Dear fellow-Malayalis
Srimathi Kaliammah G C Pallikondan laments that:-
"In my country, we non muslims are called kafirs. We cant do much, still call our muslims friend as friends only with no special names.
Our temples were destroyed, in the name islam and the person who destroys temples is granted with noble pahala or good points accumulated.
On the other hand we respect every masudi and mosque as a place of worship."
Please grant me the indulgence to respond. Several crucial points are raised.
(1) Labelled "kafirs", non-Muslims in a Muslim-majority country cannot do much, but still call Muslims friends.
Comment:
Calling and treating your Muslim majority neighbors as friends is a good first step to establishing and promoting racial and religious (and social) harmony.
The next step might well be to find areas of common interest, such as marketing and shopping together, caring for children together (especially when they are sick, or need transport, or lack toys), letting children play together, do homework together, exchanging news about good doctors, dentists, shops, hair salons, beauty parlours, plumbers, electricians, general handymen, holiday destinations, cheap air-fares, train and road travel, food. Even sharing newspapers, magazines, books.
(2) Temples were destroyed in the name of Islam.
Comment:
For Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Taoists, Shintoists, and others, temples, both cave-temples and free-standing elaborately-carved and decorated solid-rock temples, were a comparatively recent invention. As were shrines, niches, and wayside altars.
If you studied their Sacred Scriptures carefully, you will find that from the very beginning, i.e. more than 27 millenia ago, God and Enlightened Man were in a one-to-one direct relationship without the need for an intermediary Prophet or Saviour, or Blessed Virgin of Immaculate Conception. (See, the Vedas.)
It might well be that Muslims, accustomed to prostrating five times or more daily towards the Kaaba in Mecca and the Black Stone embedded in its East Wall, were mistakenly thinking that we are all idolators praying to stocks, stones and statues, to trees and rivers, to the Sun and the nine planets, to the stars and the forces of Nature.
What they might not be aware of, or refuse to accept, is that in truth we had long ago realised that without God there is no life, that in every one of us there is the spark called Jeevaathman, emanating from God who is the Paramaathman, and to whom we return on extinguishment of our mortal life here on Earth.
They might not even be aware that each and everyone of us can take a pinch of moist turmeric powder, or even of clay, or a small stone, or a bead of rudraaksham, do deep spiritual meditation upon a form of the Eternal One, and infuse into that little pinch of turmeric powder or clay or stone or bead the very spirit and immediate presence of God. After our offerings of the 16-step shodasha-upachaara puja, we just recite the appropriate manthram to return the Deity to its permanent abode. The little pinch of clay or turmeric powder or other object then returns to just that, and can be disposed of, e.g. on the pedestal on which we keep he tulsi plant, or in flowing water or the sea.
In sum, God does NOT reside in the stones of the temples, but in the heart and minds, and in the sublime ineffable consciousness, of the pious devotee, ready to be called at any time, anywhere, for any purpose, and thereafter sent home.
(3) The Muslim who destroys our temples is given rich rewards in Heaven.
Comment:
The Muslims' concept of rewards in Heaven for the pious is totally different from ours.
We see our jeevaathman, on release from the mortal body on death, attaining not so much a pleasureable Earthly Paradise above the clouds, but merger with the Paramaathman through a four-step process -- saa-lokam, saameepam, saa-roopam, and saayujyam. Meaning, reaching the Heavenly abode, attaining the Divine presence, attaining the Divine form, and attaining complete merger with the Divinity.
In contrast, from its very beginning Koran 2. 25 promises sex in Heavenly Paradise with "chaste virgins" etrnally, saying:-
Proclaim good tidings to those who have faith and do good works. They shall dwell in gardens watered by running streams: whenever they are given food to eat, they shall say, 'This is what we used to eat before.' Wedded to chaste virgins, they shall abide therein for ever.
