Hinduism and Islam -Sources of Doctrine

The message of Islam came to Muhammad for the first time through the angel Gabriel, when he was 40 years old, in the year 610 AD, on Mount Hira, near Jabal alNur, the Mountain of Light, in a cave, where he usually used meditate. He continued to receive the revelations for the rest of his life, which were compiled into the Qu'ran, the chief holy book of Islam. The word Qu'ran means something that is read or recited. For the Muslims, it is the inviolable and unchangeable law of God. Every word in it is believed to be the "actual and literal" word of God that cannot be interpreted other than what it is. Divided into 114 chapters (surahs), containing 6000 verses (ayats) and composed in beautiful poetic Arabic, it is recited in every household of the Islamic world and memorized by many by heart. The second most important text of Islam is Hadith, which contains the sayings and deeds of Muhammad, known popularly as Sunnah (the well trodden path). While the Qu'ran is indisputable, the statements of the Hadith often pose problems to the Muslim scholars with regard to their interpretation. Another important source of Islamic practice is Sharia, the Muslim law, which is derived from both the Qu'ran and the Hadith.

Hinduism considers the Vedas (knowledge) to be the revelations of God, which are inviolable and eternal, revealed to the mankind in every age for their welfare and spiritual liberation. It constitutes the very foundation of Dharma, or the Law of God, upon which rests the entire creation. The end part of the Vedas are the Upanishads, which constitute the philosophical base of Hinduism known as Vedanta and which contain the elements of monotheism and descriptions of God as the Supreme Lord of the universe. Perhaps if there is one scriptural source of Hinduism that sums up the vision of Islam concerning God and His glory, it is the Vedanta. Other important sources of Hinduism are the works explaining the six schools of Hinduism, the Vedangas or the limbs of the Vedas, the Puranas or the chronicles of ancient legends and history, the Bhagavadgita, the Agamas or the scriptures of Saivism, the Tantric texts, the epics like the Mahabharat and the Ramayana and the works and sayings of many seers, sages, masters and great souls such as Sri Shankaracharya, Sri Ramanujacharya, Sri Madhavacharya, Abhinvagupta, Lakulisa, Ashtavakra and so on. The Dharmashastras such as Mansusmriti, Apastamba Sutras etc., constitute the chief law books of Hinduism, which prescribe code of conduct for the preservation of social order and promotion of virtue and welfare of people

The Chief Practices

Central to the practice of Islam are the five pillars, namely Shahada, Salat, Saum, Zakat and Hajj.

* Shahada is the daily recitation of the declaration (tawhid) of Islamic creed concerning Allah and His messenger, based on the firm conviction that there is no God but Allah and that Muhammad is His messenger.

* Salat is the observation of ritual prayers to be performed five times a day (at dawn, noon, mid-afternoon, sunset and night). The prayers are in conformity with the Islamic belief that worshippers can communicate with God directly without the intervention of intermediaries such as priests and mullahs.

* Saum is fasting every year from dawn to dusk during the month of Ramadan which include abstinence from food, liquids and sexual union between married couple.

* Zakat is payment of charity tax as a specified percentage of one's earnings to the poor and the needy in order to accomplish inner growth and purification of ones possessions.

* Hajj is making a pilgrimage to Mecca, to pay a visit to the Ka'ba, the holy shrine, at least once in a life time.

Together these five pillars constitute the Islamic way of life and provide an opportunity to the faithful to adhere to the principles and practices of Islam as established in its sacred texts. The main festivals of Islam are Id al-Adha, which is celebrated to commemorate the end of the Hajj and Id al-Fitre, which is used to celebrate the end of the Ramadan month.

In Hinduism God is worshipped in many different ways. It is essentially by honoring the dharma or the law of God, which consists of performing obligatory duties that are specific to the caste, profession, gender and the age of a person, and the pursuit of the four chief aims of human life (purusharthas), namely dharma (virtue), artha (wealth), kama (sensual pleasures) and moksha (liberation). Public and domestic sacrificial rituals are prescribed for various castes of Hindus. These rituals are either daily (nitya) or occasional (naimittaka), as prescribed in the Grihya Sutras and Srauta Sutras. The daily rituals are performed by an individual during different times in a day, in which offerings are made to the gods, the elements, one's ancestors, animals and the humans. The occasional rituals are performed by an ordained priest according the procedures established in the scriptures. In addition, there are several rites of passage or sacraments (samskaras), performed during different periods of a person's life, starting from his conception till his death. Not all Hindus however practice these rituals and sacraments. Many follow the devotional path and offer prayer and worship to their personal deities, either by visiting a temple or in their own houses.

Pooja is the most popular form of worship in which prayers, chants, flowers, incense and other ritual material are offered to one's personal deity, considering Him or Her to be the highest and the supreme. Pooja is the means to communicate with gods directly, with or without the intervention of an intermediary. Devout Hindus also participate in satsangs or religious gatherings, devotional singing or chanting and recitation of the names of God. They also spend time listening to religious discourses in public gatherings. Hindus who are on the path of spiritualism, practice some form of yoga and meditation, usually under the guidance of an adept guru. Many Hindus practice fasting on specific days in a week or on some specific occasions such as festivals. In Hinduism, the paths to God are many and each path demands its own code of conduct. The most popular ones are

* karma-marg, the path of good actions,

* bhakti-marg, the path of surrender and devotion,

* jnana-marg, path of knowledge and wisdom and

* sanyasa-marg the path of renunciation.

