"I am the center of everyone's life, but so many are distracted by the sense-life that they do not find Me." http://ping.fm/RHiLs

"I am the center of everyone's life, but so many are distracted by the sense-life that they do not find Me." http://ping.fm/CJvwq

Jashan e Zahoor e Imam e Zamana.wmv

REASONS OF DIFFERENCES

As I have already underlined, the 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. The ethics in reality is based upon the following three questions and answers there to:

(i) What is a man morally?
Answer. Bad.

(ii) What a man ought to be?
Answer. Good.

(iii) What deeds comprise piety?

As regards the first Iwo questions there can be no difference to their answers and the whole human race is 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 he can become good with good deeds. What is the ulility of piety? A chaste and peaceful society will come into existence and the pleasure of 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-differentia). Thus, only 5% of lotal ethics is at variance or contradictory and 05% 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 bloodsshed 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 that 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, which 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 the salvation only falls to the share of Christians even though they may openly attend the naked clubs. A Muslim considers that only the 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 honoured by God on the Day of Judgement, will it meet the demands of justice to throw all the pious men of other religions into hell? If the 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 the hell, will it be just on the part of God Almighty? God Almighty, like a head of any political party, will not shower honours only on the members of his party. He will requite according to the deeds of men. He himself says in 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 evildoers wilh dire consequences. So is the case with Old Testament of Jews (Old Testament), 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 so many Traditions, which have predicted the salvation of some Non-Muslim. 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 about their salvation. It can be proved from the Holy Quran that a large number of Muslims will be thrown into the hell. The upshot of the foregoing discussion is that a man must be morally pious and profitable for the 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:

(i) Wealth. (ii) Life.

(iii) Honour. (iv) Religion.

The ideal man is one who has respect for all these four assets. The damage, total or partial, of wealth, life, honour or religion of others is strictly forbidden in Islam. The breach of any of moral laws will involve damage to one of the said four assets. It holds good for an individual as well as for a nation. In all the religions in general and in Islam in particular, everything, which 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 the religious research remained mostly destructive. For example, there are so many Christian scholars who have criticized Bible. 'they juxtaposed 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 it great deluge of Noah. All their efforts are directed towards the point that 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 Bible.

I do not think that by proving Bible or old Testament as unrevcalud or unauthentic books these scholars have rendered some -honourable service to humanity. The fact is that if we carefully look into the Old and New Testament we find a big treasure of advices and exhortations. There are numerous things, which invite a man to the highest ideals of humanity. We can pick out from these so many formulae, which can easily lead us lo the Ultimate Reality. I wonder that we carelessly push asidt these golden principles and try to make research on trifling.

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. Majority of the same contained misleading discourses. Many of those contained objections on 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 Quran' along with other many treatises written by Muslim scholars to prove the authenticity of the creed they believed in. There are books, which contain ruthless criticism on 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 make a research about the dog, his 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 some one gets stuck into contradictory problems, he will deprive himself of the moral advancement, which to my view is, the biggest loss of an individual. We must devote our time to concentrate to link 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 the 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 earth. It is not the service of humanity, to create hatred among the 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 Holy Quran, Bible, Old Testament. New Testament and Hindu religious books are unanimous. Some Jews have tried to prove similarity between Old Testament and New Testament with a view to prove that the apostles of Jesus Christ had written the Bible themselves after stealing 'the material from 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 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 Bible to 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 told 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 of stealing from one another. Therefore we are led to the conclusion that the revealed books were sent by one Intellect. So we should try to unite ourselves, otherwise all the 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 and 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 religions' 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. The 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 metaphysical world but can visualize the spiritual world also. The utility of spiritualism is more in
the next world than this world. The spiritual comforts connot be described in words until a man himself does not perceive them.

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 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 that a specific Light represents Him. I would term this Light as the First Light. We have little or scanty knowledge about the fact so 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 requited. This was done to constitute a proof for man who could only believe in something visible or tangible.

