Idolatory, Islam and India
Idolatory, Islam and India
by Anwar Shaikh
Why did the Muslims destroy Hindu temples? One can say that it was
an excuse to plunder India, and an attempt to spread the message
of the Koran?
Though there is some truth in both the assertions, the reality is
psychological, whose roots go back into the ambitions of the
Prophet Mohammed himself. This statement may be somewhat ambiguous
and thus requires explanation:
Like the physical order of the universe, the social structure of
mankind is also hierarchical, that is, broadest at the base and
narrowest at the top. This is the reason that an organization is
not possible without observing this principle. Thus, a nation of
several million people is governed by a government of twenty to
thirty members, who are themselves headed by one person called the
Prime Minister, President, Dictator or King. This truth was
represented by the conduct of Alexander, the Great, who believed
in a universal monarchy. Taumburlain, the Conqueror, stated it
eloquently: "As there is one God, so this earth can support
only one King."
What are the connotations of this statement? It means that humans
are endowed with a psychological peculiarity, which may be
described as Dominance Urge; it goads people individually, and
collectively to dominate others. One can see this urge in
operation during political elections when competing candidates use
all methods at their disposal to gain power; the concepts of
morality, munificence and mercy are shouted at top voice, but are
usually rooted in mischief, mordacity and malevolence. The urge of
dominance admits only one conduct which leads to victory. Hence,
might is right, and the idea of "right as might" acts
just as a deceptive joke to appease conscience.
In fact, urge of dominance is a peculiarity of all animates and
expresses itself through antagonism. Take, chickens, for example.
Chicken "A" pecks chicken "B" simply to
express its physical superiority and chicken "B" does it
to chicken "C" for the same reason. Not only that, if C
becomes stronger, it may turn on B to establish itself as the
powerful.
Without urge of Dominance, nobody will try to rise to the top,
create law and order and compete with others. However, urge of
dominance also has its bleak side which occasionally clouds its
effulgence as can be observed in the destruction of Indian
temples. Even great countries have suffered a similar fate at the
hands of foreign predators. England was subjected to plunder,
persecution and perdition by the Vikings for over 250 years.
Subjugation of nations by outlandish raiders through sword and
fire is for establishing their dominance.
Urge of dominance has an unusual aspect; it does not always die
with its possessor. When a mundane ruler breathes his last, this
urge may die with him but in people, known as prophets, it proves
to be immortal. A prophet commands people from his grave what to
do and what not to do; he succeeds in doing so through the body of
laws which he claims to be of divine origin, and leaves behind.
Those who follow them qualify for heaven, and those who defy them
go to hell. These laws are, in fact, a product of the prophetic
mind purporting to impress his power on the minds of his followers
through a system of reward and punishment, no matter how
imaginary. The Islamic Law devised 1400 years ago is an example in
point. Pakistan was created half a century ago to practise this
law but people are still awaiting its introduction. The reason is
simple: it is not workable. In fact, Pakistan follows the Common
Law of England, which is totally averse to the Muslim traditions
The Islamic Law is the legacy of Muhammad, requiring his followers
to acknowledge his supremacy through obedience to his legal code.
It cannot be of Divine origin becauce this universe and all that
breathes is kept in order by the principle of change which demands
constant adjustment. Allah does not seem to realise that humans
live in a changing world and do not need static law, devised
fourteen centuries ago. After giving man free will, which enables
him to make laws to suit his changing circumstances, He could not
have interferred with him by forcing him to observe the archaic
laws which have no relevance to his problems.
From the above discussion, one concludes that prophethood is the
highest expression of dominance urge. Since it is the prophetic
dominance-urge which caused havoc to the Hindu temples and
culture, it is appropriate to delve deeper into its make-up and
purpose:
A prophet is a person who claims that he is the vicar or
lieutenant of God on earth. He stresses that he carries the
message of the Almighty who is the Creator of this universe and
anxious to make man righteous by waging war against evil. The
prophet insists that God does not communicate with anyone directly
but through him. Since he is the divine medium, whosoever wants to
approach the Creator must do so through his agency or perish. Yet
the prophet declares that praise (worship) belongs to God; he
himself is His humble servant, and does what is told by the Lord.
