Arguments

Islam. You probably know it all, you are not even reading further, right ? 

The thing Ive noticed, both among Muslims and Non muslims is that nine out of ten people are ‘very sure’ of and ‘thoroughly convinced’ of their religious standing. Not just the theists, the atheists and agnostics are also sure of their beliefs. 

I dont say that being sure of your beliefs is a wrong thing. It is infact a great thing. Perhaps some psychiatrist will research on it and prove that it is great for your health, or maybe its already done. But, when your beliefs start countering the basic paradigms of logic, reasoning and common sense, then that gets very disturbing. 

This post arose out of a debate with a non muslim acquaintance and it was only that I realized that people have Islam so messed up in their heads. 

 The debate over the ‘invention’ of Islam

Among the major religions of the world, Islam is the latest. or is it ? 

Most non muslims and even some muslims believe that Islam started somehwere in the early seventh century. Nobody’s fault. Thats the way encyclopedias write it, thats what people are taught at schools.

For a while, let us forget about this discussion and look at something else : 

Karl Marx is credited as the founder of communism. (Wikipedia). This effectively means that he invented communism and there wasnt anything like communism before him. 

Budha found Buddhism. (Wikipedia). Once again this clearly means that before Gautam Budha, there was no such thing as Buddhism. 

Coming back, let us define Islam: submission or total surrender of oneself to God. (Wikipedia).

Common sense informs us that there must have been hundreds of people who believed in one God before the Prophet. Historically, we know very little of the people before us, but even among these little bits and pieces of information, it can safely be said that monotheism wasnt entirely a new idea.

Technically, therefore, there is no way you can say that Mohammed pbuh could have invented or founded Islam. 

Yes, Mohammed pbuh can be thought of as a reviver of Islam, thats all.

There are a lot more such issues about which Insha Allah, ill be writing in my coming posts.