Hinduism and Islam
Encyclopedia
Hindu – Islamic relations began when Islamic influence first came to be felt in the Indian subcontinent
during the early 7th century. Hinduism
and Islam
are two of the world’s three largest religions. Orthodox Hinduism is the socio-religious way of life of the Hindu people of the Indian subcontinent
, their diaspora, and some other regions which had Hindu influence in the ancient and medieval times. Islam is a monotheistic religion in which the supreme deity is Allah
and the last prophet being Muhammad ibn Abdullah
. Orthodox Hinduism mostly shares common terms with the dhārmic religions, including Buddhism
, Jainism
and Sikhism
. Islam shares common terms with the Abrahamic religions (those religions claiming descent from the prophet Abraham
), i.e. Judaism
and Christianity
.
The scriptures of Islam are the Qurān, which is the primary (most authentic) book in Islam because it is considered the word of God, and the several Shia and Sunni Hadīth
s, which are secondary in authority, and deal with the life and acts of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad
. The scriptures of Orthodox Hinduism are the Shrutis (the four Vedas and their three tier of commentaries), which are considered authentic, the most authoritative and Divine Revelation. Furthermore, Hinduism is also based on the Smritis (including the Rāmāyana, the Bhagavad Gītā and the Purānas), which are considered to be of secondary authority and of human creation. Nevertheless, Hinduism and Islam do have many similarities, as well as differences.
view. God
is the singular, transcendent
, indivisible, and All-Pervading one true God
, and this principle of monotheism is called Tawhīd
. God is considered ineffable, omniscient, omnipotent and has infinite attributes. God neither takes incarnation
s, nor has any Son."Say: He is God. the One and Only; God, the Eternal, Absolute; He begetteth not, nor is He begotten; And there is none like unto Him." (Sura 112:1-4)
In order to explain the complexity of unity of God and of the divine nature, the Quran uses 99 terms referred to as "Excellent Names of God" (Sura 77:180). Aside from the supreme name "Allah" and the neologism al-Rahmān (referring to the divine beneficence that creates and maintains the universe), other names may be shared by both God and human beings. According to the Islamic teachings, the latter is meant to serve as a reminder of God's immanence
rather than being a sign of one's divinity or alternatively imposing a limitation on God's transcendent nature. Attribution of divinity to a created entity, shirk, is considered as a denial of the truth of God and thus a major sin.
In contrast, Hinduism's belief in God can be variously categorized as monotheism, monism, henotheism
or polytheism
. To understand the concept of God in Hinduism, it is necessary to know that Orthodox Hinduism has six systems of philosophy
, all of which hold the four Vedas as authentic sources of knowledge, viz.: Sānkhya
, Yoga
, Nyāya
, Vaisheshika
, Pūrva Mīmānsā
& Vedānta
.
The last one, Vedānta is further split into sub-branches, of which the most popular is Advaita Vedānta
propounded by Sage Adi Shankara
in the Early-Medieval India. Each philosophical system and sub-system has its own distinct concept of God. This leads to a variety of concepts of God in Hinduism.
According to Advaita Vedānta, the school of monism
, God is One, and only One. However, due to the effect of Māyā
(lit., illusion), God is manifested upon the minds of human beings as anthropomorphic devī-devatās
(often translated into English as "gods & goddesses" or as "deities"). These devī-devatās are not fully real, but are permissible within the Hindu tradition as convenient paths for worship of God, who is referred to in Hindu philosophy by the Sanskrit term Īshwara
(lit., the Lord, similar to Arabic term al-Rabb). Īshwara is regarded as One, spiritual, formless, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent and perfect. Advaita Vedānta believes that God is present inside every human, animal, plant and matter, because God is considered both immanent ("like the whiteness in milk") and transcendent
("like the watchmaker who exists independent of his watch"),. Hence the Hindus worship the same one God under different forms and even through icons. Apart from the idea of God, it is also important to note that Advaita Vedānta considers this material world to be illusion
ary (i.e. caused by Māyā). They believe that there is one level of Reality higher than this pragmatic level, which is the Transcendental level of Reality. In this Transcendental level, there is no Māyā, with one and only one entity existing: the Supreme Cosmic Spirit (Sanskrit: Brahman
). This Brahman is devoid of all attributes except Truth, Consciousness and Bliss, and this is the true nature of God (Īshwara). This Brahman is exactly equal to the individual soul
, after the soul has attained final salvation (Moksha
, which is all about finding this level of Reality).
The other sub-branches of Vedanta philosophy, like Achintya Bhedābheda
followed by ISKCON, a school of Gaudiya Vaishnavism
, have a different view of Īshwara/Brahman. ISKCON believes that this material world is also real and that God has positive attributes even in the true form. They do not believe in the Advaita concept of illusion, and note that the individual soul is not equal to Brahman. This Achintya Bhedābheda
school believes in an intermediate view regarding the distinction between the soul and God, when contrasting this school between Advaita and the other major school of Vedanta, Dvaita
. Furthermore, ISKCON believes that Krishna
is the One and Only God and in order to attain salvation, one must worship Krishna. They consider the other devī-devatās to be servants of Krishna, similar to angels. The existence of devas are due to the karma the devas have acquired. The devas rejected serving Krishna so they entered the material world. They are fallen Jivas but through austerities have gained posts as angels.
Pūrva-Mimānsā is purely monotheistic, however can seem polytheistic to the untrained reader. The descriptions of the various "deities" are nothing but representations of the various aspects of the One entity. This notion is succinctly described in the Rig Veda pada 1.164.46:
Nyāya, Vaisheshika and Yoga philosophies have more similarity with Islam. Like Islam, they believe in the existence of One Supreme God (Ishwara), who is formless, spiritual, omniscient and omnipotent. They also believe in the several devī-devātas as celestial beings who are subordinate to God; this concept is similar to that of the angel
s in Islam (al-Malā'ikah) and other Abrahamic religions. Like the angels, the devī-devātas are considered as intermediaries between God and the human world, and are assigned specific powers by God, who is the Creator of all; Agni
Deva presides over fire, Indra
Deva presides over all the devī-devatās and is assigned with rain and thunder, etc. However, these three philosophies concern themselves more with actual logic
(and in case of Yoga, with physical exercises and meditation
) than with religious beliefs.
The philosophy of Sānkhya is atheistic
. It does not believe in God and in its logical system, there is no place for God. It believes that evolution is continuously occurring due to the liaison between the individual spirits (Purusha
) and the Nature (Prakriti). All things are made up of varying levels of three essences: Truth, Passion and Darkness (Sattva
, Rajas
& Tamas
) which keep changing in proportion, thus creating new things.
, Sāmaveda
, Yajurveda
and Atharvaveda
. They are in Vedic Sanskrit
, an early and archaic form of Sanskrit
language. The language and the deities of the Rigveda bear strong similarities with the Holy Avesta
of Zoroastrianism
. These Vedas are primarily manuals for fire-sacrifices (yajñas
) performed by the ancient Indo-Aryan
people. However, Orthodox Hindus believe that the Vedic hymns also contain eternal truths about the soul (ātman), God and their inter-relationship. They believe that these concepts are not obvious in the literal meaning of the Vedic hymns, but are in the hidden form, and become clear when one interprets the Vedas by meditation
or through the help of the three tiers of Vedic commentaries: the Brāhmanas
, the Ārankayas
and the Upanishad
s. These texts were composed slightly later than the hymn part (the Samhitā), and are easier to understand. The Upanishads are especially lauded by Hindus and even non-Hindu scholars like Max Müller
as the pinnacle of spiritual and metaphysical thought, and they form the primary basis of Advaita Vedānta. The entire Vedic literature was learned by heart by the ancient scholars and it was centuries later when they were written down.
As time passed by, there emerged another class of Sanskrit texts called the Smriti
s. They are considered to be of human creation and of secondary authority to the Shrutis, but nevertheless, quite popular among the masses because of their content, which is interesting legends, stories and moral precepts. They are also in Sanskrit but translations are available. Chief among them are the Rāmāyana
: the legend of Prince Rāmachandra
of Ayodhyā who battles the demon Rāvana
to rescue his wife Sitā
, and the Mahābhārata
: the legend of the royal families of Kauravas and Pāndavas
and the battle that they fought for upholding dharma
. Within the Mahābhārata is the Bhagavad Gītā
, which contains the precepts of Krishna to Pāndava prince Arjuna
about the concepts of human duty, soul, God, divine incarnation and different pathways for salvation. The Gītā is often considered the essence of the Vedas and is highly revered by the Hindu people irrespective of denomination. The other Smriti texts include the several Purānas which contains legends and mythologies of Creation, divine incarnation and tales of the devī-devatās. There are also highly controversial Smriti texts like the Manusmriti which focuses on the caste
system within the Hindu society.
The sole authoritative scripture of Islam is the Qurān, which is in Arabic. Muslims believe that the Qurān was revealed by Allāh
(God) through the angel
Gabriel
to Muhammad
ibn Abdullāh, the last and the final prophet. Muslims additionally recognize certain pre-Islamic books too: the Injīl (the Christian Gospel
s), the Zabūr (Psalms
) and the Taurāt (the Torah
), which were revealed by Allah to the Jews and the Christian
s, but later on got "corrupted". In this light, the Qurān is seen as the uncorrupt and final scripture to restore the true and original monotheistic faith. The Qurān was written down under the supervision of Muhammad by his followers during his lifetime, and was also preserved by oral tradition
. It was the third Khalifah (Caliph
: the Sunni successor to Muhammad) Uthmān ibn Affān who had the Qurān compiled and written down as text. Like the Shrutis, the Qurān is considered as Divine Revelation
. However, the difference between them is that unlike the Vedas, the Qurān is not a manual of hymns to be chanted for ritual worship. The Qurān contains moral precepts and do's and don'ts for the Muslim community, among other material.
Just like the Smritis, the Muslims too have a corpus of texts which are considered to be of secondary authority and human creation: the Hadīths
. The Hadīths are collections of Muhammad's sayings and actions during his lifetime, narrated by him to his wives and his followers, and through a chain of oral tradition, these were written down as texts centuries after Muhammad's death. The Sunni Hadīth collection, called al-Sihāh al-Sittah (the Six Correct Books), contains sayings passed down through the Sunni Khalīfahs like Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthmān, their supporters like Muhammad's wife Aisha
and Ahl al-Bayt. The Shia Hadith collections, al-Kutub al-Arbah (the Four Books), contain precepts mainly coming through Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law Alī ibn Abī Tālib
, through Muhammad's daughter and Ali's wife Fātimah
and through Alī's supporters. Muslims consider the Hadīths to be important in the proper understanding and interpretation of the Qurān. Apart from the Quran, there are also the Tafsīr
books, separate for the Shias and the Sunnis, which deal with the Quranic exegesis (interpretation and explanation), like al-Tabarī, ibn Kathīr and al-Jalālayn. But unlike the Upanishads (which form an integral part of the Shruti and perform the same function for the Vedas), the Tafsīr books are not considered as divinely revealed.
It is to be noted that the Hindu , Islamic scriptures do not mention or recognize each other, unlike the recognition given by the Quran to the Jewish Torah and the Christian Bible. Also, linguistics-wise, Sanskrit
and Arabic belong to completely different languages families (Indo-European
and Semitic
, respectively), so these two religions do not share religious terminologies either, unlike Arabic and Hebrew which share many common words because they are both Semitic languages.
s (Arabic: Nabī). A prophet is by definition a human being who is Divinely inspired, who is guided by God and who speaks for God (or a god, as the case may be). Islam believes that in order to guide mankind, Allāh sent a total of 124,000 prophets to all the nations. Some of the pre-Islamic prophets listed in the Quran by name are: Nūh (Noah
), Ibrahīm (Abraham
), Ismāīl (Ishmael
), Mūsa (Moses
), and Dāwud (David
); these prophets are also recognized by the Jews and the Christians. Additionally, Islam believes that four of the prophets were given Holy Books, and hence they are called Messengers (Arabic: Rasūl, Persian: Paighambar/Payambar). They are: David (who was given the Psalms), Moses (who was given the Torah), Jesus
of Nazareth (who was given the Gospels) and Muhammad ibn Abdullah (who was given the Quran). In this light, Muhammad is considered the last and final prophet and messenger (Khatam an-Nabiyyīn), whose message (contained in the Quran) is seen as valid for the entire world. All prophets in Islam are male. However, Muslims do give special reverence to many female Islamic scholars. The Sunnis revere the wives of Prophet Muhammad (Ummahāt-ul-Muminīn: the 12 or 13 wives of Muhammad), especially Aisha. The Shias attach special reverence to Muhammad's daughter Fātima Zahra
.
There are Muslim scholars who believe that all the Prophets before Muhammad predicted his coming. Some Muslim as well as Hindu scholars have claimed that Hindu Scriptures predict the coming of Muhammad. Some of these claims are based on the Pratisargaparvan section of the Bhavishya Purana
, which is generally accepted to be recent in origin and not a prophecy.. However, majority of the prophecies of Narashansa are quoted from the Vedas and Kalki Purana, which are authentic scriptures.
Similar to the concept of prophethood, Hinduism has the concept of Rishi
s. The Sanskrit word Rishi is loosely translated into English as "sage" (a respected wise man) or "seer" (a prophet, a man who can see the future). Hinduism recognizes and reveres thousands of Rishis, who can be thought of as the collective founders of the Hindu religion over many millennia (but unlike Islam, Hinduism has no single founder). Of these, special importance is given to the Saptarshi
(the Seven Sages), widely regarded as Patriarch
s of the Hindu religion, whose listing is different according to different texts. One of the texts, the Brihadāranyaka Upanishad
(2.2.4) lists their identities as: Atri
, Bharadvāja
, Gotama
, Jamadagni
, Kashyapa, Vasishtha & Vishwāmitra. The Saptarshi and their clans are believed to have composed the hymns of the four Vedas by entering into communion with the Supreme Cosmic Spirit through meditation. For instance, Rigveda 1.1 is attributed to Rishi Madhucchandā Vaishwāmitra (i.e. Madhucchandā of the clan of Vishwāmitra). Most Rishis were male, but there were some female Rishikās too. Lopāmudrā
is the authoress of one hymn in the Rigveda, and Gārgī Vāchaknavī
is described in the Brihadāranyaka Upanishad
as a highly respected woman in the field of Brahmajñāna. Apart from the Vedas, various Rishis are also credited with composing the several Smriti texts, like Vedavyāsa who composed the Mahābhārata.
s (Arabic: Malāk, Persian: Fereshteh), which are messengers of God and act as intermediary between man and God. It was the Angel Gabriel
(Arabic: Jibrāil) who delivered the verses of the Quran to Muhammad (S.A). It was a Jinn, Iblīs (the Satan
) which refused God's command and was condemned to reside in Hell and to test mankind. However, Islam forbids the worship of the angels, for it may lead to shirk. Hinduism similarly recognizes the existence of celestial spirits called the Devas
(literally, the shining ones). The feminine form is Devī
. While they are usually translated into English as "gods", these beings are actually subservient to Ishwara and were created by Him and then assigned specific powers of nature. In Advaita philosophy, these devas are further interpreted as mundane manifestations of Ishwara/Brahman (caused by Māyā), hence the Hindus believe that they are permitted to venerate or worship them, because ultimately all worship would go to Ishwara. Hindus consider this as a simple spiritual path which fulfills the emotion
al needs of the common masses, and so icons of these devī-devatās are also permitted. Hinduism does not have the concept of a single Devil
who is the source of all evil, although Hinduism does recognize the existence of several kinds of evil spirits, demons and ogres (asura
s, dānavas
& rākshasas
) who are actually souls who have committed heinous sins in their past lives and hence reincarnated as such. Instead, evil is thought to be thoughts and practices of sin and adharma.
