Reply #17: Mind that AYN

[Azooz]

it's one letter that all English Christians should learn so they can say the name of Jesus (pbuh) properly - the Roman's Latin didn't have enough vowels either ;)

The history of Arabia before Islam is one word: war. 3,000+ years of one major war each and every year, unless it was two wars. Many more smaller tribal wars, city wars, civil wars. there were 4 truce months for Pilgrims and those were for duels only, and a lot of Cain and Able replays - and when they were over the wars would begin again.

Also - the central part of Arabia (desert) had no religion at all - total anarchy that permitted no organized religion, a Christian or Jewish tribe would have to drop it's religion in a month or two, and would not be able to teach it to the kids - it was never a matter of learning a new religion for an old one, it was getting people who had rejected all religion for 3,000 years into Any religion.

What the Quran does is simple, it emphasizes the "or else" part of a religion. "Thou Shall Not Murder" is in all the holy books, and a good thing to - and they all have very eloquent "or else" that are designed to scare the "faithful" away from murder, or any other "sin" - the Quran is eloquent enough to leave no doubt about the "or else". An Arabic speaking person can commit a murder and all the other major sins, but the Quran leaves no doubt about that "or else". The Quran took the worst people on Earth, and made them almost civilized - our neighbors like us now much better, that I know for sure.

First word revealed in the Quran was: Read - so why not read it. The eloquence is not needed if you just want to know what it says, and it's a lot better at explaining things than anyone is.

>>What are the positive benefits of Islam, which clearly derive from Islam
>>and which can't be achieved by other religions or philosophies,
>>which can be demonstrated to the non-believer?

When Arabs "conquered" Egypt they had over 300 religions and many with no religion - not one of them was preached to, no one had to change his or her religion - the Romans had a nice Inquisition going at the time, and when Islam came along the many exiled Egyptian Christian priests returned, and the Egyptians liked not being told what to believe in. The only religious practice changed was that Islam forbids throwing young girls into the Nile - the Egyptian women did not complain about that one.

>>which can be demonstrated to the non-believer?
Nothing at all - not even to a great and true believer either, you will find much the same things in the Quran as in many other books, and much better worded and with an easier to follow flow than the English Quran - Arabic just adds the eloquence, nothing more - Arab Jews and Christan's say the Quran is magic, dark temptation (fitnah) and the work of demons to be that eloquent - but they do agree that it is too eloquent for anyone to write like it.