I ask you, you are standing in a desert. And as you travel, you see a watch there. What will you AUTOMATICALY, NATURALLY assume? You’ll assume that someone dropped his watch. Or something pushed the watch to this place! NO SANE person would ever think that the watched just formed itself? How could it? It is too complex and full of so many tiny parts that work so perfectly to tell accurate time!

Now, how about when u see the greatest of all watches, that has been working for — who knows? Billions, trillions, of years. And it travels in a Perfect course (which people who study science know very well), day in day out. It is placed in the perfect distance, from the earth ~ such that earth receives enough heat. *** Scientists tell u, if the sun was just a bit closer to the earth, the earth would burn up. If it was a bit farther from the earth, we would all freeze to death. No life could exist.

I ask you – IS THIS PERFECTION or what? How could u assume, logically, that this happened by coincidence? The sun just happened to come in that perfect spot, so life could continue on earth! It just happens to go in that perfect course..

Look at your very self! By God – i swear that science itself is one of the greatest proofs of God’s existence. Look at the vast panorama of nature around you. The smallest creatures the biggest, how they live in this harmony.

Look at your human body!! How perfectly it functions. Just take some time to study this beautiful design in you! In the Koran, God said: “And on the earth are signs…and inside your ownselves. Don’t you see?” ** Ponder! How could all of this beauty and perfection and harmony and advanced, complex designs that function so well ~ have come without a CREATOR?

In essence, that CREATOR, we believe, is the REAL GOD. He is the only one worthy of our servitude and obedience. We should follow His code of morals, injunctions, laws, etc.

But now, the next logical question comes: How do we get contact with Him? I mean, we now know that a Creator must exist, from a logical perspective. But now…how do we get contact with Him? How do we know what He wants, who is He (for real), what is He like, what does He want, why did He create us, etc?

We look into history. real history. We see that a chain of people, who came like a train (one after the other) ~ all claimed to have received from God. Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mohammad and so many many in between.

We notice that all of these men told people, that God revealed revelation to them, instructing them to tell the people to worship GOD ALONE. Not to serve, bow down before, obey, revere, humble yourself before, etc — anyone Except God Alone.

They taught that this world is not the world of living forever. Rather, as you can witness with your own eyes, people die everyday. People live and die. you FEEL that this is not the life of residence. People suffer, people die, people kill, oppressors rule, righteous are tortured, believers are ridiculed, — and mainly, deaths occur day in day out.

So you see ~ all the Prophets taught (as God informed them) that this world is merely the world of action, of test. You choose either to live a “righteous” life — i.e. live the normal worldly life, do what you gotta do, but don’t do what angers God, obey His orders, live according to His laws. Strive to please Him by [1] worshipping him. [2] helping and being good to mankind.

if you do this, in this short temporary life you have, — despite the sufferings and hardships you will face ~ in the REAL ETERNAL world, you will be rewarded by God. ***** (note: “if” you do this. In essence, if you are THANKFUL to God for the countless blessings He has given you in this world)

NOW< all of these prophets – each one of them – taught that if you disobey God. If you don’t believ in Him firstly. OR, in simpler terms: you are UNGRATEFUL TO HIM. This could manifest in many ways: either total rejection, or refusal to obey, or disobeying His orders ~ you will not be rewarded in the REAL WORLD (the world that you will pass into after you leave this world) ~ rather, you will be punished there.

NOW – an important note. The only ones who will stay eternally in the Fire of Hell, as the Divine Guidances inform, are ONLY those who totally denied God and refused to believe in Him. Those who WORSHIPPED others besides, or along-side HIM.

Others, such as sinners, will eventually enter Paradise — whereas the “righteous” will enter right away, by God’s mercy.

SUMMARY AND RECAP OF ABOVE:
The chain goes like this: (1) Realization or, figuring out by reason and logic, that God does exist. (2) Seeing the beauty and perfection and harmony and advanced, complex designs that function so well – and all of the blessings you enjoy day in day out which you never have considered before ~ realizing the greateness of this Creator. (3) But at the same time, seeing all of this chaos and corruption on earth, deaths, murders, tyrants, injustices, losses, sadness, etc. — Becoming confused 000.

(4) Trying to find contact with God. = the Messengers of God. Surprisingly, you see in the history, that a number of men came in a long chain from Adam, Noah, etc — all the way down to Jesus and Mohammad. See what these men claimed, and taught. Here, you will find some contact with the Divine..

(5) Ponder over the Messengers’ teachings regarding this temporary life and the next one…

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Personally, my friend, I know that this is really testy and trying. It is deep and requires some thought. Questions must be answered. The mind must be used in a lot of cases ~ however, in the end, when you come to the REVELATIONS OF GOD (which end and seal with the final book: the Quran) — its really a matter of PURE FAITH.

The Quran says: “Say: Beleive in this or don’t believe…verily, the people of knowledge before, when the divine scriptures were recited upon them, they would fall down in prostration to God..”

God also says in another Chapter: “Say: The Truth is from your Lord. So wheoever WISHES to believe, let him believe. And whoever wishes to disbelieve, let him do what he wants. Indeed, we have prepared for the wrondoers…. — Surey, those who believe…” (18:29-30)

But after thinking about all this — it starts to fit in, and make sense. Because this is the whole point of this world. A TEST. What else, resonably, could the purpose be – with the circumstances we are facing? It is without a doubt, a test for the people: to believe or disbelieve, to be thankful to God or ungrateful.

God is saying: “Are you wise enough to realize that there is a purpose, a higher goal to life? Life is not just living it day to day, and then you die.. – that is what animals do!”

Clearly, explicitly, a verse in the Koran says: “He is the One who created life and death, in order to test you, which of you…”

This is the final point, that really clarifies many doubtful thoughts in one’s mind.

BUT REMEMBER AGAIN!!! You have to start at step # 1, in order to reach this high and elite realization. Start with the basics. How do we know that God exists? And then move from there…

thank u

Not sure if you’ve given an answer to the question though.

Many religionists do not have some criteria to evaluate truth claims, they accept their faith bcos their family, culture, historical accident, peer pressure brought them into it… therefore nicely illustrated by ur story here.

But if we have tests of truth, then we must be ready to follow truth wherever it leads… the courage to do so is a prerequisite of knowing… but in reality, fear of punishment and social ostracization are genuine threats to the possibility of looking at our own ‘truth’ and ask some tough questions like these