The beauty of Islam

@Amish
Dear Amish, I hope you are doing well.
Unfortunately , almost all of the people
Who have visited this post of mine only did so because they saw the word Islam in the title so they hurried to bash and insult it and mentioning irrelevant topics like Taliban.
You are one of the only few people who have actually made a comment relevant to the content of this post (which is the Quran or more specifically chapter 35 of the Quran) and that speaks volumes about your intentions and your mindset .
So thank you for that.

As for the answer to your question,
We were created to worship God alone.
The connection is directly between us and him .
So when you go and worship idols and not God that is a big problem especially when you received a message from him telling you to worship him alone .
Also the message does not only inform you of who God is
But how to worship him
And what are the commandments etc..

And indeed idols you create them with your own hands
So
How can they hear you or talk to you or anything ?
Pagan Arabs used to make idols with dates then When they’d get hungry they’d eat them
What kind of God is that?

Have a good day sir

@Islamreligion Thank you ma'am. I have to admit that I couldn't subscribe to everything that you have said. It could well be because of an attempt from my side to try and defend what is already been taught by my culture. But I respect your views because in your reply I could find respect for my feelings. I am not known to be very nice and I had arguments with many people here particularly Christians. I felt like they were disresprecting my beliefs and it hurted my ego and I tried to reciprocate. Possibly it could be because either I was unable to comprehend their views or they were too pushy. Whatever it is it was not helping me in anyways except building negativity in my mind. Let me clear those negative thoughts from my mind and focus on this post alone.

I must admit that your answers had infact challenged my thinking. I had mentioned about the theme of symbolic representation but that is just theory that I made up in my mind as a defence to something that challenge my belief and not taken from any of our scriptures. So honestly I don't have an exact answer to your pointed question.
I am interested to know more though if it doesn't trouble you much.

I never heard about Pagan Arabs making Idols of dates before. Were they part of the eastern philosophical background?
You mentioned about the commandments of God that prohibit Idol worship. Are they same as the ones that Christians follow ?
Also are these commandments specific to any region or time. Or they apply universally. Could it be just that the prophet was more concerned about worshipping something symbolically and at the same time eating it when hungry thereby disrespecting God?
You too have a very good day.

@Amish

1/ In the first part , you mentioned disrespectful Christians and I get your pain Amish. Most of those who attack my posts on here are from a Christian background.
But I think that is mainly because a lot of those who use this site are Christian and not necessarily that Christians tend to be “more “ disrespectful. I have met many many disrespectful Hindus Muslims etc…
You see such people from each faith unfortunately. People who follow a certain faith are not always a good reflection of it . many are a horrible reflection of it.
That is why God says in the Quran the following :
Al-An'am - Verse 108
{
And do not insult those they invoke other than Allah, lest they insult Allah in enmity without knowledge. }

Because if I insult your God/religion
You will (most likely ) either insult mine back or be pushed away And that might cause you to push the truth (Islam) away before even learning about it.

That is why God also says in the Quran :
An-Nahl - Verse 125
{ invite to the way of your lord with wisdom and good instruction, and argue with them in a way that is best. Indeed, your Lord is most knowing of who has strayed from His way, and He is most knowing of who is [rightly] guided.}
——-
2: In the second part you said

“ I never heard about Pagan Arabs making Idols of dates before. Were they part of the eastern philosophical background? “

Arab paganism is very broad. They worshipped many idols. Almost every family /tribe had their own Idol.
But some of the famous ones were
“Al-lat “ and “Al uzza”
(You can look them up )
And no , in the big picture
they erre not made of dates but minor ones were.

Ironically , most of the Arab idols were “Goddess”
Aka female God.
Although the pagan Arabs hated and degraded the women
So the Quran pointe at their faulty logic :
An-Nahl - Verse 57
{
And they attribute to Allah daughters - exalted is He - and for them is what they desire.}

Here God (God in Islam is not a female or a male. “He “ in Arabic is also used for the genderless ) is saying :
So you make female idols and worship /exalt but you hate your own daughters just because theyr female and prefer sons ? What kind of logic is that ?

And the verses continue :

An-Nahl - Verse 58
{
And when one of them is informed of [the birth of] a female, his face becomes dark, and he suppresses grief.
He hides himself from the people because of the ill of which he has been informed. Should he keep it in humiliation or bury it in the ground? [i][b]Unquestionably, evil is what they decide.[/b][/i]}

God ends the verse with “evil is what they decide “
Meaning , that daughters are a blessing and that their judgment is evil .

————
3/
“You mentioned about the commandments of God that prohibit Idol worship. Are they same as the ones that Christians follow ? “

We Muslims believe that god sent thousands of prophets throughout time.
All with the same basic message
“To worship the one true God alone and follow the prophet of your time “
And Mohammed is only the last prophet.
But people throughout history
Deviated from that path
Jews who turned their religion into an ethnic religion and denied Jesus and Mohammed
Christians who went astray and started to worship Jesus and the spirit besides God
And crested the whole Trinity
Pagans who started to worship idols
Who don’t benefit nor harm them and crave them with their hand and a lot of religions stemmed from it
And so on…..
jf you analyze you will notice that
Hinduism , Judaism , Christianity, Sikhism
They are all named after a person or an event or a land
No?
But “Islam”
Means “submission to the one and true God”
It’s not named after any person or a land.
Hence we believe by “definition “
Jesus moses Noah etc were all Muslims.

@Islamreligion I totally agree with you on " People who follow a certain faith are not always a good reflection of it "
On your comment, " But I think that is mainly because a lot of those who use this site are Christian and not necessarily that Christians tend to be “more “ disrespectful." , I wish I could think like you. You definitely taught me a lesson of humility and being non-judgmental. Thank you. Only purest of mind can think like that. Often people, including me, tend to find fault in others. Your statement taught me that finding goodness in someone is what really matters (tough) and not finding fault in others (easy).

"Al-lat “ and “Al uzza" , I searched for them and I could find that Al-lat, Al uzza, and Mannat were 3 daughters of Allah. This is the first time I am hearing these stories. I couldn't find any reference to date Idols though. But it is ok. I got the essence of the message and it is that Idol worship is against the likes of Allah or God.
In this regard, I would request you to share some more stories or messages that will explain why Idol worship is wrong. It might be a simple concept but because of my cultural orientation I am not able to comprehend this message completely.

"God in Islam is not a female or a male. “He “ in Arabic is also used for the genderless" - This is a new info for me and I feel this is quite an inspiring message for humanity. In almost all other religions, the maleness is celebrated where as in Islam equality of the gender is maintained. That is a respectful aspect.
I would be interested to read more about Islam and Quran. But I would not be in a position to have a copy or pdf due to various reasons. Would you be able to share some materials or passages in incremental order where I can learn from scratch?

Regarding "They are all named after a person or an event or a land", as far as my understanding is correct, I agree to your statement about Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism etc. But Hinduism is not named after any land or person. It is said to be the oldest religion and was earlier known as Sanatana Dharma. Is this the basis for your statement "Jesus moses Noah etc were all Muslims." ?
But since Islam is not the only religion which is not derived out of person or land, can we still say that Jesus, Moses, Noah etc were Muslims?
If yes, Could you give references for this please?