In Hinduism, forms of Ishvara
(i.e., the supreme God) such as Vishnu
are viewed as taking incarnation
s (Avatar
s, usually as a human) and coming down to the earth to bless humanity and rid the world of sins. Rāma and Krishna are two of the most famous Avatar
s of Vishnu and are highly popular among the Hindu masses. This concept of incarnation is condemned in Islam which sees it as violating Tawhīd. The Quran specifically condemns the Christians, who believe that God came down to humanity as Jesus Christ.
(who directly or indirectly follow Advaita Vedanta philosophy and hence consider the worship of any form of Ishvara
as equally valid for the easy worship of formless and attributeless Brahman), the Vaishnavas
(who identify God with Krishna or Vishnu), the Shaivas
(who identify God with Shiva) and the Shāktas
(who identify God with the Mother goddess Devī). In the recent centuries, there have been many Hindu religious movements like Ārya Samāj
, ISKCON, Vedanta Society
, etc., which have a definite structure and organization, and even accept converts from non-Indians. There is a caste
system within Hinduism, although it is highly controversial and is slowly finishing off in modern secular India
. The top caste, the Brāhmins
, perform priestly activities like organizing temple worship, performance of ritual ceremonies (pūjās and yajñas) and marriages, for the whole community. But Hindu society is more affected by the guru
s (the spiritual teachers) who deliver sermons about the principles of Hindu faith and way of life.
All Muslims believe in Allah, Muhammad and the Quran. But the question of succession to Muhammad, and the leadership of the Muslim community after Muhammad's death, lead to the division of Islam into two denominations. Of these, the Sunnīs comprise the larger denomination, and they consider Abu Bakr, Uthmān, Umar and Alī as the Rightly Guided Successors to Muhammad (al-Khulafah al-Rāshidiyyah, the Rashidun
Caliphs). These Caliph
s were elected by a small council of Ulamā
; the Rashidun Caliphate was followed by dynastic Umayyad
, Abbasid
and Ottoman
Caliphates, all considered valid by the Sunnis although not fully rightly guided. The denomination which rejected Abu Bakr, Uthmān and Umar, and instead chose to follow the leadership of Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law Alī ibn Abī Tālib
, came to be known as the Shias. The Shias believe that Alī and his successors though his bloodline, and no one else, are the divinely appointed Imāms
(overall leaders of Muslim community). They also reject all Sunni Caliphates. These two denominations separated completely when the Sunni Caliph Yazīd I
ordered the killing of the Shia Imam Husayn ibn Ali
at Karbala
, Iraq
. The Sunnis are further sub-divided into four schools of jurisprudence: Shafiī, Malakī, Hanafī & Hanbalī. In the Modern Era, Sunnism has also been affected by Islamic movements like Deobandī
and Barelvī
in the Indian subcontinent and Wahhabism
/Salafism in Saudi Arabia
. The Shias split up upon the issue of identity of their 10th Imām into Ithna Ashariyyah and Ismāīliyyah branches. The Nizārī
sub-branch of Ismaili Shias is the only Shia denomination which has a living Imām. The closest position to priesthood in Islam is the Maulawī or Ālim
(a religious scholar). A Qādī
is a jurisprudent who presides over marriage ceremonies and in Shariah-ruled States, delivers judgments in legal cases. A Muftī
is a religious scholar with the authority to deliver fatwa
(religious diktat).
Sūfism
is a mystical
approach to Islam which encourages brotherhood between the Shias and the Sunnis, and promotes tolerance between Islam and other religions like Hinduism. The Sufis, found in both Shia and Sunni sects, were the main missionaries in Islam's early days, and emphasize the hidden (bātin) meanings of the Quranic verses, interpreting the Quran mystically, rather than only focusing on Shariah which is the role of the jurist.
and morality
, including the relationship between man and society. Both religions emphasize humanitarian values like truth, honesty, piety, kindness and charity. Hinduism considers the pathway of karma
(actions) as a valid path to God. A man is supposed to fulfill his religious duties by getting educated, marrying, having children and raising them in accordance with dharma, giving charity to holy men, providing food and shelter to the guest (atithi) even if he comes unannounced, and protecting the weak. Adultery
(Sanskrit: vyabhichāra, Arabic: zinā) is considered a heinous sin in both religions. Over time, Islam has developed a comprehensive and elaborate system of law called the Sharīah
, which is based upon the Qurān, the Hadīths and the opinions of Islamic scholars, and is supposed to be implanted by every Islamic State. Women are generally encouraged, in some Shariah-rules States obliged, to wear the hijāb
(a veil or scarf which covers the head) and dress in loose clothes, like the jilbāb
. A tiny minority of Muslims, like the Wahhabis and the Taliban even consider the niqāb
(the face-veil) to be compulsory for all women, thus having the women covered up from head to foot. Homosexuality
is also forbidden in Islam, and extremist such as the Taliban would issue the death penalty. Some Hindu women, by tradition or voluntarily, wear the hijāb (by dupattā or ānchal of the sārī) when they enter temples, or perform ritual worship, or come in the presence of unknown men or elders. However, Hinduism does not have the concept of enforcing any kind of religious law, rather, people are simply encouraged to do good Karma and avoid bad Karma.
s, although they are not enforced upon the Hindu people. The most complex ones are the yajñas (fire-sacrifices) in which Vedic hymns are chanted by the priests and oblations of ghee
, grain
s, and milk
are offered to the sacred fire (Agni
). In Ancient Era, animals too were probably sacrificed during the yajñas. These fire-sacrifices are today quite rare, and another simpler form of ritual worship or veneration called pūjā is more common. During a pūjā at home or in a temple
, the devotee says a silent prayer in front of an icon of the devī or deva, and symbolically offers the icon some sweets or other food, which is later on eaten as prasāda. Some pūjās can be highly complex, too, like Rajopacharapuja performed in the temples,Durga puja
,Lalita puja or the tantrik pujas. In contrast, ritual worship in Islam is much simpler but obligatory upon all Muslims. Muslims are supposed to perform ritual prayers (Arabic: Salawāt, Persian: Namāz) five times a day. The Namāz comprises facing the Kaaba
h, kneeling down and prostrating, while murmuring certain Quranic verses. On Fridays and holy days, Muslims are supposed to assemble in mosque
s for the prayers. On Īd-ul-Adha, Muslims families are required to sacrifice an animal to mark the attempted sacrifice of Ismāīl by Prophet Abraham
. Both religions have the concept of fasting
(Sanskrit: Upavāsa, Arabic: Sawm, Persian: Rouzeh). While the Hindus might fast on specific holy days or according to the dates of their lunar calendar, Muslims are obliged to fast during the holy month of Ramadān
. Both religions have the Prayer beads
as a means of telling the prayers. Both religions consider weddings as sacred ceremonies.
, provided certain conditions are met, as listed in Surat-ul-Māidah. The animal should be a herbivore
, and should be slaughter
ed in ritual way by invoking the name of Allah, and cutting the jugular veins by slicing its throat with a sharp knife. This is called dhabah and such meat is called halāl
(permissible). The animal is required to be fully conscious and healthy at the time of slaughter. Carnivorous birds are forbidden but other birds like chicken
are permissible if slaughtered as halāl. Hunted animals are also halāl, and so is fish
, although these do not need to be ritually slaughtered. Locust
is the only insect which is considered halāl. As for non-fish seafood, there are varied opinions. All vegetarian food (including milk
) is considered halāl except alcohol
, which is strictly forbidden. The meat of pig
and all its by-products are strictly forbidden because the pig is considered the filthiest animal in Islam.
There are varied opinions regarding the permissibility of eating meat in Hinduism, depending upon the interpretation of the Hindu Shrutis and Smritis. Most Hindus agree that vegetarianism is recommended and preferable, but while some Hindu communities believe that eating meat is permissible, other communities and sects hold vegetarianism as compulsory. ISKCON requires its members to be vegetarian. Vegetarianism
is encouraged in Hinduism because meat is considered as rajas
ic or tāmasic
(arousing passions or darkness), due to the fact that meat is the product of slaughter and violence committed upon the animal. Unlike Islam which makes a strict difference between the humans and the non-human animals, Hinduism doesn't make a stark distinction between the human, animal and plant worlds. There is certainly a hierarchy, though, and humans are at the top of it because human birth is considered as most precious. Those Hindus who do eat meat, traditionally used to have the animal (or bird) slaughtered by a single stroke of sharp sword or axe, which would cause decapitation
and immediate death, seen as an avoidance of unnecessary pain upon the animal; however in modern secular India, most Hindus don't actually care about the slaughter methods and can eat Islamic halāl meat too. Non-vegetarian Hindus usually eat goat, chicken, buffalo (especially in Nepal), fish and eggs. Some Rajput communities eat the meat of hunted animals like deer too. Certain Hindu denominations like the Shāktas offer animal sacrifices to Devī Durgā
/Kālī
, and the ritual slaughter is done by beheading in one stroke. Other meats (including pork
) are often considered taboo, but are subject to individual choice; the same applies for alcohol. All observant Hindus strictly avoid beef
(flesh of cows, including bulls, oxen and calves). This is because the cow is considered as a devī and as a mother who feeds humanity with proteinaceous milk
. Slaughter of a cow is considered as a heinous sin in Hinduism and has often been a cause of Hindu-Muslim riots in India (because Muslim consider beef as halāl). However, it is interesting to note that in the southern state of kerala, there is sizeable population of who Hindus who consume beef. Similar is the case with many areas of North-East India.Dairy products are considered permissible in Hinduism and in fact are highly recommended. All vegetarian food is considered as permissible, except that some Hindus avoid onion
and garlic
because these two are considered inherently rājasic or tāmasic. Further, some Hindus consider heavily spiced food and chilli peppers as rājasic too.
In Indonesia
, in the city of Kudus
, some Muslims have maintained the tradition of eating water buffalo instead of beef. This originates from the 16th Century, when the local Muslim preacher Sunan Kudus
demonstrated tolerance to his Hindu townspeople who revered domestic cattle.
, and who is fit for eternal Hell
fire. At death, the body is separated from the spirit (Rūh). One's faith and actions in this life will determine one's fate in the Life After Death. There is a Day of Judgment when this life will come to an end for every one, and all humans will be brought to a second life which would be eternal, rejoining the body and its soul. On that Day, God will put people in Hell or Heaven based on their beliefs and deeds of this life.
Hinduism believes that the reason one's soul is in this world, is to find the Eternal Truth. Because of the soul's past karma
, it takes an incarnation as a human being, the only birth in which the soul can possibly find the Eternal Truth. Upon death, the soul leaves the material body and gets another body and life (i.e. rebirth) depending on the total sum one's past karma, good or bad deeds. One's socio-economic status at birth and even species (as an animal or plant) is determined according to one's past karma, and the karmic effects continue if the birth is in human form. This is called the Cycle of Reincarnation
in Hinduism. This cycle can include temporary residence in the Paradise or in Hell, but once the effects of karma are over, the soul reincarnates as human or animal or plant. God is the giver of the fruits of one's Karma. The soul can get Mukti or Moksha
, the freedom from this cycle of births and deaths and ultimate peace (and also reunion with God according to some philosophies), if one nullifies all of one's Karma, by any one or many of these ways of life: Bhakti Yoga
, Raja Yoga
, Karma Yoga
, Jñāna Yoga, etc.
“The Hindus believe with regard to God that he is one, eternal, without beginning and end, acting by free will, almighty, all-wise, living, giving life ,ruling, preserving: one who in his sovereignty is unique, beyond all likeness and unlikeness, and that he does not resemble anything nor does anything resemble him.”
In a similar vein Amir Khusro
in the 14th century said the Hindus are among those good people who believe in God who is omnipotent and omniscient and is “pure Truth and inimitable Reality.”
Another example of this approach was Dara Shikoh
’s Majma-ul Bahrain wherein he concluded, with regard to Indian monotheism, that “he did not find any difference, except verbal, in the way they sought and comprehended Truth.”
In the 20th century, Muhammad Iqbal
went even further in a popular poem, Hindustani bachon ka qaumi geet (The national song of Indian children):
Wahdat ki lai suni thi dunya ne jis makaan se
Mir-e-Arab ko aai thandi hawa jahaan se
Mera watan wahi hai, mera watan wahi hai
(This is the house from where the world heard the rhthym of One Reality(God),
The Emir of Arab had felt a cool breeze from here,
That indeed is my nation, that indeed is my nation)
during the early 7th century with the advent of Arab traders. Arab traders used to visit the Malabar region, which was a link between them and the ports of South East Asia to trade even before Islam had been established in Arabia. According to Historians Elliot and Dowson in their book The History of India as told by its own Historians
, the first ship bearing Muslim travelers was seen on the Indian coast as early as 630
AD.
H.G. Rawlinson, in his book: Ancient and Medieval History of India claims the first Arab Muslims settled on the Indian coast in the last part of the 7th century AD. This fact is corroborated, by J. Sturrock in his South Kanara and Madras Districts Manuals, and also by Haridas Bhattacharya in Cultural Heritage of India Vol. IV. The Arab merchants and traders became the carriers of the new religion and they propagated it wherever they went. It was however the subsequent expansion of the Muslim conquest in the Indian subcontinent
over the next millennia that established Islam in the region.
In order to fully understand the relationship between Hinduism and Islam, it is important to take a brief look at the politics and medieval history of the Indian subcontinent. Islam initially entered India through military conquest, by Muslim invaders such as Muhammad ibn Qāsim
, Mahmūd Ghaznavi
and Muhammad Ghori. Some of these invaders regarded the Hindu people as similar to the Mushriks of pre-Islamic Arabia, the idol-worshiping polytheistic tribes against whom Muhammad had waged wars, and for whom religious tolerance is not prescribed by the Quran. This led to the sacking and sacrilege of many Hindu temples, like Somnath
in Gujarat. Later on, with the establishment of the Islamic Delhi Sultanate
, some religious tolerance was granted to the Hindus upon the payment of the poll-tax jizyah. Thus, the history of the Hindu-Muslim relationship has been marred by violence, the mark of which is seen even today, especially in India's right-wing Hindutva
movement and in Pakistan's nature as an Islamic State, although the relations between common Hindus and Muslims have more or less been peaceful and even cordial. The jizyah continued during most of the Islamic rulers of India, until the Mughal Emperor Akbar discontinued it as a mark of his tolerance towards Hinduism and emphasis on spirituality rather than political aspects of Islam. The jizyah remained discontinued under his son Jahangir
and his grandson Shah Jahan
, but was reinstated by Aurangzeb
, who also committed many atrocities against the Hindus. The partition of British India into modern secular India
and Islamic Pakistan
caused further political estrangement, because the Hindus see India as their motherland and as a Devī, which they felt had been forcibly partitioned to please the Muslims. The Indian Hindutva movement sees the Muslims as a "foreign" people bringing in a "foreign" faith into India, while many Pakistani Muslims see the "polytheistic" and "idol-worshiping" Hindus as filthy and abhorrent. Far-right groups in both countries have been encouraging a revisionist version of history, wherein each group emphasizes only certain positive aspects of their coreligionists throughout the history and ignores the positive aspects of the other.
