peace aallya,
I understand your questions as I had the same ones. I will briefly discuss what I have learnt from my studies so far with regard to these questions...
It is true to say whilst names such as "Judaism" "Christianity" were later given to what past prophets delivered, al quran of course has a different take on it. They all had the same message: submisison to God (muslim), monotheism and being righteous. Even today, we see this going on to some degree with "Islam", with Sunni, Shia, Wahabi etc.
Now onto the crux of your questions: why not get it right first time around?
Over thousands of years, civilisations/communities/societies develop as time goes on. Whilst core things, such as stealing, murder, being charitable etc remain constant in all societies throughout time, the finer things can change, e.g. in terms of what is best to do for XYZ, attitudes to ABC.
During this progression, there will eventually come a point when no further advancement takes place to any significant degree. At this point, no further revelation is necessary.
An additional point...
This life is a test, and from my experience the test is finely balanced. If everything was on a plate for you, i.e. right first time round, only one version to choose from, no variables, then some may consider it too easy. The way it is at present requires one to think, recognise core values and patterns and then choose... making it much more individual.
Also, I think humans have a tendency to distort things no matter what... so if al quran is the final revelation and distortion was going to happen with "Islam" as well (and all revelations), it is important to set examples of distortion before, to serve as a reminder and warning for future generations.
With these questions it is very important to consider the other side of the coin and see what the options are etc.
Quote from: aallya on August 08, 2007, 05:19:22 AM
I come from a Muslim family, and lately have had to deal with several issues regarding whether or not religion of any kind makes sense, and whether God exists at all. While pondering, it occured to me that Muslims (to the best of my knowledge) claim that they belong to the correct religion by virtue of the fact that Mohammed completed religion/the message that God was trying to convey to mankind. First there was Jewdaism, then Christianity, then Islam, after two previous failed attempts.
To me, this seems like a contradiction to our very perception of attributes Muslims give God. It is said he is all knowing and all powerful etc. Surely, if that were the case, and hes has power and supremity that we cannot even fathom, then this whole 'completing the message' scenario, would never have existed because he would have known exactly what to do first time around?
I dont think that saying anything related to how mankind was at fault would truly answer that question because if God is all knowing then he would know what was needed to get through to mankind if he wanted the message to be delivered.
Anybody have any insight on this question?