Posted on: 06 Aug 2016
Shri Anil asked:
[Q1) Some of the Muslim devotees says that their religions is the only true path because Quran says so. They quote the following verses in support of it.
a. Indeed, the religion in the sight of Allah is Islam. And those who were given the Scripture did not differ except after knowledge had come to them - out of jealous animosity between themselves. And whoever disbelieves in the verses of Allah , then indeed, Allah is swift in [taking] account. [Quran: 3:19]
b. The Quran says (what means): "And whoever seeks a religion other than Islam, it shall not be accepted from him, and in the life to come he shall be among the losers.” [Quran 3:85].
c. "This day have I perfected your religion for you and completed My favor upon you and have chosen for you Islam as your religion.” [Quran 5:3]
d. "He has ordained for you the same religion (Islam) which He enjoined on Noah, and that which We have revealed to you, and which We enjoined on Abraham, Moses and Jesus: namely that you should remain steadfast in religion and be not divided therein.” [Quran 42:13]
At the same time elsewhere in Quran some other verses are there which advocates tolerance to other religions. Some of them are:
e. Let there be no compulsion in religion: Truth stands out clear from Error: whoever rejects evil and believes in Allah hath grasped the most trustworthy hand-hold, that never breaks. And Allah heareth and knoweth all things.[Quran 2:256]
f. Those who believe (in the Qur'an), and those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the Christians and the Sabians,- any who believe in Allah and the Last Day, and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve.[ Quran 2:62]
g. Do not argue with the people of the scripture (Jews, Christians, and Muslims) except in the nicest possible manner - unless they transgress - and say, "We believe in what was revealed to us and in what was revealed to you, and our god and your god is one and the same; to Him we are submitters." [Quran 29:46]
h. “Beware! Whoever is cruel and hard on a non-Muslim minority, or curtails their rights, or burdens them with more than they can bear, or takes anything from them against their free will; I (Prophet Muhammad) will complain against the person on the Day of Judgment.” (Abu Dawud- a noted Persian collector of prophetic hadith)
i. Say: We believe in God, and in what has been revealed to us and what was revealed to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and in (the Books) given to Moses, Jesus, and the Prophets from their Lord: We make no distinction between one and another. [Aal `Imran 3:84]
Kindly enlighten us regarding these contradicting verses.]
Swami replied: Following a religion strictly and simultaneously following the universal spirituality of all world religions are one and the same concept. I illustrate this by an example. You have the required medicine for a specific disease in a single bottle. If you strictly take 4ml of the medicine per day from that single bottle only, your illness is completely cured, since the quality of the medicine is same in all the four bottles. 4ml per day from a single bottle or 1ml per day from four bottles stand to be the same in both quality and quantity. Firm belief and strict discipline in using the medicine must exist whether you take the specific quantity of the same medicine from one bottle or from four bottles. You cannot say that a person strictly following the use of medicine from one bottle only, rejecting other bottles, as blind fool in the sense of curing the illness by using the medicine. When you scold the same medicine in other three bottles, it reflects your foolishness of theoretical ignorance. But, in practical sense, there is no loss if a conservative devotee follows the use of medicine from a single bottle rejecting the other three bottles. Even in the case of a wise man with broad mentality (of universal spirituality) using the same medicine in the same quantity from all the four bottles, the conservative and severe sincerity and firm faith on medicine is the same as that of a conservative blind devotee using the same medicine from a single bottle. As far as the faith on the medicine and the practical usage of specified quantity of medicine is concerned, both universal devotee and conservative devotee are one and the same.
