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ISLAM AND HINDUISM
Part 2: Non-Muslims and co-existence
By Sultan Shahin
Part 1: Spiritual symbiosis
TIRUPATI, South India - Like any other living faith, controversies abound in
Islam. One of the most controversial issues is the relationship of a Muslim
with people belonging to other religions. Since in India Muslims have always
lived next to a very large non-Muslim community, this issue has created even
deeper controversies. While there are Muslims who would insist on treating
Hindus as kafir (infidel), there are others who would insist that they
should actually be treated as Ahl-e-Kitab, people bearing revealed books, a
people who have a special place in Islamic theology and practice. It is one
of the most serious and often-expressed grievances of Hindus that Muslims
consider them kafir and that it therefore becomes their religious duty to
either convert them or kill them.
Disregarding the advice of some ulema (scholars) of his time, the first Arab
to conquer parts of India, Sind and Multan made a good beginning, giving
Hindus the same status as Ahl-e-Kitab, people with whom Muslims are supposed
to have good social relations, including marital ones. But the question of
the place of Hindus in Islamic theology has persisted since then. There are
Muslims who have no reservations whatsoever in considering Hindus as
Ahl-e-Kitab. In fact, anyone with any sense and understanding of
spiritualism would see at a mere glance that Hindu scriptures are divine in
origin. The question whether Sri Krishna, for instance, is an avatar
(incarnation of a Hindu deity) of God or a messenger of God is merely an
issue of semantics, though, of course, there are complex ideological debates
over the issue. The important thing is that the message is certainly divine.
Hindu scriptures are indeed our Adigranth (original scriptures). It is only
reasonable to think that they must have undergone any number of changes,
accretions, deductions, fabrications, etc during the millennia that they
have guided the spiritual growth of Indians, particularly as in pre-historic
times the literature was transmitted to succeeding generations orally, and
even when later written in a variety of ways they couldn't be preserved very
well.
A Muslim, therefore, cannot view every word of these holy books with the
same amount of authenticity he attaches to the Koran. The Koran is unique
among all the scriptures in the sense that it is the only holy book that has
survived exactly as it came. Muslims do not attach the same amount of
authenticity even to the Hadees (also written as Hadith, meaning sayings of
the Prophet), however, as most of these were compiled a couple of
generations after the demise of the Prophet. Indeed, there is no doubt that
the nefarious elements who captured Islam after killing the Prophet's
grandsons and other family members, and turned it into an empire under the
guise of Khilafat, interpolated into the Hadees ideas that suited their
un-Islamic feudal, monarchical, exploitative and expansionist designs.
The Hindus, therefore, must be treated by the Muslims as Ahl-e-Kitab. This
thought has been best expressed by Maulana Mohammed Ali in his monumental
work, The Religion of Islam. While discussing the issue of marital relations
between Muslims and non-Muslims, he says: "As the Holy Koran states that
revelation was granted to all nations of the world [35: 24], and that it was
only with the Arab idolaters that marriage relations were prohibited, it is
lawful for a Muslim to marry a woman belonging to any other nation of the
world that follows a revealed religion.
"The Christians, the Jews, the Parsis, the Buddhists and the Hindus all fall
within this category; and it would be seen that, though the Christian
doctrine of calling Jesus Christ a god or son of God is denounced as shirk
[partnership with God], still the Christians are treated as followers of a
revealed religion and not as Mushrekeen (religious deviants), and
matrimonial relations with them are allowed. The case of all those people
who were originally given a revealed religion, though at present they may be
guilty of shirk, would be treated in like manner, and Parsi and Hindu women
may be taken in marriage, as also may those who follow the religion of
Confucius or of Buddha or of Tao."
Important guidance on this issue comes from verses in the Holy Koran):
"Mankind was one single nation, and God sent Messengers with glad tidings
and warnings; and with them He sent the Book in truth, to judge between
people in matters wherein they differed; but the People of the Book, after
the clear Signs came to them, did not differ among themselves, except
through selfish conduct and hatred of one another." (Sura al-Baqara - 2.21)
The doctrine of kafir and rejection of co-existence with the so-called kafir
being spread by some obscurantist elements is thus patently un-Islamic.
Ignorant Muslims are being indoctrinated into the theory that it is a
Muslim's religious duty to fight and kill a kafir wherever he finds one.
