Islam and Buddhism In The Modern World

Islam and Buddhism In The Modern World, a book written by a prominent scholar called Sheikh Imran Nazar Hosein. Reading this book, you are about to encounter the question of how Islam and Buddhism stand side by side in the modern world. Despite the title of the book itself, the book is not meant to be read by Muslims or Buddhist only. Rather, the author gives an extensive view on various issues particularly relating to the Christians and even the Hindus. As such, I believe Christian and Hindu readers might want to get a copy of this book. In fact, based on my reading, even the Atheist can benefit something from this book.

Sheikh Imran Hosein states clearly that:
The spirit with which this book was written was one of profound respect for Gautama Buddha. Buddhist of South East Asia, where this edition is being published, should find in this book much that will provoke thought. Most importantly, they will find nothing in it which viewed objectively, should cause offense.
For those who have no knowledge of Buddhism at all, get ready. You are about to encounter various terms which you might not be familiar with. Nevertheless, they are extremely important if you want to understand this particular faith and also various thoughts in it. For instance, Nirvana( a term which cannot be defined ), Sarvan Dukham(All Is Suffering), Sarvan Kashnikam(All is fleeting), Anicca(theory of universal flux), Dukkha(sounds familiar right?) ,Tri-pitaka(three baskets of law), Anatta(the not self) and lots of other terms. In fact, the discussion on the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eight Fold Paths (ariya atthangika mangga) and Nirvana are of prominent importance as they constitute the essence of Buddhism.

For me, this book is really unique as it comes from a very unique author. Meaning, you would find so many things that you definitely have to agree with, and at the same time things that would really stimulate your mind. As a student of comparative religion, I found that the approach taken by Sheikh Imran Hosein is a bit different from what I’ve been exposed to. I won’t say ‘harsh’, rather it would be appropriate to say- straightforward. I believe different people have different approach in dealing with any particular subject matter isn’t it?.

Throughout the book, the author discusses various issues and topics. Among them are;the sources of Buddhism, the life of Buddha himself, the basic teachings of Gautama Buddha, Buddhist philosophy, schools in Buddhism (both philosophical and religious ), the influence of Buddhism on Christianity, comparative analysis on Islam and Buddhism and finally on Buddhism and the encounter with world religions particularly Hinduism, Islam and Christianity)

On Buddha himself, the author had given respect to what is due to him. Of course such respect cannot be disregarded because it would be fair to say that without Buddha, there would be no Buddhism in the first place. In fact, to know his life prior to his enlightenment is very much compelling to the extent that he is the only person, perhaps in the whole history of mankind, who was deliberately, kept away from the fact of suffering until he was 29. However, things changed tremendously on the day Gautama saw four things i.e. an old man, a sick man, a diseased man and a dead man. From then onwards, Buddha‘s life had never been the same anymore. Simply to say, the event had basically led him to his quest for truth-a quest which was born when he came face to face with the fact of suffering.

From what I can see, the author addresses those issues in a very absorbing and engrossing manner. For instance, he put forward various questions which are definitely thought provoking especially to the Buddhist. Among them are:

On the theory of Karma, he asks , of what use is another life if we can unknowingly repeat all the mistakes of the previous life? (given the fact that we have no way of remembering the pitfalls of our previous life because of which we have landed ourselves into this life)

On attaining Nirvana by the monk, he asks, even when he has attained nirvana, has he not attained it for himself alone? (given the fact that one of the pre requisites to attain nirvana is that the saint should have conquered and obliterated his personal self or ‘I’. Isn’t that the monk who devotes himself exclusively to the task of working out his own salvation, is being terribly selfish, for he is showing no concern for the salvation of mankind?)

On the goal in life, he asks; In this life Nirvana may be salvation from suffering. But what of the life beyond death?

