Why Islam?

Why is there a religion called Islam?  What was God's purpose for giving a new revelation? What problem did the Arabian people face? Were they oppressed, and needing to be set free?

Idolatry is an old story. There was already a long tradition of God's dislike of that, and no need for any more. Zoroaster, Melchizadek, Abraham (whose son influenced pharaoh Akhenaten), then Moses and the prophets,  followed by Jesus and his apostles... Clearly, that idea was already set in stone.

What more did God want to tell us? There is no advancement of morality in Islam. Nor is the treatment of women, or the poor, or strangers any better. There is no additional wisdom, or clarification for discerning truth, nor a better idea of freedom. There is only a license for violence and the sexual abuse of slaves, all in the name of spreading the new ideology, and its new laws that merely reflect the way the Arabs already lived. So what was the point of Islam? Only conquest? Christianity wasn't doing such a bad job of spreading God's word. Or maybe that was the problem. They didn't want a foreign faith.

That is actually one of the historical problems that calls Islam into question. There was no real reason for God to provide a new revelation, just for the Arabian people. Sure, they had too many gods, whom they worshipped as idols. But they were not oppressed, nor were they praying for a prophet or hero. The only issue they had was that they were jealous of the Jews and Christians, because they had no scriptures of their own.

 Muhammad wanted his own religion. He wanted it to answer his people's issues of disagreement with the heretical versions of Christianity they were encountering in the markets. These outcast, erstwhile gnostic writings were ignored by the Jews and Christians, unless they were a cause for argument and dissent. None of these really made any sense, but they clearly had some kind of power to make people think. So, he went to meditate in a cave until he had a vision.

Finally an angel came to give him what he wanted. But this was not one of the more familiar angels, who nearly always greet humans, saying "Be not afraid." This angel frightened Muhammad, and threatened him, insisting that he read out what he was being given. Muhammad was so shaken that he protested that he couldn't read the languages of the texts. Indeed, he began to wonder if he was losing his mind. At last, he cooperated with the angel, who named himself Jibril. And when he got home, his wife told him he was not going crazy, but that he had been given a means of power. So Muhammad mustered his courage and went back for more.

That is how I think Islam got started. But of course, that is not the official story.