In fact, prophethood is a stratagem to project one's self as God
in the guise of humanity. By asserting himself to be the agent of
God, the prophet asserts his own righteousness by awarding himself
a certificate of behavioural excellence irrespective of what he
really is; the presumption is that God shall not appoint someone
His agent, who has a second-rate character. A part of this
stratagem is the assertion that the prophet has no axe to grind in
it; whatever he does, he undertakes to obey the Lord. This
impersonal approach is a sharp psychological weapon to convince
people of the prophetic mission.
Once we look into the nature of prophetic claim, its righteousness
soon loses its radiance. If God is the Creator, and He is so
anxious for man to go straight, He would have surely designed
human nature in such a way that he could not err. The God who
depends on the good-will of a man, who calls himself a
"prophet" cannot be more than a play-thing, and does not
have the power to check the prophet from twisting His Word if he
so wishes. This is a logical conclusion; if God cannot stop other
people from doing what they want to do, how can he coerce the
wilful actions of a prophet, who is obviously a clever and
determined man. The God who is dependent on a man, has a lower
stature than him. This is the real purpose of prophethood; a
prophet is a man who aspires to be acknowledged as God indirectly
because it is much easier to proclaim one's prophethood than
Godhead.
Frankly speaking, one ought to say that the device of prophethood
is not suited to spreading the truth by its very nature; making
the prophet an absolute medium of Divine instructions, limits the
Godly purpose; one man, no matter how clever, could not reach the
whole world. It is especially true in terms of medieval ages.
Acquainting mankind with the Divine Will would have been far more
effective if the Lord had created them with a mechanism to receive
His messages directly. Since He has not done so, He obviously
needs no prophets, who are the cause of srocial strife, mutual
hatred and wars. As man is endowed with intelligence and free
will, he is quite capable of steering his own ship of life. It
amounts to self-contradiction on part of God to coerce the
intelligence and free will of man by sending messengers. In fact,
the mere concept of prophethood has an air of ridiculing God.
Of course, a prophet declares that praise (worship) belongs to
God, and he himself appears to be praising and worshipping Him.
This is, in fact, mockery of Godhead for two reasons: firstly,
worship is the worst type of flattery, and it is well known that a
lover of sycophancy has a dwarfed, devious and detestable
personality because it seeks to destroy the dignity, decorum and
distinctiveness of others by forcing them to demean, degrade and
debase themselves. A person with a flattened ego is like a bird
with trimmed wings which loses the ability to fly higher. The
purpcse of life is to elevate ego with moral splendour, a superb
will and sense of personal greatness, which come from being
upright and serving the cause of fellow-beings, and not by crying,
creeping and crawling before an imaginary God, whose arrogance
knows no bounds.
The second reason is more profound but crafty. In fact, it is a
piece of psychological chicanery:
The truth as we know is that the concrete attracts and holds
attention far more easily than the abstract. This is the reason
that modern methods of teaching make use of toys, pictures,
drawings/ etc., instead of relying on mere verbal instructions,
which are less effective for being abstruse and thus usually
beyond the reach of imagination. The concrete objects serve as
visual aids to comprehend facts and the reality behind them. This
is the philosophy of idol worship. All devotees know that a
statute is just a stone, a piece of wood or a lump of clay, but
their shapes help impart understanding ot the meaning of reality.
It is a symbolical representation of the truth. Though there is no
mention of idol-worship or temples in the Rgveda, I am inclined to
think that the origin of organised idolatory lies in India. The
reason is, the Vedic people believed that there is a power of
divine origin behind every natural phenomenon such as lightning,
cloud, fire, wind, etc. That power, they referred to as god or
goddess, and adored it. These physical phenomena did have
visibility: lightning could be seen, thunder could be heard, wind
could be felt. They were glimpses of the gods and goddesses
lurking behind these natural processes. Eventually, it led to the
creation of idols representing the respective deities, whereas the
priest knew the truth, the ordinary worshipper accorded gadly
status to the idol itself. As every idol identified a particular
natural phenomenon, it did not represent the totality of Divine
Power individually. Though worshippers were particularly
enthusiastic about the greatness of the statues they worshipped,
they did not revile the idols of other devotees because of their
belief that they, too, were divine for representing natural
forces. This is what created pantheism, i.e., the doctrine that
identifies God with the universe, leading to the worship of all
gods. Oneness of Gad became ascendant, almost every nation
followed the model of an Indian temple which housed all the gods.