In Java, Indonesia
, early conflicts between Islam and Hinduism were almost entirely political, reflecting competition between small Muslim kingdoms and the Hindu empire of Majapahit. However, historically Indonesia has seen more Christian-Muslim conflict than Hindu-Muslim.
and the Mughal
emperor Aurangzeb
on either end of the timeline for Islamic rulers. In addition, similar to the Hindu caste structure, Muslims in India also developed a caste system that divided the Indian Muslim society into three: the foreign-descended Ashraf Muslims, the local Ajlaf converts, and the converted Arzal untouchables at the lowest rung The term "Arzal" stands for "degraded" and the Arzal castes are further subdivided into Bhanar, Halalkhor, Hijra, Kasbi, Lalbegi, Maugta, Mehtar etc.
Akbar's court was home to intellectuals and saints, both Hindu and Muslim, among them the great musician Tansen
who converted to Islam, and he (Akbar) even went so far as to try and create a new religion (the dīn-e-ilāhī) to create a rapprochement of both creeds for creating a stable empire and for emphasizing only the positive, spiritual aspects of Hinduism and Islam. The presence of Hindu Rājās, ministers and military commanders in the Mughal Court ameliorated the relations between the two communities, until Emperor Aurangzeb
reversed the policy of official religious tolerance and tried to establish a strict Sunni Islamic State in India. Frustration in the sub-continent grew as a result of this, leading to the gradual decline of the Muslim Mughal Empire, to be replaced by the Sikhs, Marathas, the Vijayanagara kingdom, the Shiite Awadh
kingdom, and later the British.
In the last 60 years after the Indian independence and partition, the Muslims in India have preferential treatment with their own Muslim Personal Law. Communal tensions between the Hindus and the Muslims have erupted many a times during this period. Notable incidents of this phenomenon include the demolition of the Babri Masjid (claimed by the Hindus to be the site of a demolished temple marking the birthplace of Lord Rāma) and the Gujarat Riots of 2002
.
However, even apart from tolerant Muslim Kings, there have been other unifying forces too, especially Sufism
. Kabir
, a medieval poet revered as a Sufi saint by the Muslims and as a holy man by the Hindus, wrote poetry and preached to the people, advocating a blend of philosophy and spiritual practices. The synergy between certain Sufi and Bhakti
saints in many regions of India led to Muslim and Hindu laity worshiping together at a mazār
(Sufi shrine). People like Amir Khusro
, Prince Dara Shikoh
, Abdurrahīm Khān-e-Khāna
, Shirdi Sai Baba, Sikh Guru Nanak encouraged peace by preaching and/or writing.
Hinduism actively encourages all forms of liberal arts
, including music
, poetry
, dance
, dramatics, painting
and sculpture
. Indeed, some of these are actually given a sacred identity, e.g. Kathak
dance of the Awadh
region is consecrated to Shiva, and the entire Sāmaveda is dedicated to singing the Vedic hymns during the yajñas. The Hindu devī-devatās and avatars are an integral part of the colorful Hindu culture and are often depicted in art and sculpture. In Islam, there is difference of opinion on the permissibility of liberal arts, due to the fear that some of them could lead to idol-worship and polytheism. While it is unanimous view within Islam that any icon or statue of Allah or of Muhammad is strictly forbidden, some fundamentalist groups like the Taliban (and Aurangzeb in the past) extend this to banning all forms of instrumental music, dance, painting and sculpture. Others like the Sufis, Barelvis and most Mughal rulers in history encourage music (including instrumental music) for praising Allah and His Prophet, and do not ban secular fine arts. Qawwālī
is a form of devotional Sufi music common in Afghanistan
, India
, Iran
, Pakistan
, Tajikistan
and Turkey
. It is known for its multi-religious strains. Some of its modern-day masters have included Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and the Sabri Brothers
. Amir Khusro
, a disciple of Nizamuddin Auliya
and Sufi of the Chishti Order
, is credited with inventing Qawwali in the 14th century. Language too experienced this new synergy. Persian
and Arabic languages mixed with the local Hindi dialects of the Indo-Gangetic plains to form a new language: Urdu
(a variant of Hindi
with many Persian and Arabic loanwords, written in a modified Arabic script), which would later on become an identifying cultural feature of the Muslims of the Indian subcontinent.
Mughal art forms, especially miniatures and even certain niches of Urdu
poetry, were quick to absorb classic Hindu motifs, like the love story of Krishna
and Radha
. Hindustani classical music
is a complex and sonorous blend of Vedic notions of sound, rāga
and tāla
and absorbed many instruments and concepts of either Middle-Eastern origin or Indian-Muslim invention such as the sitar
, the santoor
and the ghazal
. Hindu motifs like the lotus can also be seen on the Taj Mahal
, built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in the 16th century.
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...
during the early 7th century. Hinduism
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
and Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
are two of the world’s three largest religions. Orthodox Hinduism is the socio-religious way of life of the Hindu people of the Indian subcontinent
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...
, their diaspora, and some other regions which had Hindu influence in the ancient and medieval times. Islam is a monotheistic religion in which the supreme deity is Allah
Allah
Allah is a word for God used in the context of Islam. In Arabic, the word means simply "God". It is used primarily by Muslims and Bahá'ís, and often, albeit not exclusively, used by Arabic-speaking Eastern Catholic Christians, Maltese Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Mizrahi Jews and...
and the last prophet being Muhammad ibn Abdullah
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
. Orthodox Hinduism mostly shares common terms with the dhārmic religions, including Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
, Jainism
Jainism
Jainism is an Indian religion that prescribes a path of non-violence towards all living beings. Its philosophy and practice emphasize the necessity of self-effort to move the soul towards divine consciousness and liberation. Any soul that has conquered its own inner enemies and achieved the state...
and Sikhism
Sikhism
Sikhism is a monotheistic religion founded during the 15th century in the Punjab region, by Guru Nanak Dev and continued to progress with ten successive Sikh Gurus . It is the fifth-largest organized religion in the world and one of the fastest-growing...
. Islam shares common terms with the Abrahamic religions (those religions claiming descent from the prophet Abraham
Abraham
Abraham , whose birth name was Abram, is the eponym of the Abrahamic religions, among which are Judaism, Christianity and Islam...
), i.e. Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
and Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
.
The scriptures of Islam are the Qurān, which is the primary (most authentic) book in Islam because it is considered the word of God, and the several Shia and Sunni Hadīth
Hadith
The term Hadīth is used to denote a saying or an act or tacit approval or criticism ascribed either validly or invalidly to the Islamic prophet Muhammad....
s, which are secondary in authority, and deal with the life and acts of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
. The scriptures of Orthodox Hinduism are the Shrutis (the four Vedas and their three tier of commentaries), which are considered authentic, the most authoritative and Divine Revelation. Furthermore, Hinduism is also based on the Smritis (including the Rāmāyana, the Bhagavad Gītā and the Purānas), which are considered to be of secondary authority and of human creation. Nevertheless, Hinduism and Islam do have many similarities, as well as differences.
Theology and Concept of God
Islam follows a monotheisticMonotheism
Monotheism is the belief in the existence of one and only one god. Monotheism is characteristic of the Baha'i Faith, Christianity, Druzism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Samaritanism, Sikhism and Zoroastrianism.While they profess the existence of only one deity, monotheistic religions may still...
view. God
God in Islam
In Islamic theology, God is the all-powerful and all-knowing creator, sustainer, ordainer, and judge of the universe. Islam puts a heavy emphasis on the conceptualization of God as strictly singular . God is unique and inherently One , all-merciful and omnipotent. According to the Islamic...
is the singular, transcendent
Transcendence (religion)
In religion transcendence refers to the aspect of God's nature which is wholly independent of the physical universe. This is contrasted with immanence where God is fully present in the physical world and thus accessible to creatures in various ways...
, indivisible, and All-Pervading one true God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
, and this principle of monotheism is called Tawhīd
Tawhid
Tawhid is the concept of monotheism in Islam. It is the religion's most fundamental concept and holds God is one and unique ....
. God is considered ineffable, omniscient, omnipotent and has infinite attributes. God neither takes incarnation
Incarnation
Incarnation literally means embodied in flesh or taking on flesh. It refers to the conception and birth of a sentient creature who is the material manifestation of an entity, god or force whose original nature is immaterial....
s, nor has any Son."Say: He is God. the One and Only; God, the Eternal, Absolute; He begetteth not, nor is He begotten; And there is none like unto Him." (Sura 112:1-4)
In order to explain the complexity of unity of God and of the divine nature, the Quran uses 99 terms referred to as "Excellent Names of God" (Sura 77:180). Aside from the supreme name "Allah" and the neologism al-Rahmān (referring to the divine beneficence that creates and maintains the universe), other names may be shared by both God and human beings. According to the Islamic teachings, the latter is meant to serve as a reminder of God's immanence
Immanence
Immanence refers to philosophical and metaphysical theories of divine presence, in which the divine is seen to be manifested in or encompassing of the material world. It is often contrasted with theories of transcendence, in which the divine is seen to be outside the material world...
rather than being a sign of one's divinity or alternatively imposing a limitation on God's transcendent nature. Attribution of divinity to a created entity, shirk, is considered as a denial of the truth of God and thus a major sin.
In contrast, Hinduism's belief in God can be variously categorized as monotheism, monism, henotheism
Henotheism
Henotheism is the belief and worship of a single god while accepting the existence or possible existence of other deities...
or polytheism
Polytheism
Polytheism is the belief of multiple deities also usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own mythologies and rituals....
. To understand the concept of God in Hinduism, it is necessary to know that Orthodox Hinduism has six systems of philosophy
Hindu philosophy
Hindu philosophy is divided into six schools of thought, or , which accept the Vedas as supreme revealed scriptures. Three other schools do not accept the Vedas as authoritative...
, all of which hold the four Vedas as authentic sources of knowledge, viz.: Sānkhya
Samkhya
Samkhya, also Sankhya, Sāṃkhya, or Sāṅkhya is one of the six schools of Hindu philosophy and classical Indian philosophy. Sage Kapila is traditionally considered as the founder of the Samkhya school, although no historical verification is possible...
, Yoga
Yoga
Yoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual discipline, originating in ancient India. The goal of yoga, or of the person practicing yoga, is the attainment of a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility while meditating on Supersoul...
, Nyāya
Nyaya
' is the name given to one of the six orthodox or astika schools of Hindu philosophy—specifically the school of logic...
, Vaisheshika
Vaisheshika
Vaisheshika or ' is one of the six Hindu schools of philosophy of India. Historically, it has been closely associated with the Hindu school of logic, Nyaya....
, Pūrva Mīmānsā
Mimamsa
' , a Sanskrit word meaning "investigation" , is the name of an astika school of Hindu philosophy whose primary enquiry is into the nature of dharma based on close hermeneutics of the Vedas...
& Vedānta
Vedanta
Vedānta was originally a word used in Hindu philosophy as a synonym for that part of the Veda texts known also as the Upanishads. The name is a morphophonological form of Veda-anta = "Veda-end" = "the appendix to the Vedic hymns." It is also speculated that "Vedānta" means "the purpose or goal...
.
The last one, Vedānta is further split into sub-branches, of which the most popular is Advaita Vedānta
Advaita Vedanta
Advaita Vedanta is considered to be the most influential and most dominant sub-school of the Vedānta school of Hindu philosophy. Other major sub-schools of Vedānta are Dvaita and ; while the minor ones include Suddhadvaita, Dvaitadvaita and Achintya Bhedabheda...
propounded by Sage Adi Shankara
Adi Shankara
Adi Shankara Adi Shankara Adi Shankara (IAST: pronounced , (Sanskrit: , ) (788 CE - 820 CE), also known as ' and ' was an Indian philosopher from Kalady of present day Kerala who consolidated the doctrine of advaita vedānta...
in the Early-Medieval India. Each philosophical system and sub-system has its own distinct concept of God. This leads to a variety of concepts of God in Hinduism.
According to Advaita Vedānta, the school of monism
Monism
Monism is any philosophical view which holds that there is unity in a given field of inquiry. Accordingly, some philosophers may hold that the universe is one rather than dualistic or pluralistic...
, God is One, and only One. However, due to the effect of Māyā
Maya (illusion)
Maya , in Indian religions, has multiple meanings, usually quoted as "illusion", centered on the fact that we do not experience the environment itself but rather a projection of it, created by us. Maya is the principal deity that manifests, perpetuates and governs the illusion and dream of duality...
(lit., illusion), God is manifested upon the minds of human beings as anthropomorphic devī-devatās
Deva (Hinduism)
' is the Sanskrit word for god or deity, its related feminine term is devi. In modern Hinduism, it can be loosely interpreted as any benevolent supernatural beings. The devs in Hinduism, also called Suras, are often juxtaposed to the Asuras, their half brothers. Devs are also the maintainers of...
(often translated into English as "gods & goddesses" or as "deities"). These devī-devatās are not fully real, but are permissible within the Hindu tradition as convenient paths for worship of God, who is referred to in Hindu philosophy by the Sanskrit term Īshwara
Ishvara
Ishvara is a philosophical concept in Hinduism, meaning controller or the Supreme controller in a theistic school of thought or the Supreme Being, or as an Ishta-deva of monistic thought.-Etymology:...
(lit., the Lord, similar to Arabic term al-Rabb). Īshwara is regarded as One, spiritual, formless, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent and perfect. Advaita Vedānta believes that God is present inside every human, animal, plant and matter, because God is considered both immanent ("like the whiteness in milk") and transcendent
Transcendence (religion)
In religion transcendence refers to the aspect of God's nature which is wholly independent of the physical universe. This is contrasted with immanence where God is fully present in the physical world and thus accessible to creatures in various ways...
("like the watchmaker who exists independent of his watch"),. Hence the Hindus worship the same one God under different forms and even through icons. Apart from the idea of God, it is also important to note that Advaita Vedānta considers this material world to be illusion
Illusion
An illusion is a distortion of the senses, revealing how the brain normally organizes and interprets sensory stimulation. While illusions distort reality, they are generally shared by most people....
ary (i.e. caused by Māyā). They believe that there is one level of Reality higher than this pragmatic level, which is the Transcendental level of Reality. In this Transcendental level, there is no Māyā, with one and only one entity existing: the Supreme Cosmic Spirit (Sanskrit: Brahman
Brahman
In Hinduism, Brahman is the one supreme, universal Spirit that is the origin and support of the phenomenal universe. Brahman is sometimes referred to as the Absolute or Godhead which is the Divine Ground of all being...
). This Brahman is devoid of all attributes except Truth, Consciousness and Bliss, and this is the true nature of God (Īshwara). This Brahman is exactly equal to the individual soul
Soul
A soul in certain spiritual, philosophical, and psychological traditions is the incorporeal essence of a person or living thing or object. Many philosophical and spiritual systems teach that humans have souls, and others teach that all living things and even inanimate objects have souls. The...
, after the soul has attained final salvation (Moksha
Moksha
Within Indian religions, moksha or mukti , literally "release" , is the liberation from samsara and the concomitant suffering involved in being subject to the cycle of repeated death and reincarnation or rebirth.-Origins:It is highly probable that the concept of moksha was first developed in...
, which is all about finding this level of Reality).
The other sub-branches of Vedanta philosophy, like Achintya Bhedābheda
Achintya Bheda Abheda
Achintya-Bheda-Abheda is a school of Vedanta representing the philosophy of inconceivable one-ness and difference, in relation to the power creation and creator, , svayam bhagavan. and also between God and his energies within the Gaudiya Vaishnava religious tradition...
followed by ISKCON, a school of Gaudiya Vaishnavism
Gaudiya Vaishnavism
Gaudiya Vaishnavism is a Vaishnava religious movement founded by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in India in the 16th century. "Gaudiya" refers to the Gauḍa region with Vaishnavism meaning "the worship of Vishnu"...
