Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

Posted: 11 Jul 2013 03:16 PM PDT

Today, all these religions have a structure, system, houses of worship and a hierarchy (Rabbis, Popes, Cardinals, Bishops, Priests, Muftis, Imams, etc.). They have also abrogated, amended, added, etc., laws, rituals and doctrines. Furthermore, they have redefined what each religion means. And by redefining the religion, the religious leaders managed to separate one religion from another by giving the religion an 'identity' it never used to have.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

There are no exact dates for when the various religions first came into being -- except for maybe Christianity and Islam. However, archaeologists have cited these as the dates the various religions first emerged:

Judaism 2,500 years BC, Hinduism 1,500 years BC, Zoroastrianism 1,000 years BC, Roman religion 750 years BC, Greek religion 650 years BC, and Buddhism 500 years BC.

Now, the roots of the two 'living' religions would have to be Judaism and Hinduism (we shall not talk about the 'dead' religions although some still exist). It is believed that Hinduism 'gave birth' to Zoroastrianism and Buddhism, while Judaism 'gave birth' to Christianity.

(You are free to disagree with me, as I know many will).

Okay, then which religion 'gave birth' to Islam? This is where the discussion begins to become sensitive as well as interesting. Even the use of the term 'gave birth' would be considered objectionable to most Muslims because then it gives the impression that Islam is not original.

You see, Muslims believe that Islam 'came down' from God, through the Angel Gabriel, to Muhammad, by revelation (the Qur'an). No Muslim who fears hell who dare say otherwise. Hence, to say that some other religion 'gave birth' to Islam would suggest that the revelation DID NOT happen. And to suggest so would be to question the source of the Qur'an (whether it was from God or from Muhammad).

Therefore, I may need to sidestep this subject lest someone passes a death sentence on me.

The issue of whether the Qur'an is created or uncreated has pitted religious scholars against one another since the beginning of Islam (some have even literally lost their heads because of this disagreement).

Some scholars say the Qur'an was created (in other words it 'came down' from God in response to certain situations that needed to be addressed) while some scholars say it was uncreated (in other words it had always existed since the beginning of time but was revealed to Prophet Muhammad in stages and in bits and pieces).

Now, this is a very crucial debate because the nature of the Qur'an will depend on whether Islam is an original religion and is independent of all other religions, or whether Islam has 'borrowed' certain elements -- meaning borrowed beliefs and rituals from the other religions before Islam.

The question of whether the Qur'an is created or uncreated can never be resolved. In fact, most Muslims never even bother to think about this because it is such a complicating matter that even the best brains in Islam cannot seem to agree on. However, if I were asked to take a stand on this and state whether I believe that the Qur'an was created or uncreated, I would say that it was created.

Now, if you were to ask me why I take the stand that the Qur'an was created when even the best brains cannot seem to agree on this debate, my response would be to look at chapter 24, Surah An-Nur (the Chapter of the Light) of the Qur'an.

There is a story behind this chapter -- which 'came down' to address a problem that the Prophet Muhammad was facing at that time. Hence I believe that this chapter was created to solve a problem and hence cannot be uncreated or have existed since the beginning of time.

Of course, there are those who argue that God intentionally created the incident so that this chapter could be revealed. That is certainly another argument. Hence the chapter was not created. The incident was -- to justify (as an excuse) revealing that verse, which already existed.

However, I also go by the argument that Prophet Muhammad was reported to have said that he is not introducing a new religion but is correcting or strengthening the old religion of Abraham. And the Qur'an strengthens this argument by saying that the true submitters are the followers of Moses and Jesus who follow the way (adeen) of Abraham.

That, of course, is my opinion, but an opinion based on an incident in history. But I am sure many other Muslims would disagree with me regarding how I have rationalised the debate regarding whether the Qur'an was created or uncreated.

Another interesting viewpoint by some scholars is: "On the other hand, Allah of course, always has known what would be in the Qur'an. Therefore, it is both created and uncreated."

So this viewpoint cancels the debate regarding whether the Qur'an is created or uncreated. It is both created and uncreated since God had always known that one day the Qur'an was going to be written.

Okay, putting aside the matter of the nature of the Qur'an (which can never be resolved anyway), let us now talk about the nature of Islam vis-à-vis the other religions.

I believe that there is no 'original' religion. I believe that all religions borrowed from one another at some point of time (a lot of cross-pollination as well). Humankind has existed for a long time (archaeologists say for billions of years) and since the beginning of time humankind has always had some form of religion.

And this theory of mine would not be at odds with Islamic beliefs. While the Qur'an mentions only 25 Prophets by name, Islam also says that there were 124,000 Prophets since the beginning of time and that ALL communities had a Prophet.

Hence, by Islam's own admission, religions had always existed since humankind existed and these religions grew, changed, mutated, transformed, merged, died, etc., over time. Hence, also, that would mean the surviving religions of today can't be original but are 'improvements' or 'mutations' of earlier religions.

If you were to do a comparison study between Muhammedanism (before it was called Islam) with Judaism, Zoroastrianism and Nazarenes (before it was called Christianity), but based on how it used to be during the medieval period and before all the adulterations, modifications and deviations crept into these religions, then you will be hard-pressed to detect the differences in all these religions.

Hence, over 1,500-2,000 years, so much has been changed, removed or added that it appears like we are talking about many different religions. And then we argue about whose religion is true and whose is false and then we go to war to settle this argument.

And that is what happens when you allow politicians to politicise religion. And every religion has been subjected to this at some point in history although many would say this only happens in Islam and not in any of the other religions.

Let us look at some examples on how the three Abrahamic faiths actually came from the same mould.

Females are supposed to cover themselves other than just the face, feet and hands. The clothes must cover the head/hair, arms till the wrist, and legs down to the ankles.