These and many more questions had been discussed by Imran Hosein in a very extensive way without neglecting the questions of How Islam deals with the issues. In addition to that, his comparative analysis between Islam and Buddhism are very much prevalent in this book. As such, you would find him addressing the concept of law of causality in Islam(as differed with Buddhism’s), on the fact of change, on the concept of suffering as to oppose to the Buddhist’s perspective of suffering and many more. In fact, I was really amused when he put forward the ‘Nirvana of Islam’ and the ‘monasticism of Islam’. Yes, Nirvana but ‘Islamic version’ of it =)

Christian readers might be surprised to know how Buddhism had influenced Christianity. To be honest, I’m sure many would not even agree with this statement in the first place. Nonetheless, the arguments brought forward by Imran Hosein with references from various scholars like Dr. Conze, T.W. Doane and also Prof Yusuf Salem Christi might be startling and thought provoking for them.
Apart from those influences of Buddhism on Christian beliefs, Buddhism also left its indelible imprint on the institutions and rituals of the Christian religion. That’s why ,as I said in the beginning of this post, Christian readers might want to get a copy of this book.

Of course there are things that I’d rather put some reservations. For instance, when the author uses the term ‘founder’ when he’s referring to Prophet Muhammad like when said ‘the founder of the religious community’ and so on and do forth. I assume what he meant is the founder of the Ummah. Of course, I don’t even have any right to question a great scholar like him. Nevertheless, I am not in agreement with such usage. For me, it can be manipulated and of course misunderstood. Definitely we know that there is no such thing as founder in Islam, yet for people who have no knowledge of Islam, such term might be misleading. InsyaAllah, I believe Sheikh Imran Hosein has his own reasons when using the term.

Overall, this book is surely worth reading. Great book, great author .

Allahu A'lam.

27 comments:

Humaira Xai said...

Got to ask abah if he have this book at home :)

Humaira Xai said...

Read an article bout a Buddhist Thai specialist (a doctor) who reverted to Islam after he made comparison about the wonderful creation of skin.

Tak silap pasal kenapa dlm Quran Allah sebut kulit yg dibakar di neraka akan diganti dan seterusnya. Supaya kesakitan dpt dirasa.

Hidayah came in a wonderful way and in surprise.

The Tea Drinker said...

curious about the theory of karma... since we have something like that.

goes about something like this: when Allah created our souls, He asked who is our God and everybody bear witness He is God.

then we got here and i'm not sure how we 'remember' and how this will be used against us if we deviated...

TheHumbleWayfarer said...

Al Hamra:
Subhanallah. I think I've came across that one, but cannot remmber exactly who is the person =)

Im glad to know that u have such a wonderful life with ur little heroes. They are very-very fortunate to have such a good muallimah like you =)

The Tea Drinker:
Akh, thanks for raising this question. You really made me think!

To be honest, I have to check back the point that u've raised, but I just want to make it clear. If u are saying that we also have the theory of 'Karma',I I don't really agree brother.If im not mistaken, in Buddhism their Karma has got to do with sth in their previous life.Let's say that their lives previously was good, then their karma will be good. I just checked a site and it says:

"What we all share - desire, ill-will and ignorance - are common to all living beings, but the particular condition in which we find ourselves is the result of our particular karma that conditions the situation in which we find ourselves, the situation in which we may be wealthy, strong and so forth. These circumstances are decided by karma. It is in this sense that karma explains the differences amongst living beings. It explains why some beings are fortunate while others are less fortunate, some are happy while others are less happy. The Buddha has specifically stated that karma explains the differences between living beings. You might also recall that the understanding of how karma affects the birth of living beings in happy or unhappy circumstances - the knowledge of how living beings move from happy circumstances to unhappy circumstances, and vice versa, from unhappy to happy circumstances as a result of their karma - was part of the Buddha’s experience on the night of His enlightenment. It is karma that explains the circumstances that living beings find themselves in."

For me, its two different things altogether with the example that you gave. In islam, we know that there is the concept of Fitrah. I am so sorry that I can't give u proper answer at this moment. I need to check back. Nonetheless, you have such a good point there. Fyi also, in Hinduism, they also have the concept of Karma i.e. an individual act/ conformity. InsyaAllah, I'll try to look for the point that u've raised =)

Please correct me if i'm wrong.
Allahu A'lam.