, have a different view of Īshwara/Brahman. ISKCON believes that this material world is also real and that God has positive attributes even in the true form. They do not believe in the Advaita concept of illusion, and note that the individual soul is not equal to Brahman. This Achintya Bhedābheda
Achintya Bheda Abheda
Achintya-Bheda-Abheda is a school of Vedanta representing the philosophy of inconceivable one-ness and difference, in relation to the power creation and creator, , svayam bhagavan. and also between God and his energies within the Gaudiya Vaishnava religious tradition...
school believes in an intermediate view regarding the distinction between the soul and God, when contrasting this school between Advaita and the other major school of Vedanta, Dvaita
Dvaita
Dvaita is a school of Vedanta founded by Shri Madhvacharya....
. Furthermore, ISKCON believes that Krishna
Krishna
Krishna is a central figure of Hinduism and is traditionally attributed the authorship of the Bhagavad Gita. He is the supreme Being and considered in some monotheistic traditions as an Avatar of Vishnu...
is the One and Only God and in order to attain salvation, one must worship Krishna. They consider the other devī-devatās to be servants of Krishna, similar to angels. The existence of devas are due to the karma the devas have acquired. The devas rejected serving Krishna so they entered the material world. They are fallen Jivas but through austerities have gained posts as angels.
Pūrva-Mimānsā is purely monotheistic, however can seem polytheistic to the untrained reader. The descriptions of the various "deities" are nothing but representations of the various aspects of the One entity. This notion is succinctly described in the Rig Veda pada 1.164.46:
-
- Indraṃ mitraṃ varuṇamaghnimāhuratho divyaḥ sa suparṇo gharutmān,
- ekaṃ sad viprā bahudhā vadantyaghniṃ yamaṃ mātariśvānamāhuḥ
- "They call Him Indra, Mitra, Varuṇa, Agni, and He is heavenly nobly-winged Garutmān.
- To what is One, sages give many a title they call Him Agni, Yama, Mātariśvan."
Nyāya, Vaisheshika and Yoga philosophies have more similarity with Islam. Like Islam, they believe in the existence of One Supreme God (Ishwara), who is formless, spiritual, omniscient and omnipotent. They also believe in the several devī-devātas as celestial beings who are subordinate to God; this concept is similar to that of the angel
Angel
Angels are mythical beings often depicted as messengers of God in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles along with the Quran. The English word angel is derived from the Greek ἄγγελος, a translation of in the Hebrew Bible ; a similar term, ملائكة , is used in the Qur'an...
s in Islam (al-Malā'ikah) and other Abrahamic religions. Like the angels, the devī-devātas are considered as intermediaries between God and the human world, and are assigned specific powers by God, who is the Creator of all; Agni
Agni
Agni is a Hindu deity, one of the most important of the Vedic gods. He is the god of fire and the acceptor of sacrifices. The sacrifices made to Agni go to the deities because Agni is a messenger from and to the other gods...
Deva presides over fire, Indra
Indra
' or is the King of the demi-gods or Devas and Lord of Heaven or Svargaloka in Hindu mythology. He is also the God of War, Storms, and Rainfall.Indra is one of the chief deities in the Rigveda...
Deva presides over all the devī-devatās and is assigned with rain and thunder, etc. However, these three philosophies concern themselves more with actual logic
Logic
In philosophy, Logic is the formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning. Logic is used in most intellectual activities, but is studied primarily in the disciplines of philosophy, mathematics, semantics, and computer science...
(and in case of Yoga, with physical exercises and meditation
Meditation
Meditation is any form of a family of practices in which practitioners train their minds or self-induce a mode of consciousness to realize some benefit....
) than with religious beliefs.
The philosophy of Sānkhya is atheistic
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
. It does not believe in God and in its logical system, there is no place for God. It believes that evolution is continuously occurring due to the liaison between the individual spirits (Purusha
Purusha
In some lineages of Hinduism, Purusha is the "Self" which pervades the universe. The Vedic divinities are interpretations of the many facets of Purusha...
) and the Nature (Prakriti). All things are made up of varying levels of three essences: Truth, Passion and Darkness (Sattva
Sattva
In Hindu philosophy, sattva is the most rarefied of the three gunas in Samkhya, sāttvika "pure", rājasika "dim", and tāmasika "dark". Importantly, no value judgement is entailed as all guna are indivisible and mutually qualifying...
, Rajas
Rajas
Rajas ) is, in the Samkhya school of Hindu philosophy, one of the three gunas. Of these, rajas, is responsible for motion, energy and preservation...
& Tamas
Tamas (philosophy)
In the Samkhya school of philosophy, tamas is one of the three gunas , the other two being rajas and sattva or purity). Tamas is the template for inertia or resistance to action...
) which keep changing in proportion, thus creating new things.
Scriptures
Hindu scriptures are very ancient and most predate the founding of Islam by millennia. Historians consider the Vedas (also known as Shruti) to have been compiled between 1500 BC and 1000 BC. There are four Vedas: RigvedaRigveda
The Rigveda is an ancient Indian sacred collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns...
, Sāmaveda
Samaveda
The Sama veda , is second of the four Vedas, the ancient core Hindu scriptures. Its earliest parts are believed to date from 1700 BC and it ranks next in sanctity and liturgical importance to the Rigveda...
, Yajurveda
Yajurveda
The Yajurveda, a tatpurusha compound of "sacrificial formula', + ) is the third of the four canonical texts of Hinduism, the Vedas. By some, it is estimated to have been composed between 1400 and 1000 BC, the Yajurveda 'Samhita', or 'compilation', contains the liturgy needed to perform the...
and Atharvaveda
Atharvaveda
The Atharvaveda is a sacred text of Hinduism and one of the four Vedas, often called the "fourth Veda"....
. They are in Vedic Sanskrit
Vedic Sanskrit
Vedic Sanskrit is an old Indo-Aryan language. It is an archaic form of Sanskrit, an early descendant of Proto-Indo-Iranian. It is closely related to Avestan, the oldest preserved Iranian language...
, an early and archaic form of Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
language. The language and the deities of the Rigveda bear strong similarities with the Holy Avesta
Avesta
The Avesta is the primary collection of sacred texts of Zoroastrianism, composed in the Avestan language.-Early transmission:The texts of the Avesta — which are all in the Avestan language — were composed over the course of several hundred years. The most important portion, the Gathas,...
of Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism is a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of prophet Zoroaster and was formerly among the world's largest religions. It was probably founded some time before the 6th century BCE in Greater Iran.In Zoroastrianism, the Creator Ahura Mazda is all good, and no evil...
. These Vedas are primarily manuals for fire-sacrifices (yajñas
Yajna
In Hinduism, yajna is a ritual of sacrifice derived from the practice of Vedic times. It is performed to please the gods or to attain certain wishes...
) performed by the ancient Indo-Aryan
Indo-Aryans
Indo-Aryan is an ethno-linguistic term referring to the wide collection of peoples united as native speakers of the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-Iranian family of Indo-European languages...
people. However, Orthodox Hindus believe that the Vedic hymns also contain eternal truths about the soul (ātman), God and their inter-relationship. They believe that these concepts are not obvious in the literal meaning of the Vedic hymns, but are in the hidden form, and become clear when one interprets the Vedas by meditation
Meditation
Meditation is any form of a family of practices in which practitioners train their minds or self-induce a mode of consciousness to realize some benefit....
or through the help of the three tiers of Vedic commentaries: the Brāhmanas
Brahmana
The Brāhmaṇas are part of the Hindu śruti literature. They are commentaries on the four Vedas, detailing the proper performance of rituals....
, the Ārankayas
Aranyaka
The Aranyakas are part of the Hindu śruti, the four Vedas; they were composed in late Vedic Sanskrit typical of the Brahmanas and early Upanishads; indeed, they frequently form part of either the Brahmanas or the Upanishads....
and the Upanishad
Upanishad
The Upanishads are philosophical texts considered to be an early source of Hindu religion. More than 200 are known, of which the first dozen or so, the oldest and most important, are variously referred to as the principal, main or old Upanishads...
s. These texts were composed slightly later than the hymn part (the Samhitā), and are easier to understand. The Upanishads are especially lauded by Hindus and even non-Hindu scholars like Max Müller
Max Müller
Friedrich Max Müller , more regularly known as Max Müller, was a German philologist and Orientalist, one of the founders of the western academic field of Indian studies and the discipline of comparative religion...
as the pinnacle of spiritual and metaphysical thought, and they form the primary basis of Advaita Vedānta. The entire Vedic literature was learned by heart by the ancient scholars and it was centuries later when they were written down.
As time passed by, there emerged another class of Sanskrit texts called the Smriti
Smriti
Smriti literally "that which is remembered," refers to a specific body of Hindu religious scripture, and is a codified component of Hindu customary law. Smṛti also denotes non-Śruti texts and is generally seen as secondary in authority to Śruti. The literature which comprises the Smrti was...
s. They are considered to be of human creation and of secondary authority to the Shrutis, but nevertheless, quite popular among the masses because of their content, which is interesting legends, stories and moral precepts. They are also in Sanskrit but translations are available. Chief among them are the Rāmāyana
Ramayana
The Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic. It is ascribed to the Hindu sage Valmiki and forms an important part of the Hindu canon , considered to be itihāsa. The Ramayana is one of the two great epics of India and Nepal, the other being the Mahabharata...
: the legend of Prince Rāmachandra
Rama
Rama or full name Ramachandra is considered to be the seventh avatar of Vishnu in Hinduism, and a king of Ayodhya in ancient Indian...
of Ayodhyā who battles the demon Rāvana
Ravana
' is the primary antagonist character of the Hindu legend, the Ramayana; who is the great king of Lanka. In the classic text, he is mainly depicted negatively, kidnapping Rama's wife Sita, to claim vengeance on Rama and his brother Lakshmana for having cut off the nose of his sister...
to rescue his wife Sitā
SITA
SITA is a multinational information technology company specialising in providing IT and telecommunication services to the air transport industry...
, and the Mahābhārata
Mahabharata
The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and Nepal, the other being the Ramayana. The epic is part of itihasa....
: the legend of the royal families of Kauravas and Pāndavas
Pandava
In the Hindu epic Mahābhārata, the Pandava are the five acknowledged sons of Pandu , by his two wives Kunti and Madri. Their names are Yudhisthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva. Although, Karna is told by Lord Krishna that according to the laws and ethics he is the first son of Kunti making...
and the battle that they fought for upholding dharma
Dharma
Dharma means Law or Natural Law and is a concept of central importance in Indian philosophy and religion. In the context of Hinduism, it refers to one's personal obligations, calling and duties, and a Hindu's dharma is affected by the person's age, caste, class, occupation, and gender...
. Within the Mahābhārata is the Bhagavad Gītā
Bhagavad Gita
The ' , also more simply known as Gita, is a 700-verse Hindu scripture that is part of the ancient Sanskrit epic, the Mahabharata, but is frequently treated as a freestanding text, and in particular, as an Upanishad in its own right, one of the several books that constitute general Vedic tradition...
, which contains the precepts of Krishna to Pāndava prince Arjuna
Arjuna
Arjuna in Indian mythology is the greatest warrior on earth and is one of the Pandavas, the heroes of the Hindu epic Mahābhārata. Arjuna, whose name means 'bright', 'shining', 'white' or 'silver' Arjuna (Devanagari: अर्जुन, Thai: อรชุน, Orachun, Tamil: Arjunan, Indonesian and Javanese: Harjuna,...
about the concepts of human duty, soul, God, divine incarnation and different pathways for salvation. The Gītā is often considered the essence of the Vedas and is highly revered by the Hindu people irrespective of denomination. The other Smriti texts include the several Purānas which contains legends and mythologies of Creation, divine incarnation and tales of the devī-devatās. There are also highly controversial Smriti texts like the Manusmriti which focuses on the caste
Caste
Caste is an elaborate and complex social system that combines elements of endogamy, occupation, culture, social class, tribal affiliation and political power. It should not be confused with race or social class, e.g. members of different castes in one society may belong to the same race, as in India...
system within the Hindu society.
The sole authoritative scripture of Islam is the Qurān, which is in Arabic. Muslims believe that the Qurān was revealed by Allāh
Allah
Allah is a word for God used in the context of Islam. In Arabic, the word means simply "God". It is used primarily by Muslims and Bahá'ís, and often, albeit not exclusively, used by Arabic-speaking Eastern Catholic Christians, Maltese Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Mizrahi Jews and...
(God) through the angel
Angel
Angels are mythical beings often depicted as messengers of God in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles along with the Quran. The English word angel is derived from the Greek ἄγγελος, a translation of in the Hebrew Bible ; a similar term, ملائكة , is used in the Qur'an...
Gabriel
Gabriel
In Abrahamic religions, Gabriel is an Archangel who typically serves as a messenger to humans from God.He first appears in the Book of Daniel, delivering explanations of Daniel's visions. In the Gospel of Luke Gabriel foretells the births of both John the Baptist and of Jesus...
to Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
ibn Abdullāh, the last and the final prophet. Muslims additionally recognize certain pre-Islamic books too: the Injīl (the Christian Gospel
Gospel
A gospel is an account, often written, that describes the life of Jesus of Nazareth. In a more general sense the term "gospel" may refer to the good news message of the New Testament. It is primarily used in reference to the four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John...
s), the Zabūr (Psalms
Psalms
The Book of Psalms , commonly referred to simply as Psalms, is a book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible...
) and the Taurāt (the Torah
Torah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
), which were revealed by Allah to the Jews and the Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
s, but later on got "corrupted". In this light, the Qurān is seen as the uncorrupt and final scripture to restore the true and original monotheistic faith. The Qurān was written down under the supervision of Muhammad by his followers during his lifetime, and was also preserved by oral tradition
Oral tradition
Oral tradition and oral lore is cultural material and traditions transmitted orally from one generation to another. The messages or testimony are verbally transmitted in speech or song and may take the form, for example, of folktales, sayings, ballads, songs, or chants...
. It was the third Khalifah (Caliph
Caliph
The Caliph is the head of state in a Caliphate, and the title for the ruler of the Islamic Ummah, an Islamic community ruled by the Shari'ah. It is a transcribed version of the Arabic word which means "successor" or "representative"...
: the Sunni successor to Muhammad) Uthmān ibn Affān who had the Qurān compiled and written down as text. Like the Shrutis, the Qurān is considered as Divine Revelation
Revelation
In religion and theology, revelation is the revealing or disclosing, through active or passive communication with a supernatural or a divine entity...
. However, the difference between them is that unlike the Vedas, the Qurān is not a manual of hymns to be chanted for ritual worship. The Qurān contains moral precepts and do's and don'ts for the Muslim community, among other material.
Just like the Smritis, the Muslims too have a corpus of texts which are considered to be of secondary authority and human creation: the Hadīths
Hadith
The term Hadīth is used to denote a saying or an act or tacit approval or criticism ascribed either validly or invalidly to the Islamic prophet Muhammad....