Thus jealousy among the gods did not exist, and if it did, lacked
the force to engender sectarian animosity and carnage. In fact,
the co-existence of idols prompted the attitude of "live and
let live."
The device of prophethood is very similar to the idols as far as
they act as the symbols or visual aids to recognise the divine
power or deity concealed behind them, and eventually worshipping
the idols themselves and not the deity concerned. When a person
claims to be a prophet, he projects himself as the shadow, and God
as the Reality, but as he possesses an immense dominance-urge, he
is extremely anxious to reverse the order of priority, that is,
people should think of the shadow as the Reality and of Reality as
the shadow. This inverse ratio of relationship is the real goal of
prophethood. The difference between idolatory is:
a. people worship statues through ignorance,
b. alternatively they know them to be mere visual aids, having no
divinity in themselves.
I ought to add that hypocrisy is no part of idolatory because it
is brought about by ignorance or the fact that a statue is just a
visual aid. On the contrary, prophethood lacks sincerity because
it is the goal of a prophet to be treated as God without taking
off his mantle of humanity. It is done by exaggerating the wonders
of the prophet to such an extent that he begins to look the
reality and God recedes into the background as shadow. This
reversal in terms of power and reverence imitates the principle
and practice of idolatory whereby people take the idol for the
Reality and forget all about the Reality itself.
Since Islam is an offshoot of Judaism, it may be helpful to
illustrate the issue with reference to Moses, the founder of the
Jewish nation and its philosophy.
It was Moses who brought out of Egypt, the Jews who had been
subjected to cruelty and hard labour for over four centuries. They
had lost their moral dignity and intellectual capacity through an
incessant pressure of torment, tyranny and torture. The long
servitude had made them submissive, and receptive to suggestion.
Moses, who had been brought up in Egypt as a prince, was not only
endowed with high capabilities but also had a tremendous urge of
dominance. With these qualities went his stupendous love for his
people whom he wanted to make into a great nation. This
extraordinary man had the ability to turn his own ambition and
national dignity into a harmonious whole.
As the Jewish history shows, he projected himself as the model of
behaviour by declaring himself as the law-giver. But he did not
say that the laws were invented by him. Following the old Semitic
tradition, he announced that he had been appointed as the Vicar
(prophet) by God, who had revealed His will through the laws which
must be obeyed to escape the Divine condemnation. He knew that the
nationhood of the Jews, who were no more than a rabble at that
time, could not be affected without giving them a common measure
of identity. So he declared:
1. Yahwe is the God of Israel (the Jews) who are his chosen and
blessed people.
2. To make Godhead of Yahwe as the foundation- stone of the Jewish
nationhood, he assured them that the Lord would not forsake them
(Deuteronomy 4: 31) provided they kept his law. The first
commandment says:
"You shall have no other gods before me."
The Bible goes even further to declare that the extreme love is to
be reserved for God:
"And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy
might." (Deuteronomy 6: 5).
To make sure that this divine order is taken seriously,
Deuteronomy 5: 9 spells out in no uncertain terms that the Jewish
God is a jealous God, who visists the iniquity of the fathers upon
the children unto the third and fourth generation of them who hate
Him i.e. worship someone other than Yahwe.
With a view to inculcating this message still further into the
Jewish heart, Exodus 22: 20 declares:
"He that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the Lord only,
he shall be utterly destroyed."
( As a footnote to this discussion, I may add that despite all the
Jewish assertion of monotheism i.e. Oneness of God, the Bible
acknowledges polytheism, that is, there is more than one God: )
"Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor curse the ruler of thy
people." (Exodus 22: 28)
Here, I seem to be contradicting myself because Moses attaches
supernatural authority and reverence to God and not himself. This
is the sophistication of the doctrine of revelation or prophethood.