Humaira Xai said...

He's Prof. Tagatat Tegasen...

Humaira Xai said...

Am still in the process of learning to be one ;)

TheHumbleWayfarer said...

Al Hamra:
Oh really? Thanks! anyway, you can also help me with the Tea Drinker's question up there. In case if u have any idea =)

Humaira Xai said...

;)

Maybe Tea Drinker could read up on a topic under Psychology- Parapsychology-->Precognition--> Clairvoyance. The explanations are long...particularly if you could find on the idea by Prof Malik Badri as he would explain from Islamic Perceptive.

The first main thing to be remembered is the purpose of man's creation as stated in a verse of the Quran "Have I not created man and jinn to worship me?". If from the start we obliged to Allah's law, then, the things came after it would surely be different..special reward (pahala/ganjaran) for those to follow.

Sometimes, some ideologies, teachings etc look the same or almost similar from one one religion to another but what is special about Islam is the element of SOUL (ruuh).

Akh THW, correct me if I'm wrong.

Allah Knows Best ;)

Humaira Xai said...

Correction for first paragraph: Perspective. Typo :)

Anonymous said...

May peace be upon all,

I personally believe that all the religions have the same underlying truth but offer different explainations.

I would like to throw some light on the Buddhist philosophy here-

1) As per theory of karma, the soul keeps evolving birth after birth. The learning continues to next birth and soul becomes more mature so it is unlikely that soul is going to repeat the same mistake in each birth. You do not start from zero in every birth.
2)Nirvana is attained only after the ego (the sense of personality 'I') is totally removed. So when the 'I' is removed, there is no one who has achieved it. Nirvana is not an achievement, so it is not something to be achieved and then distributed to humanity. But those who have known the truth, share this knowledge with fellow human beings so that their sufferings can be removed (by realizing that the entity who seems to suffer is not really existing).
3)The state of Nirvana is beyond the concept of existence/non-existence. So it does not make sense to speak of what after Nirvana. One who entered into nirvana is can not be said to exist in the sense we human refer to it. In other words he has dissolved into the source, GOD or Allah.

May all have peace and reach to the final source which they know by different names.

Any comments are welcome!

TheHumbleWayfarer said...

Assalamu'alaikum, May Peace and blessings be upon you,

Firstly, thank you so much for visiting this simple blog of mine . I really-really appreciate that. what more to have your lovely comments =)

Regarding your 1st statement, I totally agree but i would like to put it in a different way. The believers of any particular religion would claim that their religion is true and hence stands above others. However, they also need to ask themseleves the most basic question which is, what is my indicator of truth? Is it by following men's whims or is it by follwing blindly what my ancestors have said about this and that. In other words, it also leads to the question of how to find the true way of life among all those claimed to be true?

For me, this true way must be coming from God. If it is coming from God, it must be based on a scripture. Meaning,it must have a scriptural evidence. In fact, not a mere scripture. Rather, the scripture must be the one which is no doubt(the authenticy, the origin, having accurate information, no fallacies, the protection of the text from the change of time and lots of other conderations). Moreover, the scripture that I hold on to must be as how it was revealed. Simply to say, it must be of certain origin .I also believe that Truth means sth that does not change beyond time and it is all about consistencies =)

On the Buddhist Philosophy:
1) You are saying that for Karma to happen(alongside with the theory of the transmigration of souls), it involves the evolving of the soul which also means you basically 'know' what had happened in the 'past'. It also means, you do not start zero. For me, It raised a question. Why is it then some ppl keep having a bad karma even though their souls basically evolved from birth to birth? Im so sorry but this had really made me think. Your also said 'unlikely' which also means 'improbable'. As far as what I understood 'improbable/unlikely' implies not likely to be true or to happen.
I believe, to realize that a person is suffering or benefitting on any particular occasion in this life because of action performd in a previous life , it is necessary that every human being should have a complete picture of his supposed previous life at all moments and on all occasions. Otherwise, the purpose of his re-birth would be defeated. But, no such picture exists in the mind of any human being.

