Peace Miss_Noland
There is a statement above that you have penned, but I disagree with it because I believe you have formulated it without giving it much thought. It is in red. You say that;
“If there’s a true religion it should guide all of us and not divide us” … You have created a qualifier for denying any and every religion, because according to your definition if even one person does not believe in it, it makes it false, hence all religions are false. This is a self-fulfilling argument and should be thrown out.
You know that all people do not agree on every point. You know full well that there are many cases where two people are arguing that one can be right the other false, ok, admitted that both can be wrong and given in a certain context both can be right in their own ways, but to say that if argument is sustained then only falsehood is the condition of the two. That is not a fair statement and should not be ones basis for considering religion.
People will see Truth if they allow themselves to see it. I believe there are truths in all religions yet I also believe that the most unadulterated best understanding comes in the form of Islam and hence I am Muslim. I have a basis for rejecting other religions, ask me what that basis is and I will tell you.
However, to make the claim you have made then we should only see 1 religion in the world, because any rival religion that comes about will nullify both.
The other statements you have made also in red and followed in blue are also not correct. Islam never calls messengers kuffar, rather it claims some of their followers to be so, because their followers had through time changed and manipulated their own prophets teachings. Leading to either people going astray in their belief or people becoming arrogant and proud whilst having consistent beliefs. Both are wrong … Islam is the religion that was sent to all prophets, it was named when it was completed on the hands of Muhammad (SAW).
Please read the account in the Qur’an of the People of the Ditch … they were according to our scholars monotheistic Christians and were a very blessed group of people who we believe will go to paradise. Did you know this?
The ‘other possibilities’ I am asking you to find is not supposed to be a stretch they fall out quite easily if you consider:
a) context
b) tafsir
c) the whole Qur’anic message
d) the classic Arabic array of possible meanings
I am only asking you to do a thorough investigation of the verses that you find contention with before you start to condemn the Qur’an. I hope you will find much beauty in your search by doing this. You may do the same from the Bible and hopefully you will see that the Bible never claims Jesus (AS) to be God. You can tell there are problems in a scripture by simply subjecting it to tests.
In the Old Testament a book that should have been written by Moses (AS) talks about his death … that cannot be possible with any of the four conditions above. Do you see what I am getting at? I hope you do.