All the prophets who promised to the man, a meeting with 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:

(i) Nabi or Prophet (ii) 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 'wilayet'( 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:

(i) Constant Connection (ii)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 later type of conjunction, if received by someone, is the highest award of 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 visualised. 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 Sakeena' and talked to 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' that 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 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 labour? The answer to it is quite simple. The help and encouragement from God Almighty, though necessary. yet a man can achieve a transitory link by dint of untiring labour. What type of labour is required for it? The answer to this question is'belief and religion 'which is a requitable way in which the labour of none goes waste.

THE PRACTICAL FACET

This facet aims at making a man complete in all respects. This is the practical side of the religion. Its first portion is purifying and spiritual and second is moral.

Morality:

What is meant by morality?

The morality is three-fold like the knowledge itself, the first kind of knowledge defines a thing what actually it is. The second kind explains what a thing ought to be. The third kind of knowledge deals with the methods, which make an ordinary thing an ideal one. For example, a person invented a radio set. At first it was observed as to what actually it was? This is the first type of knowledge when it was felt that it needed further improvements, it is second type of knowledge. What methods should be adopted to make it an ideal radio set? This is the third branch of knowledge.

Similarly, ethics has also three aspects. There are many stages between the basest man and God Almighty. A man, however pious he may be cannot become God. He will be at a certain stage of piety.

This stage can be a milestone of his journey towards the ultimate reality. Inspite of men's effort to achieve complete goodness, he cannot be devoid of some iota of evil. Thus, it can be concluded that man is bad. This is the first stage of morality that man should become aware of his shortcomings.

The next stage will be as to what he should be?

The prophets were the ideals set before various societies to which they were sent. And men is required to conform to the prophets in his character. He should try to follow them. This is the second stage. Third stage is to search out the style of life led by prophets. The practical adoption of this style is the actual demand so that a man might become an ideal man.

Morality has two further branches.

(i) Rational Ethichs
(ii) Mandatory Ethich

(i) Rational Ethichs

What we term as rational ethics is actually a part of divine revelations. The number of reformers is so large and their teachings are so vitally spread, though anonymously that a man can perceive higher moral values with the help of reason without believing in God. Even the man of Stone Age possessed reason but he could not receive higher moral values. This became possible after centuries. The concept of 'good' and 'bad' is so distinct that a man can recognise the same without knowing those who presented it. He knows that justice is good and injustice is bad. Truth is good and falsehood is bad. In this way, the rational ethics is available in a codified form. In the early period of mankind, rational ethics was also a portion of mandatory ethics. The prophets had circulated the same in the shape of commandments, such as the ten commandments of Moses. Later on, with the development of human reason even the non-believers are also practising the same commandments to the utter disregard of reward or punishment in the next world.

(ii) Mandatory Ethics

Inspite of all the rational development the human mind is not free from error. It fails to recognize good or evil in some cases. Therefore, he takes benefit by obeying the mandatory provision of the religion and becoms safe from any loss. The major portion of mandatory ethics is common in all the religions. A small portion carries differences. It is this portion which has been exploited by the religious monopolists.

The mandatory ethics is divided into two portions viz. "good" and "evil". It is here that some monopolists have tried to present good as evil and evil as good simply to make themselves distinguished. Some others have simply changed the procedure in some cases. For example, the concept of "fast" exists in all the religions but the actual practise slightly differs from religion to religion without diminishing anything from its moral importance.

If we go deep in rational and mandatory ethics, we find that they are based on the following two factors.

(i) Evil is based on usurping the rights of others.
(ii) Good is based on giving everyone his due.

It means 85% of good and evil is founded on the said two factors. For example, all the believers and non believers concede that murder, dacoity, theft, bribery and misappropriation are evils and are a clear injury of the rights of others. Therefore, these are evils. If we attentively look at adultery, we find that this too is an injury of others' rights. The woman on whom the adultery is committed is someone's daughter, sister, wife or daughter in law. By adultery the rights of all of them are injured.

I cannot go into the details of all the crimes because I may miss my goal and my reader become perplexed.

A Realistic Analysis

In the continuity of my article "Unanimity of Religions", I have added up some thoughts here and I want to share those with you all.