2)Yes, I agree with you.Nirvana is attained when you have removed the 'I' in you. Nonethless, I dont get your other points. If Nirvana is not to be achieved, what is the purpose of live according to the Buddhist anyway? As far as I'm corcerned , the life purpose of a Buddhist has got to do with attaining Nirvana. Mind enlightening me

3)Thanks for the info. I really dont know that. Is it some sort of Union then? I was quite surprised that you put into consideration GOD.

Thanks a lot for your lovely comments. brot/sis. Look forward for your presence here. I'm not sure wheter you are a Muslim or a Buddhist or a believer of other faith but its really great to read your beautiful and mind stimulating comments.

Please correct me If I'm wrong =)

May Allah bless you !

Anonymous said...

May peace be upon us all,

Dear Brother,

Thanks a lot for reading the comments.

Let me try to put the points in more details-

1) Yes it is true as per this philosophy that ordinary human beings do not remember their past life. But that is a sort of protection. Consider the situation of present life itself. We have so many attachments (in emotional terms) and most of our life is governed by these (as in we earn our livelyhood and do everything possible for our loved ones), and if we have to encounter death of our dear ones (or any such traumatic situation) it shakes us to our very roots.
Now imagine if a ordinary person remembers all of his/her previous lives, he would not be able to take it in psychologically and those memories would interfere with his current life.

Now when it is said that soul evolves then it means the very nature of person keeps evolving. For example- there are humans who are very good by nature (even though their environment may not be so good) they can not harm anyone, and other side their are people who enjoy by troubling other suffer. So people whom we say are good by nature have their souls more evolved and matured.
They need not remember their past life because the lesson has been learnt by their soul. For example even in current life we do not remember our past so well in all its details but we do remember how we felt in all those days and it has it's effect on us and on our spiritual development.

And the philosophy also says when one becomes spiritually evolved enough he starts to remember his previous lives as well. As for 'Gautam The Buddha' it is written in the scriptures that before he attained the state of Buddhahood he remembered all his past lives and told about this to his disciples later on in his sermons.

2) To make this point more clear let me give an example- Lets say I am wearing a lot of cloths on a sunny day and because of this I am suffering with heat. Now to remove my suffering if I remove the extra cloths I will be relieved.
But there is nothing that I need to achieve (in the sense of acquiring some new object) instead I am dropping the extra things. So after dropping all the extra burden I can say now I have attained peace and suffering is gone. But if my other friends are also suffering with the same problem, I don't have any object to give so that they will also attain peace but I can tell them that if they remove extra cloths they will attain the peace.
Same is the case of Nirvana, when even the ego is dropped and nothing remains it is said that ultimate peace is attained but it can not be given to others. They have to work on it by themselves but the Buddhas will be there to guide them on "how to" process.
So the Buddhist way is followed so that they can also drop their false sense of ego.

3)As a matter of fact Buddhist do not use GOD word. They simply have a word Nirvana, but the other faiths who follow the path of surrender use GOD. It can be said to be a sort of union but as said previously any sentence can not describe what is Nirvana. But because as human beings we have our limited brains we do need some pointer in form of words.


The only reason for putting my comments was to give some idea about the philosophy.

I love to read all the revelations and feel indebted to these messangers of Truth/God. I have read most of the major scriptures of the world. And it is so beautiful to find out that the same basic truth has been revealed in so many different ways (sometimes totally contradicting each other) that all kind of human beings can follow some or the other path and have peace.

I am not a Buddhist by faith.

I personally do not believe in comparisons which tend to be judgemental specially between spiritual paths. Because the ultimate truth/God is so vast and infinite that he can not be limited into one single path.
Specially human beings like us can not fathom it, so best is to follow the revelation dearest to us wholeheartedly and leave the rest for almighty.

May peace be upon us all.

Anonymous said...

May peace be upon us all,

Dear Brother,

Thanks a lot for reading the comments.