So does Koran 37. 41 - 61, emphasising good food, good drink and union with more virgins:-
The true servants of God (after death) shall be well provided for, feasting on fruit, and honoured in the Garden of Delight. Reclining face to face upon soft couches, they shall be served with a goblet filled at a gushing fountain, white and delicious to those who drink it. They shall sit with (and be intimate with?) bashful dark-eyed virgins, as pure and chaste as the sheltered eggs of ostriches. Surely, this is the supreme triumph. To this end let every good man labour. (Note: these and the following are Allah's own words as spoken to Prophet Muhammad.)
Koran 38. 50 - 55. goes on to promise more of the same:-
The righteous shall return to a blessed retreat: the Garden of Eden whose gates will open wide to receive them. Reclining here with bashful virgins for companions, they will call for abundant fruit and drink. Our gifts can have no end.
Koran 43, 70 - 73 promises "all that your soul desires", reiterating:-
Enter Paradise in all delight. You shall be served with golden dishes and golden cups. Abiding there for ever, you shall find all your soul desires and all that your eyes rejoice in. Your sustenance shall be abundant fruit.
Koran 44. 45 re-emphasises sex with dark-eyed houris for ever in luxurious surroundings - The righteous shall be lodged in peace together amidst gardens and fountains, arrayed in rich silks and fine brocade. Yes, and We shall wed them to dark-eyed houris. Secure against all ills, they shall call for every kind of fruit. That will be their supreme triumph.
Koran 52. 17 - 24 adds meat and luxurious couches to exotic foods, drinks, plus "dark-eyed houris" (celestial courtesans), "young boys fair as virgin pearls" (for sharing with women in Paradise?), and more:-
Koran 55. 53 - 69 says Muslims, on reaching Heaven:-
They shall recline on couches lined with thick brocade, and within each shall hang fruits of many gardens. Therein are bashful virgins whom neither man nor djinns have touched before. Virgins as fair as corals and rubies. And besides these there shall be other gardens of darkest green. A gushing fountain shall flow in each. Each planted with fruit-trees, the palm and the pomegranate. In each there shall be virgins chaste and fair: dark-eyed virgins sheltered in their tents whom neither man nor djinn will have touched before. They shall recline on green cushions and fine carpets.
Koran 56. 10 - 38 continues that in addition to having sex with bashful virgins chaste and fair, whom neither men nor djinn have ever touched before, God will supply plenty of "immortal youths" in Heaven for good Muslims (especially women?):
They shall recline on jewelled couches face to face, and there shall wait on them immortal youths with bowls and ewers and a cup of purest wine (that will neither pain heir heads nor take away their reason), with fruits of their own choice and flesh of fowls that they relish.
And theirs shall be the dark-eyed houris, chaste as hidden pearls: a reward for their deeds.
We (i.e. Allah the God) created houris and made them virgins, loving companions (for you in Heaven after you die).
Koran 56. 58 - Behold! the semen you discharge - did you create it, or did We?
Koran 56. 75 exalts the untouchable Koran - I (Allah) swear by the shelter of the stars (a mighty oath, if you but knew it) that this is a glorious Koran, safeguarded in a book which none may touch except the purified.
(4) In contrast, we respect every masjid and mosque as a place of worship.
Comment:
The Masjid al-Ḥaram, (literally "the sacred mosque"), also called the Sacred Mosque, and the Grand Mosque or Great Mosque of Mecca, is the largest mosque in the world and surrounds Islam's holiest place, the Kaaba, in the city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Muslims face in the Qibla (direction of the Kaaba) while performing Salat (obligatory daily prayers). One of the Five Pillars of Islam requires every Muslim to perform the Hajj pilgrimage, one of the largest annual gatherings of people in the world, at least once in his or her lifetime if able to do so, including Tawaf (circumambulation) of the Kaaba.
For convenience, let us regard every masjid and mosque throughout the world as a little "kaaba" or place of worship for Muslims.
Was the Kaaba in Mecca built originally by the Muslims?
No. It had been a temple for prayers for other devotees for millenia before Islam was conceived.