Hindus make pilgrimages to various temples and sacred places that are associated with the lives, legends and miracles of various gods, goddesses and saintly people. A visit to Varanasi for a dip in the Ganges is considered very auspicious, purifying and spiritually uplifting. Hindus celebrate many festivals, with zest, all the year around. Some of the most popular ones are the Diwali, Dassehara, Ganesh Chaturdhi, Maha Sivarathri, Holi and so on. There are some festivals which come once in several years such as the Kumbh festival.

Important Beliefs and Concepts

Muslims worship and submit themselves to none but Allah, the one and only God, who is Merciful, Eternal, Mighty and Infinite. He is the Creator, the Provider and Sustainer of all creatures and the entire creation. He is considered to be not just the highest God of Muslims, but of all the people in the world, including the Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, atheists, agnostics and others. Allah is the ruler of the heavens, the earth and all that is between them. Yet He is closer to His pious and thoughtful worshippers, to whom He responds with overflowing love, forgives their sins and grants peace, happiness, knowledge and abundant wealth. Although He is known to most by His popular name Allah, He has 99 other names, which are enumerated in the Qu'ran. According to the Hadith, he who memorizes all the names of Allah, would go to paradise.

Islam acknowledges the succession of prophets and messengers of God, starting from Adam and Noah. Also included in the list are Abraham, Moses, John the Baptist and Jesus. Muhammad is considered to be the last of the prophets and messengers of Allah. Islam perceives all the prophets and messengers as human beings, chosen by God for the specific purpose of passing on His revelations for the benefit of the mankind. Islam also recognizes the presence of Angels, who are believed to be invisible and never tiring, requiring neither food, nor rest, nor drink, and who spend their time in the service of Allah, obeying His commands and implementing His will. Gabriel, the Angel who passed on the messages of Allah to Muhammad, is considered to be the only messenger Angel. Other important aspects of Islam are:

* Belief in the resurrection of the dead and the Final Judgment Day.

* Belief in fate and free will. God is the only source of everything that happens in the world. He uses Qadaa and Qadar, eternal knowledge and mighty power, to execute His will. He knows everything that happened, that has been happening and that will happen. He is responsible for all that happens or not happens. Yet He has endowed the humans with free will and thereby made them responsible for their actions and choices.

* Belief in Jihad or the struggle for a divine cause. The struggle involved in leading a pious Muslim life, building Muslim community, exercising self-restraint and defending Islam or a Muslim nation, are considered to be Jihad.

* Conversion to Islam is easy. According to Islamic tradition, any one who sincerely proclaims the glory of Allah and declares Muhammad to be His messenger becomes a Muslim.

* Islam does not recognize the intervention of middle agents between God and His followers. Islamic faith is a matter of individual faith and commitment to the will of Allah. A follower of Allah can communicate with Him directly through his prayers and virtuous actions.

Hinduism believes in the existence of Brahman, the supreme Lord of the visible and invisible universe, who is eternal, stable, unchanging, indestructible, unborn, blissful, and who goes by many other names such as Brahma, Vishnu and Siva. He is both manifest and unmanifest, known and unknown, high and low, envelops every thing, contains every thing and also resides in everything. He is the Supreme Lord, the Highest Self, the only Truth, who is the creator, sustainer and destroyer of all that is and that will ever be. He manifests Himself as everything and in every thing. He is both the material and instrumental cause of the universe. He creates Rta, the universal order, Dharma, the universal divine law and many divinities to uphold them and manage them. The three gods, Brahma, Vishnu, Siva are but His three highest functional aspects, endowed with the responsibilities of creation, preservation and destruction. Nature or Prakriti is His dynamic energy and primal matter, in which He becomes involved partially to manifest all the beings and objects of His creation. He maintains and upholds Dharma, the eternal law through His various aspects, dimensions, divinities, incarnations, emanations and also through many great souls, who come to the earth from time to time to spread the message of God.

During creation, Brahman, the Supreme Self, who is absolute, subjective consciousness, diversifies Himself, in the form of an objective relative reality, into innumerable beings and objects and enters into them as individual self or Atman. Atman is Brahman in its essence, but, because of its involvement with the elements, qualities and principles of nature, it becomes deluded and suffers from the impurities of delusion or ignorance, desire oriented actions and egoism. It remains chained to the cycle of births and deaths and the law of karma, till it becomes free through the grace of God or by its own good deeds and inner transformation. A person may go to either heaven or hell or the world of ancestors, depending upon his or her deeds upon earth. However afterlife in these worlds are temporary. Upon exhausting their good or bad karma, beings have to return to earth to continue their existence. True liberation comes only when they transcend their limitations, realize their supreme Brahman nature and become one with Him in consciousness.

According to Hinduism, God can be worshipped and approached in various ways. Because He is unconditional love, He grants free will to the beings and makes Himself visible to them in whatever form He is envisaged. Most Hindus worship Him as a personal deity of their chosen form, which may also include His feminine forms and aspects. However of all the forms of worship, He considers the path of single minded devotion, self-surrender and inner purity to be the best and the most effective. Out of unbound love, He also manifests Himself in the images men make to worship Him. Depending upon who created them, how they are created and where they are installed, the images of God contain the potency and presence of God Himself, rendering them worthy of worship and adoration. Thus Hinduism sanctions the worship of the living presence of God in an image or a statue or a symbol or an object.