Why so many Religions?

WHY AND HOW SO MANY RELIGIONS CAME INTO PRACTICES ?

Let us get back to the question which is raised above, and restate it elaborately: If the first man on earth was Adam and if he was given guidance by his Creator, as to how to lead life on earth, and if we are the grand-descendents of Adam, then

Why did not people follow the same religion ?

Why do so many other religions exist and why are they different ?

How come some did not come to know Allah's message and became idol worshippers ?

The following discussion will clear these issues.

Although Allah sent messengers on earth to guide mankind, He did not send them among the people every month or every year. He chose His messengers from amomg the people on earth to guide human beings after some interval of time as He considered appropriate. When a messenger passed away, it was the responsibilty of his followers to practice and transmit the same message or guidance to the next generation.

However, after the death of a Messenger of Allah, the following were the possible scenerios that might have happened.

There were believers, who strictly followed the guidance of Allah, and asked their later generations to follow the same guidance.

From among the above group, there emerged some people, who later followed the guidance of Allah in part, and were also guided by their own evil wishes and desires on some other matters. Thus, they subtracted something from Allah's guidance and added something new in it to serve their purpose.

Also there were some people, who although knew that there is one Allah, did not bother to follow His guidance simply because they were lazy or they thought it was difficult to follow. And slowly they forgot the guidance of Allah due to their neglegence.

And there were also some people, who did not believe in Allah even when the Messenger of Allah was alive. Some disbelievers also emerged from the later generation of the believers as well. Perhaps, these people were totally overtaken by the provocations of Iblees, the Satan.

It should be mentioned here that Allah likes variety in His creation. Therefore, he made human beings of different colours, languages, and nations and tribes so they can be known as the tribes and descendents of so and so and compete with each others to achieve the real success. Now those, who did not practice Allah's guidance, did not transmit the message to their next generation properly or did not care to do so due to neglegence. And those, who forgot the guidance of Allah, naturally could not transmit the message to their next generation properly. As the human civilization increased in number, they also started moving to new places. Thus, they became separated from each other. Also due to the continental drift of the soil on earth, some became isolated in the different subcontinents. However, as has been mentioned earlier that human beings are provided with some inherent instinct of worshipping their Creator or God. Thus, people from some later generations started searching for the creator out of their own imagination. However, in their search for finding the Creator those who could not apply their intellect properly, Iblees the Satan came to escort and misguide them. This is how, the various man-made religious systems came into existence.

It should, however, be noted here that there is not a single nation on earth, where Allah did not send His messenger or warner for guidance. And when a new messenger was sent to a nation, who forgot or got deviated from Allah's guidance, it was the duty of the people of that nation to accept the truth. But it was not always the case. There are historical evidence that some messengers of Allah were brutally tortured or even killed by the people. Why did it happen so? It is mainly for the following two reasons.

The people thought that the path they were following traditionally from their forefathers was the correct path. Therefore, they thought what the new messenger was telling them was not right. Instead of applying reasons and deep thought into the matter, they were rigid and stabborn. Therefore, they did not accept the truth.

There were also some people, who thought that if they accepted the truth they would lose something in money matters or would not be able to achieve some worldly gains. Therefore, eventhough they knew that the truth had come to them, they opposed and rejected it to meet their selfish ends.

It is better if people fear Allah and the punishment of hellfire after the day of judgement, and accept ISLAM as the true religion or way of life as guided by Allah, from beginning to the end of human civilization.