What to Learn From A Cultural Muslim, Christian, Hindu and Jain
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
2 December
2022
It's Your Personal Equation With A Divine Power
( If At All It Does Exist) That Matters And Not How You Let Your Life Get
Regulated By Religious Edicts And Antediluvian Rules And Regulations
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Once I was
dining with a Turkish ' Muslim ' professor ' at a restaurant in Bologna, Italy.
Being erudite and sensitive, he asked me whether I had certain dietary
idiosyncrasies. I said, " no, please order whatever you want." "
May I order pork frankfurters, " he asked me politely. Shocked for a
millisecond, I said, " why not.
" Being a hardcore vegetarian, I ordered some continental veg cuisine. But
I kept thinking that this man called himself a Muslim but he was relishing
seasoned pork sausages. I was quite young at that time. So, it was rather
anomalous ( dietary) behaviour to me, though having travelled across the world,
pork has never been abhorrent to me. In fact, we've no right to call or judge
any food or anyone's food as abhorrent. That's cultural as well as religious
relativism. He could read my mind. He himself broached the subject that he was
a cultural Muslim (not a religious one) who still didn't leave Islam. "
But, I'm NOT a Quranic Muslim," he said. That statement stayed with me. I
realized that one can be a cultural Hindu or Muslim without following the
obscure diktats of any damn religion. That professor told me that all
scriptures were joke books and one could remain a Muslim or Christian without
believing in the preposterous contents of Quran or Bible.
Here's the
key to being religious in the correct sense of the word. If a Muslim or Christian
doesn't believe in the fundamental beliefs like resurrection, Adam and Eve,
circumcision, hell and heaven, Last Day of Judgement etc, yet he remains in the
fold of Islam and Christianity and until he calls himself an atheist, ex-Muslim
or ex-Christian, others have no right to excommunicate or brand him.
Just
think over it:
Religious behaviour and following certain 'divine' orders are part of
conditioning. Christians love gorging on pork but till the 8th century, pork
was religiously prohibited in Christianity just like it's prohibited in Islam
as both the religions, sorry tributaries, branched out of Judaism which abhors
pork.
In short,
all these habits, particularly, dietary ones, belong to this world and have
nothing to do with a follower's commune with his higher self, which you naively
call god or Allah.
I've a Jain
friend who loves garlic and onion and occasionally eats chicken, mutton, even
beef (!). But he calls himself a Jain who's into all sorts of philanthropic
activities and sponsors the education of underprivileged children of all
faiths. He does it all without any fanfare and fuss. In short, he's not a
hypocrite. I consider him to be a far greater Jain than those who make a song
and dance of their bizarre culinary habits of not eating garlic, onion and all
roots, but are into all shady and shrouded activities.
It's your
personal equation with a divine power ( if at all it does exist) that matters
and not how you let your life get regulated by religious edicts and
antediluvian rules and regulations.
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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/cultural-muslim-christian-hindu-jain/d/128543
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