Let me try to put the points in more details-

1) Yes it is true as per this philosophy that ordinary human beings do not remember their past life. But that is a sort of protection. Consider the situation of present life itself. We have so many attachments (in emotional terms) and most of our life is governed by these (as in we earn our livelyhood and do everything possible for our loved ones), and if we have to encounter death of our dear ones (or any such traumatic situation) it shakes us to our very roots.
Now imagine if a ordinary person remembers all of his/her previous lives, he would not be able to take it in psychologically and those memories would interfere with his current life.

Now when it is said that soul evolves then it means the very nature of person keeps evolving. For example- there are humans who are very good by nature (even though their environment may not be so good) they can not harm anyone, and other side their are people who enjoy by troubling other suffer. So people whom we say are good by nature have their souls more evolved and matured.
They need not remember their past life because the lesson has been learnt by their soul. For example even in current life we do not remember our past so well in all its details but we do remember how we felt in all those days and it has it's effect on us and on our spiritual development.

And the philosophy also says when one becomes spiritually evolved enough he starts to remember his previous lives as well. As for 'Gautam The Buddha' it is written in the scriptures that before he attained the state of Buddhahood he remembered all his past lives and told about this to his disciples later on in his sermons.

2) To make this point more clear let me give an example- Lets say I am wearing a lot of cloths on a sunny day and because of this I am suffering with heat. Now to remove my suffering if I remove the extra cloths I will be relieved.
But there is nothing that I need to achieve (in the sense of acquiring some new object) instead I am dropping the extra things. So after dropping all the extra burden I can say now I have attained peace and suffering is gone. But if my other friends are also suffering with the same problem, I don't have any object to give so that they will also attain peace but I can tell them that if they remove extra cloths they will attain the peace.
Same is the case of Nirvana, when even the ego is dropped and nothing remains it is said that ultimate peace is attained but it can not be given to others. They have to work on it by themselves but the Buddhas will be there to guide them on "how to" process.
So the Buddhist way is followed so that they can also drop their false sense of ego.

3)As a matter of fact Buddhist do not use GOD word. They simply have a word Nirvana, but the other faiths who follow the path of surrender use GOD. It can be said to be a sort of union but as said previously any sentence can not describe what is Nirvana. But because as human beings we have our limited brains we do need some pointer in form of words.


The only reason for putting my comments was to give some idea about the philosophy.

I love to read all the revelations and feel indebted to these messangers of Truth/God. I have read most of the major scriptures of the world. And it is so beautiful to find out that the same basic truth has been revealed in so many different ways (sometimes totally contradicting each other) that all kind of human beings can follow some or the other path and have peace.

I am not a Buddhist by faith.

May peace be upon us all.

Anonymous said...

May peace be upon us all,

Dear Brother,

Thanks a lot for reading the comments.

My this comment will be in 2 parts because of the word limits.

Let me try to put the points in more details-

1) Yes it is true as per this philosophy that ordinary human beings do not remember their past life. But that is a sort of protection. Consider the situation of present life itself. We have so many attachments (in emotional terms) and most of our life is governed by these (as in we earn our livelyhood and do everything possible for our loved ones), and if we have to encounter death of our dear ones (or any such traumatic situation) it shakes us to our very roots.
Now imagine if a ordinary person remembers all of his/her previous lives, he would not be able to take it in psychologically and those memories would interfere with his current life.

Now when it is said that soul evolves then it means the very nature of person keeps evolving. For example- there are humans who are very good by nature (even though their environment may not be so good) they can not harm anyone, and other side their are people who enjoy by troubling other suffer. So people whom we say are good by nature have their souls more evolved and matured.
They need not remember their past life because the lesson has been learnt by their soul. For example even in current life we do not remember our past so well in all its details but we do remember how we felt in all those days and it has it's effect on us and on our spiritual development.

And the philosophy also says when one becomes spiritually evolved enough he starts to remember his previous lives as well. As for 'Gautam The Buddha' it is written in the scriptures that before he attained the state of Buddhahood he remembered all his past lives and told about this to his disciples later on in his sermons.