. The Hadīths are collections of Muhammad's sayings and actions during his lifetime, narrated by him to his wives and his followers, and through a chain of oral tradition, these were written down as texts centuries after Muhammad's death. The Sunni Hadīth collection, called al-Sihāh al-Sittah (the Six Correct Books), contains sayings passed down through the Sunni Khalīfahs like Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthmān, their supporters like Muhammad's wife Aisha
Aisha
Aisha bint Abu Bakr also transcribed as was Muhammad's favorite wife...
and Ahl al-Bayt. The Shia Hadith collections, al-Kutub al-Arbah (the Four Books), contain precepts mainly coming through Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law Alī ibn Abī Tālib
Ali
' |Ramaḍān]], 40 AH; approximately October 23, 598 or 600 or March 17, 599 – January 27, 661).His father's name was Abu Talib. Ali was also the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and ruled over the Islamic Caliphate from 656 to 661, and was the first male convert to Islam...
, through Muhammad's daughter and Ali's wife Fātimah
Fatimah
Fatimah was a daughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad from his first wife Khadijah bint Khuwaylid. She is regarded by Muslims as an exemplar for men and women. She remained at her father's side through the difficulties suffered by him at the hands of the Quraysh of Mecca...
and through Alī's supporters. Muslims consider the Hadīths to be important in the proper understanding and interpretation of the Qurān. Apart from the Quran, there are also the Tafsīr
Tafsir
Tafseer is the Arabic word for exegesis or commentary, usually of the Qur'an. Ta'wīl is a subset of tafsir and refers to esoteric or mystical interpretation. An author of tafsir is a mufassir .- Etymology :...
books, separate for the Shias and the Sunnis, which deal with the Quranic exegesis (interpretation and explanation), like al-Tabarī, ibn Kathīr and al-Jalālayn. But unlike the Upanishads (which form an integral part of the Shruti and perform the same function for the Vedas), the Tafsīr books are not considered as divinely revealed.
It is to be noted that the Hindu , Islamic scriptures do not mention or recognize each other, unlike the recognition given by the Quran to the Jewish Torah and the Christian Bible. Also, linguistics-wise, Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
and Arabic belong to completely different languages families (Indo-European
Indo-European
Indo-European may refer to:* Indo-European languages** Aryan race, a 19th century and early 20th century term for those peoples who are the native speakers of Indo-European languages...
and Semitic
Semitic
In linguistics and ethnology, Semitic was first used to refer to a language family of largely Middle Eastern origin, now called the Semitic languages...
, respectively), so these two religions do not share religious terminologies either, unlike Arabic and Hebrew which share many common words because they are both Semitic languages.
Sages versus Prophets
Like the other Abrahamic religions, Islam believes that God speaks to the mankind through prophetProphet
In religion, a prophet, from the Greek word προφήτης profitis meaning "foreteller", is an individual who is claimed to have been contacted by the supernatural or the divine, and serves as an intermediary with humanity, delivering this newfound knowledge from the supernatural entity to other people...
s (Arabic: Nabī). A prophet is by definition a human being who is Divinely inspired, who is guided by God and who speaks for God (or a god, as the case may be). Islam believes that in order to guide mankind, Allāh sent a total of 124,000 prophets to all the nations. Some of the pre-Islamic prophets listed in the Quran by name are: Nūh (Noah
Noah
Noah was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the tenth and last of the antediluvian Patriarchs. The biblical story of Noah is contained in chapters 6–9 of the book of Genesis, where he saves his family and representatives of all animals from the flood by constructing an ark...
), Ibrahīm (Abraham
Abraham
Abraham , whose birth name was Abram, is the eponym of the Abrahamic religions, among which are Judaism, Christianity and Islam...
), Ismāīl (Ishmael
Ishmael
Ishmael is a figure in the Hebrew Bible and the Qur'an, and was Abraham's first born child according to Jews, Christians and Muslims. Ishmael was born of Abraham's marriage to Sarah's handmaiden Hagar...
), Mūsa (Moses
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
), and Dāwud (David
David
David was the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel according to the Hebrew Bible and, according to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, an ancestor of Jesus Christ through both Saint Joseph and Mary...
); these prophets are also recognized by the Jews and the Christians. Additionally, Islam believes that four of the prophets were given Holy Books, and hence they are called Messengers (Arabic: Rasūl, Persian: Paighambar/Payambar). They are: David (who was given the Psalms), Moses (who was given the Torah), Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
of Nazareth (who was given the Gospels) and Muhammad ibn Abdullah (who was given the Quran). In this light, Muhammad is considered the last and final prophet and messenger (Khatam an-Nabiyyīn), whose message (contained in the Quran) is seen as valid for the entire world. All prophets in Islam are male. However, Muslims do give special reverence to many female Islamic scholars. The Sunnis revere the wives of Prophet Muhammad (Ummahāt-ul-Muminīn: the 12 or 13 wives of Muhammad), especially Aisha. The Shias attach special reverence to Muhammad's daughter Fātima Zahra
Fatimah
Fatimah was a daughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad from his first wife Khadijah bint Khuwaylid. She is regarded by Muslims as an exemplar for men and women. She remained at her father's side through the difficulties suffered by him at the hands of the Quraysh of Mecca...
.
There are Muslim scholars who believe that all the Prophets before Muhammad predicted his coming. Some Muslim as well as Hindu scholars have claimed that Hindu Scriptures predict the coming of Muhammad. Some of these claims are based on the Pratisargaparvan section of the Bhavishya Purana
Bhavishya Purana
The Bhavishya Purana is one of the eighteen major Hindu Puranas. It is written in Sanskrit and attributed to Rishi Vyasa, the compiler of the Vedas. The title Bhavishya Purana signifies a work that contains prophecies regarding the future...
, which is generally accepted to be recent in origin and not a prophecy.. However, majority of the prophecies of Narashansa are quoted from the Vedas and Kalki Purana, which are authentic scriptures.
Similar to the concept of prophethood, Hinduism has the concept of Rishi
Rishi
Rishi denotes the composers of Vedic hymns. However, according to post-Vedic tradition, the rishi is a "seer" to whom the Vedas were "originally revealed" through states of higher consciousness. The rishis were prominent when Vedic Hinduism took shape, as far back as some three thousand years...
s. The Sanskrit word Rishi is loosely translated into English as "sage" (a respected wise man) or "seer" (a prophet, a man who can see the future). Hinduism recognizes and reveres thousands of Rishis, who can be thought of as the collective founders of the Hindu religion over many millennia (but unlike Islam, Hinduism has no single founder). Of these, special importance is given to the Saptarshi
Saptarshi
The Saptarishi are the seven rishis who are extolled at many places in the Vedas and Hindu literature. The Vedic Samhitas never actually enumerate these rishis by name, though later Vedic texts such as the Brahmanas and Upanisads do so. They are regarded in the Vedas as the patriarchs of the...
(the Seven Sages), widely regarded as Patriarch
Patriarch
Originally a patriarch was a man who exercised autocratic authority as a pater familias over an extended family. The system of such rule of families by senior males is called patriarchy. This is a Greek word, a compound of πατριά , "lineage, descent", esp...
s of the Hindu religion, whose listing is different according to different texts. One of the texts, the Brihadāranyaka Upanishad
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
The Upanishad is one of the older, "primary" Upanishads. It is contained within the Shatapatha Brahmana, and its status as an independent Upanishad may be considered a secondary extraction of a portion of the Brahmana text. This makes it one of the oldest texts of the Upanishad corpus...
(2.2.4) lists their identities as: Atri
Atri
This article is about the sage named Attri. See also the gotra named Atri. For the Italian city, see Atri, AbruzzoIn Hinduism, Attri or Atri is a legendary bard and scholar and was one of 9 Prajapatis, and a son of Brahma, said to be ancestor of some Brahmin, Prajapatis, kshatriya and Vaishya...
, Bharadvāja
Bharadwaja
Bharadwaja was one of the greatest Hindu Arya sages descendant of rishi Angirasa, whose accomplishments are detailed in the Puranas. He was one of the Saptarshis in the present Manvantara; with others being Atri, Vashishtha, Vishvamitra, Gautama, Jamadagni, Kashyapa.Bhardwaj Rishi was father of...
, Gotama
Gotama
The Sanskrit name Gautama or Gautam is a common Indian first name. It may refer to:*Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism and descendant of Rishi Angirasa and Rishi Gautama....
, Jamadagni
Jamadagni
Jamadagni is one of the Saptarishis in the seventh, i.e. the present Manvantara. He was a descendant of the sage Bhrigu, one of the Prajapatis created by Brahma, the God of Creation...
, Kashyapa, Vasishtha & Vishwāmitra. The Saptarshi and their clans are believed to have composed the hymns of the four Vedas by entering into communion with the Supreme Cosmic Spirit through meditation. For instance, Rigveda 1.1 is attributed to Rishi Madhucchandā Vaishwāmitra (i.e. Madhucchandā of the clan of Vishwāmitra). Most Rishis were male, but there were some female Rishikās too. Lopāmudrā
Lopamudra
Lopamudra was an ancient Indian female philosopher. She was the wife of the sage Agastya. Together with her husband she is credited with spreading the fame of the Lalita sahasranama . She is also called Kaushitaki and Varaprada...
is the authoress of one hymn in the Rigveda, and Gārgī Vāchaknavī
Gargi Vachaknavi
Gargi is mentioned in the Sixth and the Eighth Brahmana of Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, where the brahmayajna, a philosophic congress organized by King Janaka of Videha is described, she challenged the sage Yajnavalkya with perturbing questions on the atman...
is described in the Brihadāranyaka Upanishad
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
The Upanishad is one of the older, "primary" Upanishads. It is contained within the Shatapatha Brahmana, and its status as an independent Upanishad may be considered a secondary extraction of a portion of the Brahmana text. This makes it one of the oldest texts of the Upanishad corpus...
as a highly respected woman in the field of Brahmajñāna. Apart from the Vedas, various Rishis are also credited with composing the several Smriti texts, like Vedavyāsa who composed the Mahābhārata.
Angels versus Devi-Devatas
Islam, like Judaism and Christianity, believes in celestial spirits called the angelAngel
Angels are mythical beings often depicted as messengers of God in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles along with the Quran. The English word angel is derived from the Greek ἄγγελος, a translation of in the Hebrew Bible ; a similar term, ملائكة , is used in the Qur'an...
s (Arabic: Malāk, Persian: Fereshteh), which are messengers of God and act as intermediary between man and God. It was the Angel Gabriel
Gabriel
In Abrahamic religions, Gabriel is an Archangel who typically serves as a messenger to humans from God.He first appears in the Book of Daniel, delivering explanations of Daniel's visions. In the Gospel of Luke Gabriel foretells the births of both John the Baptist and of Jesus...
(Arabic: Jibrāil) who delivered the verses of the Quran to Muhammad (S.A). It was a Jinn, Iblīs (the Satan
Satan
Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...
) which refused God's command and was condemned to reside in Hell and to test mankind. However, Islam forbids the worship of the angels, for it may lead to shirk. Hinduism similarly recognizes the existence of celestial spirits called the Devas
Deva (Hinduism)
' is the Sanskrit word for god or deity, its related feminine term is devi. In modern Hinduism, it can be loosely interpreted as any benevolent supernatural beings. The devs in Hinduism, also called Suras, are often juxtaposed to the Asuras, their half brothers. Devs are also the maintainers of...
(literally, the shining ones). The feminine form is Devī
Devi
Devī is the Sanskrit word for Goddess, used mostly in Hinduism, its related masculine term is deva. Devi is synonymous with Shakti, the female aspect of the divine, as conceptualized by the Shakta tradition of Hinduism. She is the female counterpart without whom the male aspect, which represents...
. While they are usually translated into English as "gods", these beings are actually subservient to Ishwara and were created by Him and then assigned specific powers of nature. In Advaita philosophy, these devas are further interpreted as mundane manifestations of Ishwara/Brahman (caused by Māyā), hence the Hindus believe that they are permitted to venerate or worship them, because ultimately all worship would go to Ishwara. Hindus consider this as a simple spiritual path which fulfills the emotion
Emotion
Emotion is a complex psychophysiological experience of an individual's state of mind as interacting with biochemical and environmental influences. In humans, emotion fundamentally involves "physiological arousal, expressive behaviors, and conscious experience." Emotion is associated with mood,...
al needs of the common masses, and so icons of these devī-devatās are also permitted. Hinduism does not have the concept of a single Devil
Devil
The Devil is believed in many religions and cultures to be a powerful, supernatural entity that is the personification of evil and the enemy of God and humankind. The nature of the role varies greatly...
who is the source of all evil, although Hinduism does recognize the existence of several kinds of evil spirits, demons and ogres (asura
Asura
-In Hinduism:In Hinduism, the Asuras constitute a group of power-seeking deities, sometimes considered sinful and materialistic. The Daityas and Danavas were combinedly known as Asuras. The Asura were opposed to the Devas. Both groups are children of Kasyapa...
s, dānavas
Danava (Hinduism)
In Vedic mythology the Danavas were a race of the Asuras.The Danavas were the sons of Danu, who in turn was a daughter of Daksha. Danu is connected with the waters of heavens and she is probably associated with the formless, primordial waters that existed prior to the creation. The name is...
& rākshasas
Rakshasa
A Rakshasa or alternatively rakshas, is a race of mythological humanoid beings or unrighteous spirit in Hindu and Buddhist religion...
) who are actually souls who have committed heinous sins in their past lives and hence reincarnated as such. Instead, evil is thought to be thoughts and practices of sin and adharma.
In Hinduism, forms of Ishvara
Ishvara
Ishvara is a philosophical concept in Hinduism, meaning controller or the Supreme controller in a theistic school of thought or the Supreme Being, or as an Ishta-deva of monistic thought.-Etymology:...
(i.e., the supreme God) such as Vishnu
Vishnu
Vishnu is the Supreme god in the Vaishnavite tradition of Hinduism. Smarta followers of Adi Shankara, among others, venerate Vishnu as one of the five primary forms of God....
are viewed as taking incarnation
Incarnation
Incarnation literally means embodied in flesh or taking on flesh. It refers to the conception and birth of a sentient creature who is the material manifestation of an entity, god or force whose original nature is immaterial....
s (Avatar
Avatar
In Hinduism, an avatar is a deliberate descent of a deity to earth, or a descent of the Supreme Being and is mostly translated into English as "incarnation," but more accurately as "appearance" or "manifestation"....
s, usually as a human) and coming down to the earth to bless humanity and rid the world of sins. Rāma and Krishna are two of the most famous Avatar
Avatar
In Hinduism, an avatar is a deliberate descent of a deity to earth, or a descent of the Supreme Being and is mostly translated into English as "incarnation," but more accurately as "appearance" or "manifestation"....
s of Vishnu and are highly popular among the Hindu masses. This concept of incarnation is condemned in Islam which sees it as violating Tawhīd. The Quran specifically condemns the Christians, who believe that God came down to humanity as Jesus Christ.
Structure and denominations
Hinduism does not have an organized structure. All Orthodox Hindus in principle believe in the Vedas as Divine Revelation, but other than this, they have little in common. Different interpretations of the Vedas gave rise to the six orthodox systems of philosophy (Shadadarshana), but the philosophies have been confined to small elite circles of scholars, not well-understood or even known by the common masses. Most Hindus have never read the Vedas, because they are so complex and their language is Sanskrit, not Hindi, Bengali or modern vernaculars. According to the pathways of worship of the common people, Hinduism can be divided into four main denominations: the SmārtinsSmartism
Smarta Sampradaya is a liberal or nonsectarian denomination of the Vedic Hindu religion which accept all the major Hindu deities as forms of the one Brahman, in contrast to Vaishnavism, Shaivism, and Shaktism, the other three major Hindu sects, which revere Vishnu, Shiva, and Shakti,...
