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markansas This might surprise you,
But most of the “pagans “ of Arabia where prophet Mohammed started preaching Islam were actually already believers in the abrahamic God.
Their only problem was associating others with him in worship. For instance , worshipping idols on earth thinking it would get them closer to the God in heaven. Some included angel worship or associated daughters to God etc…
So prophet Mohammed mainly was not preaching the existence of God rather than preaching complete monotheism.
And we see this in the Quran :
Az-Zumar - Verse 38
If you ask them ˹O Prophet˺ who created the heavens and the earth, they will certainly say, “Allah!” Ask ˹them˺, “Consider then whatever ˹idols˺ you invoke besides Allah: if it was Allah’s Will to harm me, could they undo that harm? Or if He willed ˹some˺ mercy for me, could they withhold His mercy?” Say, “Allah is sufficient for me. In Him ˹alone˺ the faithful put their trust.”
So most of the Arab pagans (or non Arab living there ) already believed in the supreme abrahamic God but they associated idols in worship with him.
That is why God sent a prophet after the other
Because most of the people drift away from the truth after some time due to their own desires.
Like Moses and the calf story
Or after Jesus , people drifted and started to include him in worship and God became a trinity.
Who knows maybe even Hinduism started with the truth and then people drifted.
And on and on
And this phenomenon in the human being
Is in the Quran
Yusuf - Verse 106
{And most of them do not believe in Allah without associating others with Him ˹in worship˺}
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And I agree with you about not beating others due to religion differences etc
Islam also teach us not to.
When torture , killing , rumors etc nothing worked to stop pagans from converting to Islam
the pagans of Arabia gave up
And they went to prophet Mohammed and they said “let us at least worship Your God alone one day/year and let us all worship our Gods the next year/ day “
Which is insane , as it is not a game
Therefore God revealed chapter 109 (check it out)
it basically tells prophet Mohammed to say
“ I do not worship what you worship nor are you worshippers of what I worship you have your religion and I have mine.”
I believe violence exists even outside of religion
Like a sport fan going violent on a fan from opposing team and we have seen it.
Etc
As for hell. If you don’t believe in Islam ( or any religion that has such concept )
Why does it bother you that all those who deny it will go to hell?
But if you believe in it ,
Doesn’t it make sense for God to punish people who were too pride to believe in him ? It is our sole purpose of life after all.
If murder is horrible ,isn’t that more horrible ?
Moreover, in Islam not only non Muslims can go to hell
But even evil Muslims can go to it.
Heaven in Islam is about belief + deeds.
Also those from any religion who die before puberty or the message of Islam never reached them or they were forced not to be Muslim etc
they will go to heaven