This leads to a general misunderstanding that in Islam a kafir is "unworthy
of Allah's mercy and compassion". In point of fact, even if someone can be
described as kafir in Islamic terminology, he or she would be as worthy of
God's compassion as any one else. Islam has not authorized anyone to judge
who is a kafir or a munafiq (hypocrite), deserving God's wrath or
punishment. In fact, a wrong accusation of kafir reverts to the accuser
himself, thus making him kafir.
The only people whom the Koran does describe as kafir, ie, the pre-Islamic
Meccans, were beneficiaries of the highest act of God's compassion and
mercy. He sent to them His last messenger who perfected the message that He
had been sending to people living in all parts of the world at various times
through a galaxy of 124,000 prophets since the advent of the first Prophet,
Hazrat Adam.
The reason pre-Islamic Meccans were described as kafir seems to be that they
were the only people on earth who had not been sent a Prophet before. But
now that all peoples of the world have received prophets, and all the
prophets brought revelations (according to the Koran), all the people
following those prophets - no matter how imperfectly - are to be treated by
Muslims as Ahl-e-Kitab. Some polytheistic practices of Hindus cannot be used
as an excuse for calling them kafir as similar practices of Christians do
not make them kafir. This, in a nutshell, is the correct Islamic position.
The only people who can be called kafir today with a clear Islamic
conscience are the ones who have the temerity to call others kafir. For,
according to the Prophet, a wrong accusation of kafir makes the accuser
himself a kafir. In fact, this places nearly all ulema belonging to
different Islamic sects who routinely keep calling each other kafir on the
list of kafirs themselves. Also, these are the people who are concealing the
truth about Islam, that is, committing Kufr (denial of truth). If Islam is
at all in danger today, the danger comes from these very people. This, too,
makes them kafir in one of the original senses of the word.
The meaning of Kufr
Kufr is defined by most commentators of the Holy Koran as "denial of the
truth". Basically, the word means to cover, to conceal. In Arabic language
the word Kufr is used in a variety of ways. One meaning, for instance, is
concealment or withholding of the means of subsistence, which God has
created for the good of all mankind and which He wants to be freely
available to all. According to this definition, hoarders of goods for the
sake of business or hoarders of wealth would be considered kafir.
In Egypt, the word kafir is used to describe the farmers as they conceal
seeds in the ground and cover it up. In Urdu poetry the word kafir is used
to describe the beloved, usually a beloved who spurns the poet's advances.
The beloved can be haqiqi or mjazi, meaning spiritual or earthly, the object
of love being either God or an earthling. Urdu's greatest mystic poet Mirza
Ghalib says:
"Mohabbat mein nahin hai farq jeene aur marne ka;
Usi ko dekh kar Jeete hain jis kafir pe dam nikle.
Khuda ke waste parda na Kaabe se utha Zaalim;
Kahin aisa na ho yan bhi wohi kafir sanam nikle.
(In love, there is no difference between life and death,
We live gazing at the same kafir [beloved] on whom we die.
For God's sake, do not lift the veil from the face of Kaaba,
Who knows, maybe the idol of the same kafir is installed there.)
The Prophet, too, used the word kafir in a variety of ways. Ingratitude, for
instance, was equated with Kufr. Similarly, excessive eating was considered
by the Prophet one of the attributes of a kafir. This would place nearly all
fundamentalist ulema, maulvis (clergy) and maulanas (scholars) on the list
of the kafiroon. According to the Prophet, a Muslim killing another Muslim
is a kafir. All the mujahideen in Afghanistan or Kashmir are thus also
placed on the list of kafiroon.
Most Muslims would dare not accuse others of Kufr. But some theologians take
a different view and do not mind calling even something as routine as
neglect of prayer as Kufr. Someone who confirms the obligations of prayer
yet neglects it out of laziness or pretence of being too busy (without a
valid legal excuse) would in their view attract the provisions of Kufr.
Many ulema arrogate to themselves the right to judge others in a purely
subjective fashion. And this is despite the clearly and repeatedly expressed
view of the Prophet that Muslims should not call any one either a kafir or a
munafiq. In fact, the Prophet's motto was: "Whoever calls believers in One
God kafir is himself nearer to Kufr." Indeed, he continued to treat
well-known munafeqeen in Madina as Muslims. Calling Ahmadiyas in Pakistan
kafir thus makes many Pakistanis susceptible to the charge of being kafir
themselves.