(who directly or indirectly follow Advaita Vedanta philosophy and hence consider the worship of any form of Ishvara
Ishvara
Ishvara is a philosophical concept in Hinduism, meaning controller or the Supreme controller in a theistic school of thought or the Supreme Being, or as an Ishta-deva of monistic thought.-Etymology:...
as equally valid for the easy worship of formless and attributeless Brahman), the Vaishnavas
Vaishnavism
Vaishnavism is a tradition of Hinduism, distinguished from other schools by its worship of Vishnu, or his associated Avatars such as Rama and Krishna, as the original and supreme God....
(who identify God with Krishna or Vishnu), the Shaivas
Shaivism
Shaivism is one of the four major sects of Hinduism, the others being Vaishnavism, Shaktism and Smartism. Followers of Shaivism, called "Shaivas," and also "Saivas" or "Saivites," revere Shiva as the Supreme Being. Shaivas believe that Shiva is All and in all, the creator, preserver, destroyer,...
(who identify God with Shiva) and the Shāktas
Shaktism
Shaktism is a denomination of Hinduism that focuses worship upon Shakti or Devi – the Hindu Divine Mother – as the absolute, ultimate Godhead...
(who identify God with the Mother goddess Devī). In the recent centuries, there have been many Hindu religious movements like Ārya Samāj
Arya Samaj
Arya Samaj is a Hindu reform movement founded by Swami Dayananda on 10 April 1875. He was a sannyasi who believed in the infallible authority of the Vedas. Dayananda emphasized the ideals of brahmacharya...
, ISKCON, Vedanta Society
Vedanta Society
The Vedanta Society of Southern California, with its headquarters in Hollywood, was founded in 1930 by Swami Prabhavananda. The society is a branch of the Ramakrishna Order, and maintains subcenters in Pasadena, Santa Barbara, San Diego, and Trabuco Canyon...
, etc., which have a definite structure and organization, and even accept converts from non-Indians. There is a caste
Caste
Caste is an elaborate and complex social system that combines elements of endogamy, occupation, culture, social class, tribal affiliation and political power. It should not be confused with race or social class, e.g. members of different castes in one society may belong to the same race, as in India...
system within Hinduism, although it is highly controversial and is slowly finishing off in modern secular India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. The top caste, the Brāhmins
Brahmin
Brahmin Brahman, Brahma and Brahmin.Brahman, Brahmin and Brahma have different meanings. Brahman refers to the Supreme Self...
, perform priestly activities like organizing temple worship, performance of ritual ceremonies (pūjās and yajñas) and marriages, for the whole community. But Hindu society is more affected by the guru
Guru
A guru is one who is regarded as having great knowledge, wisdom, and authority in a certain area, and who uses it to guide others . Other forms of manifestation of this principle can include parents, school teachers, non-human objects and even one's own intellectual discipline, if the...
s (the spiritual teachers) who deliver sermons about the principles of Hindu faith and way of life.
All Muslims believe in Allah, Muhammad and the Quran. But the question of succession to Muhammad, and the leadership of the Muslim community after Muhammad's death, lead to the division of Islam into two denominations. Of these, the Sunnīs comprise the larger denomination, and they consider Abu Bakr, Uthmān, Umar and Alī as the Rightly Guided Successors to Muhammad (al-Khulafah al-Rāshidiyyah, the Rashidun
Rashidun
The Rightly Guided Caliphs or The Righteous Caliphs is a term used in Sunni Islam to refer to the first four Caliphs who established the Rashidun Caliphate. The concept of "Rightly Guided Caliphs" originated with the Abbasid Dynasty...
Caliphs). These Caliph
Caliph
The Caliph is the head of state in a Caliphate, and the title for the ruler of the Islamic Ummah, an Islamic community ruled by the Shari'ah. It is a transcribed version of the Arabic word which means "successor" or "representative"...
s were elected by a small council of Ulamā
Ulama
-In Islam:* Ulema, also transliterated "ulama", a community of legal scholars of Islam and its laws . See:**Nahdlatul Ulama **Darul-uloom Nadwatul Ulama **Jamiatul Ulama Transvaal**Jamiat ul-Ulama -Other:...
; the Rashidun Caliphate was followed by dynastic Umayyad
Umayyad
The Umayyad Caliphate was the second of the four major Arab caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. It was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty, whose name derives from Umayya ibn Abd Shams, the great-grandfather of the first Umayyad caliph. Although the Umayyad family originally came from the...
, Abbasid
Abbasid
The Abbasid Caliphate or, more simply, the Abbasids , was the third of the Islamic caliphates. It was ruled by the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs, who built their capital in Baghdad after overthrowing the Umayyad caliphate from all but the al-Andalus region....
and Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
Caliphates, all considered valid by the Sunnis although not fully rightly guided. The denomination which rejected Abu Bakr, Uthmān and Umar, and instead chose to follow the leadership of Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law Alī ibn Abī Tālib
Ali
' |Ramaḍān]], 40 AH; approximately October 23, 598 or 600 or March 17, 599 – January 27, 661).His father's name was Abu Talib. Ali was also the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and ruled over the Islamic Caliphate from 656 to 661, and was the first male convert to Islam...
, came to be known as the Shias. The Shias believe that Alī and his successors though his bloodline, and no one else, are the divinely appointed Imāms
Imam
An imam is an Islamic leadership position, often the worship leader of a mosque and the Muslim community. Similar to spiritual leaders, the imam is the one who leads Islamic worship services. More often, the community turns to the mosque imam if they have a religious question...
(overall leaders of Muslim community). They also reject all Sunni Caliphates. These two denominations separated completely when the Sunni Caliph Yazīd I
Yazid I
Yazīd ibn Mu‘āwiya ibn Abī Sufyān , commonly known as Yazid I, was the second Caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate . He ruled for three years from 680 CE until his death in 683 CE. Many Muslims condemn Yazid's rule as contentious and unjust...
ordered the killing of the Shia Imam Husayn ibn Ali
Husayn ibn Ali
Hussein ibn ‘Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib was the son of ‘Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib and Fātimah Zahrā...
at Karbala
Karbala
Karbala is a city in Iraq, located about southwest of Baghdad. Karbala is the capital of Karbala Governorate, and has an estimated population of 572,300 people ....
, Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
. The Sunnis are further sub-divided into four schools of jurisprudence: Shafiī, Malakī, Hanafī & Hanbalī. In the Modern Era, Sunnism has also been affected by Islamic movements like Deobandī
Deobandi
Deobandi is a movement of Sunni Islam. The movement began at Darul Uloom Deoband in Deoband, India, where its foundation was laid on 30 May 1866.-History:...
and Barelvī
Barelvi
Barelvi is a term used for the movement of Sufi , Sunni Islam originating in the Indian subcontinent.The Movement is known as Ahle Sunnat movement to its followers....
in the Indian subcontinent and Wahhabism
Wahhabism
Wahhabism is a religious movement or a branch of Islam. It was developed by an 18th century Muslim theologian from Najd, Saudi Arabia. Ibn Abdul Al-Wahhab advocated purging Islam of what he considered to be impurities and innovations...
/Salafism in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
. The Shias split up upon the issue of identity of their 10th Imām into Ithna Ashariyyah and Ismāīliyyah branches. The Nizārī
Nizari
'The Shī‘a Imami Ismā‘īlī Tariqah also referred to as the Ismā‘īlī or Nizārī , is a path of Shī‘a Islām, emphasizing social justice, pluralism, and human reason within the framework of the mystical tradition of Islam. The Nizari are the second largest branch of Shia Islam and form the majority...
sub-branch of Ismaili Shias is the only Shia denomination which has a living Imām. The closest position to priesthood in Islam is the Maulawī or Ālim
Ulama
-In Islam:* Ulema, also transliterated "ulama", a community of legal scholars of Islam and its laws . See:**Nahdlatul Ulama **Darul-uloom Nadwatul Ulama **Jamiatul Ulama Transvaal**Jamiat ul-Ulama -Other:...
(a religious scholar). A Qādī
Qadi
Qadi is a judge ruling in accordance with Islamic religious law appointed by the ruler of a Muslim country. Because Islam makes no distinction between religious and secular domains, qadis traditionally have jurisdiction over all legal matters involving Muslims...
is a jurisprudent who presides over marriage ceremonies and in Shariah-ruled States, delivers judgments in legal cases. A Muftī
Mufti
A mufti is a Sunni Islamic scholar who is an interpreter or expounder of Islamic law . In religious administrative terms, a mufti is roughly equivalent to a deacon to a Sunni population...
is a religious scholar with the authority to deliver fatwa
Fatwa
A fatwā in the Islamic faith is a juristic ruling concerning Islamic law issued by an Islamic scholar. In Sunni Islam any fatwā is non-binding, whereas in Shia Islam it could be considered by an individual as binding, depending on his or her relation to the scholar. The person who issues a fatwā...
(religious diktat).
Sūfism
Sufism
Sufism or ' is defined by its adherents as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a '...
is a mystical
Mysticism
Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...
approach to Islam which encourages brotherhood between the Shias and the Sunnis, and promotes tolerance between Islam and other religions like Hinduism. The Sufis, found in both Shia and Sunni sects, were the main missionaries in Islam's early days, and emphasize the hidden (bātin) meanings of the Quranic verses, interpreting the Quran mystically, rather than only focusing on Shariah which is the role of the jurist.
Ethics and Morality
Both religions give special importance to ethicsEthics
Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...
and morality
Morality
Morality is the differentiation among intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good and bad . A moral code is a system of morality and a moral is any one practice or teaching within a moral code...
, including the relationship between man and society. Both religions emphasize humanitarian values like truth, honesty, piety, kindness and charity. Hinduism considers the pathway of karma
Karma
Karma in Indian religions is the concept of "action" or "deed", understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect originating in ancient India and treated in Hindu, Jain, Buddhist and Sikh philosophies....
(actions) as a valid path to God. A man is supposed to fulfill his religious duties by getting educated, marrying, having children and raising them in accordance with dharma, giving charity to holy men, providing food and shelter to the guest (atithi) even if he comes unannounced, and protecting the weak. Adultery
Adultery
Adultery is sexual infidelity to one's spouse, and is a form of extramarital sex. It originally referred only to sex between a woman who was married and a person other than her spouse. Even in cases of separation from one's spouse, an extramarital affair is still considered adultery.Adultery is...
(Sanskrit: vyabhichāra, Arabic: zinā) is considered a heinous sin in both religions. Over time, Islam has developed a comprehensive and elaborate system of law called the Sharīah
Sharia
Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
, which is based upon the Qurān, the Hadīths and the opinions of Islamic scholars, and is supposed to be implanted by every Islamic State. Women are generally encouraged, in some Shariah-rules States obliged, to wear the hijāb
Hijab
The word "hijab" or "'" refers to both the head covering traditionally worn by Muslim women and modest Muslim styles of dress in general....
(a veil or scarf which covers the head) and dress in loose clothes, like the jilbāb
Jilbab
The term jilbāb or jilbaab is the plural of the word jilaabah which refers to any long and loose-fit coat or garment worn by some Muslim women. They believe that this definition of jilbab fulfills the Quranic demand for a Hijab...
. A tiny minority of Muslims, like the Wahhabis and the Taliban even consider the niqāb
Niqab
A niqab is a cloth which covers the face, worn by some Muslim women as a part of sartorial hijāb...
(the face-veil) to be compulsory for all women, thus having the women covered up from head to foot. Homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
is also forbidden in Islam, and extremist such as the Taliban would issue the death penalty. Some Hindu women, by tradition or voluntarily, wear the hijāb (by dupattā or ānchal of the sārī) when they enter temples, or perform ritual worship, or come in the presence of unknown men or elders. However, Hinduism does not have the concept of enforcing any kind of religious law, rather, people are simply encouraged to do good Karma and avoid bad Karma.
Rituals, Prayers and Fasting
Hinduism has highly complex ritualRitual
A ritual is a set of actions, performed mainly for their symbolic value. It may be prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community. The term usually excludes actions which are arbitrarily chosen by the performers....
s, although they are not enforced upon the Hindu people. The most complex ones are the yajñas (fire-sacrifices) in which Vedic hymns are chanted by the priests and oblations of ghee
Ghee
Ghee is a class of clarified butter that originated in South Asia and is commonly used in South Asian cuisine....
, grain
GRAIN
GRAIN is a small international non-profit organisation that works to support small farmers and social movements in their struggles for community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems. Our support takes the form of independent research and analysis, networking at local, regional and...
s, and milk
Milk
Milk is a white liquid produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals before they are able to digest other types of food. Early-lactation milk contains colostrum, which carries the mother's antibodies to the baby and can reduce the risk of many...
are offered to the sacred fire (Agni
Agni
Agni is a Hindu deity, one of the most important of the Vedic gods. He is the god of fire and the acceptor of sacrifices. The sacrifices made to Agni go to the deities because Agni is a messenger from and to the other gods...
). In Ancient Era, animals too were probably sacrificed during the yajñas. These fire-sacrifices are today quite rare, and another simpler form of ritual worship or veneration called pūjā is more common. During a pūjā at home or in a temple
Temple
A temple is a structure reserved for religious or spiritual activities, such as prayer and sacrifice, or analogous rites. A templum constituted a sacred precinct as defined by a priest, or augur. It has the same root as the word "template," a plan in preparation of the building that was marked out...
, the devotee says a silent prayer in front of an icon of the devī or deva, and symbolically offers the icon some sweets or other food, which is later on eaten as prasāda. Some pūjās can be highly complex, too, like Rajopacharapuja performed in the temples,Durga puja
Durga Puja
Durga puja ; দুর্গা পূজা,ଦୁର୍ଗା ପୂଜା,‘Worship of Durga’), also referred to as Durgotsava ; , is an annual Hindu festival in South Asia that celebrates worship of the Hindu goddess Durga. It refers to all the six days observed as Mahalaya, Shashthi, Maha Saptami, Maha Ashtami, Maha Navami and...
,Lalita puja or the tantrik pujas. In contrast, ritual worship in Islam is much simpler but obligatory upon all Muslims. Muslims are supposed to perform ritual prayers (Arabic: Salawāt, Persian: Namāz) five times a day. The Namāz comprises facing the Kaaba
Kaaba
The Kaaba is a cuboid-shaped building in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and is the most sacred site in Islam. The Qur'an states that the Kaaba was constructed by Abraham, or Ibraheem, in Arabic, and his son Ishmael, or Ismaeel, as said in Arabic, after he had settled in Arabia. The building has a mosque...
h, kneeling down and prostrating, while murmuring certain Quranic verses. On Fridays and holy days, Muslims are supposed to assemble in mosque
Mosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
s for the prayers. On Īd-ul-Adha, Muslims families are required to sacrifice an animal to mark the attempted sacrifice of Ismāīl by Prophet Abraham
Abraham
Abraham , whose birth name was Abram, is the eponym of the Abrahamic religions, among which are Judaism, Christianity and Islam...
. Both religions have the concept of fasting
Fasting
Fasting is primarily the act of willingly abstaining from some or all food, drink, or both, for a period of time. An absolute fast is normally defined as abstinence from all food and liquid for a defined period, usually a single day , or several days. Other fasts may be only partially restrictive,...
(Sanskrit: Upavāsa, Arabic: Sawm, Persian: Rouzeh). While the Hindus might fast on specific holy days or according to the dates of their lunar calendar, Muslims are obliged to fast during the holy month of Ramadān
Ramadan
Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, which lasts 29 or 30 days. It is the Islamic month of fasting, in which participating Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking and sex during daylight hours and is intended to teach Muslims about patience, spirituality, humility and...