2) To make this point more clear let me give an example- Lets say I am wearing a lot of cloths on a sunny day and because of this I am suffering with heat. Now to remove my suffering if I remove the extra cloths I will be relieved.
But there is nothing that I need to achieve (in the sense of acquiring some new object) instead I am dropping the extra things. So after dropping all the extra burden I can say now I have attained peace and suffering is gone. But if my other friends are also suffering with the same problem, I don't have any object to give so that they will also attain peace but I can tell them that if they remove extra cloths they will attain the peace.
Same is the case of Nirvana, when even the ego is dropped and nothing remains it is said that ultimate peace is attained but it can not be given to others. They have to work on it by themselves but the Buddhas will be there to guide them on "how to" process.
So the Buddhist way is followed so that they can also drop their false sense of ego.

3)As a matter of fact Buddhist do not use GOD word. They simply have a word Nirvana, but the other faiths who follow the path of surrender use GOD. It can be said to be a sort of union but as said previously any sentence can not describe what is Nirvana. But because as human beings we have our limited brains we do need some pointer in form of words.

Anonymous said...

May peace be upon us all,

Dear Brother,

Thanks a lot for reading the comments.
My comment would be in 2 parts because of the word limits.
Let me try to put the points in more details-

1) Yes it is true as per this philosophy that ordinary human beings do not remember their past life. But that is a sort of protection. Consider the situation of present life itself. We have so many attachments (in emotional terms) and most of our life is governed by these (as in we earn our livelyhood and do everything possible for our loved ones), and if we have to encounter death of our dear ones (or any such traumatic situation) it shakes us to our very roots.
Now imagine if a ordinary person remembers all of his/her previous lives, he would not be able to take it in psychologically and those memories would interfere with his current life.

Now when it is said that soul evolves then it means the very nature of person keeps evolving. For example- there are humans who are very good by nature (even though their environment may not be so good) they can not harm anyone, and other side their are people who enjoy by troubling other suffer. So people whom we say are good by nature have their souls more evolved and matured.
They need not remember their past life because the lesson has been learnt by their soul. For example even in current life we do not remember our past so well in all its details but we do remember how we felt in all those days and it has it's effect on us and on our spiritual development.

And the philosophy also says when one becomes spiritually evolved enough he starts to remember his previous lives as well. As for 'Gautam The Buddha' it is written in the scriptures that before he attained the state of Buddhahood he remembered all his past lives and told about this to his disciples later on in his sermons.

2) To make this point more clear let me give an example- Lets say I am wearing a lot of cloths on a sunny day and because of this I am suffering with heat. Now to remove my suffering if I remove the extra cloths I will be relieved.
But there is nothing that I need to achieve (in the sense of acquiring some new object) instead I am dropping the extra things. So after dropping all the extra burden I can say now I have attained peace and suffering is gone. But if my other friends are also suffering with the same problem, I don't have any object to give so that they will also attain peace but I can tell them that if they remove extra cloths they will attain the peace.
Same is the case of Nirvana, when even the ego is dropped and nothing remains it is said that ultimate peace is attained but it can not be given to others. They have to work on it by themselves but the Buddhas will be there to guide them on "how to" process.
So the Buddhist way is followed so that they can also drop their false sense of ego.

Anonymous said...

May peace be upon us all,

Dear Brother,

Thanks a lot for reading the comments.
My comment would be in 3 parts because of the word limits.
Let me try to put the points in more details-

1) Yes it is true as per this philosophy that ordinary human beings do not remember their past life. But that is a sort of protection. Consider the situation of present life itself. We have so many attachments (in emotional terms) and most of our life is governed by these (as in we earn our livelyhood and do everything possible for our loved ones), and if we have to encounter death of our dear ones (or any such traumatic situation) it shakes us to our very roots.
Now imagine if a ordinary person remembers all of his/her previous lives, he would not be able to take it in psychologically and those memories would interfere with his current life.

Now when it is said that soul evolves then it means the very nature of person keeps evolving. For example- there are humans who are very good by nature (even though their environment may not be so good) they can not harm anyone, and other side their are people who enjoy by troubling other suffer. So people whom we say are good by nature have their souls more evolved and matured.
They need not remember their past life because the lesson has been learnt by their soul. For example even in current life we do not remember our past so well in all its details but we do remember how we felt in all those days and it has it's effect on us and on our spiritual development.

