What Led Me to Believe Islam Is True [Detailed Thoughts]

Assalamu alaikum everyone. I wanted to share something that's been on my mind for a while-why I personally came to believe Islam is true. This isn't me quoting verses at you, but more like walking through how I started thinking about it all. If someone asked, “How do you know Ahmed is honest?” you can’t just say, “Because Ahmed says so.” That doesn’t work, right? So I started with a bigger question: why is there anything at all? Everything around us feels dependent, you know? Like, things could easily not be here. You, me, the earth-none of it had to exist. A tree grows because someone planted a seed, it got water and sun, and those conditions lined up. But that seed didn’t have to be there, the person didn’t have to plant it, and those conditions weren’t guaranteed. So everything seems to lean on something else. That’s what I mean by contingent-it depends. So why is there stuff instead of nothing? There are a few ways to look at it. Either everything just depends on other stuff forever, or there’s no real reason at all, or at the end of the line, something exists that doesn’t depend on anything. That third option makes sense to me. Imagine someone asks why Ahmed has $100. You find out his friend gave it, who got it from another person, and so on, forever. Nobody ever actually had their own $100 to start with. Eventually, you’d wonder where the money came from originally. Same idea: if everything depends on something else, going back and back doesn’t explain anything. You need something that isn’t borrowed, something necessary. So, we land on a necessary being-something that just is, and everything else depends on it. I’m not jumping to “God” yet, just saying there must be a foundation. And no, “Who created God?” doesn’t trip this up, because we’re not saying everything needs a cause, only dependent things do. A necessary being isn’t waiting around for a cause. Now, what would this necessary thing be like? It can’t just be another physical object, because those are contingent. Not a superpowered alien or the universe itself-those still need explaining. It has to transcend all that, not stuck inside the box of physical stuff. And if it gave rise to our universe-when it could’ve made a different one or none-that points to will and knowledge, not random chance. It’s not a full “gotcha” against atheism, but it sets up a question every worldview has to tangle with: what’s the ultimate explanation for everything? Okay, but even if you accept that, it doesn’t automatically give you Islam. A deist might say, “Sure, a higher power started things and dipped.” So we turn to revelation. If this Creator made us with minds and moral sense, and put us in a world where choices matter, the idea of guidance isn’t weird. Now, did the Creator actually communicate with people? This is where Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) comes in. He made a huge claim: he wasn’t just a wise man or poet, but a messenger from the Creator, and the Qur’an is that message. So you look at the options: he was lying, he was mistaken, someone else fed him the message, or he was truthful. It’s not about whether Muslims like him-it’s about what fits best when you study his life, his message, the Qur’an, and everything around him. Some say he made it up for power or money, but that ignores history. He started preaching when it got him persecution, not comfort. His followers were hurt, he was offered deals to stop, and he kept going with the same uncompromising call: worship one God, leave idols, repent, uphold justice, give charity, and prepare for the next life. He staked his whole reputation on his revelation being true. Then there’s the Qur’an itself. It’s not written like his personal diary-it clearly separates between him and the revelation, and even corrects him sometimes. If someone was faking it to build authority, why include lines that critique him? That’s not proof on its own, but it’s part of the picture. One thing that stood out to me: the Qur’an challenges people to produce a chapter like it (2:23). It wasn’t just saying “hey, this sounds nice”-it’s about its unique literary quality in Arabic, which you can’t really judge from translations. It’s like translating poetry; you lose the rhythm, word choice, and depth. The Qur’an’s claim of being inimitable means you have to look at the actual Arabic to test it, not just shrug it off. Preservation is another piece. The Qur’an says, “Indeed, We have sent down the Reminder, and indeed We will preserve it” (15:9). It wasn’t kept in a single old manuscript that could’ve been tweaked. It’s been passed down through living chains: recitation, memorization, teaching, and writing. If someone messed with one copy, thousands of people’s memories and other records kept the real text intact. Variant readings don’t automatically mean corruption-Islamic scholarship says accepted recitations trace back to the Prophet himself, not random later edits. Then prophecies. The Qur’an predicted the Romans would bounce back from defeat within a certain time. That’s not vague like “they’ll be strong one day”-it’s specific against a group and a timeframe, so you can check history against it. Again, it’s not a standalone proof, but it adds weight when you stack things up. The concept of God in Islam is also really straightforward. One God-Al-Ahad, the One; As-Samad, totally self-sufficient. Not three-in-one, not a man-god, not someone who eats or depends on creation. “He neither begets nor is born, nor is there to Him any equivalent” (112:3-4). That fits smoothly with the necessary being we reasoned about earlier. The Prophet (peace be upon him) didn’t claim a new religion; he said he was bringing back the faith of Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and all the prophets: worship the Creator alone. I wouldn’t tell anyone to believe just because I feel it. I’d say look at the full case. Ask: Does a higher power exist? If so, could revelation happen? Then check out who claimed revelation and what evidence they brought. Study Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and the Qur’an-learn its Arabic if you can, dig into its transmission, its prophecies, and what critics say. And don’t assume your starting worldview is neutral. Atheism, Christianity, Islam, and others all make claims. The real question is which one makes the most sense of existence, reason, morality, and the historical evidence around the Prophet and the Qur’an. If you’re honestly searching, read the Qur’an with an open heart. See what it says for yourself. In the end, Islam calls us to worship Allah alone-the One who created Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Just my thoughts, may Allah guide us all. A lot of this draws from things I’ve learned through Sapience Institute, like talks from Mohammed Hijab and Hamza Tzortzis. I’ve just reworded and pieced it together in a way that clicked for me.