What the ‘Hell’ He Is Doing, This Zakir Naik?
By Aiman Reyaz, New Age Islam
18 Sep 2012
“Since 2+2=4, no other answer is acceptable and I will not allow my son to go to a school which teaches something else; similarly Islam is the ‘Haq’ (truth-- the only truth) and no other religion is acceptable in the sight of Allah”.
No prize for answering as to who said this: Dr Zakir Naik, the President of the Islamic Research Foundation. He is an MBBS doctor but he left that job for a “higher” and “spiritually more fulfilling” job of becoming a Daiyee’ (one who invites people to come to the fold of Islam). He says “I have changed my profession; I was once a doctor of the body but now, by the Grace of Allah (swt), I have become a doctor of the soul”.
He is famous for “removing misconceptions about Islam” with the help of religious texts, logic and science. He even “clears doubts about other religions” as he ‘is a student of comparative religion’. He fluently quotes from the Quran and the authentic Ahadith, Vedas, Upanishads, Gita, and the Bible and at times he even quotes from the Dhamma Pad and the Sacred Book of the East. He is especially praised for his “convincing answers posed during the question hour time”.
He has delivered “over a thousand public lectures and has appeared in TV talk shows. His debate with Dr William Campbell on the topic of ‘The Quran and the Bible in the Light of Science’ was a huge success and his recent debate in 2006 with Shri Shri Ravi Shankar on the topic of ‘Concept of God in Hinduism and Islam in the Light of Sacred Scriptures’ was also very much appreciated.”
A major chunk of the Muslim masses love him and adore him. The Muslim parents now want their sons and daughters to join the IIS school (also a brain child of Dr Naik), to become like Dr Naik, to be able to quote the scriptures at the drop of a hat, and earn great Sawab (blessing) so that they can easily go to Heaven, and, of course, take their parents, too, on their shoulders.
Enough of Idealism let’s talk Realism
This is like Plato’s Utopia, everything idyllic and perfect with no complexity; but here is the reality. Plato’s dream of Utopia is unfulfilled. Similar is the case of the psyche of these Muslims who venerate Dr Naik so much: they don’t realise that the dreamy world that Dr Naik transports them to, nowhere exists, except, of course, in their imaginations.
What people say is less important than how people say. According to a scientific discovery, only 7-10% of what we say matters, 60-80% accounts for your body language and voice intonation. (See: ‘The Definite Guide to Body Language’ by Allan Pease) Dr Naik says that he does not criticise or mock other religions, but the reality is very different. Here is a list of examples that counter his words:
He says ‘Islam- product, 100% but marketing 0%; Christianity- product 0% but marketing 100% (Lecture on ‘Media and Islam: War or Peace?’). What an irony! He quotes from the Bible very often and his Peace TV is watched by over 100 million people. (Why people love Dr Naik I will deal in the next part.)
During a question hour time he says ‘agar deviji hongi tabhi to dawat denge’ (you invite the goddess to Islam only if she exists). It does not take a genius to realise that he is making fun of Hindu goddesses. If one hears him say this then one will realise that his aim was to denigrate Hinduism and its beliefs.
While delivering a lecture in Kashmir on the topic of ‘Kya Quran Ko Samajh ke Padhna Zaruri Hai? (Is it necessary to read the Quran with understanding?) he said “Bible me aisi cheez hai ke ek achcha insan bol bhi nahi sakta hai, aap apni maa ke samne nahi bol payenge, usme, mai bolna nahi chahta, pornography hai, kaise rape karte hai woh likha hua hai, kaise gangrape karte hain woh bhi hai, mai aur nahi keh sakta. (The Bible has things written in it that no decent person will speak it, I can’t say it. You can’t say it in front of your mother. It has pornography, teaches how to rape and how to even gang-rape and .., well, I cannot say more.)
He has said on numerous occasions: “if Osama Bin Laden is fighting against the enemies of Islam then I am with him”. He has also said “every Muslim should be a terrorist”. He says that it is the duty of the Muslims to terrorise anti-social elements. He was rightly banned from entering to the United Kingdom, because they knew that his way of speaking sounds seditious. If Muslims start following his lectures wholeheartedly then there will be utter chaos. Every Muslim will try to “terrorise” anti-social elements. But here is the catch, we are subjective in our analysis: for a fanatic Muslim, a man who does not keep a beard, with trimmed moustache and for a woman who does not cover herself from top to bottom in the Islamic dress, are anti-social because they are not Islamic. People should not act like police, let the police do its job, we can only help it, but we should not become one.
Again in a lecture, given in Kashmir, he had said that while “debating with Dr William Campbell, I pointed out 38 errors in the Bible and he was not able to answer even one. Time was less; otherwise I would have pointed out more errors. Every religious book except the Glorious Quran contains errors. The Hindu Holy Book Yajurveda says that the world is flat, the Bible says that the world is flat”. May be he was so busy searching for errors in the other religious scriptures that he forgot to look into hadith. (Muslims may get agitated and say how can Muhammad (pbuh) be in the wrong, my response to it is that his words were fabricated in the later centuries, similarly other religious books were fabricated; but this should not obstruct us to gain wisdom from these books as they too contain the Words of God.)
The ‘Only’ and ‘No-other’ Psychology
Dr Naik narrows the path to God. He says that there is only one way to reach Him and that is by becoming a Muslim. He propagates and believes that the only religion acceptable in the sight of God is Islam, the only religious book worth reading and understanding is the Quran, other religious books can be read only and only on one condition and that is to find faults in them. No other path to God, no other faith, no other holy book is acceptable to him. He once said that yoga is un-Islamic and then he quotes the Quran “If anyone desires a religion other than Islam, never will it be accepted of him; and in the Hereafter he will be in the ranks of those who have lost all spiritual goods”. (the Noble Quran ch3 v 85). Sub-consciously he is indicating that by doing yoga one will land in hell.
