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MONTHLY * Vol 12-01 No:132 * JANUARY 1998 / RAMADAN 1418H

email: editor@islamicvoice.com

DR. ZAKIR NAIK

Concept of God in Major Religions - I

By Dr. Zakir Naik

Introduction

One of the distinguishing features of our civilisation is the presence of a large number of religions and ethical systems. We often wonder about the beliefs held by these religions. Are they similar to or inimical to Islamic beliefs ? It will be my endeavour in this article to shed some light on the beliefs of major world religions and compare them with Islamic beliefs.

Definition of Religion

Religion according to the Oxford dictionary means “belief in a superhuman controlling power especially in personal God or gods entitled to obedience and worship”.

The Universality of God

A common feature of all major religions is the belief in a Universal God or Supreme Divine Authority that is Omnipotent and Omniscient. Followers of all major religions believe that the God they worship is the same God for them as well as for others. The Holy Qur’an exhorts us to have a dialogue with the “people of the book”, and at least agree on some common terms about God.

Say: “O people of the Book! Come to common terms As between us and you: That we worship None but Allah; That we associate No partners with Him; That we erect not, From among ourselves, Lords and patrons Other than Allah.” If then they turn back, Say ye: “Bear witness That we (at least) Are Muslims (bowing To Allah’s will).”

[Holy Qur’an, Surah Al-Imran (3:64)]

Division of World Religions:

The religions of the world can be broadly divided into Semitic religions and Non-semitic religions. The Non-semitic religions can be further subdivided into Aryan religions and Non-Aryan religions.

a. Semitic religions

Semitic religion means the religion followed by the semites who are the descendents of Shem the son of Prophet Noah (Pbuh) mentioned in the Bible, in the book of Genesis chapter 5 to 11. Therefore semitic religions are the religions followed by the Jews, Arabs, Pissyrians, Phoeniuans, etc. who speak Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, Akkadian, Phoenician etc. Major Semitic religions are Judaism, Christianity and Islam. All these religions believe in divine guidance sent through prophets.

The non-semitic religions are further subdivided into Aryans and Non Aryans religions.

b. Aryan religions

Aryan religions are those religions followed by the Aryans, a powerful group of Indo European speaking people spread through Iran and Northern India in the first half of the second Millennium. B.C. (1500 to 2000 BC).

The Aryan religion is further divided into Vedic and non-vedic religion.

The vedic religion is given the misnomer of Hinduism or Brahminism. The non-vedic religions are Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism etc.

Zoroastrianism is an Aryan prophetic religion which is non-vedic and not associated with Hinduism.

c. Non-Aryan religions

The non-Aryan religions have diverse origins. Major non-Aryan religions are Confucianism (of Chinese origin), Ta’oism (of Japanese origin), and Shintoism.

Many of these non-Aryan religions do not have a concept of God. They are better referred to as ethical systems rather than as religions.

In this article I shall only deal with the concept of God in major religions of Aryans and religions of Semitic origin.

Most Authentic Definition Of God in any religion

The concept of God espoused by a religion cannot be judged by merely observing the practice of its followers. It is quite common for the followers of many religions to be ignorant of the concept of God in their scriptures.

It is therefore better to analyse the concept of God in any religion by referring to its holy scriptures.

Let us understand the concept of God in major world religions by analysing what their scriptures have to say about it:

Concept of God in Hinduism

The most popular amongst the Aryan religions is Hinduism

Common Concept of God in Hinduism :

Hinduism is commonly perceived as a polytheistic religion. Indeed, most Hindus would attest to this, by professing belief in a multitude of Gods. Some Hindus actually believe in the existence of thirty-three crore i.e. 330 million Gods. However learned Hindus who are well versed with their scriptures insist that a Hindu should believe in and worship only one God.

The major difference between the Hindu and the Muslim perception of God is the common Hindus’ belief in the philosophy of Pantheism. Pantheism considers everything, living and non-living to be divine and sacred. The Hindus therefore consider the trees, the Sun, the moon, the animals and even the human beings as manifestations of God. However this belief is not corroborated by the vedic scriptures.

Islam, on the contrary, exhorts man to consider himself and his surroundings as examples of divine creation rather than as divinity itself. Muslims therefore believe that everything is Gods’ i.e. God with an apostrophe ‘s’. In other words we believe that everything belongs to God. The trees, the Sun , the Moon and everything in this Universe belong to God.

Thus the major difference between the Hindu and the Muslim beliefs is difference of the apostrophe ‘s’. The Hindus says everything is God. The Muslim says everything is Gods’, i.e. God with an apostrophe ‘s’.

The Holy Qur’an says : “Come to common terms as between us and you”.

The first common term is “that we worship none but Allah”.

So let us try and find commonality by analysing both Hindu and Islamic scriptures.

Inshah Allah in the next issue to be continued
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