. Both religions have the Prayer beads
Prayer beads
Prayer beads are used by members of various religious traditions such as Roman Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity, Anglicanism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Bahá'í Faith to count the repetitions of prayers, chants or devotions, such as the rosary of Virgin Mary in Christianity and dhikr ...
as a means of telling the prayers. Both religions consider weddings as sacred ceremonies.
Food
Islam allows meatMeat
Meat is animal flesh that is used as food. Most often, this means the skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as organs and offal...
, provided certain conditions are met, as listed in Surat-ul-Māidah. The animal should be a herbivore
Herbivore
Herbivores are organisms that are anatomically and physiologically adapted to eat plant-based foods. Herbivory is a form of consumption in which an organism principally eats autotrophs such as plants, algae and photosynthesizing bacteria. More generally, organisms that feed on autotrophs in...
, and should be slaughter
Animal slaughter
Slaughter is the term used to describe the killing and butchering of animals, usually for food. Commonly it refers to killing and butchering of domestic livestock ....
ed in ritual way by invoking the name of Allah, and cutting the jugular veins by slicing its throat with a sharp knife. This is called dhabah and such meat is called halāl
Halal
Halal is a term designating any object or an action which is permissible to use or engage in, according to Islamic law. The term is used to designate food seen as permissible according to Islamic law...
(permissible). The animal is required to be fully conscious and healthy at the time of slaughter. Carnivorous birds are forbidden but other birds like chicken
Chicken
The chicken is a domesticated fowl, a subspecies of the Red Junglefowl. As one of the most common and widespread domestic animals, and with a population of more than 24 billion in 2003, there are more chickens in the world than any other species of bird...
are permissible if slaughtered as halāl. Hunted animals are also halāl, and so is fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
, although these do not need to be ritually slaughtered. Locust
Locust
Locusts are the swarming phase of short-horned grasshoppers of the family Acrididae. These are species that can breed rapidly under suitable conditions and subsequently become gregarious and migratory...
is the only insect which is considered halāl. As for non-fish seafood, there are varied opinions. All vegetarian food (including milk
Milk
Milk is a white liquid produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals before they are able to digest other types of food. Early-lactation milk contains colostrum, which carries the mother's antibodies to the baby and can reduce the risk of many...
) is considered halāl except alcohol
Alcohol
In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....
, which is strictly forbidden. The meat of pig
Pig
A pig is any of the animals in the genus Sus, within the Suidae family of even-toed ungulates. Pigs include the domestic pig, its ancestor the wild boar, and several other wild relatives...
and all its by-products are strictly forbidden because the pig is considered the filthiest animal in Islam.
There are varied opinions regarding the permissibility of eating meat in Hinduism, depending upon the interpretation of the Hindu Shrutis and Smritis. Most Hindus agree that vegetarianism is recommended and preferable, but while some Hindu communities believe that eating meat is permissible, other communities and sects hold vegetarianism as compulsory. ISKCON requires its members to be vegetarian. Vegetarianism
Vegetarianism
Vegetarianism encompasses the practice of following plant-based diets , with or without the inclusion of dairy products or eggs, and with the exclusion of meat...
is encouraged in Hinduism because meat is considered as rajas
Rajas
Rajas ) is, in the Samkhya school of Hindu philosophy, one of the three gunas. Of these, rajas, is responsible for motion, energy and preservation...
ic or tāmasic
Tamas (philosophy)
In the Samkhya school of philosophy, tamas is one of the three gunas , the other two being rajas and sattva or purity). Tamas is the template for inertia or resistance to action...
(arousing passions or darkness), due to the fact that meat is the product of slaughter and violence committed upon the animal. Unlike Islam which makes a strict difference between the humans and the non-human animals, Hinduism doesn't make a stark distinction between the human, animal and plant worlds. There is certainly a hierarchy, though, and humans are at the top of it because human birth is considered as most precious. Those Hindus who do eat meat, traditionally used to have the animal (or bird) slaughtered by a single stroke of sharp sword or axe, which would cause decapitation
Jhatka
Jhatka or Chatka meat is meat from an animal which has been killed by a single strike of a sword or axe to sever the head, as opposed to Jewish slaughter or Islamic slaughter in which the animal is killed by ritually slicing the throat.-Jhatka meat and Sikhs:Jhatka for Sikhs is the...
and immediate death, seen as an avoidance of unnecessary pain upon the animal; however in modern secular India, most Hindus don't actually care about the slaughter methods and can eat Islamic halāl meat too. Non-vegetarian Hindus usually eat goat, chicken, buffalo (especially in Nepal), fish and eggs. Some Rajput communities eat the meat of hunted animals like deer too. Certain Hindu denominations like the Shāktas offer animal sacrifices to Devī Durgā
Durga
For the 1985 Hindi Film of Rajesh Khanna see DurgaaIn Hinduism, Durga ; ; meaning "the inaccessible" or "the invincible"; , durga) or Maa Durga "one who can redeem in situations of utmost distress" is a form of Devi, the supremely radiant goddess, depicted as having eighteen arms, riding a lion...
/Kālī
Kali
' , also known as ' , is the Hindu goddess associated with power, shakti. The name Kali comes from kāla, which means black, time, death, lord of death, Shiva. Kali means "the black one". Since Shiva is called Kāla - the eternal time, Kālī, his consort, also means "Time" or "Death" . Hence, Kāli is...
, and the ritual slaughter is done by beheading in one stroke. Other meats (including pork
Pork
Pork is the culinary name for meat from the domestic pig , which is eaten in many countries. It is one of the most commonly consumed meats worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BC....
) are often considered taboo, but are subject to individual choice; the same applies for alcohol. All observant Hindus strictly avoid beef
Beef
Beef is the culinary name for meat from bovines, especially domestic cattle. Beef can be harvested from cows, bulls, heifers or steers. It is one of the principal meats used in the cuisine of the Middle East , Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Europe and the United States, and is also important in...
(flesh of cows, including bulls, oxen and calves). This is because the cow is considered as a devī and as a mother who feeds humanity with proteinaceous milk
Milk
Milk is a white liquid produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals before they are able to digest other types of food. Early-lactation milk contains colostrum, which carries the mother's antibodies to the baby and can reduce the risk of many...
. Slaughter of a cow is considered as a heinous sin in Hinduism and has often been a cause of Hindu-Muslim riots in India (because Muslim consider beef as halāl). However, it is interesting to note that in the southern state of kerala, there is sizeable population of who Hindus who consume beef. Similar is the case with many areas of North-East India.Dairy products are considered permissible in Hinduism and in fact are highly recommended. All vegetarian food is considered as permissible, except that some Hindus avoid onion
Onion
The onion , also known as the bulb onion, common onion and garden onion, is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Allium. The genus Allium also contains a number of other species variously referred to as onions and cultivated for food, such as the Japanese bunching onion The onion...
and garlic
Garlic
Allium sativum, commonly known as garlic, is a species in the onion genus, Allium. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chive, and rakkyo. Dating back over 6,000 years, garlic is native to central Asia, and has long been a staple in the Mediterranean region, as well as a frequent...
because these two are considered inherently rājasic or tāmasic. Further, some Hindus consider heavily spiced food and chilli peppers as rājasic too.
In Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
, in the city of Kudus
Kudus
Kudus is a regency in Central Java province in Indonesia. Its capital is Kudus. It is located east of Semarang, capital of Central Java.-History:...
, some Muslims have maintained the tradition of eating water buffalo instead of beef. This originates from the 16th Century, when the local Muslim preacher Sunan Kudus
Sunan Kudus
Sunan Kudus , founder of Kudus, is considered to be one of the Wali Sanga of Java, IndonesiaHe is said to have originated the wayang golek, and founded the masjid at Kudus using the doors from the palace of Majapahit.- History :He was born Jaafar As-Sadiq, the son of Sunan Ngudung and Syarifah ,...
demonstrated tolerance to his Hindu townspeople who revered domestic cattle.
One life versus Reincarnation
Muslims believe that each person is composed of body, mind and spirit. In Islam, one's life in this temporary world is considered to be a test taken by Allah, in order to see which person is fit for the eternal life in ParadiseParadise
Paradise is a place in which existence is positive, harmonious and timeless. It is conceptually a counter-image of the miseries of human civilization, and in paradise there is only peace, prosperity, and happiness. Paradise is a place of contentment, but it is not necessarily a land of luxury and...
, and who is fit for eternal Hell
Hell
In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...
fire. At death, the body is separated from the spirit (Rūh). One's faith and actions in this life will determine one's fate in the Life After Death. There is a Day of Judgment when this life will come to an end for every one, and all humans will be brought to a second life which would be eternal, rejoining the body and its soul. On that Day, God will put people in Hell or Heaven based on their beliefs and deeds of this life.
Hinduism believes that the reason one's soul is in this world, is to find the Eternal Truth. Because of the soul's past karma
Karma
Karma in Indian religions is the concept of "action" or "deed", understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect originating in ancient India and treated in Hindu, Jain, Buddhist and Sikh philosophies....
, it takes an incarnation as a human being, the only birth in which the soul can possibly find the Eternal Truth. Upon death, the soul leaves the material body and gets another body and life (i.e. rebirth) depending on the total sum one's past karma, good or bad deeds. One's socio-economic status at birth and even species (as an animal or plant) is determined according to one's past karma, and the karmic effects continue if the birth is in human form. This is called the Cycle of Reincarnation
Reincarnation
Reincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...
in Hinduism. This cycle can include temporary residence in the Paradise or in Hell, but once the effects of karma are over, the soul reincarnates as human or animal or plant. God is the giver of the fruits of one's Karma. The soul can get Mukti or Moksha
Moksha
Within Indian religions, moksha or mukti , literally "release" , is the liberation from samsara and the concomitant suffering involved in being subject to the cycle of repeated death and reincarnation or rebirth.-Origins:It is highly probable that the concept of moksha was first developed in...
, the freedom from this cycle of births and deaths and ultimate peace (and also reunion with God according to some philosophies), if one nullifies all of one's Karma, by any one or many of these ways of life: Bhakti Yoga
Bhakti yoga
Bhakti yoga is one of the types of yoga mentioned in Hindu philosophies which denotes the spiritual practice of fostering loving devotion to a personal form of God....
, Raja Yoga
Raja Yoga
Rāja Yoga is concerned principally with the cultivation of the mind using meditation to further one's acquaintance with reality and finally achieve liberation.Raja yoga was first described in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, and is part of the Samkhya tradition.In the context of Hindu...
, Karma Yoga
Karma Yoga
Karma yoga , or the "discipline of action" is a form of yoga based on the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita, a sacred Sanskrit scripture of Hinduism. Of the four paths to realization, karma yoga is the science of achieving perfection in action...
, Jñāna Yoga, etc.
Perception of Muslim scholars towards Hinduism
An early example of Muslim perception of Hinduism is to be found in the Central Asian scholar Abu Rehan Alberuni’s account written in the early years of the 11th century. He candidly admitted the dissimilarities between the adherents of the two faiths, highlighted “the deeply rooted hatred” resulting from the invasion of Mahmud of Ghazna, and then went on to dwell on the essence of Hinduism:“The Hindus believe with regard to God that he is one, eternal, without beginning and end, acting by free will, almighty, all-wise, living, giving life ,ruling, preserving: one who in his sovereignty is unique, beyond all likeness and unlikeness, and that he does not resemble anything nor does anything resemble him.”
In a similar vein Amir Khusro
Amir Khusro
Ab'ul Hasan Yamīn ud-Dīn Khusrow , better known as Amīr Khusrow Dehlawī , was an Indian musician, scholar and poet. He was an iconic figure in the cultural history of the Indian subcontinent...
in the 14th century said the Hindus are among those good people who believe in God who is omnipotent and omniscient and is “pure Truth and inimitable Reality.”
Another example of this approach was Dara Shikoh
Dara Shikoh
His Highness, The Imperial Prince Dara Shikoh was the eldest son and the heir apparent of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan and his wife Mumtaz Mahal. His name دارا شكوه in Persian means "Darius the Magnificent"...
’s Majma-ul Bahrain wherein he concluded, with regard to Indian monotheism, that “he did not find any difference, except verbal, in the way they sought and comprehended Truth.”
In the 20th century, Muhammad Iqbal
Muhammad Iqbal
Sir Muhammad Iqbal , commonly referred to as Allama Iqbal , was a poet and philosopher born in Sialkot, then in the Punjab Province of British India, now in Pakistan...
went even further in a popular poem, Hindustani bachon ka qaumi geet (The national song of Indian children):
Wahdat ki lai suni thi dunya ne jis makaan se
Mir-e-Arab ko aai thandi hawa jahaan se
Mera watan wahi hai, mera watan wahi hai
(This is the house from where the world heard the rhthym of One Reality(God),
The Emir of Arab had felt a cool breeze from here,
That indeed is my nation, that indeed is my nation)
Politics and Historical Conflicts
Islamic influence first came to be felt in the Indian subcontinentIndian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...
during the early 7th century with the advent of Arab traders. Arab traders used to visit the Malabar region, which was a link between them and the ports of South East Asia to trade even before Islam had been established in Arabia. According to Historians Elliot and Dowson in their book The History of India as told by its own Historians
The History of India as told by its own Historians
The History of India, as Told by Its Own Historians. The Muhammadan Period is a book with eight volumes written by H. M. Elliot and edited by John Dowson. The book was published in 1867-1877 in London. It is a well-known and reputed reference work for the history of medieval India. Despite being...
, the first ship bearing Muslim travelers was seen on the Indian coast as early as 630
630
Year 630 was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 630 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.- Byzantine Empire :* Croats and Serbs settle in the...
AD.
H.G. Rawlinson, in his book: Ancient and Medieval History of India claims the first Arab Muslims settled on the Indian coast in the last part of the 7th century AD. This fact is corroborated, by J. Sturrock in his South Kanara and Madras Districts Manuals, and also by Haridas Bhattacharya in Cultural Heritage of India Vol. IV. The Arab merchants and traders became the carriers of the new religion and they propagated it wherever they went. It was however the subsequent expansion of the Muslim conquest in the Indian subcontinent
Muslim conquest in the Indian subcontinent
Muslim conquest in South Asia mainly took place from the 13th to the 16th centuries, though earlier Muslim conquests made limited inroads into the region, beginning during the period of the ascendancy of the Rajput Kingdoms in North India, from the 7th century onwards.However, the Himalayan...
over the next millennia that established Islam in the region.
In order to fully understand the relationship between Hinduism and Islam, it is important to take a brief look at the politics and medieval history of the Indian subcontinent. Islam initially entered India through military conquest, by Muslim invaders such as Muhammad ibn Qāsim
Muhammad bin Qasim
Muhammad bin Qasim Al-Thaqafi was a Umayyad general who, at the age of 17, began the conquest of the Sindh and Punjab regions along the Indus River for the Umayyad Caliphate. He was born in the city of Taif...
, Mahmūd Ghaznavi
Mahmud of Ghazni
Mahmud of Ghazni , actually ', was the most prominent ruler of the Ghaznavid dynasty who ruled from 997 until his death in 1030 in the eastern Iranian lands. Mahmud turned the former provincial city of Ghazni into the wealthy capital of an extensive empire which covered most of today's Iran,...
and Muhammad Ghori. Some of these invaders regarded the Hindu people as similar to the Mushriks of pre-Islamic Arabia, the idol-worshiping polytheistic tribes against whom Muhammad had waged wars, and for whom religious tolerance is not prescribed by the Quran. This led to the sacking and sacrilege of many Hindu temples, like Somnath
Somnath
The Somnath Temple located in the Prabhas Kshetra near Veraval in Saurashtra, on the western coast of Gujarat, India, is one of the twelve Jyotirlinga shrines of the God Shiva. Somnath means "The Protector of Moon God". The Somnath Temple is known as "the Shrine Eternal", having been destroyed...
in Gujarat. Later on, with the establishment of the Islamic Delhi Sultanate
Delhi Sultanate
The Delhi Sultanate is a term used to cover five short-lived, Delhi based kingdoms or sultanates, of Turkic origin in medieval India. The sultanates ruled from Delhi between 1206 and 1526, when the last was replaced by the Mughal dynasty...
