Salamun Alaikum,
All praises belong to Allah alone. I firstly thank Him that made me a muslim and opened my eyes to the much persecuted "Truth". So you could ask how do you know this is the truth that you believe? Allah knows that he favored me many times through my life and i thank Him for that every day.
I read the Quran in english firstly although i am Albanian. Then I was told that this was not enough because I should know the "Hadith of the Prophet". I read a lot of them probably half of Bukhari and half of Muslim. Many of them looked strange to me but i could not affirm that for the moment. Later on last year i read some arguments that we cannot believe these hadith were told by the Prophet and found them convincing. So my next step was to read the Quran thoroughly 3 times and got shocked how people are misguided with other not trustful (hadith) stories.
I totally agree with you when you state that knowledge is given by Allah to whom he wishes as in:
2:269 He gives wisdom to whom He wills, and whoever has been given wisdom has certainly been given much good. And none will remember except those of understanding.
Question: How do i know i had signs from Allah?
Several moments i have felt something unusual like sudden anxiety or little lack of breathing. On these moments i was talking about things i did not know about Allah and later on it seemed like i had done a mistake. An example is when i was talking about pork meat. I was saying (estagfirullah) that maybe pork is disallowed because they feed them with garbage, but if their food would be good also their meat would be good to eat. The anxiety was so obvious that i got surprised. But many other situations i have felt it also. So if this happens to me i know i said something i should not.
Is there any example of guidance?
Yes and not only one. The most obvious to me is understanding ayah 39:42:
39:42 Allah takes the souls at the time of their death, and those that do not die [He takes] during their sleep. Then He keeps those for which He has decreed death and releases the others for a specified term. Indeed in that are signs for a people who give thought.
So i had two conclusions:
1. Allah mentions soul taking when we sleep and when we die. I believe He draws parallels and shows there is something in common between sleep and death. When I say sleep i mean the one with no dreams. We all feel nothing when we are in deep sleep. we do not know where we are, what we are doing, how much time we are unconscious. My idea is that we feel through our soul and when the soul is not in the body we do not feel anything.
2. Secondly the ayah continues:
Then He keeps those for which He has decreed death and releases the others for a specified term
So a person who dies is similar to someone that cannot wake up from deep sleep.
Also another argument about Isa (pbuh) return:
If Muhammad (pbuh) is the last prophet then how Isa (pbuh) is coming again?
Quran 33:40.
Muhammad is not the father of [any] one of your men, but [he is] the Messenger of Allah and last of the prophets. And ever is Allah , of all things, Knowing.
In my opinion he is not coming back. To me raising to Allah means that Allah took him to Paradise after Isa's death. As Allah says about shahids and another prophet that they are alive :Please read 2:154, 3:169-170, 36:26-29
Surely all humans die on earth 7:25.
So i think that there are some "privileged people" that have been taken to Paradise immediately. They are the third kind of people "close to Allah" 56:11.
Note that the above arguments came to me "suddenly". Only after some weeks i read at your website.
I am reading your articles and really enjoy them.
May Allah reward you with the best reward for your efforts to study the Quran.
In the beginning i just wanted to say thank you for helping Islam but i could not help it to write more of my thoughts.
If you wish to reply i would be grateful. If not its OK.
Salamun Alaikum we rahmetullah.