Of course, the conservative devotee is not at all blamed in following the use of medicine from a single bottle, but, is blamed for scolding the same medicine in the other three bottles due to ignorance. Instead of scolding, the conservative devotee must be silent about the other bottles and should concentrate on the single bottle about which only he has total faith. You may say that even if the patient scolds other three bottles, the medicine of his selected bottle will not affect in its quality and function. You are perfectly correct, but, you are crossing the limits of simile and applying the concept to the outer restricted area of limits of the simile. Here, the simile is inert medicine and not a living person. This is the limit of the simile and concept is applicable to simile as long as you don’t scold the medicine of other three bottles. The medicine here is compared to God, who is not inert, but has awareness to the extent of infinity based on which we say that God is omniscient. If you praise a person in one dress and scold the same person in other dresses, is he not hurt since he is not like the inert medicine? Since the God in all religions is one and the same, all your praise to God in a specific form of a specific religion goes not only waste, but also, make God to become furious. Hiranyakashipu was a strong devotee of Lord Shiva, but, scolds Lord Vishnu. Both Shiva and Vishnu are different forms or external medium of the same inner unimaginable God. Lord Vishnu appeared as Narasimha and killed the demon. You should note that Lord Shiva did not protect the demon at all! What is the reason? The reason is that Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu are the same one entity wearing the external media or forms called Shiva and Vishnu. This is the concept between two sub-religions called Shaivism and Vaishnavism in the same Hindu religion. This story is one and the same whether it is in micro-level (sub-religions of Hindu religion) or at macro-level (world religions like Hinduism, Christianity, Islam etc.).
The first part of the scripture presents the severe discipline and firm faith in the medicine to be followed by every devotee of each religion. In the second part of universal spirituality, the revered Prophet Mohammed warns every devotee of each religion not to scold forms of God of other religions. Allah is one external form represented by Islam religion. Jehovah is another form of God presented by Christianity. Brahman is another form of God presented by Hinduism and so on. God is one and the same present in all the world religions. You are advised to respect and serve your father sincerely. If possible, realize the fathers of all other people also equal to your father and respect and serve them. If it is not possible, respect and serve your father only and not scold and insult others’ fathers.
[Q2) In Bible it is said that Jesus was crucified and it was the plan of God so that Jesus suffered for His people. However in Quran it is said that they did not kill Him. Why these contradictions between Quran and Bible? Which one to believe?
They did not kill Jesus
“And for of their saying, ‘We have killed the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, the messenger of God.’ But they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him, but it was made to look like him to them. And those who disagree over him are in doubt (of killing him), they have no knowledge of it except the following of guesswork, and they did not kill him for certain. But God raised him up to Himself. And God is All-¬Powerful, All-¬Wise.” (Quran 4:157-158)
One of the disciple volunteered in place of Jesus
Another version is as follows:
The following narration recorded in the Qur'anic exegesis of Ibn Kathir is graded as authentic by orthodox Sunni scholarsfor the Qur'anic verse related to the substitution of Jesus:
Ibn Abbas said, "Just before Allah raised Jesus to the Heavens, Jesus went to his disciples, who were twelve inside the house. When he arrived, his hair was dripping with water (as if he had just had a bath) and he said, 'There are those among you who will disbelieve in me twelve times after you had believed in me.' He then asked, 'Who among you will volunteer for his appearance to be transformed into mine, and be killed in my place. Whoever volunteers for that, he will be with me (in Paradise).' One of the youngest ones among them volunteered, but Jesus asked him to sit down. Jesus asked again for a volunteer, and the same young man volunteered and Jesus asked him to sit down again. Then the young man volunteered a third time and Jesus said, 'You will be that man,' and the resemblance of Jesus was cast over that man while Jesus ascended to Heaven from a hole in the roof of the house. When the Jews came looking for Jesus, they found that young man and crucified him. Some of Jesus' followers disbelieved in him twelve times after they had believed in him. They then divided into three groups. One group, the Jacobites, said, 'Allah remained with us as long as He willed and then ascended to Heaven.' Another group, the Nestorians, said, 'The son of Allah was with us as long as he willed and Allah took him to Heaven.' Another group, the Muslims, said, 'The servant and Messenger of Allah remained with us as long as Allah willed, and Allah then took him to Him.' The two disbelieving groups cooperated against the Muslim group and they killed them. Ever since that happened, Islam was then veiled until Allah sent Muhammad." — Al-Nasa'i, Al-Kubra, 6:489]
Swami replied: The first version is that the disciple of Jesus sacrificed his life for the sake of Jesus and the actual Jesus went to Heaven while the disciple looking like Jesus was crucified. This statement should be carefully understood as the meaning of one entity only and not two entities. The human incarnation results when the energetic incarnation of unimaginable God (Father of Heaven) merges with a selected human devotee for a specific spiritual program. The inner energetic form is also looking like the same external human form. Then only the merge of all the limbs of the energetic body with the limbs of external human form becomes possible as explained in the Veda (Kenopanishat). This explains the similar features of Father of Heaven and Son of God looking alike. This inner energetic incarnation of God (Father of Heaven) is referred by the name Jesus here. The external human form is actually a human being with life and does not die if the Father of Heaven escapes it to go to Heaven. The external human form is a human being made of external inert human body (Aparaaprakruti) and inner awareness or individual soul or Jiva (Paraaprakruti). The disciple leftover is none but the external human being with inert body and non-inert soul. The crucifixion of the disciple means killing the external human being component only since the Father of Heaven can never by killed by anybody. This is a parable explaining a very deep spiritual concept. You should not take the meaning of statement word by word in a parable. The overall inner sense should be extracted with careful analysis. The disciple, who was prepared for even the sacrifice of life, represents the total sacrifice and such devotee is only selected by God to become the human incarnation. The other devotees were not prepared for such extreme sacrifice and hence were not selected for human incarnation.
In the second part, three philosophies of monism (Advaita), special intermediate monism standing between perfect monism and perfect dualism (Vishistaadvaita) and the perfect dualism (Dvaita) were described. First type believes Jesus as God, second type believes Jesus as son of God and third type believes Jesus as messenger of God. When Jesus was crucified, the first type and second type get affected since in the first type, directly God gets crucified and in the second type, the most beloved Son of God gets crucified. Both these concepts make Jesus as perfectly Divine (God) or partially Divine (Son of God). Prophet Mohammed is not agreeing that the petty human beings can crucify God or son of God. He believes in perfect dualism and the external human being into whom God entered is totally different from the inner God. Therefore, human beings could crucify only a human being since they cannot crucify God or Son of God. This perfect dualism is indicated by Jesus asking the devotee coming forward every time prepared for the sacrifice of his life for God to get crucifixion. The final conclusion of this concept is that the created human beings can never crucify the Creator or the Son of God, who is inseparable from God. In Vishistaadvaita, the soul or awareness of the human being is the Son of God and the soul can never be killed even in the case of crucifixion of an ordinary human being since soul is inseparable from God. The conclusion of the Prophet is that neither God nor soul (Son of God) can be crucified. Only the external living body (Messenger) can be crucified.
However, Prophet knows the values of philosophies of first type and second type also. When current enters the wire, the wire is pervaded all over by the current and wire itself is called as current (monism) for all practical purposes. The current is energy and wire is matter, which differ totally from each other (dualism).Current is the main powerful component (angi or sheshi) and wire is the secondary component (anga or shesha) and both current and wire are inseparable (special intermediate monism). Beware that all this discussion of three philosophies pertain only to human incarnation and not to ordinary human being. The Prophet is very much upset by the cruel people crucifying the human incarnation. If the human incarnation is reduced to an ordinary human being (messenger) filtering the God and Divinity, there will be no danger of killing the human incarnation because jealousy will be totally subsided since human incarnation is also reduced to just a human being like us without any trace of specialty. To avoid this danger of jealousy for the future Prophets, the very kind Prophet Mohammed rejected the concepts of human incarnation to be God or Son of God. God means the absolute unimaginable God. Son of God means the soul charged by God by God’s Divinity. We must see the generosity and sacrifice of Prophet Mohammed to reduce Himself to the state of messenger sent by God, even though He Himself is the Son of God and also actual God in the innermost sense. For the sake of safety of human incarnations, He sacrificed the reality of His actual highest status reducing to lower level of Messenger (lowest level is an ordinary human being).