What is religion?
A simple answer to this question is A requitable way."

Every religion has two basic facets:
(i) Spiritual(belief)
(ii) Practical (rituals)

Spiritual facet has two further parts:
(i) Perceptible (ii) Non-Perceptible

The practical facet has also two more branches:
(i) Spiritual (ii) Moral

Each of them is furttier divided into two branches:
(i) Rational (ii) Mandatory

There are things, which are forbidden or allowed by the reason and there are others, which have been forbidden or allowed by God's order. So good and evil are of two kinds. One kind is specified by human reason and the other is defined by the prophets in the light of divine revelations. The following diagram will further elaborate the preceding thesis.

Reflective facet of the religion deals with beliefs and ideology. It is concerned more with the life hereafter and less with life in this world. This is a link between the Creator and the individual. It is a secret link. This is a secret path that leads to the Lord of all lords (God). In the modem age, there are very few foolish persons who would like to have so many beloveds. On the other hand, all the notable personages of all the religions like to have one Beloved (God). There is no doubt that there is a variety of means and ways to reach the Ultimate Reality. Lord (God) is no doubt one only. No religion either denies the Oneness of God or attributes any offspring to Him. In the Bible itsclf Christ whenever talks about himself he says that he is the son of Adam. All Ihe Muslims proclaim themselves to be the "Sons of Unity". Thus they consider God like a kind Father. They actually do not claim to be the real sons of God. This is something else, if someone takes this metaphor literally. Such a believer is free to express his love for God in the way he likes. This is between him and his Creator. No one else can interfere. Religion does not allow any sort of interference in the beliefs of others. Even if someone denies the presence of God, we should not coerce him to believe. We should try to persuade him with love and logic. Persuasion at pistol point is strictly prohibited. If some one is not amenable to arguments, we should leave him hy saying "Your religion for you and ours for us". (Al-Quran)
Islam enjoins no coercion in matters of religion.

UNANIMITY OF RELIGIONS

When we look at the history of man we view an incessant bloodshed and massacre. The human history, in fact, is a long story of the murder of humanity and human values. As a result of gradual evolution, man became civilized but with this advancement he became more cruel and ruthless. In tribal life, human murder was restricted to one or two only, but presently as the whole world has become a single society, people are being slaughtered beyond thousands. We see a stream of blood flowing from the murder of Habeel up to the massacre in Bosnia Herzegovina.

No thinker or scholar can deny the fact that out of all the murders on the face of earth fifty percent were committed in the name of religion. Those who were murdered for the sake of money, land or woman are far less than those who were killed in the name of religion.

In the near past, we have passed through two global wars and the third one seems to be quite at hand. There can be no two opinions about the fact that the number of persons killed in two world wars was lesser than those butchered in the name of religion. In the background of the said two wars, in addition to other factors, one factor was religion too.

If we try to find the reasons of Nazi tyranny on the Jews, it becomes clear from the Jewish history that -it was the reaction of the policies of the Jews that lasted for centuries. The lust for power always slew humanity in the garb of religion. The most pious man of the world (Christ) was, crucified in the name of religion instead of Barabbas, the dacoit. There were so many Prophets whose blood was shed as a service to religion.

In various wars between Islam and other religions of the world the bone of contention was nothing but religion. In a single religion there can be found so many militant sects which are brutally killing human beings. This is being done even today. After all why? There may be a clash of two religions or sects, but it results in the destruction of mankind. Is there any religion which attaches little importance to man?

There seems to be no such religion. The religion is meant for the welfare of mankind and not man for the religion. Even the strictest order of any religion has an exception. This exception is not only for the safeguard of man but also for the whole creation. For example, there is no ritual worship or any prayer, which might be counted more precious than a soul. This can be established by an example. Suppose a person is offering his prayer and a puppy is drowning in a nearby water pond. In such a situation it is mandatory that the said person should give up the prayer and save the drowning puppy. If the puppy is so important then what to speak of a baby in similar circumstances ? So the safety and welfare of humanity is certainly more important than the worship of God or other rituals. This priority can be proved in another way. If a man owes something to another man, on the day of Judgement only the owner can forgive that. A murderer will only be forgiven if a reprieve is granted by the man whom he murdered.