And the philosophy also says when one becomes spiritually evolved enough he starts to remember his previous lives as well. As for 'Gautam The Buddha' it is written in the scriptures that before he attained the state of Buddhahood he remembered all his past lives and told about this to his disciples later on in his sermons.

Anonymous said...

2) To make this point more clear let me give an example- Lets say I am wearing a lot of cloths on a sunny day and because of this I am suffering with heat. Now to remove my suffering if I remove the extra cloths I will be relieved.
But there is nothing that I need to achieve (in the sense of acquiring some new object) instead I am dropping the extra things. So after dropping all the extra burden I can say now I have attained peace and suffering is gone. But if my other friends are also suffering with the same problem, I don't have any object to give so that they will also attain peace but I can tell them that if they remove extra cloths they will attain the peace.
Same is the case of Nirvana, when even the ego is dropped and nothing remains it is said that ultimate peace is attained but it can not be given to others. They have to work on it by themselves but the Buddhas will be there to guide them on "how to" process.
So the Buddhist way is followed so that they can also drop their false sense of ego.

3)As a matter of fact Buddhist do not use GOD word. They simply have a word Nirvana, but the other faiths who follow the path of surrender use GOD. It can be said to be a sort of union but as said previously any sentence can not describe what is Nirvana. But because as human beings we have our limited brains we do need some pointer in form of words.

Anonymous said...

The only reason for putting my comments was to give some idea about the philosophy.

I love to read all the revelations and feel indebted to these messangers of Truth/God. I have read most of the major scriptures of the world. And it is so beautiful to find out that the same basic truth has been revealed in so many different ways (sometimes totally contradicting each other) that all kind of human beings can follow some or the other path and have peace.

I am not a Buddhist by faith.

I personally do not believe in comparisons which tend to be judgemental specially between spiritual paths. Because the ultimate truth/God is so vast and infinite that he can not be limited into one single path.
Specially human beings like us can not fathom it, so best is to follow the revelation dearest to us wholeheartedly and leave the rest for almighty.

Any comments are welcome.
May peace be upon us all.

Anonymous said...

I am really sorry for posting the repeating comments. I was getting the error everytime trying to submit but did not check that it has been posted.

Please read the last 3 and ignore the previous ones.

May peace be upon us all.

TheHumbleWayfarer said...

Assalamu’alaikum,peace and blessings be upon you

It’s been my pleasure to have your response over my comments yesterday. Thank you so much brother/sis. I rarely hve this opportunity where people leave quite a lengthy comments like what you did. At first I was quite surprised the comments had been 19 in numbers, only then I realized there were some technicalities when you posted the comments. Thank you so much for your interest =)

1)I personally believe that it wouldn’t be fair to say it is a some sort of ‘protection’. If you are trying to imply that, by remembering the calamities or the bad instances that happened in our life would basically ‘interfere’ our current life, I beg to differ. Of course as a human being, emotions are inherent in ourselves. A creature called human being cannot avoid being attached with emotions. However, it goes to our perspectives. Meaning, how we look at such instances and relate with our life. For instance, is it possible for us to know what is normal without being acquainted with the abnormal? . Is it possible to know beauty but for ugliness? Is it possible for us to know health if disease did not occur. From death, losing the loved ones and sickness, we may discern so many things such as life is indeed impermanent and men are indeed impotent in nature and needs the Potent One to assist him. Even from trials and tribulations, I’m sure we can learn so many things. That’s why I believe it is not quite right to say all these would ‘interfere’ in our lives. For me, all these would ‘empower’ me to a better person and how I relate myself with the so many instances that are happening round me.

“people whom we say are good by nature have their souls more evolved and matured. They need not remember their past life because the lesson has been learnt by their soul.”