Similarly, those Muslims who call Hindus, Christians, Jews, Buddhists or
Parsis, etc kafir may themselves be committing Kufr. In Islam, to believe in
some prophets and reject others is condemned as Kufr: "Those who say, we
believe in some [prophets] and disbelieve in others ... these are truly
non-believers [kafiroon] ... Those who believe in Allah and his messengers
and make no distinction between any of the messengers will be duly rewarded
... " (4;150-152)
Maulana Mohammed Ali thus rightly concludes: "A belief in all the prophets
of the world is thus an essential principle of the religion of Islam, and
though the faith of Islam is summed in two brief sentences, 'there is no God
but Allah, and Mohammed is His apostle', yet the man who confesses belief in
the prophethood of Mohammed, in so doing accepts all the prophets of the
world, whether their names are mentioned in the Holy Koran or not. Islam
claims universality and lays the foundation of a brotherhood as vast as
humanity itself."
Co-existence with other religions
In common parlance, the word kafir is supposed to mean a non-believer in
God. For many ignorant Muslims in the sub-continent, it is virtually
synonymous with the word Hindu, even though several eminent theologians
insist that Hindus be given the status of Ahl-e-Kitab (people who follow
Divine Books brought by messengers of God before the Prophet Mohammed), with
whom Muslims are asked to have the best of social - including marital -
relationships.
This debate could have remained innocuous, and like most theological
disputes interminable. Islam is well known to believe in coexistence with
non-believers. Its quintessence being the Koranic verse that specifically
addresses the kafiroon (plural of kafir) and asks Muslims to say: Lakum
Deenakum Waleya Deen (For you your religion and for me mine, the Holy Koran
109:5). "Say, 'O ye disbelievers! I worship not that which you worship; nor
worship you what I worship. And I am not going to worship that which you
worship; nor will you worship what I worship. For you be your religion and
for me mine." (Sura Alkafiroon, 109:2-7)
The Holy Koran is absolutely clear that differences in color and creed
constitute a deliberate design of Allah with a divine purpose but confer no
superiority to any one group over another: "Among His signs is the creation
of the Heavens and the Earth, and the diversity of your tongues and colors.
In that surely are signs for those who possess knowledge." (30:23)
This message is repeated in the Koran in a variety of ways: "O mankind, we
have created you from a male and a female; and we have made you into tribes
and sub-tribes so that you may recognize one another. Verily, the most
honorable among you, in the sight of Allah, is he who is the most righteous
among you. Surely, Allah is all-knowing, all-aware." (49:14). And
righteousness is defined in the following words: "It is not righteousness
that ye turn your faces to the East and the West; but righteous is he who
believeth in Allah and the last day and the angels and the scripture and the
prophets; and giveth his wealth, for love of Him, to kinsfolk and to orphans
and the needy and the wayfarer and to those who ask, and to set slaves free;
and observeth proper worship, and payeth the poor-due. And those who keep
their treaty when they make one, and the patient in tribulation and
adversity and in times of stress. Such are they who are sincere. Such are
the God-fearing." (2:177)
Obviously, Islam does not attach as much importance to the worship of God as
to the righteous conduct. Huqooq-ul-Ibad (rights of other creations of God
over us or conversely our duties towards other creations of God) is thus
given primacy in Islam over Huqooq-ul-lah (rights of Allah over us or our
duties towards God).
In the matter of religion, Islam allows man to follow his own dictate, so
that many religions can exist at the same time. Indeed the Holy Koran could
not be more explicit: "And if thy Lord had enforced His will, surely, all
who are on earth would have believed together [in the same religion]. Wilt
thou, then, force them to become believers [in Islam]?" (10:100). Then there
is the overriding instruction in the famous verse La Ikraha fid Deen (Let
there be no compulsion in religion: 2:25).
Islam confirms validity of other religions
Some mullahs have taken to issuing fatwas (religious edicts) against the
people of other religions, giving expression to their Medieval mindset of
intolerance. They are clearly turning Islam that came as a blessing for the
world into a tool for oppression. As Shivaji had pointed out to Aurangzeb in
his famous letter: "The Holy Koran describes Allah as Rahmatul-lil-Aalemeen
[Blessing for the Worlds] and not just Rahmatul-lil-Muslemeen [Blessing for
the Muslims]."
