On Muslims doing Pooja and all that

Sunday, September 3, 2006
Dear Ruzan - on Muslims doing pooja and all that
My dear Ruzan,
You ask, if a Muslim does pooja, what does he do - is it not to pray to someone (other than God) as a God and in a different way (a way not prescribed by God)? How can you, as a devote Muslim, frame such questions? To whom can Man pray but to God? No Hindu offers prayers to anyone else other than God. Just because his way of offering prayers to God is different from a Muslim’s, does it mean that the prayer is per-se different? If man has so many ways to communicate with one another, that is, many languages, why wouldn’t he have many ways to communicate with God? Does Allah say in the Quran, “You shall pray to me in this way and no other?”
If Islam says there is only one God, than how can a Muslim believe that it is possible for anyone to pray to a God that Islam says is not there? Hinduism does not say there are many Gods - but it does say that the one God is expressed variously. (It means both – that the one God expresses Himself variously – which Islam somewhat accepts when it says that messengers were sent before Mohammad too – and that the devotees express their divine experience variously). This is probably the big difference between the Islamic vision and the Hindu vision – the Hindus have been given the freedom to express their religious experience variously whereas the Muslims are to express themselves only in the officially prescribed manner!

My friend Ruzan, one day I would like to tread into new territory with you and open up the subject of spirituality. When I start talking about spirituality, then actually it will be a talk from an individual to an individual. Religion has today come to mean religious identity. You identify yourself as a Hindu or a Muslim. The truth is that all religions are teachings seeking to take man to his core - his soul – and awakening him to his spiritual nature, thereby awakening him to freedom. But most of us seem to have missed it. Religion has come to be our identity tag, one more badge upon our chest of ego.

Meanwhile, let me continue in response to your blog. You say Islam forbids idolatry. I had earlier pointed out that using the word Allah in worship is itself idolatry but you said you do not think so. Well, lets agree to disagree on this.

You say you can’t be a Muslim by force. But this is not true in application. All Muslim or Hindu children are brought up as Muslims or Hindus. However, the Hindu is allowed the freedom to choose his religion when he grows up whereas there is no such choice granted by Islam. Death is the punishment if you leave Islam. (The law of apostasy.) Can you deny this?

When you say you can’t accept Islam in part but have to take it as a whole faith, it implies that once you enter, there are to be no more questionings. The consequence is not spiritual growth but blind faith.

Quran, you say, says faith (Imaan) is a must to be a Muslim. Well, the Bhagwad Gita too talks about faith (Shradha). But in the Hindus’ case faith is only the beginning of a journey that ends in Self-realisation – that you are God. (It is a long journey, over many lifetimes.) Am I right in saying that for the Muslims, faith remains just that - that for obedient behaviour God will reward you on the day of the Judgement?

Dear Ruzan, you appear to have made a very un-Islamic statement when you said, “A believer is free to do whatever he thinks right.” I am afraid Islam does not permit such liberty to the Muslims. If in any Muslim country a Muslim is caught performing Ganesh pooja, he would be tried for apostasy and in all probability executed - it is not left to Allah for deciding his fate on the day of the Last Judgement!

You ask what good a pooja would do to a Muslim who would have no faith in it? Why, it will only fortify his faith in Allah, showing him in what wonderful ways he can approach Allah. You would of course ask, “But how can any Muslim do anything that Allah has prohibited him to do?” Well, this is the crux of the Muslim dilemma – being trapped in a narrow interpretation of the Quran – it is time at least Indian Muslims sought to see Islam in the light of the Sufis. (I think your statement that Sufis are not Muslims would be contested by the vast majority of Muslims in India who throng to Sufi shrines like that in Ajmer.)

You say Muslims are not scared of fellow humans but only of Allah. I say, don’t be afraid of Allah either – why do you fear that which you actually are?

Love,
Venu
6:39:38 AM
Posted By VenuGopal Comment (4) Politics