Quranic Foundations And Structure Of Muslim Society
3. REVEALED, BUT ADULTERATED AND
UNAUTHENTIC:
(a)Christianity:
1.Concept
of God: Monotheistic, with the concept of a Compound Deity—the Triune God,
consisting of three Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.
2.Outlook:
Mystical, earthly life being conceived asincompatible with human yearnings.
3.Standpoint:
Mystical.
4.Ideal:
Salvation of the individual in the life-after-death.
5.Standard
of Behaviour: Ascetic. In fact, no standard of behaviour or principle of
evaluation is needed, because it would necessitate obedience to Law and thus
annul the efficacy of Atonement.
6.Mission:
To lead its followers into Divine Grace through the mystery of Vicarious
Atonement.
7.Programme:
Ritualistic and Ascetic exercise for the attainment of ‘saintliness’.
(b)Judaism:
1.Concept
of God: Monotheistic, with the concept of a Single Deity—leaning towards
Anthropomorphism and the notion of a Racial Deity.
2.Outlook:
This-worldly, adjusted with the vested interests ofthe Israelites.
3.Standpoint:
Legalistic and Racialistic.
4.Ideal:
Salvation of the Israelite race alone.
5.Standard
of Behaviour: Pragmatic and bearing reference to the interests of the race.
6.Mission:
Welfare of the narrow group.
7.Programme:
Struggle for making the Israelites the dominant race in respect of their being
the ‘Chosen People of God’.
Quranic Foundations And Structure Of Muslim Society
2. UNREVEALED: CIVILISED (HINDUISM) :
[Note: In respect of this category, we shall deal with Hinduism under two
separate headings, viz., (a) Philosophical Hinduism, and (b) Popular Hinduism.
This we shall do because of certain very fundamental difficulties.
Hinduism is
popularly believed to be a consolidated religion and, as such, the oldest among
the important religions of the world. Actually, what passes under the name of
Hinduism is a collection of different systems of religion, and of different
philosophies and mythologies, with a strong colouring of the human element in
the historical experiences of Asiatic section of the Aryan race. As such, it is
a hybrid melange. At best, it is the record of a rich civilisation of the
past—a civilisation that had many elements of merit and many deficiencies and
even ugly aspects. An earnest student does find there some profound
philosophical discussions, which at times shoot off into the fervour of pure
Monotheism—thereby confirming the Qur’anic stand as to the advent among the
Aryans of Divine Messengers the light of whose Message glimmers today, even as
in the case of the Messengers whom Judaism and Christianity mention, only
through the mists of later distortions. And he finds certain noble moral
concepts and words of wisdom and sciences like the science of Yoga. But, he
also finds that, unfortunately, humanity cannot benefit from all that any more
than it can benefit from the achievements of the philosophers, the
psychologists and the spiritualists of other ancient and modern communities,
with all the respective differences in outlooks and statures notwithstanding;
because: firstly, nothing in Hinduism has any divine sanction, and consequently
no seeker of God—quest for God being the very essence of a spiritual
religion—can place himself under the control of the subjective findings of the
Hindu philosophers and sages (which is the highest that Hinduism can offer);
and, secondly, all that which may be regarded as worthy of appreciation in any
sense is mixed up with an overwhelming and dominating mass of puerile beliefs,
ugly practices and inhuman social concepts; and it is impossible for even the
most radical among the reformers (who have been appearing since the impact
initially of Islam and later on of Modern Thought) to purge Hinduism of all
objectionable elements in the name of Hinduism itself without creating a new
man-made religion. Moreover, unlike Christianity which has the Bible, and
unlike Islam which has the Qur’an, Hinduism has no single consolidated
scripture.
The renowned Hindu scholar and leader, Pundit Jawahar Lal Nehru says (The
Discovery of India, p. 37):
“Hinduism as a faith is vague, amorphous, many sided,
all things to all men. It is hardly possible to define it, or indeed tosay definitely whether it is religion or not,
in the usual sense of the word. In its present form, and even in the past, it
embraces many beliefs and practices, from the highest to the lowest, often
opposed to or contradicting each other.”
John Clark Archer, the western scholar of Comparative Religion, observes
(The Great Religions of the Modern World, pp. 44-45):
“Hinduism in its vagueness is first
of all an item of the Stone Age. It is so ancient … Hinduism has had no founder
to furnish a basic message, no early leader comparable with Zoroaster, Jesus or
Muhammad … These at least, each in its turn, inspired a ‘book of wisdom’, a
‘gospel’, and a ‘writing’. Hindus have had no one even like Confucius to edit
fully a long, inherited tradition. Strictly speaking, they have had for
themselves no such figures as the Jains have in their Vardhaman Mahavira, as
Buddhists have in Gotama Sakyamuni or as the Sikhs have in Nanak. In a sense,
the founders of Hinduism are legion, their figures as shadowy as ‘cloud
messengers’ of changeful constitution and fitful errand.”
However, taking up Hinduism as one religion, as it is understood to be,
we shall attempt a scientific classification of the basic concepts that
constitute its foundations.]
(a) Philosophical Hinduism:
1.Concept
of God: Pantheism with high philosophical fervour,joined to monotheistic approach,
on the one and, and to philosophised idol-worship, on the other.
2.Outlook:
More speculative than religious. (at its highest)
3.Standpoint:
Mystico-philosophical.
4.Ideal:
Individualistic salvation, through meditation and ascetic exercises as if human
life and the world are essentially evil.
5.Standard
of Behaviour: Ascetic
6.Mission:
Salvation (muktī) of the individual from the evil of the ever-repeating cycles
of earthly existence.
7.Programme:
Basically mystico-ascetic exercises.
(b) Popular Hinduism:
1.Concept
of God: Nature-worship and Fetish-worship, representing the approach to the
metaphysical Reality and grounded in rank Polytheism.
2.Outlook:
Superstitious-cum-mystical-cum-racial.
3.Standpoint:
Ritualistic and magical, rather than ethical.
4.Ideal:
Ethically considered: Preservationof
theSocial System based on distinctions
of race and caste, together with the sanctity of the metaphysics and the ethics
from which the said Social System derives its sanction.
Religiously considered: Deliverance from the
painful and inexhorable cycle of re-births.
5.Standard
of Behaviour: Adherence to caste-based ethics, as distinct from the
universalistic humanistic ethics.
6.Mission:
Supremacy of the Hindu section of the Aryan race.
7.Programme:
Performance of religious rituals and pursuit of earthly requirements of life
within a caste-ridden -cum- autocratic -cum- feudalistic -cum- capitalistic
ethico-politico-economic framework.