I agree when you said this. However, in order for the lessons to be learnt, they might have to refer what had happened in the past. Good by nature must have its basis. Maybe through experience , environment and so on. For instance, a child who has been playing with fire and got burnt on his hand would think twice if his friends ask him to play with the fire in the future. A person who has gone bankrupt dreadfully would definitely pay heed over what had happened to him so that he won’t be experiencing the same thing anymore. I remember once somebody said:
"People only see me happy and filled with joy today as I’ve been one of the most successful businessman , but nobody cares about my 99 days of failures back then prior to my success”
He is totally right isn’t he?

Another thing is, a ‘spiritually evolved enough’ person is quite subjective as what I can see. Personally, I believe that a person can learn something immediately after something happened in his or her life. For sentence, a death, sickness etc. I’m sure those who are lying on bed suffering from any sickness have at least a glimpse in their in their minds saying if only they have done this and that to prevent such sickeness. Doesn’t it mean that they have learnt learnt sth?Hope you get my point.

TheHumbleWayfarer said...

2)Thanks for the beautiful analogy. I really thought you would say something on the life purpose of a Buddhist. Anyway, based on your explanation,I understood that Nirvana can be said as an equivalent to ultimate peace and it should be sought on individual basis with the help of Buddhas. However, I’m just curious about one thing, if the ultimate peace is to be sought individually (though with the assistance of Buddha), doesn’t it mean the ultimate peace itself is understood differently by different individuals?. And I’m just wondering , to achieve Nirvana means to remove the ‘I’ in you, but if you claimed yourself to be a Buddha, isn’t mean that the ‘I’ is still there. I’m so sorry but this made me wonder.

3)Yes, I know that. Even when Gautama Buddha was asked by a disciple whether God existed or not, he refused to reply the question. Yes, it’s true that the ultimate path is vast and infinite. Yet, for me, I believe it should come with logical explanation. If the truth that you are upholding to does not even go hand in hand with your logic, it would be absurd then to claim that it is truth. That’s my personal opinion.


Dear anon,
Its really great to know that you had taken such an initiative to read all the major scriptures in the world. I’m sure you must have such a broad knowledge on the world religions. It’s true that the basic truth would play a role, but for me if we are to embrace a truth , we should embrace a truth which is inclusive and thorough in nature. I believe a truth cannot be exclusive , rather inclusive. That’s why I put in my previous comments, if I were to embrace a particular truth, I have to ask myself the very basic question which is, what is my indicator of truth ? This is really-really vital. I believe you have asked the same question to yourself =)

I am so sorry if you came across any words in my posts that seem to be judgmental. It’s truly not my intention. To err is human. As a Muslim, I’ve always uphold the principle that it is not about looking down on others or even condemning other faith. Rather, we look at each other as a human being. Of course, we disagree at some points. Yet, we all agree to disagree =)

TheHumbleWayfarer said...

If you don't mind, I would like to share the concept of God in Islam. I'm quite sure you have the idea as you have read on almost all religions, but for the sake of sharing, hope you can take a look at this =)
the link is>
http://www.islamreligion.com/articles/232/

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Unknown said...

Wa 'aleykum as salaam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu,

Just a brief observation from a long-time student of comparative religion on the subject of the attainment of nirvana.
It is a profound--and frequent--misunderstanding that the achievement of nirvana for the individual practitioner benefits only himself.
This misunderstanding is also frequently used as a criticism of spirituality in general.
In the Buddhist view, such attainment--and the struggles undergone for its sake--are universally beneficial to all sentient beings. Similar views about the role of the saints in the maintenance and well-being of the universe at large are also to be found in the mystical traditions of Judaism, Islam, and to a lesser extent Christianity. This idea is even more pronounced in Mahayana Buddhism, which emphasizes the Bodhisattva ideal to a greater degree than the Theravada tradition.
So the struggle and its end are in fact the opposite of "selfish:" it is in fact the opposite of selfishness, the complete abandonment of the ego's own interests for the benefit of all sentient beings.
This is not a statement on the objective efficacy of the goal or its attainment: individuals may or may not be mistaken that their struggle and attainment will indeed have that result. But that does not change their motivations into something they are not.