Why Blasphemy Has No Place in Oriental Spirituality
By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
10 May 2023
I agree
with Mr M K Bajaj's comment that, ' We in Hinduism never feel offended if
someone questioned the existence of god.'
The
so-called, 'Revealed' faiths (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) are structured,
definite, organized and rigid religious systems with a prophet as a conduit.
Each Semitic faith believes that it's the one and only true faith.
When a faux
notion of superiority and supremacy creeps into a setup, haughtiness is bound
to emerge as a predominant religious spirit. Islam goes a step further and
believes that its Quran is the only PERFECT book, which Allah 'revealed' after
'cancelling' the earlier Books, viz, Torah and Bible. This is the biggest
misconception which, according to many religious scholars, is the bane of
Islam. The followers of Islam erroneously think that this 'PRISTINE PURITY' of
their religion must remain intact and any question of its authenticity and
validity must be dealt with severely.
This is an
over-protective attitude and a feral instinct. You may have noticed that a lone
tigress may not attack humans but when she's with her cubs, she tends to pounce
upon anyone she perceives as a danger to her cubs. Islam behaves in the same
manner. It perceives everything as a danger to its prophet, book and religion
itself. So, it tries to eliminate that perceived danger in the garb of
blasphemy. While Judaism and Christianity relatively changed with the changing
times, Islam and its Quran remained like inscriptions on a piece of granite
with its deluded followers still thinking that each and every word of the book
is from Allah.
Let me come
back to Mr Bajaj's statement that blasphemy is alien to Hinduism. Eastern
faiths, all originated from Hinduism, are not definitive because the oriental
spirituality is not lapidary but liquid; not fixed but fluid; not firm but
flexible. In such an all-encompassing system, everyone has his say and every
thought, even a dissenting one, has its place. You can jolly well deny the
existence of a creator, the way the exponents of Samkhya Darshan do. Yet,
you'll not be punished. You can very well claim that there's no hell or heaven,
like Charvakas. Nothing untoward will happen. But say that there's no Hereafter
in Indonesia, a majority Muslim country. You'll be punished under Blasphemy
rules of that country.
Agreed,
today's Hinduism has become as obstinate as Islam or any other faith has ever
been, it still doesn't kill you if you ask how Draupadi, the epitome of
feminism, meekly agreed to be the wife of other four Pandavas when Arjun chose
her to be his wife? But ask anything about Khadija, a 40-yr-old widow who chose
a much younger Muhammad as her husband or Ayesha, Muhammad's nubile young wife.
Muslims will start shouting, ' Sar tan se juda.'
It's time
for all of us, esp. Muslims, to introspect and try to become humans. Most of
them are still religious robots with no independent thinking. Muslims should
also be openly vocal to condemn the executions of two Iranians for casting
aspersions on Muhammad's character. Accept that your prophet was also a human
and also concede that your Quran was an earthly compilation. That's why, its
Arabic is not uniform and is tampered with a number of linguistic
interpolations coming from Syriac, Aramaic, Yiddish among others. Why did Quran
take 23 years in its completion is a question no Muslim asks. Only by accepting
the grey areas in their faith, can Muslims be universally respected.
-----
A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul
is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He
has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several
languages including Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/blasphemy-oriental-spirituality/d/129743
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