On the existence of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) theres plenty of proof that he existed, nothing supernatural about it. first evidence just look at the arab wars of conquest which began right after his death and established a whole empire based on the religion he came with. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Muslim_conquests
the occurences were very fast, very dramatic, very cross checkable and objective facts that something extraordinary happened in arabia in the 7th century. something ideological that gave those desert bedouin the confidence and ability to drive out the great empires of their time from the middle east. and had the Quran itself been from other than God, had it been from Muhammad (pbuh) himself or made by his followers, then it would have been as altered and changed as the Bible with its four Gospels and multiple versions. 1 billion muslims all follow and pray from the same Quran, Shia, Sunni, conservative, liberal, etc and that a Quran from 21st century has exactly the same content and verses, chapters, sentences, as a Quran from the 7th century. Muslims set alot of store by that as evidence in itself that the Quran is divinely inspired.
as for your question i kind of think sugarplumfairy had the gist of it in their third paragraph using that example of the matrix. already we in the capitalist west have this idea of human nature, that it progresses by struggle. human ingenuity, human greatness is achieved by need to survive and necessity. Already, before we talk of sickness etc muslims say God created us with the physical frailties of our bodies, that we feel hunger, and cold, and heat, that we catch colds or stomach bugs etc, and those along with the physical realities of the planet we live on mean we have to work to create optimum conditions for our needs.
In Islam we believe that heaven is not simply there automatically but that it must be worked for by good deeds. helping the sick, the hungry, the orphan, the refugee, etc. the Quran says that God established Adam and his descendents as caretakers on earth, to minister and take care, that we are not just its consumers. that life and death is a test for which of us is best in deeds, that when we sin corruption spreads in the land and in the sea.
in the Quran it says it is not God who is taken to account but that it is us humans that are taken to account. are things like malnutrition, drought, famine, low sea fish stocks caused by man's own actions: deforestation, cfc's, fossil fuel burning, chemical dumping, overfishing? what bout the rise in childhood cancers, www.webmd.com/news/breaking-news/cancer-strikes-a-small-town/20161020/childhood-cancer-rates-rising, to blame that on God when all evidence points that its possibly man made environmental factors? then the way we deal with those crises: indifference, ideology, compassion fatigue.
