FAQ in dawah: Why Islam?

Practical, logical, and with no contradiction

• Islam is a complete way of life as described in the holy book (Qur'an) and way of Prophet Muhammad (sunnah and hadith)
• Qur'an came for whole of mankind (e.g. Ibrahim 14:1 & 52, Al-Baqarah 2:185)
• There are no contradictions in the Qur'an
• Qur'an invites everyone to find an error in it (An-Nisa 4:82)
• Qur'an challenges anyone to bring one chapter - not one verse as some wrongly believe - like it (Al-Baqarah 2:23). The smallest chapter, chapter 108 Al-Kawthar, only has 3 verses or around 10 words
• This challenge came to people who were masters of Arabic and poetry and were not Muslims (e.g. pagans, atheists, Christian or Jew). And since Qur'an was a threat to powerful wealthy leaders, they could've used the help of these masters to defeat Qur'an's challenge. But they couldn't
• Qur'an contains scientific facts, historical accounts, linguistic style, and prophecies (some time bound) that was not known before
• None of Qur'anic facts have been proven wrong so far. It's mathematically impossible to guess each time and get it correct

Some scientific facts in Qur'an

• How a child develops in the womb (Al-Mu'minun 23:12-14, Al-'Alaq 96:1-2, Al-Hajj 22:5, Az-Zumar 39:6). Talks about different stages, 3 layers of darkness, and clot acting like a leech (hanging and sucking blood). How can a man without an ultrascan machine, MRI machine, no medical equipment know this? Intellectuals like Galen and Aristotle falsely believed babies were created from menstrual blood or that the baby was small minute baby and then gets bigger
• Science discovered final decisions, good and bad, made by frontal lobe (or forelock) of brain. Qur'an mentions sinful forelock will be dragged (Al-'Alaq 96:15-16)
• Universe is expanding (Adh-Dhariyat 51:47). In 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Saul Perlmutter, Brian Schmidt, and Adam Riess for discovering this, around 1,400 years after the Qur'an mentioned it. The Hubble Space Telescope (launched into orbit in 1990) helped them to get data
• People believed earth was flat at a time when Qur'an revealed it was egg-shaped or spread-out (An-Nazi-at 79:30, Al-Ghashiyah 88:20)
• Sun, moon, and all different planets have an orbit of their own (Al-Anbya 21:33, Ya-Sin 36:40). It's impossible to observe this with human eye. How can a desert man without telescope or access to scientific knowledge and tools know such thing?
• Clouds are heavy (Ar-Ra'd 13:12). Today science tells us these clouds weigh tons because they have water in them
• How wind fertilizes the cloud, and produces rain for us to ultimately convert it into drink water (Al-Hijr 15:22)
• Waves are layered in deep sea (An-Nur 24:40). You cannot know this without deep diving and we only found this out recently
• Moon's light is not from the moon itself but reflected light from the sun instead, and both have precise phases so we can determine day and time (Yunus 10:5)
• Mountains described as 'pegs', acting as anchors and stopping the earth from shaking or becoming unstable (An-Naba 78:6-7, Al-Anbya 21:31). So mountains reduce tectonic activity. How can you know this without any drilling equipment or geology equipment?
• Fresh sea water and salty sea water not mixing and are separated by a barrier (Al-Furqan 25:53, Ar-Rahman 55:19-20)
• Hints at Big Bang theory and confirms every living thing made out of water (Al-Anbya 21:30)

Some historical facts

• Early 7th century two superpowers, Romans (Byzantines) and Persians (Sassanid), were engaged in fierce wars. The Persians won and the Romans experienced unprecedented decline. But around 615 AD or 616 AD, 6th year of the Qur'anic revelation, Allah revealed the defeated Roman Christians will beat the Persian pagans again 'within 3 to 9 years' (Ar-Rum 30:1-5) - a time-bound prophecy. The Romans had lost Constantinople (Istanbul), Jerusalem, Damascus. Nobody in their wildest dream would've predicted them to come back within a decade. But they did. In 9 years the Romans beat the Persians, while at the same time the Muslims beat the idol worshippers in the Battle of Badr
• Pharaoh's dead body will be preserved not drowned (Yunus 10:90-92)
• Bible mentions king of Egypt at the time of Abraham, Joseph, and Moses are called 'Pharaoh'. But Qur'an mentions Pharaoh 64 times, but only in the story of Moses, not Abraham or Joseph. During Joseph's time the Qur'an calls him 'King'. Today we know the term pharaoh was only used around 1,500 BCE and previous leaders were called king. So the Bible is historically incorrect. If Qur'an was plagiarising Bible it should copy this error also, but it doesn't
• In the Quran, Pharaoh declares, "I am your lord, most high" (An-Nazi'at 79:24). Old Testament doesn't mention this
• Qur'an says there were many gods worshipped in ancient Egypt (Al-A'raf 7:127). But we only found this out after the Rosetta Stone was discovered in 18th century and we were able to translate the hieroglyphics inscribed on the stone. So how did Muhammad know this nearly 1,200 years earlier if he didn't have access to the Egyptian culture, civilization, and language? He was told by The Creator

Some prophecies of Muhammad (pbuh)

• Muslims will overcome Roman and Persian empires, the two biggest on the planet at that time (Sahih Muslim 2900)
• Sexual immorality will be so widespread that new diseases will appear in the future (Sunan Abi Majah 4019)
• Interest will be so widespread that even Muslim will not be able to avoid it (Sunan Abi Majah 2278)
• When Persian king Chosroes (also spelled Khosrau, Khosrow, or Khusro) dies he'll be the last one and when Roman leader Caesar dies there'll be no Caesar after him (Sahih al-Bukhari 3618)
• Prophet named the countries that would become Muslim: Jordan (Musnad Ahmad 30:625), Egypt (Sahih Muslim 2543B), Syria, Yemen, Iraq (Sunan Abi Dawud 2483), Constantinople (Musnad Ahmad 31:257), India (Sunan an-Nisa'I 3175)

Preservation of Qur'an

• Only one Qur'an - no different versions like Bible
• Some non-Muslims confuse the 7 different qira'ats (recitation) with being different versions. But these are only different dialects revealed by Allah to Muhammad
• Primarily oral tradition. Thousands memorised it verbally initially
• Oldest carbon-dated manuscript trace back to first century following Prophet Muhammad's death
• Very detailed science of preservation. We even have biographies all those who wrote the verses following Muhammad's command
• Qur'an is the most eloquent in Arabic language. It has its own category of language (it's not prose, poetry or speech)
• Qur'an introduced new words, grammatical structure and combination of words in Arabic language. Each chapter introduces a minimum of one new word
• Made easy for people to memorise (Al-Qamar 54:40)
• Bring one non-Muslim who has memorised their holy book (e.g. Bible, Torah, Bhagvad Gita, etc.) in any language
• If you burn all the books in the world, the Qur'an is the only book that can be brought back fully within hours (as millions around the world have memorised it word for word)

Character of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)

• Muhammad is the final messenger or "seal of the prophets" (Al-Ahzab 33:40)
• Muhammad couldn't have taken information from humans - the highest intellectual humans - as they believed in incorrect things
• How can an illiterate man in the desert with no training in philosophy, science, metaphysics, etc., come up with such detailed and intelligent things? Is it possible for him to correct all the mistakes in the Torah and Bible?