosiach, also known as the Antichrist. LOL.....so even the various leaders of the world.....who are not very religious themselves.......who don't seem to fear God......have a regard for Solomon's Temple.
Allah didn't lie to us or deceive us. He gave us a heads up when He told us in the Quran that everyone will be tested with their provisions with the loss of lives, etc etc. He told us that that will be accountability. He never told us that He will love us no matter what evil we commit......because internally He did not create us this way....He created us with a natural desire for accountability. Allah did not tell us we are the Chosen people that will have smooth sailing in both worlds. Yes, death is the the most painful of trials....especially witnessing the death of a family member. But who can escape death? Who is above it? Nobody. He mentioned his two divorces. There are many factors that lead to the demise of a marriage. It takes two people and a lot of mutual sabar and compromise to make a marriage work. You can't blame Allah for failed relationships. That's way too convenient.
IMO.....a video in which an ex Muslim conveniently excludes all examples of Allah's love, mercy, benevolence..........is not a video that provides food for thought. He spent several minutes telling us about his HISTORY of dedication toward Islam.......the dawah he did, the degrees he got, the beard he grew, etc etc. He is basically trying to tell us that ......."LOOK, if someone like ME, who dedicated YEARS of his life toward to the knowledge and practice of Islam can spurn my religion........then there must be something to it then." It's kinda like a marketing gimmick. Like how in an attempt to sell a product or a philosophy, the person mentions his numerous years of study or experience.
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Muslims do need to listen to ex-Muslim a lot more. I don't care to watch this particular guy's video, but across the board I notice a lot of ex-Muslims were really dedicated to the religion which is what got them to leave and/or they are part of a social or statistical minority that isn't exactly being treated well because of religious teachings (women and gay people). More often than not, they are people who had the religion forced down their throat. You see this with ex-Christians as well.
@redvelvet his daughter also posted a video, asking questions about Islam. About the hadiths, hazrat safiyyahs marriage, banu qurayza, concubines, a womans testimony being half of a mans.
I believe in Islam but Idk the answer to these questions and it kinda bothers me.
Am I the only one who believes that some people might be deliberately making such videos claiming to be heavily devoted in the past, but now disaffiliated with religion for xyz reasons?
Sure there may be actual religious people who turn into athiests later on, but the amount of advertisement and publicity this content receives is beyond its worth. Seems like a deep rooted game to me.
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@redvelvet his daughter also posted a video, asking questions about Islam. About the hadiths, hazrat safiyyahs marriage, banu qurayza, concubines, a womans testimony being half of a mans.
I believe in Islam but Idk the answer to these questions and it kinda bothers me.
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Nothing wrong to question any of this, you just need to know where to look for answers.
A lot of online resources won?t be legit especially if you are searching up one of the most widely discriminated religions in the world. I emphasize Online Resources because 1.) people have lost the interest to do actual research through scholarly, written material (which further profits the purpose of online data systems) and 2.) Googling is just so much easier, typing away and clicking on the first link you see because the common man lacks basic sense and time to conduct a thorough research and investigate legitimacy and bias of that source.
Thanks to our school systems, Google.com is our top notch method of research. It’s hell for students to go through the pain of citing books, magazines and all other trees, so copy pasting links is the simpler way out. But I’ll save this rant for some other time. (
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So, if you happen to fall in the above two categories, I suggest you find someone who is knowledgeable (can be an affiliate of the local mosque or imam) and ask these questions directly rather than googling/youtubing because just as all history, Islamic content is not immune to manipulation. Atheist videos are not the place to look for answers. They will further confuse you by adding incredible bogus information to prove their point (in the most “logical” manner). Their method of research? Google.
Be wiser than them.
Haven?t read all contributions yet, I?ll definitely do it later.
I've met people with much islamic knowledge who left Islam, and they had similar arguments. Their profile was pretty much the same, converting in their late teens and then leaving in adulthood. Islam answered their questions at one point of their life and then it stopped satisfying them.
It just makes me wonder one thing, how do they stick to Islam so long then, because majority of their arguments as hell's punishment, ambiguities, etc have always been there.
If they are truth seekers, they should have seen it earlier. And if it never sat well with them, then what was the point of embracing Islam/becoming fervent muslim for a while.
No, you are not the only one. I’ve made the same point. I have watched many videos of converts to Islam. Some of them converted from atheism, and some from another religion such as Christianity. I can’t speak for all videos, only the ones that I have watched. But in many of these videos, when the converts explained why they left Christianity (for example)…they talked about issues like the Trinity or inconsistencies between the Old Testament and the New Testament. They didn’t bring up issues like hell-fire and how can a Loving God allow for suffering in this world and He must not care about us, etc etc. As I’ve said before, this man who claims to have studied Islam and even wrote a portion of Tafseer has conveniently omitted all examples of Allah’s mercy and benevolence from his video. That makes me doubt his intentions. He is both a scholar and a teacher and any scholar/teacher who is worth their salt will approach their subject matter with integrity and justice; meaning you don’t exclude important and integral aspects of your subject matter and present it in a way that is one-sided and incomplete. A teacher with real integrity won’t do that to his students and this guy (who was a teacher) went beyond the classroom; he went on to present a one-sided image to the world really because Youtube is a global medium. Again, I can sympathize with him for his personal losses but I can’t respect him as a teacher and the way in which he made this video. He relied too much on the pathos (emotional) appeal in his video.
He (as per his claim) spent years of his life deeply involved in the Muslim community…in the masjid, in the Islamiya University, teaching in his school, interacting with other Muslims in the community. Surely the BULK of the Muslims he met in his life were not like the whackadoos shown in the media. He may have come across a few nutcases in real life but the vast majority were and are good human beings that practice the teachings of mercy and kindness emphasized in Islam. Imagine living in that same community amongst those same good Muslims that you encounter everyday and creating a youtube video that presents their religion in a one-sided and skewed way. There is something low and cheap about it.
There is a tiny inkling of truth to this. I don’t think a majority of vocal ex-Muslims online are doing it for shallow attention-seeking purposes, they are simply speaking about their truth and their experiences which anyone is entitled to do. However, I have noticed that some ex-Muslims who are in the media or have a public persona pander to right-wingers and the “alt-lite” because pandering to this demographic can be very lucrative (a lot of social minorities who aren’t exactly progressive pander like this).
I wonder why they pick on Islam only. if they have issues with the concept of God, acceptance of prayers then why cherry pick Islam only
Because they are ex-Muslim. Kinda like the majority of atheists in The West mostly focus on Christianity since they are mostly ex-Christian.
And having misguided, demonic monsters as niece/newphew dont help such 'uncles' finding answers either, tsk! Truly it's a blessing to be surrounded by people of knowledge than the demonic types purposely misleading those in confusion or half knowledge.
Irrespective of religion, anyone with unanswered questions about any subject reads up & researches more, gains in knowledge to find answers. That's a natural normal human behavior. Instead if one makes it a life goal creating anti-religion posts instead of reading up, researching more trying to find answers with an intent to confuse & mislead other new or lesser aware followers, that is very unnatural behavior for humans. So two things: 1. Either you're a demon disguising as human, 2. Or you're not honest in finding your answers only pretentious. It's impossible a human being honest in their quest of knowledge & they don't find it. Knowledge is out there for whoever wants to find it. Evil & pretentious ones only make excuses to turn away or turn astray.