Religion enjoins two sets of rights:

(i) Rights of God on man which are mostly ritual commandments and

(ii) Rights of man on other fellowmen.

God Almighty has full powers to write-off his own rights, as He is forgiver of sins and Merciful. But no pardon will be allowed by God Almighty so for as the second set of rights is concerned. So pardon in this case will become difficult, if not impossible. Thus it is more dangerous to damage human rights.

God Almighty deputed 124000 Prophets firstly to propagate His Oneness and secondly to teach man to love his fellowmen. The main objective of all the revealed religions was to create in man a sense of mutual peace, respect, love, safety and confidence with specific stress on a complete, comprehensive and ever-ready safety for the whole human race.

As a man is naturally habitual of seeking backdoors, here too he searched out new methods of cheating, fraud, looting and killing under the guise of religion simply to thwart the teaching of the prophets. No religious leader allowed both killing and plundering or gave a free permission for moral degradation. The religious preachers kept a balance in their teachings for different sets of men in different conditions. They told cruel persons that their God is the Just. The tormentors were told that God could give painful punishment. The repenters were told that God is forgiver of sins and Merciful. He accepts repentance and is more kind than parents. Later on when the mischievous preachers acquired power they assured the cruel persons that God is Merciful and Bountiful. With this interpretation they gave a free play to the oppressors for doing what -ever they liked.

The main aim of religion was put aside and side issues as well as prejudices were flared up. The edifice of human character was built on the foundation of hate. Some evil thinkers presented religion nothing more than bias and prejudice only, with the result that the mistranscriptive ideas got the central position, biased preaching got the power and petty differences provided justification for bloodshed. Man became quite shelterless on the face of earth.

It became a routine that whenever any religion acquired power, it tried to wipe out the followers of the other religions. It was considered just to oppress and dishonour the weak, to loot their assets and disgrace the womenfolk. Nobody can point out a single religious leader who allowed ravishing the women of opponents. If some one succeeds to present any such proof about the top leaders of any religion that will not be more than a blame on these personalities. Religions came into existence for man and not man for the religions. All the topmost religious leaders who came in this world presented identical codes of morality. The same have not even the slightest difference. The ethics of all the religions of the world is quite identical. Falsehood, fraud, murder, theft, dacoity, illicit intercourse, slander, backbiting, brutality, wickedness, abusing, insult etc. all the moral crimes have equally been condemned and denounced by all the religions. If we make a deeper study, we shall find that even the smallest degree of the crimes enumerated above was condemned. For example Moses said, "Don't commit illicit intercourse". Christ said, "An evil look is like an unlawful intercourse. Don't cast an evil look." The Prophet of Islam (P.B.U.H.) said, " Don't think of illicit intercourse because it amounts to actual committing of the same". This is an evolutionary effort to lift man step by step, on the stairs of piety. With the gradual refinement of man, various aspects of a single crime were taken notice of. Such as to commit murder, intention of murder and to plan a murder; or to commit a theft, intention of theft or to plan of a theft. Similarly various aspects of all the crimes were defined with the clear intention to save man from crime and to make him more pious. So I can safely declare that the moral laws pronounced by all the prophets or other important religious personages are quite the same. Their notions of lawful and unlawful or right or wrong also coincide.

A study of all the seven prevailing religions today has brought me to a definite conclusion that the basic concepts of all of them are the same. Their 90% ethical similarity shows that all the religions are 100% the same. The difference of 10% is not real but a creation of ulterior motives. It is high time that we all should make a study of various prophets and their religions positively and not critically. We should not stop to underline the points of difference and indulge in uncalled for discussions but we should study them to bring out common directives, common ideas and common moral values. We should also try to view as to how far we are similar to our other counterparts. The critical and biased discussions have already resulted in loss of innumerable human sculs. We should stop going further in this direction.