Islam and Vedanta or the Advaita

Muslims believe that the Almighty has sent prophets and books to all corners of the Earth to civilize the humans and teach them the Tawheed which is the oneness of  God. While trying to view Hinduism in this context we find that many Quranic stories like those of Nooh, Lut, Abraham and Moses are also found in Hindu traditions, although the names of characters are different. The Vedantic concept of Advaita is similar to Tawheed which is the primary and most important part of Islam .

  Advaita meaning without a second is derived from Upanishdas. The philosophy of advaita states that There is only one supreme being and he is the only truth everything else is a part of the supreme reality or that Brahmaan and is illusion (Maya). The Tradition of Wahdatul Wajood in Islam states that the existence of the Sublime Being of the Almighty is compulsory and whatever else exists, is the manifestation of Allah and the spiritual part of Allah. Thus, in reality, there is only one single existence (i.e. Allah). The only difference lies in the concept that in Advaita the creator and the creation are same i.e. The Universe or Brahmaan whereas in Islam the creator and creation are different, Allah is the creator of the Universe. However, this difference is also evident in the Theories of Shankaracharya who believes in the former and the Ramanujam who insisted that God and man are different existence or being and not one.These are, however, minor differences and in fact should be welcomed as these invite discussion and research and thus increase the interest of Scholars as well as common people.  

In practice though, these differences are overwhelmed by the belief in one God who is Omnipotent and Omnipresent in his wisdom. The modern master of Vedanta Swami Vivekananda observed “ I believe it (Advaita and Vedanta) is the religion of the future enlightened humanity...I am firmly persuaded that without the help of practical Islam, theories of Vedantism, however fine and wonderful they maybe, are entirely valueless to the vast mass of mankind...For our own motherland a junction of the two great systems, Hinduism and Islam - Vedanta brain and Islam body - is the only hope...” and “our experience is that if ever the followers of any religion approach to this (Advaita) in an appreciable degree in the plane of practical work-a-day life-it may be quite unconscious generally of the deeper meaning and the underlying principle of such conduct, which the Hindus as a rule so clearly perceive - it is those of Islam and Islam alone....”. 

Those performing Yoga will appreciate that the effect Asanas of Yoga produce to rejuvenate the body and mind can also be produced by the movement of a person practicing Salat (Namaz) five times a day as all the joints of body are stretched and person focuses himself as if he is seeing the God as a universe or as a point and thus his body and noistrils are cleaned by Wadu and soul by the meditation. However, it doesn't mean that anyone of these can replace the other because the specific needs of the two are different.

Many great Muslim Scholars and Poets like Ibn Al Arabi, Ghazali, Rumi, Iqbal and others have given theories which directly or indirectly confirm the Advaita so we have two great religions which are so similar in their approach and theory yet as distinct in practice as Islam and Hinduism. All the great reformers of modern times like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Dayananda Saraswati, Vivekananda etc. tried to bridge this gap by telling people to shun Idol Workship.  

Yasser Iqbal Kidwai

Syeda Hamed a member of planning commision and an expert on Islam plays the role of Qazi at a wedding in Lucknow. This is the first occasion since a long time when a women Qazi gets the Nikah solemnised. The response of local leaders and clerics has been positive and the leading cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawwad encouraged the idea saying that it is perfectly fine for a women to be a Qazi if she posses the same knowledge as her male counterpart. Another interesting facet is that the Qazi is a Shia whereas the couple are Sunni, this is also not unacceptable as the Muslims always have the choice of switching the School of thought.

Women used to play the role of Mufti, Qazi and General at the time of Prophet Muhammed but in recent times their has been a decline of some sort in their position.

WELCOME ADDRESS - Chicago, Sept 11, 1893

Sisters and Brothers of America,

It fills my heart with joy unspeakable to rise in response to the warm and cordial welcome which you have given us. I thank you in the name of the most ancient order of monks in the world; I thank you in the name of the mother of religions, and I thank you in the name of millions and millions of Hindu people of all classes and sects.

My thanks, also, to some of the speakers on this platform who, referring to the delegates from the Orient, have told you that these men from far-off nations may well claim the honor of bearing to different lands the idea of toleration. I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true. I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth. I am proud to tell you that we have gathered in our bosom the purest remnant of the Israelites, who came to Southern India and took refuge with us in the very year in which their holy temple was shattered to pieces by Roman tyranny. I am proud to belong to the religion which has sheltered and is still fostering the remnant of the grand Zoroastrian nation. I will quote to you, brethren, a few lines from a hymn which I remember to have repeated from my earliest boyhood, which is every day repeated by millions of human beings: "As the different streams having their sources in different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee."

The present convention, which is one of the most august assemblies ever held, is in itself a vindication, a declaration to the world of the wonderful doctrine preached in the Gita: "Whosoever comes to Me, through whatsoever form, I reach him; all men are struggling through paths which in the end lead to me." Sectarianism, bigotry, and its horrible descendant, fanaticism, have long possessed this beautiful earth. They have filled the earth with violence, drenched it often and often with human blood, destroyed civilization and sent whole nations to despair. Had it not been for these horrible demons, human society would be far more advanced than it is now. But their time is come; and I fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morning in honor of this convention may be the death-knell of all fanaticism, of all persecutions with the sword or with the pen, and of all uncharitable feelings between persons wending their way to the same goal.

CONCLUDING ADDRESS - Chicago, Sept 27, 1893The World's Parliament of Religions has become an accomplished fact, and the merciful Father has helped those who laboured to bring it into existence, and crowned with success their most unselfish labour.

My thanks to those noble souls whose large hearts and love of truth first dreamed this wonderful dream and then realized it. My thanks to the shower of liberal sentiments that has overflowed this platform. My thanks to this enlightened audience for their uniform kindness to me and for their appreciation of every thought that tends to smooth the friction of religions. A few jarring notes were heard from time to time in this harmony. My special thanks to them, for they have, by their striking contrast, made general harmony the sweeter.

Much has been said of the common ground of religious unity. I am not going just now to venture my own theory. But if any one here hopes that this unity will come by the triumph of any one of the religions and the destruction of the others, to him I say, "Brother, yours is an impossible hope." Do I wish that the Christian would become Hindu? God forbid. Do I wish that the Hindu or Buddhist would become Christian? God forbid.

The seed is put in the ground, and earth and air and water are placed around it. Does the seed become the earth, or the air, or the water? No. It becomes a plant. It develops after the law of its own growth, assimilates the air, the earth, and the water, converts them into plant substance, and grows into a plant.

Similar is the case with religion. The Christian is not to become a Hindu or a Buddhist, nor a Hindu or a Buddhist to become a Christian. But each must assimilate the spirit of the others and yet preserve his individuality and grow according to his own law of growth.

If the Parliament of Religions has shown anything to the world, it is this: It has proved to the world that holiness, purity and charity are not the exclusive possessions of any church in the world, and that every system has produced men and women of the most exalted character. In the face of this evidence, if anybody dreams of the exclusive survival of his own religion and the destruction of the others, I pity him from the bottom of my heart, and point out to him that upon the banner of every religion will soon be written in spite of resistance: "Help and not fight," "Assimilation and not Destruction," "Harmony and Peace and not Dissension."