A Recipe For Burying All Religious Differences
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
19 November
2022
When There're So Many Conflicting And
Contradictory References In The Book Of One Faith, How Can Truth Be Objective?
Truth Is Interpretative And Highly Subjective
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I'm
appalled to see that the famous IAS coach Vikas Divyakeerti is having to prove
the veracity of his statements on Ramayana by showing the passages and
references in the books, including Valmiki's ' Ramayana, ' to make it clear
that he didn't fabricate anything to malign any character, deified by the
majority.
I don't
want to get into the same hackneyed issue to fish in the troubled waters. My
point is, why do we react so quickly and condemn a person who's on the right
track and has read and researched more than the masses?
Once Iqbal
wrote to his favourite professor and mentor Reynold A Nicholson, who taught
Persian and Arabic at Cambridge.
Iqbal asked
him how should he go about spreading the CORRECT message of the Qur’an and
Hadees. The great scholar of Persian and Arabic, Dr Nicholson replied, "
Not only Muslims but followers of all faiths hardly know anything about the
scriptures of their respective faiths. To such people, even facts seem to be
attempts to denigrate their religion(s). Even those, who've read their
scriptures, are literalists and cannot define scriptural references
metaphorically. So, you've to be too careful while dealing with your Quran and
its followers. "
What
Nicholson advised more than a century ago is all the more right in these times.
Everyone seems to be paranoid about his/her faith. Your every action or word is
viewed through the prism of faith.
Hindus have
no knowledge of Sanskrit, but they talk of the greatness of Hinduism and its
scriptures, all written in Sanskrit!
Jainas
don't know Prakrit and the early languages their Agamas were written in. But
they show great solidarity with Hindus and call themselves great believers. Do
they know that Jainism, like Buddhism, is an atheistic faith? Do they know that
the Jain Ramayan, composed in the 3rd century CE, claims that Hindus have
maligned Ravan? Sita, according to Jain epic, is Ravan's daughter and it was
not Ram but Lakshman who killed Ravan!
So, when
there're so many conflicting and contradictory references in the book of one
faith, how can truth be objective? Truth is interpretative and highly
subjective. That's why, when one Naseer, Rasheed or Anburaj (with due respect
to all) interprets their religion as per their whims and understanding, no
reasonable reader should take them too seriously and here lies the remedy to
bury the religious differences.
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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/recipe-burying-religious-differences/d/128436
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