Everyone wants to feel superior. This is human’s one of the strongest motivating factors. He uses it to the limit. By debating with other famous personalities of other faiths, he indirectly makes fun of them and their religion; and he tries to uplift Islam and the Muslims by embellishing the language. This brings a feeling of superiority among the Muslim masses. At night they need to watch Peace TV and see and enjoy how he indirectly makes fun of other religions and their practices. This satisfies the Muslims and hence this motivating factor urges them to watch him and his channel. This is the reason why they love him so much.
I am very much worried about the students of the IIS. They don’t realise how much hate and intolerance they are being injected. The students have only two purposes: 1. to invite others into the fold of Islam and 2. To criticise other religions, as much as possible. Dr Naik has made an army of dawiees like him, some even worse than him. One day I heard a girl speak in the most intense voice and she said “Islam is the Haq and time will prove that”. I sensed that she said with so much feeling that anyone going against her view will incur her wrath, intellectually; i.e., if you were a Hindu, she would have criticised Hinduism, if you were a Christian, she would have criticised Christianity. I wonder what she, and students like her, would say to Muslims who do not agree with their point of view, may be a curse that we will roast in hell.
Dr Naik has made many Muslims complacent because he has made them believe only they are on the right tract and no other.
Evolution
There would have been no Dr Naik, had there been no Ahmed Deedat; and had there been no Christian missionaries there would have been no Deedat. Ahmed Deedat used to work in a shop in South Africa. Near the shop there was a missionary school that used to teach its students that everyone is doomed unless they believed that Jesus Christ (pbuh) is the only Lord and saviour. They also used to teach how to attack the Muslims intellectually: they would trouble local Muslim boys by saying ‘Muhammad had so many wives and concubines’, ‘Muhammad spread his religion at the point of his sword’, ‘Muhammad copied his Quran from the Bible’ etc.
One day they troubled Mr Deedat also with the same set of questions, he says, years later in a lecture, that he had two options: either to run away or to fight and fight them intellectually. He chose the latter. Mr Deedat was an avid reader, one day he went to his boss’s house and there he began to sift magazines, newspapers and books. He comes across a book by the name of ‘Izharul Haq’ (Truth Revealed). This book changed his life. The aim of the book was to arm Muslims to counter the British-Christian intellectual attack. He read this book and he also attended some of the Bible classes given by a Christian revert, who was very good in the Biblical studies. After learning from these two sources and for teaching to his group of 20-30 students he learnt even more and then he started giving lectures.
He taught young Muslim students who had the courage to speak and the courage to listen to the ‘shit portions of the Bible’ (see the tutorial of Ahmed Deedat). One of his students was Dr Naik. Dr Naik was impressed by him and he learnt the knowledge of Bible from him. But Mr Deedat not only shared his Biblical knowledge with him but he also taught the reactionary approach to Dr Naik.
He taught Dr Naik to highlight the ‘shitty’ portions of the Bible where ‘the son rapes his mother’, where ‘the brother rapes his sister’ where ‘the daughters sexually seduce their father’ etc. Mr Deedat says this in front of Dr Naik’s wife (see Youtube Deedat teaching Naik). Please pardon me for writing this but he actually says this and points out these verses in the Bible. I am not saying that these are not mentioned in the Bible; indeed they are but why focus on these things?
Conclusion: See Within
If someone asks any question about Islam, be it a non-Muslim or a thinking Muslim then we get angry, but we expect others to revert (mind you, according to them it is only ‘revert’ and not ‘convert’) if we openly criticise their religion and their customs. We will get violent if someone quotes us:
“Wherein both will be ‘Qasirat-ut-Tarf [chaste females (wives) restraining their glances, desiring none except their husbands] with whom no man or jinn has had tamath (opening their hymens with sexual intercourse) before them”. (The Noble Quran ch 55 v 56)
There are so many Ahadith that (mai apni maan ke samne nahni bol paaunga) I can’t ‘say it in front of my mother’. Instead of focusing on the negatives we must focus on the positives, at least because we too have negatives.
Dr Naik wants to revert all the non-Muslims into Islam but I would like to quote the Quran which says:
“Say ye: We believe in Allah, and the revelation given to us, and to Abraham, Ismail, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and that given to Moses and Jesus, and that given to (all) Prophets from their Lord; we make no difference between one and another of them; and we bow to Allah in Islam”. (The Noble Quran ch 2 v 136)
Dr Naik presents half the picture. For example he says that in the Bhavishya Purana Muhammad (pbuh) is mentioned but he does not say that Jesus Christ (pbuh) is also mentioned. He says that Muhammad (pbuh) is foretold my Gautama Buddha, but actually he presents only half the truth. On one occasion he had said that ‘Allah’ is mentioned in the Rig Veda, but when I checked it up on the internet, I saw no Allah, and instead the word was ‘Hari’! Dr Naik says what ‘Petrodollars’ Islamists ask them to say. A Maulana can never have so much money so as to open an Islamic organization, a school and 3 TV channels. He is also planning to launch a news channel.
In the end I would like to say that yes 2+2 is equal to 4 only; but I believe, as the Quran says, that there are many ways that lead to God (read Heaven), just like there can be many answers to ‘numbers greater than 2’. The biggest problem with Dr Naik is that he has the habit of asking wrong questions.
URL: https://newageislam.com/interfaith-dialogue/‘hell’-doing,-this-zakir-naik/d/8752
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