Answer
Short Answer: The main attractive aspects of Islam are its concept of One God, the authenticity of its book- the Quran– its concept of reward, and its universality. What you would get out of Islam is inner peace and tranquility for finding the Truth and following God’s Straight Path, which leads to a happy life in this world and a happy eternal life in the Hereafter.
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Salam (Peace) Julia,
Thank you for your question and for contacting Ask About Islam.
The main attractive aspects of Islam are its concept of God, the authenticity of its book- the Quran– its concept of reward, and its universality.
God in Islam
Muslims believe in only One God, who is known to Muslims and Arab non-Muslims as “Allah”. The most important characteristic of Allah is that He is the Creator of the heavens and earth and whatever is between them.
Allah is also the Most-Loving, the Most-Merciful, and the Most-Compassionate; just to name few of His characteristics.
So, Allah is the Creator and everything else is His creation. These two cannot mix; the creation may not become the Creator and the Creator may not be His own creation.
Therefore associating any other gods with Allah is the gravest of sins in Islam since having any intermediary between us and God is the greatest insult to Him. Allah is reachable at any time; all we have to do is ask Him and talk to Him directly, therefore, we must pray to Him directly.
The Holy Book in Islam
When anyone reads the Quran (revelation from God), even a translation, they immediately realize that man cannot write something similar. For Arabic speakers, the Quran is a linguistic miracle. In addition, as Allah promised in His book, things unfold in front of us.
What was once fiction for some time, is becoming reality through scientific discoveries and happens to be revealed in the Quran.
Most importantly, Allah told us in the Quran that He has made it easy to remember (54:17). Since its revelation, the Quran has been memorized by Arabic and non-Arabic speakers alike.
There are currently millions of Muslims around the world who have memorized the Quran cover to cover; more than 600 pages of the most eloquent Arabic language. If anyone destroys all written copies of the Quran worldwide, the Muslims will be able to rewrite it in a very short time.
The Prophets in Islam
The Quran and the tradition of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) are the main sources of Islamic knowledge. Muhammad (peace be upon him) was known among his people to be the most trustworthy, honest, kind, gentle, and wise.
When we read his story we learn about his intelligence, perseverance, calmness, confidence, integrity, honesty, humility, tolerance, patience, gentleness, generosity, wisdom, mercy, and courage. He was the most perfect human being who has ever lived. He was loved by his companions and is still loved by all Muslims today.
Also, believing in all prophets of God is a main Islamic creed; therefore believing in Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad (peace be upon them) does not contradict with believing in the only One God, our Creator; it rather corresponds extremely well: One Creator and many human prophets conveying God’s message to people.
That’s how it has always been since the creation of Adam (peace be upon him), another prophet of Islam. Muslims believe that there were about 124,000 prophets; however, only twenty five of them are mentioned by name in the Quran.
Reward and Punishment in Islam
In Islam, there is the concept of Hell and Paradise. Anyone who believes in God as his Lord and Creator without associating anyone with Him will eventually enter Paradise.
However, if we believe but do not act righteously and did major sins that we did not seek God’s forgiveness for, nor tried to fix the situation in any way, basically we acted rebelliously then we must pay for our rebellion for a period in Hell that corresponds to our evil acts to be eventually admitted into Paradise.
This is only fair since faith alone without acting upon it is not a guaranteed ticket to Paradise.
Allah gives us every chance to believe in Him and when we do so, He gives us all opportunities to gain His pleasure. When we sin, we simply have to ask for His forgiveness; the channel of communication is open continuously between us and Allah.
However, if we commit a sin it is only counted once. So it is very easy to go to sleep sinless every night since one good deed erases ten bad deeds. Allah tells us in the Quran:
{[…] Verily, the good deeds erase the bad deeds […]} (Quran 11:114)
Universality of Islam
Finally, Islam has shown the world its utmost universality. Millions of Muslims from all over the world meet yearly during the pilgrimage (the Hajj), dressed in the most humble clothing so all are equal in front of Allah, no one can tell the poor from the rich, or the president from the janitor.
In addition, the Muslim prayer is standardized so that we may walk anywhere in the world into any mosque and pray the same way we pray in the mosque next door. We can walk into a mosque in China and feel as comfortable as the mosque we attend in our neighborhood.
Peace in Islam
Muslims have a universal greeting as well no matter where they come from; it is the greeting of peace, “may peace be upon you” or Assalamu Alaikum in Arabic.
What you would get out of Islam is inner peace and tranquility for finding the Truth and following God’s Straight Path, which leads to a happy life in this world and a happy eternal life in the Hereafter.
That should give you a hint of why people from all levels of society, even religious figures from other religions enter into Islam by realizing that Islam is the truth that God revealed to human kind.
I hope this helps answer your question.
Salam and please keep in touch.
(From Ask About Islam archives)
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