I have a question. This pertains to one of my biggest problems with Islam.
I am going to assume that the rest of your household is still Sikh.
Please explain to me how you sleep at night holding the belief that your entire family will be burning in hell in the hereafter. The mother who gave birth to you, changed your diapers and comforted you in the middle of the night when you couldn't sleep, the father who taught you how to ride a bicycle, took you to school and provided for you, the brothers and sisters that you played with and grew up with, all of them will be tortured in a lake of fire for eternity because they are not Muslims.
And please do not try to tell me that the final decision is up to God, that not all unbelievers go to hell. I have been studying Islam for years and am willing to state that I know more about it than you do. I don't mean that as an insult, just that sidesteping the question is not going to work.
The Qur'an, while it does contain words of wisdom here and there, is, in my mind, far from being a book that can claim itself to be the literal word of God. The first time I read Surah #2, the Heifer, it was difficult to go through it with a straight face. I found it quite amusing how often I was told I was going to go to hell for being an unbeliever.
I agree with you that Islam is misunderstood, verses are often taken out of context and most people don't understand the socio-political make-up of 7th century Arabia, so they don't know why it was necessary for certain verses to have come into existence.
The Qur'an is, in a way, a timeline of Muhammad's life, because quite a lot of the verses have to do with the environment in which he lived, the different events that occured between the time of his prophethood and the time of his death.
Anyways, I am rambling, please answer my question when you get the time.
