Reasons of Difference

As I have underlined, religious monopolists are the main cause of differences between the religions. If we try to find the real percentage of these differences the following analysis will supply the answer. Ethics, in reality, is based on the following three questions and answers to it:

1. What is a man morally?

Answer.Bad.

2. What a man ought to be?

Answer.Good.

3. What deeds comprise piety?

As regards the first two questions there can be no difference to their answers and the whole human race in unanimous on the point that man is bad and that he should be good. The differences arise so far as the answer to the third question is concerned but they are settled with the following result:

Man is bad, he should be good and can become good with good deeds. What is the utility of piety? A chaste and peaceful society will come into existence and the pleasure of the Lord God will be achieved. This result leaves no room for any difference. There is only 25% of ethics which is subjected to various differences. A deeper study will show that 80% of this portion also is non-differential. Thus only 5% of total ethics is at variance or contradictory and 95% is uniform. Now the question arises that when 95% is uniform, can we not abandon 5%; which is contradictory? Is it justified that in spite of 95% uniformity there should be bloodshed and destruction due to 5% of differences? If we ignore this 5% matter, all the religions of the world can be brought in a single row.

The standard fixed by revelation for humanity and civility of a man is how far is he harmless and how far is he beneficial for his society? A man, who is least harmful and most profitable for his society, is the ideal man. If he doesn’t conform to the said standard he will be far below the par. The least that God requires from a man is that if he cannot be beneficial to his fellowmen, he must not be harmful to them. It is the first stage of civility that a man should not be harmful to his fellowmen with regard to their body, spirit, or belongings. If he is not so, then he is a vexatious animal, not a man.

To the ill luck of humanity, new ideologies have been coined. A Jew considers that only the Jews will get salvation even though they may satisfy their lust with their mothers and sisters. A Christian declares that salvation only falls to the share of Christians even though they may openly attend the naked clubs. A Muslim considers that only Muslims deserve salvation even though they may not distinguish between their wives and daughters.

We find that there are so many gentle and pious persons among all the religions. If any of the labels (Jews, Christians, Muslims) is to be honored by God on the day of Judgment, will it meet the demands of justice to throw all the pious men of other religions into hell? If salvation is only for Jews, irrespective of their conduct and character, what will be the end of a most pious and gentle Christian or Muslim? If the Muslims only deserve salvation what will be the fate of those pious and gentle Jews and Christians who are beneficial for humanity and are free from moral infirmities? If they are to be thrown into hell, will it be just on the part of God Almighty? God Almighty, like the head of any political party, will not shower honors only on the members of his party. He will requite according to the deeds of men. He himself says in the Quran that he will not let go waste the good deeds of anyone. The revealed book of every religion has foretold the result of evil doings. The Holy Quran has clearly threatened the evil-doers with dire consequences. So is the case with the Old Testament of Jews (Old Testament), the Bible of Christians, and Geeta of Hindus. All these books clearly state that a good man is good without any reference to his religion and a bad man is bad without any reference to his religion. In view of this, the labelism will not hold water.

In Islamic literature, there are many Traditions that have predicted the salvation of some non-Muslims. For example, Najashi, the King of Habsha was a Christian, Hatim was an infidel of Arabia, and Nosherwan was a Zoroastrian of Persia. Since all these men had the best human character, the Holy Prophet of Islam clearly told them about their salvation. It can be proved from the Holy Quran that a large number of Muslims will be thrown into hell. The upshot of the foregoing discussion is that a man must be morally pious and profitable for society.

In Islamic Jurisprudence wherever the word “Haraam” (forbidden) occurs, it demands respect for something or the other. If we look at the philosophy of forbidding something we shall find that an idea of respect is there.

