How Muslims prove God exists.

Man proves God exists by three ways:
1. By reason and intelligence
2. By reading sacred books like the Koran and for Christians the Bible
3. By meditation

For myself I know God exists by num 1: reason and intelligence.

So, I am asking Muslims, how do you know God exists?

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yrger · 80-89, M

@ArishMell

Thanks for what seems to me like an erudite exposition, please, tell me are you a Muslim, if not, then let us posit that you be a Muslim, and tell me what is the difference between Allah and God, okay!?

ArishMell · 70-79, M
You have answered your own question, but you could say much the same for any religion, not just the three Abrahamic ones; Hebrew/Judaism, Christianity and Islam, to put them in their historical order.

Really all apply to any major faith; not as "proof" but as rationale. Ways 1) and 3) are much the same, theologically, while 2) gives the faith's formal description. Similarly with the Asian religions based on their founders' writings, and generally older than the Middle Eastern ones.

Any religion is matter of personal belief in something that cannot be proven in reality however much you "reason" for it; and any religion is really only "true" to its own followers.

However, most religions extant or extinct, known or suggested by history and archaeology, essentially fulfil two or three basic human needs plus an almost-instinctive yearning for something "Above and Beyond". The difference is really in the detail, for these underlying points tend to be masked by the great variety of their deity/deities, constructions, systems and relationships between mankind and deity or deities. Or are ignored or derided by those vain enough to think their own is the only "true" faith, or even just sect.

If these were not so then there would not be so many religions and their sects now, if any, around the world. Within individual nations too, that host many faiths because they allow the personal freedom to choose. One aspect of this freedom is that the religions in such countries can and generally do co-exist peacefully and even co-operatively, to some extent.

The Abrahamic faiths are unusual in being very different from each other outwardly but following essentially the same god, called God or Allah, but defined in the 1st millenium BCE by the Ancient Hebrews whose predecessors were mainly Zoroastrian.

(Zorastrianism arose in Persia, now Iran, a major faith of its time but now very small, though still respected in Iran.)

ArishMell · 70-79, M

@yrger Thank you!

No, I am not a Muslim, nor following another faith, but I do try to understand others' beliefs.

I don't speak Arabic but I think Allah essentially means "God", and when I hear Muslim imans or academics speaking on the radio they tend to use either name. There are major differences between them but these three religions spring from the same Hebrew roots.

The first difference of course is that Judaism and Christianity are based on a library of books written over several centuries, but Islam was founded by one man, the Prophet Mohammed, who credited his inspiration to Allah. I don't know how the two main sects of Islam each consider Jesus, but I think one if not both respects him as an outstanding prophet and teacher but fully human, because giving him divine characteristics would compromise, in their view, the essential uniqueness and mystery of God.

I understand "Islam" means approximately "I surrender" - to God's way.