Okay, now what? (what to believe now?)
I have read from a lot of places. I have read traditionalist views, modernist views, progressive views, historical views, academical views from both seculars and religious ones. Read arguments, debates, counter arguments, criticisms, rebuttal, methodologies...
Now what?
What am I supposed to believe/follow now?
Which madhab? Which sect? Which thought?
Hanafi? Maliki? Shafi? Hanbali? Salafi? Wahabi? Quranist? Non-sectarian? Progressive? Modernist? Sunni? Shia? Sufi? Ibadi? Ahmadiyya?..
Who do I trust? How much do I trust? How much do I trust tradition over history, secular explanations over divine exceptions etc... Do I trust all sahih hadiths? Do I reject all of them? Do I go on 3 hours of research for each single hadith? Do I accept whatever I like and reject whatever I dislike? Do I accept consensus? Do I have the ability to reject consensus? How much do I trust secular explanations? At what point do I reject secular explanations and say HCM is biased? Do I even at all say that, or just roll with it to the end?
What. How. Why...
If let's say you had a single wish that would come true, and your wish was for every Muslim to essentially read everything that was posted here and there, to learn about the history of Islam, from both views, and learn the nuances it has...
then what? What would happen?
We have so many research, opinions, peer-reviewed published stuff... yet we have no methodology, no way to communicate these to the average Muslim to allow them to embody these knowledges to their normal life.
If you could speak to the average Muslim, average laymen... what would you tell them to follow? To believe? To live?