The main feature of the exclusivist view of Islam that is being extensively
propagated today by some obscurantist mullahs can thus be summarized in one
word: intolerance. They are preaching and practicing Islam as an intolerant
religion. This is a total negation of all that Islam stands for. Indeed, the
exclusivist view of Islam is the same as that of the Christian Crusaders.
This view was best refuted in the early 20th century by Mohammed Marmaduke
Pickthall, an Englishman, and an Orientalist, who had converted to Islam and
is best known by his translation of the Holy Koran. (The meaning of Koran by
Pickthall, first published in 1930)
Pickthall makes an interesting point that the obscurantist mullahs would do
well to ponder, if they really have any regard for Islam. He says: "It was
not until the Western nations broke away from their religious law that they
became more tolerant; and it was only when the Muslims fell away from their
religious law that they declined in tolerance and other evidences of the
highest culture ... Of old, tolerance had existed here and there in the
world, among enlightened individuals; but those individuals had always been
against the prevalent religion. Tolerance was regarded as un-religious, if
not irreligious. Before the coming of Islam it had never been preached as an
essential part of religion." ("Tolerance in Islam", a lecture delivered by
Pickthall in 1927.)
Speaking from a Christian perspective and comparing Islam with Judaism and
Christianity, Pickthall declares: "In Islam only is manifest the real nature
of the Kingdom of God. The two verses of the Koran (2:255-256) are
supplementary. Where there is that realization of the majesty and dominion
of Allah, there is no compulsion in religion. Men choose their path -
allegiance or opposition - and it is sufficient punishment for those who
oppose that they draw further and further away from the light of truth."
Further on in his famous lecture, Pickthall explains the relationship
between Islam and other religions in these words: "The Koran repeatedly
claims to be the confirmation of the truth of all religions. The former
scriptures had become obscure, the former prophets appeared mythical, so
extravagant were the legends which were told concerning them, so that people
doubted whether there was any truth in the old scriptures, whether such
people as the prophets had ever really existed. Here - says the Koran - is a
scripture whereof there is no doubt: here is a prophet actually living among
you and preaching to you. If it were not for this book and this prophet, men
might be excused for saying that Allah's guidance to mankind was all a
fable. This book and this prophet, therefore, confirm the truth of all that
was revealed before them, and those who disbelieve in them to the point of
opposing the existence of a prophet and a revelation are really opposed to
the idea of Allah's guidance - which is the truth of all revealed religions.
The kafirs, in the terms of the Koran, are the conscious evildoers of any
race or creed or community.
"Instead of harping upon differences, Islam looks for a common ground for
cooperation. The first meeting point is in humanity. The Prophet said:
'Creation is the family of Allah, and the most beloved of all creation to
Allah is he who does good to His family'. In his Farewell Pilgrimage sermon,
he said, 'All men, whatever nation or tribe they may belong to, and whatever
station in life they may hold, are equal'. Once a funeral procession passed
by and the holy Prophet (peace be upon him) stood up as a mark of respect to
the dead. Someone pointed out that it was the funeral of a Jew. His reply
was, 'Was he not a human being?' In order to discourage prejudice that can
arise from a variety of reasons, the tribal pride being very predominant at
that time, the Prophet said, 'Certainly Allah has removed from you
haughtiness and family pride of the days of ignorance. Now there are two
types of people; believers and pious as opposed to rebellious and sinners.
You are the progeny of Adam and Adam was made of clay. People should give up
national pride, because that is one of the coals of Hell. If not, Allah will
treat them no better than a black beetle found on a dunghill which pushes
dirt and filth with its nose'."
The Prophet himself presented the most outstanding, perhaps unique example
of religious tolerance when he allowed the delegation of Christians of
Najran to pray in their own way in his mosque, which was the venue of the
meeting, and in his very presence. Thus the jihadi view of Islam does not
correspond with the teachings of Islam as understood by the overwhelming
majority of Muslims. It appears to be closer to the view of Islam propagated
by its enemies down the ages. Islamic exclusivism that has now resulted in
jihadism, therefore, may be considered a completely different religion, not
recognizable to the followers of Islam. Mankind has been divided into myriad
communities with different races, cultures, habits, faiths, etc, so that in
spite of these barriers, we can ourselves reach the following conclusion:
"Mankind is but one single community" (The Holy Koran, 2:213 and 10:19).
NEXT WEEK: Part 3: The concept of jihad
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Dec 13, 2003
The Sunni-Shi'ite divide
By Sultan Shahin, Aug 2003
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