Questions From A Muslim With Answers From Khan August 27,
2009 by khan Filed under Letters, Religion
7 Comments
I downloaded Bhagvad Geeta from your site and read it. I
am extremely impressed and moved by the teachings of Krishana Ji. But being a
Muslim, some questions arose in my mind. If you could help me to finding their
answers, I will be grateful to you.
Dear sir,
I downloaded Bhagvad Geeta from your site and read it.
I am extremely impressed and moved by the teachings of
Krishana Ji.
But being a Muslim, some questions arose in my mind.
If you could help me to finding their answers, I will be
grateful to you.
1. Why different religions, and I am refering specially
to Islam and Hinduism, in contradiction to each other? Is it that some are
really from God and others not?
2. If you are of opinion that all religions are from God,
then would you please like to explain the reason of contradictions between the
religions.
3. Is there any way to act upon the teachings of Krishana
Ji, without compromising on the teachings of Islam. For example, being a Muslim
I cannot meditate, visualising the image of Krishana Ji.
Thank you very much.
Sincerely,
Muhammad
Lahore, Pakistan
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Muhammed
Asalaamulakum and Hare Krishna
My name is Khan and I have visited Pakistan. My parents
are both muslims. And they like good muslim parents encouraged me in the
islamic way of life. I had a firm belief in God and feared the day of judgement
so tried to be good. But sometimes I would fail. Other times I would speculate
more about what Allah was like and what heaven is like. But when I asked my
elder Muslim brothers and fathers they would often tell me not to think of
these things and just take what the Quran and hadith say, full stop.
At this stage in my life I was of the thinking that only
Islam, Christianity and Jeudaism were authentic religions since they were all
memtioned in the Quran but the Jewish and Christian scriptures had been changed
whilst the Quran had stayed the same. But I thought all the other religions
were man made idol worship concotions. My muslim upbringing had showed me that
Islam was the last and final religion and that Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) was the
last Prophet.
But at the age of 17 I, as are you, was most fortunate to
come in contact with the Bhagavad-Gita As It Is and Srila Prabhupada’s books.
As I read the BHagvad-Gita and many other smaller books I
began to realise that all the religions were actually linked. Each religion
would come due to time place and circumstance to elevate those particular
people to the level of human beings who would begin to engage their minds on
God.
“Hinduism” is the oldest then Budhism then Judaism then
Christianity then Islam then Sikhism and then Lord CAitanya came. Each had
their purpose. You can research each if you want. But when you compare the
scriptures of each you will begin to see that there is a common link.
Each believes in ONE ultimate God/Reality and each gives
processes on how to reach this final goal/reality.
You said in your enquiring message:
1. Why different religions, and I am refering specially
to Islam and Hinduism,are in contradiction to each other? Is it that some are
really from God and others not?
2. If you are of opinion that all religions are from God,
then would you please like to explain the reason of contradictions between the
religions.
Well some contradictions that I originally thought of
between Hinduism(specifically Bhakti Yoga) and Islam:
1)Reincarnation- I always had a strong inclination that
reincarnation occurs even before I came in contact with Krishna consciousness.
But Muslims believe that after this life one is judged by God to go into heaven
or hell to enjoy or suffer forever onwards. Whereas the Vedic literatures teach
us that indeed at the time of death one is judged according to the deeds one
has done in that life(ie Karma) and given appropriate next life in either
heavenly or hellish body based on qualifications and deire. In fact it is some
dear servants of God that look after this process not God directly. Why because
in doing so they please God in their service. So if you act righteously and do
good deeds and desire to go to heven, after death your soul will be transfered
to heaven and you will be born into a heavenly planet.
There are different levels of heavenly planets
==7different levels== same as the Islam teaches us in Quran and HAdith that
there are 7 levels of heaven. But the real difference in spiritual life of the
vedic literatures is that God does not live in the heavenly planets.
Even the Quran says that God created the Earth and the
Heavens which means that He existed before the Heavens and therfore these are
not His eternal abode. So not only do the Vedic LIteratures explain about what
the heavenly planets are and how to get there it also explains about Gods abode
and how to get there. This is the SPIRITUAL WORLD. In fact there is a HAdith
that explains that when Prophet Muhammed ascended to God he penatrated all 7
layers of Heaven. So in fact the aim of life in both religions is to get to God
and help serve Him, not simply a paradise were you can enjoy your senses more.
The issue of reincarnation is about realisation really.