, some religious tolerance was granted to the Hindus upon the payment of the poll-tax jizyah. Thus, the history of the Hindu-Muslim relationship has been marred by violence, the mark of which is seen even today, especially in India's right-wing Hindutva
Hindutva
Hindutva is the term used to describe movements advocating Hindu nationalism. Members of the movement are called Hindutvavādis.In India, an umbrella organization called the Sangh Parivar champions the concept of Hindutva...
movement and in Pakistan's nature as an Islamic State, although the relations between common Hindus and Muslims have more or less been peaceful and even cordial. The jizyah continued during most of the Islamic rulers of India, until the Mughal Emperor Akbar discontinued it as a mark of his tolerance towards Hinduism and emphasis on spirituality rather than political aspects of Islam. The jizyah remained discontinued under his son Jahangir
Jahangir
Jahangir was the ruler of the Mughal Empire from 1605 until his death. The name Jahangir is from Persian جهانگیر,meaning "Conqueror of the World"...
and his grandson Shah Jahan
Shah Jahan
Shah Jahan Shah Jahan (also spelled Shah Jehan, Shahjehan, , Persian: شاه جهان) (January 5, 1592 – January 22, 1666) Shah Jahan (also spelled Shah Jehan, Shahjehan, , Persian: شاه جهان) (January 5, 1592 – January 22, 1666) (Full title: His Imperial Majesty Al-Sultan al-'Azam wal Khaqan...
, but was reinstated by Aurangzeb
Aurangzeb
Abul Muzaffar Muhy-ud-Din Muhammad Aurangzeb Alamgir , more commonly known as Aurangzeb or by his chosen imperial title Alamgir , was the sixth Mughal Emperor of India, whose reign lasted from 1658 until his death in 1707.Badshah Aurangzeb, having ruled most of the Indian subcontinent for nearly...
, who also committed many atrocities against the Hindus. The partition of British India into modern secular India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and Islamic Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
caused further political estrangement, because the Hindus see India as their motherland and as a Devī, which they felt had been forcibly partitioned to please the Muslims. The Indian Hindutva movement sees the Muslims as a "foreign" people bringing in a "foreign" faith into India, while many Pakistani Muslims see the "polytheistic" and "idol-worshiping" Hindus as filthy and abhorrent. Far-right groups in both countries have been encouraging a revisionist version of history, wherein each group emphasizes only certain positive aspects of their coreligionists throughout the history and ignores the positive aspects of the other.
In Java, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
, early conflicts between Islam and Hinduism were almost entirely political, reflecting competition between small Muslim kingdoms and the Hindu empire of Majapahit. However, historically Indonesia has seen more Christian-Muslim conflict than Hindu-Muslim.
Hindu and Islamic socio-cultural systems
During the Muslim conquests starting from the 11th Century AD, Islam gained many converts on the Indian sub-continent primarily from Hinduism or Buddhism, the two dominant local religions, primarily by forced conversion. Most of the Muslim rulers looked down upon the idea Hinduism as having Iconodulistic religious practices, and were to various degrees iconoclastic. Prominent examples of these are Mahmud of GhazniMahmud of Ghazni
Mahmud of Ghazni , actually ', was the most prominent ruler of the Ghaznavid dynasty who ruled from 997 until his death in 1030 in the eastern Iranian lands. Mahmud turned the former provincial city of Ghazni into the wealthy capital of an extensive empire which covered most of today's Iran,...
and the Mughal
Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire , or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...
emperor Aurangzeb
Aurangzeb
Abul Muzaffar Muhy-ud-Din Muhammad Aurangzeb Alamgir , more commonly known as Aurangzeb or by his chosen imperial title Alamgir , was the sixth Mughal Emperor of India, whose reign lasted from 1658 until his death in 1707.Badshah Aurangzeb, having ruled most of the Indian subcontinent for nearly...
on either end of the timeline for Islamic rulers. In addition, similar to the Hindu caste structure, Muslims in India also developed a caste system that divided the Indian Muslim society into three: the foreign-descended Ashraf Muslims, the local Ajlaf converts, and the converted Arzal untouchables at the lowest rung The term "Arzal" stands for "degraded" and the Arzal castes are further subdivided into Bhanar, Halalkhor, Hijra, Kasbi, Lalbegi, Maugta, Mehtar etc.
Akbar's court was home to intellectuals and saints, both Hindu and Muslim, among them the great musician Tansen
Tansen
Mia Tansen is considered among the greatest composer-musicians in Hindustani classical music. He was an extraordinarily gifted vocalist, known for a large number of compositions, and also an instrumentalist who popularized and improved the rabab .He was among the Navaratnas at the court of the...
who converted to Islam, and he (Akbar) even went so far as to try and create a new religion (the dīn-e-ilāhī) to create a rapprochement of both creeds for creating a stable empire and for emphasizing only the positive, spiritual aspects of Hinduism and Islam. The presence of Hindu Rājās, ministers and military commanders in the Mughal Court ameliorated the relations between the two communities, until Emperor Aurangzeb
Aurangzeb
Abul Muzaffar Muhy-ud-Din Muhammad Aurangzeb Alamgir , more commonly known as Aurangzeb or by his chosen imperial title Alamgir , was the sixth Mughal Emperor of India, whose reign lasted from 1658 until his death in 1707.Badshah Aurangzeb, having ruled most of the Indian subcontinent for nearly...
reversed the policy of official religious tolerance and tried to establish a strict Sunni Islamic State in India. Frustration in the sub-continent grew as a result of this, leading to the gradual decline of the Muslim Mughal Empire, to be replaced by the Sikhs, Marathas, the Vijayanagara kingdom, the Shiite Awadh
Awadh
Awadh , also known in various British historical texts as Oudh or Oude derived from Ayodhya, is a region in the centre of the modern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, which was before independence known as the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh...
kingdom, and later the British.
In the last 60 years after the Indian independence and partition, the Muslims in India have preferential treatment with their own Muslim Personal Law. Communal tensions between the Hindus and the Muslims have erupted many a times during this period. Notable incidents of this phenomenon include the demolition of the Babri Masjid (claimed by the Hindus to be the site of a demolished temple marking the birthplace of Lord Rāma) and the Gujarat Riots of 2002
2002 Gujarat violence
The 2002 Gujarat violence describes the Godhra train burning and resulting communal riots between Hindus and Muslims. On 27 February 2002 at Godhra City in the state of Gujarat, the Sabarmati Express train was attacked by a large Muslim mob in a conspiracy. But some authentic sources deny the claim...
.
However, even apart from tolerant Muslim Kings, there have been other unifying forces too, especially Sufism
Sufism
Sufism or ' is defined by its adherents as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a '...
. Kabir
Kabir
Kabīr was a mystic poet and saint of India, whose writings have greatly influenced the Bhakti movement...
, a medieval poet revered as a Sufi saint by the Muslims and as a holy man by the Hindus, wrote poetry and preached to the people, advocating a blend of philosophy and spiritual practices. The synergy between certain Sufi and Bhakti
Bhakti
In Hinduism Bhakti is religious devotion in the form of active involvement of a devotee in worship of the divine.Within monotheistic Hinduism, it is the love felt by the worshipper towards the personal God, a concept expressed in Hindu theology as Svayam Bhagavan.Bhakti can be used of either...
saints in many regions of India led to Muslim and Hindu laity worshiping together at a mazār
Mazar
A Mazār is a tomb or mausoleum ; the word deriving from the Arabic verb zāra , 'to visit', whence also comes the noun ziyārah , 'a visit', or 'visiting the tomb of a saint for blessings.'. Though the word is Arabic in origin, it has been borrowed by a number of eastern languages, including Persian...
(Sufi shrine). People like Amir Khusro
Amir Khusro
Ab'ul Hasan Yamīn ud-Dīn Khusrow , better known as Amīr Khusrow Dehlawī , was an Indian musician, scholar and poet. He was an iconic figure in the cultural history of the Indian subcontinent...
, Prince Dara Shikoh
Dara Shikoh
His Highness, The Imperial Prince Dara Shikoh was the eldest son and the heir apparent of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan and his wife Mumtaz Mahal. His name دارا شكوه in Persian means "Darius the Magnificent"...
, Abdurrahīm Khān-e-Khāna
Abdul Rahim Khan-I-Khana
Khanzada Mirza Khan Abdul Rahim Khan-e-Khana , also known as Rahim was a composer in the times of Mughal emperor Akbar, and one of his main nine ministers in his court, also known as the Navaratnas; he is most known for his Hindi couplets and his books on Astrology...
, Shirdi Sai Baba, Sikh Guru Nanak encouraged peace by preaching and/or writing.
Hinduism actively encourages all forms of liberal arts
Liberal arts
The term liberal arts refers to those subjects which in classical antiquity were considered essential for a free citizen to study. Grammar, Rhetoric and Logic were the core liberal arts. In medieval times these subjects were extended to include mathematics, geometry, music and astronomy...
, including music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
, poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
, dance
Dance
Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....
, dramatics, painting
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
and sculpture
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
. Indeed, some of these are actually given a sacred identity, e.g. Kathak
Kathak
Kathak is one of the eight forms of Indian classical dances, originated from Uttar Pradesh, India. This dance form traces its origins to the nomadic bards of ancient northern India, known as Kathaks, or storytellers...
dance of the Awadh
Awadh
Awadh , also known in various British historical texts as Oudh or Oude derived from Ayodhya, is a region in the centre of the modern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, which was before independence known as the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh...
region is consecrated to Shiva, and the entire Sāmaveda is dedicated to singing the Vedic hymns during the yajñas. The Hindu devī-devatās and avatars are an integral part of the colorful Hindu culture and are often depicted in art and sculpture. In Islam, there is difference of opinion on the permissibility of liberal arts, due to the fear that some of them could lead to idol-worship and polytheism. While it is unanimous view within Islam that any icon or statue of Allah or of Muhammad is strictly forbidden, some fundamentalist groups like the Taliban (and Aurangzeb in the past) extend this to banning all forms of instrumental music, dance, painting and sculpture. Others like the Sufis, Barelvis and most Mughal rulers in history encourage music (including instrumental music) for praising Allah and His Prophet, and do not ban secular fine arts. Qawwālī
Qawwali
Qawwali is a form of Sufi devotional music popular in South Asia, particularly in the Punjab and Sindh regions of Pakistan, Hyderabad, Delhi, and other parts of northern India...
is a form of devotional Sufi music common in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
, Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, Tajikistan
Tajikistan
Tajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and China to the east....
and Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
. It is known for its multi-religious strains. Some of its modern-day masters have included Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and the Sabri Brothers
Sabri Brothers
The Sabri Brothers are a Qawwali party from Pakistan.-Original members:The Sabri Brothers originally consisted of Ghulam Farid Sabri , Maqbool Ahmed Sabri , Kamal Sabri The Sabri Brothers (Urdu: صابری برادران) are a Qawwali party from Pakistan.-Original members:The Sabri Brothers originally...
. Amir Khusro
Amir Khusro
Ab'ul Hasan Yamīn ud-Dīn Khusrow , better known as Amīr Khusrow Dehlawī , was an Indian musician, scholar and poet. He was an iconic figure in the cultural history of the Indian subcontinent...
, a disciple of Nizamuddin Auliya
Nizamuddin Auliya
Sultan-ul-Mashaikh, Mehboob-e-Ilahi, Hazrat Shaikh Khwaja Syed Muhammad Nizamuddin Auliya , also known as Hazrat Nizamuddin, was a famous Sufi saint of the Chishti Order in the Indian Subcontinent, an order that believed in drawing close to God through renunciation of the world and service to...
and Sufi of the Chishti Order
Chishti Order
The Chishtī Order is a Sufi order within the mystic branches of Islam which was founded in Chisht, a small town near Herat, Afghanistan about 930 CE. The Chishti Order is known for its emphasis on love, tolerance, and openness. The doctrine of the Chishti Order is based on walāya, which is a...
, is credited with inventing Qawwali in the 14th century. Language too experienced this new synergy. Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
and Arabic languages mixed with the local Hindi dialects of the Indo-Gangetic plains to form a new language: Urdu
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
(a variant of Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
with many Persian and Arabic loanwords, written in a modified Arabic script), which would later on become an identifying cultural feature of the Muslims of the Indian subcontinent.
Mughal art forms, especially miniatures and even certain niches of Urdu
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
poetry, were quick to absorb classic Hindu motifs, like the love story of Krishna
Krishna
Krishna is a central figure of Hinduism and is traditionally attributed the authorship of the Bhagavad Gita. He is the supreme Being and considered in some monotheistic traditions as an Avatar of Vishnu...
and Radha
Radha
Radha , also called Radhika, Radharani and Radhikarani, is the childhood friend and lover of Krishna in the Bhagavata Purana, and the Gita Govinda of the Vaisnava traditions of Hinduism...
. Hindustani classical music
Hindustani classical music
Hindustani classical music is the Hindustani or North Indian style of Indian classical music found throughout the northern Indian subcontinent. The style is sometimes called North Indian Classical Music or Shāstriya Sangeet...
is a complex and sonorous blend of Vedic notions of sound, rāga
Raga
A raga is one of the melodic modes used in Indian classical music.It is a series of five or more musical notes upon which a melody is made...
and tāla
Tala (music)
Tāla, Taal or Tal is the term used in Indian classical music for the rhythmic pattern of any composition and for the entire subject of rhythm, roughly corresponding to metre in Western music, though closer conceptual equivalents are to be found in other Asian classical systems such as the notion...
and absorbed many instruments and concepts of either Middle-Eastern origin or Indian-Muslim invention such as the sitar
Sitar
The 'Tablaman' is a plucked stringed instrument predominantly used in Hindustani classical music, where it has been ubiquitous since the Middle Ages...
, the santoor
Santoor
The santoor is an ancient stringed musical instrument, native to Kashmir and Iran. It is a trapezoid-shaped hammered dulcimer often made of walnut, with seventy two strings. The special-shaped mallets are lightweight and are held between the index and middle fingers...
and the ghazal
Ghazal
The ghazal is a poetic form consisting of rhyming couplets and a refrain, with each line sharing the same meter. A ghazal may be understood as a poetic expression of both the pain of loss or separation and the beauty of love in spite of that pain. The form is ancient, originating in 6th century...
. Hindu motifs like the lotus can also be seen on the Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal
The Taj Mahal is a white Marble mausoleum located in Agra, India. It was built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal...
, built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in the 16th century.
See also
- Islam and other religionsIslam and other religionsOver the centuries of Islamic history, Muslim rulers, Islamic scholars, and ordinary Muslims have held many different attitudes towards other religions...
- Hinduism and other religionsHinduism and other religionsIn the field of comparative religion, some have sought to discover similarities between Hinduism and other religions.Hinduism has a history of co-existence with Buddhism and Jainism , and more recently, with Sikhism, within the Indian subcontinent...
- Persecution of Hindus#During Islamic rule of the Indian sub-continent
- Divisions of the world in Islam