She took upon herself the Daunting Task of educating me...
But Thanks to a child hood spent on reading history books on everyting from Crusades tothe civil rights movement, and a adulthood spent glued to wikipedia... I was eventually correcting her when she was painstakingly talking about the hadiths,suras and the details about the Caliphate and Umma...
She asked me a question which left me bewildered...I would summarize the conversation we had for just the sake of recording it for posterity...
She: How come you know so much about Islam?.. Why are you attracted by It?
I: Well, I guess I wanted to knwo about the turks,abbasids and history and beyond a point I had to understand Islam to comprehend history....
Q: Even after Reading So much..what is the point...dont you realize the message...dont you see the true message...
I do not what possessed me but I gave the following reply which I am proud of having given and on contemplating upon it given me immense clarity and perspective....
I: I don't Think there is a True Message...In any Religion..at one level all religions are false..and at another level they are all True...I guess the Only True message if at all such a thing exists at all..is that..Truth is the Message.. the Concept of God orignates adn signifies the Part of the Brain which contemplates and distinguishes Truths from Untruth...
You ask a villager in India about his farmland...he will tell you its the most fertle in the world for growing rice...
Similarly a farmer in Mexico will tell you its the best for growing corn....
Its the same thing with religions...they are shaped by the needs & conditions which existed at that point of time..so they will evolve...and they survive by evolution....
When most religions started to be spoken of as such....
The Truth...most beleived in then was Earth was flat..
We now know it is as Un true....
So you decide.....
Just like comparing a Rice field and Wheat Field is meaning less scientifically and on any basis... compariing two religions is unfair and childish....
She: You say all that...But dont you think there is Qayamat..Judgement day...Day of reckoning...Your reliigon also talks about karma and stuff...
I: Well maybe there is..and therin lies the key to the message probably...
Perhaps that is the Key..perhaps that is the message... Life itself is the true message...the Greatest Gift I will ever need from God.. a whole life time to ponder,contemplate and keep trying to unravel the mysteries..to break the head about if there is a true message..when you are the greatest message that god would ever want to convey....
God does convey messages probably....(:-))
To parents..a great kid..To Peers..a great friend...
Well to sum it up... Every Human represents the True message from god... the source of happiness and fount of love...to some other human...
What more would God want to Convey.... We are manifestations of that Message...and How well we share that fount of human kindness built into us is the best way to share that Message and bask in its glory...