Man is the owner of four kinds of assets:

1. Wealth.
2. Life
3. Honor
4. Religion

The ideal man is one who has respect for all these four assets. The damage, total or partial, of wealth, life, honor, or religion of others is strictly forbidden in Islam. The breach of any of the moral laws will involve damage to one of the said four assets. It holds well for an individual as well as for a nation. In all religions in general and in Islam in particular, everything that begets love is “wajib” (obligatory) or “Mustahab” (Desirable)and everything that creates hatred is ‘haraam’ (forbidden) or ‘mukkrooh’ (hateful)

It is a pity that the trend of religious research remained mostly destructive. For example, there are so many Christian scholars who have criticized the Bible. They juxtaposed the Bible and science to prove that it was a fabricated book and its contents were not authentic They tried to prove from the ‘Nasab-namas’ Genealogical Tables that Adam came on earth in 3800 B.C. and this is wrong scientifically. They have also tried to prove that it is not correct that the whole human race was wiped out in a great deluge of Noha. All their efforts are directed towards the point that the Bible is not a revealed book. The foremost of these scholars are Dr. Rogey and Morias Jokita. Similarly, there are countless Jew and Muslim scholars whose books try to devalue the Bible. I do not think that by proving the Bible or Old Testament as unrevealed or unauthentic books these scholars have rendered some honorable service to humanity. The fact is that if we carefully look into the Old and New Testaments we find a big treasure of advice and exhortations. There are numerous things that invite a man to the highest ideals of humanity. We can pick out from these so many formulae which can easily lead us to the Ultimate Reality. I wonder if we carelessly push aside these golden principles and try to do research on triflings.

Before writing this book when I was collecting material for the same, I had a chance to study a large number of manuscripts of so many such critics. The majority of the same contained misleading discourses. Many of those contained objections to Geeta, Pran, Ramain, Maha-Bharat Vedas, and other books attributed to divine personalities. Personally, I collected many literary gems from these books. I went through a book called ‘Tragedy of the Quran’ along with other many treatises written by Muslim Scholars to prove the authenticity of the creed they believed in. There are books that contain ruthless criticism of the books of Tradition (Hadeeth). In my view, we should sift out only that material which assists us in the advancement of our personality or which supplies an answer to the question “How can I become a good man?”

There is a famous tale called “The Greedy Dog”. This tale is no doubt a fiction and fabricated one. It denounces greed. So one should only be concerned with the moral it conveys. There is no need to do research about the dog, its owner, the bridge or the canal, etc. The moral it contains, is conveyed without any research. In a similar manner, there is sufficient material in the holy books of all the religions which leads to the higher values of humanity. One should restrict oneself to this material only. If someone gets stuck into contradictory problems, he will deprive himself of moral advancement which in my view is, the biggest loss of an individual. We must devote our time to concentrate on linking ourselves with the Ultimate Reality. A man remains deprived of the purification of self as long as he remains busy with finding faults with others. We should reserve a major portion of our time for rectification of ourselves. The time should not be wasted in collecting misleading and destructive material which results in nothing more than creating violence and

mischief on the face of the earth. It is not the service of humanity, to create hatred among fellow men.

The principles relating to self-purification and self-schooling are quite similar in all the revealed books. Some shallow persons have tried to trace out destructive aspects, even in the good points, where the Holy Quran, Bible, Old Testament, New Testament, and Hindu religious books are unanimous . Some Jews have tried to prove the similarity between the Old Testament and the New Testament with a view to prove that the apostles of Jesus Christ wrote the Bible themselves after stealing the material from the Old Testament and Five Volumes. And that Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John were the plagiarists.

Similarly, there are some Christian writers who have tried, on the basis of unanimity between the Holy Quran and The New Testament, to invent a story that there was a monk who wrote the Holy Quran for the Holy Prophet or he taught the Bible to the Holy Prophet and thus assisted in the writing of Holy Quran.

The striking similarity among all the scriptures is due to the fact that all the revealed books were sent by one and the same God. Therefore all the ethical principles remained unchanged and similar in all the scriptures. All the 124000 Prophets said that evil is bad, so they did not steal it from one another. But as the message was the same, they were bound to repeat it. A slight change can be discerned between the first and the last message which is due to the fact that man had mentally advanced by that time.

If a book is prescribed in some syllabus, its lessons will remain the same even though a thousand teachers may teach it. We will not be able to blame them for stealing from one another. Therefore we are led to the

The conclusion is that the revealed books were sent by one Intellect. So we should try to unite ourselves, otherwise, all religions will be reduced to the position of a ‘copy to copy’.

Some critics are of the view that the scriptures are a changed form of the mythology of antique nations. The acceptance of this theory will further degrade the religions. If Islam is a copy of Christianity Christianity a copy of Jewism and Jewism a copy of antique Roman mythology then where goes the religion of Abraham? This trend will destroy the whole religion’s philosophy. Actually, we should take the antique mythologies as distorted teachings of some prophets, which here and there coincide with the revealed books, and these common portions are only safe from distortion.

Spiritual Aspect

The second aspect of the constitutional and practical side of religion is purificational and spiritual. This part is very important because no religion can claim to be a religion without spiritualism. A religion without spiritualism may be a ‘code of law’, but not a religion. Religion is not the name of ethics or penal laws only.

What is spiritualism and what is its utility?

The answer to this question is called religion.

The utility of spiritualism is concerned with metaphysics. Spiritualism can approach where material means and resources fail to work. The supernatural practices are only possible with spiritualism. The man, after acquiring his spiritual power can not only exercise the same in the metaphysical world but can visualize the spiritual world. The utility of spiritualism is more in the next world than this world. The spiritual comforts cannot be described in words until a man himself does not perceive them.

The question arises as to what is spiritualism?

An easy and simple answer for a novice is as follows:

It is quite impossible to have a direct view of the Penultimate Light, in this world or the other world. Science has declared that a total view of the universe is next to impossible. So the view of the Creator of the universe is far more impossible. The ultimate Reality has told us that a specific Light represents Him. I would term this Light as the First Light. We have little or scanty knowledge about the fact as to how that First Light came into being. The First Light was created to act as the deputy of the Ultimate Reality so as to become visible whenever and wherever required. This was done to constitute proof for a man who could only believe in something visible or tangible.

All the prophets who promised to the man, a meeting with the Lord, actually meant a meeting with the First Light, because the vision of this Light amounts to the vision of the Lord on his ‘Arsh’ (Throne). The top-most personalities who have a direct link with the First Light are of two Kinds:

1. Nabi or Prophets 2. Wali or Saint

It must be kept in mind that every prophet is a saint but every saint is not a prophet. The reason for this is that a saint is permanently in touch with the First Light but a Prophet has to keep in touch with his followers also. It can be understood by an example. A pillar of a room has two sides. One is connected with the earth and the other with the roof. The lower side touches

the base and the upper one the height. The position of a Prophet is quite the same. On one hand, he is linked with his followers, and on the other with the First Light. That is why the ‘wilayat'(saint-hood) of the Prophets is higher than that of the saints. It has been laid down in a Qudsi Tradition that “wilayat (saint-hood) is better than prophethood.” It is because the saintly side of a prophet is on the one hand in touch with the heights of the First Light (a preferable position) wherefrom he receives directions about his duties as prophet and on the other hand he is linked with his people and thus transfers the heavenly beneficence to the people.

A saint also is constantly connected with the First Light but he is not bound to convey the heavenly orders to the people. The connection with the First Light is of two types:

1. Constant connection.
2. Periodical Connection.

Constant connection is bestowed upon none except a saint or a prophet but the periodical one can be achieved by one who can sanctify his soul. The latter type of conjunction, if received by someone, is the highest award for a human being, because even though for a short while, he does have a glimpse of the secret and sacred treasure, specified for saints and prophets.

In all the scriptures, where a meeting with God Almighty has been narrated, it is actually the meeting with the First Light. It has been stated in Old and New Testaments that at Mount Seena, a glimpse of ‘Yahoowa’ had been visualized. Israelites had seen during their journey a light in the cloud.

This light continued to be visible on the ‘canopy of worship’ and ‘coffin of Skeena’ and talked to the sons of Israel. This light was also seen by Prophet Abraham and his pious offspring. In all these cases it was the same ‘First Light’ which had been previously seen by Adam, Eve, Abel, and Cain.

The word ‘Yahoowa’ is actually a contraction of the word (O one who had been seen).

That one, who had been seen, was not the Penultimate Light because it cannot at all be seen but it was the light of His Representative or Deputy whom we call for the facility of understanding as the ‘First Light’. A human soul’s highest achievement is that it should be able to see this ‘First Light’ and this is the root of spiritualism.

It is not easy to achieve the position of a saint because it is one of the secrets of God Almighty. This position cannot be acquired but is bestowed. Here a question crops up. Is it possible to have a transitory or periodical connection with the ‘First Light’ by hard labor? The answer to it is quite simple. The help and encouragement from God Almighty, though necessary, a man can achieve a transitory link by dint of untiring labor. What type of labor is required for it? The answer to this question is ‘belief and religion ‘ which is a requitable way in which the labor of none goes to waste.