It is a square solid-stone structure (was much smaller originally), with a tall black stone shiva-lingam installed at the east wall (it was in the centre formerly), and with a perennial all-weather well nearby called Ganga.
When? How? Why?
To answer intelligently and intelligibly, may we please first go to the Four Christian Gospels?
Matthew 2. 1-11 recounts how "Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem. Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.....
"Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, enquired of them diligently what time the star had appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when you have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also.
"When they saw the star (which went before them and stood above he inn), they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh."
Who were these "wise men of the east"?
They were ascetic Hindu holy men who had mastered not only the skills of refining gold and other precious metals and made jewellery studded with rare gems, producing various kinds of incense for prayer to God, and various kinds of medicines to cure all human and animal illnesses, but had also mastered astronomy and sidereal navigation over land and sea, deriving their directions from the motion of the visible celestial bodies, from the position of the Polar Star and other constellations. They had even mastered advanced and intricate mathematical calculations enabling them to travel easily and swiftly over plains, rivers, seas, mountains and deserts without effort.
Is it any wonder, then, that they were able to detect hidden reserves of underground potable and pure water in the deserts, by water-divination?
Yes, they did so in their wanderings all over the Eastern and Southern Mediterranean Sea coastal areas. And discovered several "svayambu ganga"s in the Arabian and other deserts.
One of these springs is today named Zam-zam, a mispronunciation of the original "ganga".
We are familiar with the Puranic story of Bhageeratha, who brought the divine Aakaasha ganga down from Heaven to the Earth. The force of Ganga's descent would have washed away the Earth and all in it, so Lord Shiva spread out his jata (matted hair) to catch the downpour. A few drops escaped, and formed divine amrutha theerthas on falling to the Earth. The present Zam-zam magical well was one of them.
Having found the well in Mecca, the Hindu ascetics immediately set about erecting a modest square stone temple to Lord Shiva, with its entrance facing the rising Sun, i.e. east. Then they installed in the middle a cylindrical black stone pillar into which they infused the spirit of God, and poured purifying well-water all over it several times to consecrate it, chanting the appropriate manthrams.
May we now go to the Holy Koran?
Koran 2. 158 & 159 refer to two nearby hills, Safa and Marwa, as "two of God's beacons". Circumambulating sacred hills is a Hindu tradition. The Muslims' ancestors and today's Muslims revere these hills as sanctified and walk around them piously, as directed by Allah.
Circumambulating the Kaabah several times is redolent of Hindus circumambulating sacred shrines even today in their temples everywhere.
Koran 3.96 confirms that the first temple ever to be built for men was that Mecca, i.e. the Shiva temple, or Kaaba, a blessed site, a beacon for the nations.
Koran 23. 17 borrows from and confirms the Hindu concept of seven heavens: Bhoo-lokam, bhuvar-lokam, suvar-lokam, mahaa-lokam, jana-lokam, thapa-lokam, sathya-lokam: - Lo, we have created seven heavens above you.
Koran 2.102 confirms "Marut" was an angel of God. This is comparable with the Maaruts of Hindu cosmology, where they are the celestial powerful winds sweeping between Heaven and Earth.
Koran 2. 183 says to Muslims, "Fasting is decreed for you as it was decreed for those before you." This compares with the ancient Hindu practice, still observed today, of fasting full-day on the eleventh days after full moon and new moon, and fasting half-day on new moon days. A total of about 36 days a year.
Koran 2. 115 - To God belongs the east and the west. Whichever way you turn there is the face of God. He is omnipresent. (This is a word-for-word repetition of what Hindus have always said.)
Koran 2. 124 - We made the House of God a resort and a sanctuary for mankind, a house of worship, a house for those who walk around it, meditate in it, prostrate to God in it. (Another almost a word-for-word reproduction of the Hindus' attitude towards their temples.)
