I don't read heavy stuff too much, so I don't know any verses for or against. All I know is how people I meet behave. I've also come to believe that religion and people influence each other. I'm talking largely about the history of the Middle East and also the history of religion and how it came to be. A lot of the Middle Easterners I met are very different from the people of South East Asia. Almost total opposite. I think it's because they live in a harsh desert, whereas we live in a lush tropical environment. Both will give rise to very different people.
As for the history of religion. It all started from Judaism. For Christians and Muslims, their faiths are totally derived from Judaism . They then started changing according to fit the requirements of the people who lived in those areas. I think it might interest you to know that the originally the Jews or their ancestor tribes were polytheistic. They believed in many gods. At some point, the proto-Jews transitioned into worshipping a single god. El. In Hebrew, it is known as Elah. Translated into Arabic, it is Allah. This is a picture of a statue of the supreme god of the ancient Canaanites, Elah in Hebrew and Allah in Arabic.
View attachment 62574
The transition of the proto-Jewish tribes belief from polytheism to worshipping Elah/Allah alone is unknown to me, but I think it's a few hundred years BCE. It is worth noting that at the beginning there were two chief gods, El and Asherah and whole bunch of lesser gods. It is also worthy to note that these were usually derived from Egyptian or Mesopotamian gods. In short, it is a sure bet that Elah/Allah did not exist even in the imagination some 5000 years ago when humans had already begun farming for thousands of years already.
One very interesting feature was that a lot of the gods were associated with certain things or places. For example, Baal was the god of thunder. (Like Thor!), So what would happen was one city would worship Baal and another city would worship Astaroth goddess(!) of war. People familiar with reading fantasy books will recognize these two names as names commonly associated with demons. What actually happend was when the cities went to war, they literally demonized the followers of the other cities and their god. And somehow it stuck around to this day.
Here's a picture of a statue of Baal :
View attachment 62575
and Astaroth :
View attachment 62576
These ended up looking like this after lots of fanciful stories told by the winners who followers of another god :
View attachment 62577 and View attachment 62578
all because their followers and cities were the losers of war.
I hope you find this interesting!
Interesting insight indeed. Yes, u are right. Cos mankind suppose to worship one and only God. But they were led astray by Satan aka shaitan. Scriptures after scriptures, prophets after prophets were sent to the people. In Islam, all Prophets preached Islam. It only makes sense as the One God will reveal the same fundamentals. This is mentioned in the Qur'an (42:13):
"The same religion has He established for you as that which He enjoined on Noah - the which We have sent by inspiration to thee - and that which We enjoined on Abraham, Moses, and Jesus: Namely, that ye should remain steadfast in religion, and make no divisions therein:..."
There are numerous prophets ( one was sent down to every community to ensure that all receive the Message, and thus cannot claim ignorance in the the Day of Judgement. Centered at ME, Prophets were sent and to warn mankind eg Jews to repent. But they didnt and went against God command. There were 313 Rasuls sent to mankind and the last was the unlettered Prophet Muhammad saw. In the Torah, Bible, Hindu and Buddhist scriptures, coming of Prophet Muhammad was also prophecised.
In the Hebrew Torah though, it exactly reads like this:
Hikko Mamittakim we kullo Muhammadim Zehdoodeh wa Zehraee Bayna Jerusalem. (Prophet Muhammad name was mentioned in the Hebrew Torah)
The Bible describes the coming prophet so that he can be recognized:
I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. [Deuteronomy 18:18] (Prophet Muhammad was instructed by Allah thru Archangel Gabriel to speak/preach according to what the Lord commanded him)
And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned. [Isaiah 29:12] (Prophet Muhammad saw was an unlettered prophet)And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him. [Deuteronomy 18:20] (Every chapter of the Quran begin with the sentence In the name of God, Most Merciful Most Compassionate)
Buddha prophecised the advent of a Maitreya
Almost all Buddhist books contain this prophecy. It is in Chakkavatti Sinhnad Suttanta D. III, 76:
"There will arise in the world a Buddha named Maitreya (the benevolent one) a holy one, a supreme one, an enlightened one, endowed with wisdom in conduct, auspicious, knowing the universe:
"What he has realized by his own supernatural knowledge he will publish to this universe. He will preach his religion, glorious in its origin, glorious at its climax, glorious at the goal, in the spirit and the letter. He will proclaim a religious life, wholly perfect and thoroughly pure; even as I now preach my religion and a like life do proclaim. He will keep up the society of monks numbering many thousands, even as now I keep up a society of monks numbering many hundreds".
The Sanskrit word ‘Maitreya’ or its equivalent in Pali ‘Metteyya’ means loving, compassionate, merciful and benevolent. It also means kindness and friendliness, sympathy, etc. One Arabic word which is equivalent to all these words is ‘Rahmat’. In Surah Al-Anbiya:
https://ilovezakirnaik.com/muhammad_prophesised/buddhists.htm
Hindu scripture,Bhavishya Purana, name of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was prophesised:
According to Bhavishya Purana in the Prati Sarag Parv III Khand 3 Adhay 3 Shloka 5 to 8.
"A malecha (belonging to a foreign country and speaking a foreign language) spiritual teacher will appear with his companions. His name will be Mohammad. Raja (Bhoj) after giving this Maha Dev Arab (of angelic disposition) a bath in the Panchgavya and the Ganga water (i.e. purifying him of all sins) offered him the present of his sincere devotion and showing him all reverence said, "I make obeisance to thee. O ye! The pride of mankind, the dweller in Arabia, Ye have collected a great force to kill the Devil and you yourself have been protected from the malecha opponents."
https://www.islam101.com/religions/hinduism/Mhs.htm
Last edited:
