What does a person who believes in God do when his belief alone proves to be an ineffective cushion against his fears? He turns to religion, more frequently than he would admit. As I began my first ever reading of the Quran, I did not know what to expect. I remembered the bits and pieces about Islam that I had learnt from time to time... *** There is no God but Allah, and Mohammad is his prophet, Zuhaib had recited these lines in Arabic. Buddy, recite these lines with purity in your heart and belief in Allah, and that is all it takes to become a Muslim, he had said. Thats it? I had asked, sounding incredulous. Thats it indeed, he had beamed. *** *** Paul had looked at me like he had seen a ghost. You are getting into the wrong shit man. You see I was born a Christian, and these Muslims say they are a natural inheritor of Abrahams way of monotheism, but trust me, they are different. If they and us were the same there would be no Jihad anywhere. Fact of the matter is, between us and them, only the names are common. We follow the Bible and the Roman Catholic tradition. They follow their Quran and Hadiths, and the twain may never meet, he had explained. Like a river splitting into two? I had asked. Pretty much, he had replied. But doesnt the water in both rivers continue to flow from the same source? I had asked a natural question. Pauls father had looked up as I had said this. Son, if only the people of this world believed in this obvious truth, he had said with a smile. *** Varun and I were chatting over coffee. When I told him about my research, he nearly choked on his croissant. Why do you need to read the Quran? You have too much free time, he had remarked. I need to learn as much as I can buddy, I want to keep an open mind, I had replied. Open mind? Chew on this for a minute. The Quran tells Muslims to kill non believers. However, if a believer kills another believer they can get away with silly compensations like money or freeing a slave! You hear that buddy? This is the religion you are trying to do research on! he had sounded indignant, making me feel guilty of a crime I had not committed. I chose to ignore him. *** Kashif slammed his fist on the library table when I asked him about what Varun had told me. Do you think Muslims are killers? Bush is a Christian, and the Israelis are Jews he looked visibly upset. *** I wondered if I had taken on a task too gargantuan to accomplish properly. My research on Christianity had told me that Muslims and Christians were both considered to be from a common lineage, the children of Abraham. Why then was there this great divide? My idea of Hinduism was clear. I was not an apologist or anything, but Hinduism indeed wasnt a single, unified religion. Moreover, my interest lay in learning about religions I did not know about. Since Hinduism was not strictly a religion, I could afford to keep it out of the equation for now. The Zend Avesta, the religious book of the Zoroastrians, written before the Bible and the Quran also contained some similar concepts like the Judgement Day. Five times a day prayers are also a part of Zoroastrian doctrine, just like in Islam. Zoroastrianism prophesied the arrival of a saviour born of a virgin, which is not too different from the story of Jesus Christ. I wondered if I will ever be clear on how religions work, as I started my reading of the Quran for the first time ever. © 2014 Abhijit Chakraborty First posted on 16 Aug 2013
Posted on: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 17:28:03 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015