What the Koran omits, but is found is several other reliable books by eminent Muslim scholars, e.g. "Muhammad" by Professor Martin Lings, who taught for 11 years at the University of Cairo while living near the Pyramids, and was later Keeper of Oriental Books and Manuscripts at the British Museum, London, is as follows:
When Muhammad was 35 years old (and before he became a prophet), the Quraysh (who consisted of four clans and who then ruled Mecca) decided to re-build the Kaabah. As it then stood, its walls were just above the height of a man and it had no roof. Recently there had been theft of treasure from a vault dug beneath the structure.
When the rebuilt walls of the Kaabah were high enough for re-instatement of the original Black Stone in its place of honour, the four clans quarrelled violently as who should have the privilege, and could not agree. The deadlock lasted for five days, and plans for battle began, when the oldest man present suggested that the first man who walked in through the door should be the arbiter. They agreed.
The first man to enter the structure was Muhammad, who had just returned to Mecca after an absence. They all enthusiastically accepted Muhammad as the arbiter and put the problem to him. He said, "Bring me a cloak." When they did so, he spread it on the ground, took up the sacred Black Stone and placed it in the middle.
"Let each clan take hold of a border of the garment; then lift it up, all of you together," he said. When they had done so, and had carried it into the uncompleted building, he took the stone and placed it with his own hands in its rightful place within the structure. And the building was duly completed. Everyone was happy, and praised Muhammad for his rare wisdom.
Koran 5. 6 - When you rise to pray, wash your faces and your hands up to your elbows, wash your heads, and your feet up to your ankles. (This is yet another word-for-word repetition of what Hindus have always do, if they do not take a whole-body bath.)
Koran 5. 32 - Whoever kills a human being shall be looked upon as having killed all mankind; whoever saves a human life shall be regarded as having saved all mankind. [Derived from the Hindu rules regarding Great Sins - go-hathi (cow-slaughter), sthree-hathi (killing of females), shishu-hathi (killing of infants), and Brahma-hathi (killing of priests)?]
Srimathi Kaliammah G C Pallikondan has little or nothing to worry about.
She can recite her own prayers when passing a mosque or a masjid, if she so chooses. Or when passing a church, a Jewish synagogue, a Buddhist vihaara, a Hindu temple, Sikh gurudvaara, a Jaina shrine, a Christian basilica.
God, the Omnipresent, is everywhere, as the Koran says. As all other religions which have God as their focus also say. The labelling of God as the Father Almighty, as Son the Saviour, as tongues-of-fire Holy Ghost, as Jahweh, as Allah, as Hari-Ram, as Ishvara, as Durga-Parameshvari - matters the least.
Frankly, I have freely and without guilt or hesitation visited the Great Mosque Jama Masjid in New Delhi, the Basilica of Saint Peter in Rome, the Cathedral of Saint Paul in London, Jewish synagogues, Bodh Gaya, Sarnath, Wat Arun in Bangkok, Shravanabelagola in Karnataka, Borobodur, Prambangan, and Besakih in Indonesia, the Bayon and Angkor Wat in Cambodia, Kaashi, Triveni Sangam, Rameswaram, Madurai, Chidambaram, Padmanaabhaswamy Temple and Thirupathi in India.
As the English poet Alexander Pope sang in his "Essay on Man", lines 84, 85,
(God) sees with equal eyes as God of all
A hero perish or a sparrow fall.
As well-known Persian sceptic Omar Khayyam sang in his famous "Rubaiyat":
'Tis all a Chequerboard of Nights and Days
Where Destiny with Men for Pieces plays;
Hither and thither moves, and mates, and slays;
And one by one back in the Cupboard lays.
The Ball no question takes of Ayes and Noes,
But Left or Right as strikes the Player goes;
But He who threw ye down into the field
He knows about it all, He knows, HE KNOWS!
The Moving Finger writes and, having writ,
Moves on; nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Can lure it back to cancel half a Line
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.
S Narayanaswamy
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Posted by: Narayanaswamy Subramanian <s_narayanaswamy@yahoo.com>
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