If you come to the understanding that you are not the body that is constantly
changing but rather you are pure spirit soul covered in the materialism then
this is a start. (concept of soul is in Islam). But the next stage is to
realise that the soul is not the same as the body. It is eternal. But then you
may argue that only God is eternal.
But God is the eternal master (allah hu akbar) and we are
the eternal servants. How can you be a master if there is noone to master over.
So the real understanding I have gained is that the soul was not created, we
are part and parcel of God. But simultaneously different.
2)Vegetarianism- Now many Muslims almost think that it is
faraz(a
must) to eat meat to be a muslim. This is simply wrong.
At that time remeber the civilisation was quite degraded and the majority of
the people would be eating meat, intoxicating on alcohol and gambling and so
many other corrupt things. If you study the Quran it will show in the earlier
time that the Prophet allowed alcohol in moderation, but later verses do not
allow. This is due to at that time place and circumstance to slowly raise the
level of the people. Similarly although meat eating is allowed it is not
necesarry. In Islam when you kill an animal the halal you must look the animal
in the eye and recite Quranic verse and offer 6/7ths of the animal to the poor
and eat the rest with your family. Who does this now? In England they have big
slaughterhouses. Even Muslim ones and they have a tape player of an Imam saying
the payers that recirculates agian and again while the animals are killed one
by one in a profit business fashion. I am vegetarian and would only eat meat if
necesarry.
Muslims would even ask me about Eid and HAjj, shouldnt
you eat meat then? But lets look at the story behind this. When Prophet Abraham
was about to sacrife his son due to God asking him in dreams God stopped him
and allowed him to sacrifice a sheep instead. But does this really mean that
every muslim to celebrate this day should kill a sheep and enjoy and laugh and
have party and dress in new fashionable clothes?
Or is the moral of the story that on this day we should
be prepared to sacrifice something that we are attached too much to(like TV or
pop music or so on)?
3)Deity worship- In Prophet Muhammeds time there was an
ancient Vedic culture in ancien arabia. But this had become corrupted. And
instead of worshipping God people were woshipping stones for some material
benefit. MAny idols of many so-called Gods were present. THe general society
was degraded—women and men dancing naked around the Kaba and alcohol drinking
and gambling and so many other degrading acts.
So at that time place and circumstance a system needed to
be introduced to change this society into more of human civilsation. So the
Prophet came with Quran and began to win many followers and destroy all these
idols and degraded society. Islam would preach no Idol Worshipping, drinking
and gave a social structure where women would be honoured.
But Diety worship is not the same as idol worship.
Dieties are the authentic forms of God. Just as in the Quran there are many
different names of God (for to Him belong all the beutiful names) at least 99
showing His different attributes. So similarly in the VEdic scriptures there
are many different forms of God. No one says that since the muslims call Allah
by so many different names then they believe in so many different Gods. So if
you begin to see Hinduism in this light then you will realise that even the
Hindus believe in only one God.
You also asked:
3. Is there any way to act upon the teachings of Krishana
Ji, without compromising on the teachings of Islam. For example, being a Muslim
I cannot meditate, visualising the image of Krishana Ji.
For me personally it helps me to think of Krishna better
when I can see a picture of Him rather than reading a name like Allah or
Krishna.
But remeber even the names are so spiritually powerful.
Because Allah is absolute that means His name, form and voice are
non-different.
Remember often in the Quran it says that prophets heard
God say this or that. So if you can hear God what is the difficulty in seeing
God.
God is on the absolute platform. So if you can keep the
beutiul names of Allah on your lips all the time then you will be spiritually
successful.
Even in the Quran there are references of God’s personmal
features.
These I can give you. Where it mentions that God has
eyes,hands, face etc. Remember this is not a material limited body like ours.
When a devotee sees a picture of Krishna the picture acts as a spiritual tool
because straight away he is reminded of God. So I recommend that you continue
to remeber God in the best way you can. If this means keeping His names on your
lips then this is also very perfect.
PLease keep reading Srila Prabhupada’s books. They are
not ordinary books. Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. So many
people are converting. But those who convert from Islam, it takes something
really powerful to do this. For me I have found this in the Vedic literatures.
But remeber you don’t have to give up or throw away anything. You can still
pray 5 times a day, go to Masjid and celebrate Eid. But if you want to increase
your spirtual life even further then please my Muslim brother take advantage of
the knowledge in these books. And distribute it to as many people as you can.
After all Muslim means one who submits to the will of Allah.
Please let me know if there are more confusions. Remeber
spiritual life is a process of realisation. It may not happen overnight.
Please take care and thank you very much.
Khud Hafiz and Hare Krishna
Khan
No comments:
Post a Comment