The concept of God is abstract and therefore cannot be easily
comprehended by the masses who need a visual aid for proper
understanding. Once people nave confirrned their faith in God, the
prophet, who is His sole medium of approach, projects himself as
the Symbol of Divinity the same way as an idol acts as the
representation of God. The stratagem lies in the fact that prophet
looks uninterested in the divine honour, yet he bestows so much
sanctity on himself that he begins to look God's superior, and
people actually adore him instead of God, who ranks as a
euphemism. Thus, in fact, it is prophet who is jealous of idols
and everything else which may be adored. Therefore, he wants to
see no other idol except his own and insists on their destruction.
1. First, he presented the concept of the Lord God.
2. However, before doing this he assured people that he did not
want the apostolic dignity, and was acting as Prophet under duress
to escape the wrath of God (Exodus 4: 10-14).
3. Then he proceeded to exert his superiority over God:
As the story goes, worship of the molten calf by the Jews kindled
Yahwe's jealousy. He appears in divine glory and intends to
consume the children of Israel with his boiling wrath, his gives
Moses a chance to establish his superiority over God. He tells
Yahwe impolitely that He is about to do a wicked thing against his
own people and shames Him by asserting what the Egyptians would
say if He destroyed them. After all, Yahwe had gone out of the way
to secure the release of the Jews from Egypt.
Moses commands the Lord to refrain from this evil and repent.
(Exodus 32: 12-14). What an event it becomes: God surrenders to
man! Yet the Jews claim that their faith is monotheistic.
I must add that this is not the only occasion when Moses, the
Prophet, humiliates God in front of every one. In an episode of
similar nature when the Jews denigrate the Promised Land, and want
to return to Egypt, Yahwe's indignation reaches boiling point and
He threatens to kill them all. Moses steps in and skames God
publicly. He yields to Moses as usual ( Numbers 1 4: 11 - 20 ).
In conjunction with the above events, one should also remember the
following episode described in chapter 32 of Exodus:
As Moses took longer to return from God, his people contributed
golden earrings to make a molten calf to worship it. God tells
Moses to rush back to his people who have corrupted themselves. As
he came near the camp, he found them dancing round the calf.
Moses' anger knew no bounds; he burnt the calf in the fire, and
ground it to powder, which he dissolved in water and made the
children of Israel drink.
Had Moses left the molten calf to stand, it would have become a
symbol of divinity, and eventually the Divine. He could not accept
this situation because he had assumed the status as the sole
Medium of God.
This Semitic tradition was enthusiastically followed by the
Prophet Muhammad, who repeatedly claimed that Islam was not a new
faith but the same religion as promulgated by Adam, Noah, Ibrahim,
Moses and Jesus. He called himself the last exponent of this
faith. He hated idols and advocated their destruction because he
himself wanted to be treated as an idol to be worshipped. It seems
a crazy theory but it happens to be the truth. To understand it,
one must bear in mind that Allah was originally an idol of the
Kaaba where it was worshipped by the Quresh, clan of the Prophet.
I shall demonstrate later, Muhammad was inspired to idolise
himself by Allah-worship. He destroyed all statues of Kaaba
including that of Allah, yet he raised Allah to the status of God
who is the Almighty, the Creator and the Omnipotent. He did so to
replace Allah's statue with himself as the symbol Gf divinity. He
knew that it is the symbol of divinity i.e., the idol, which
eventually comes to be worshipped as God.
Now I may provide evidence in support of my claim:
1. Following the Mosaic model, first he claimed that Allah, the
Islamic God had forced him into accepting prophethood ( Sahih
Muslim: 301) . Having narrated this episode in my took:
"Islam The Arab National Movement, " I need not repeat
it here.
2. In the beginning, to impress upon people that he had no axe to
grind in the matter, he asserted:
"There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is His
Messenger." This is the basic belief of Islam and is called
Shahadah. Until he gained a large following which guaranteed him
suzerainty, he projected himself as a mortal who was entrusted
with the duty of Allah's message. See for yourself:
a. The Koran calls the Prophet a servant.
( The Cow: 20 ).
b. He does not know the Unseen.
( Cattle: 50 )
c. He does not have the power to perform
miracles.
( Thunder: 5 )
d. "... say, Glory be to my Lord! Am I aught
but a mortal, a messenger."
(The Night Journey: 95)
e. "... I have only been commanded to serve
God, and not to associate
aught with Him. To Him I call, and to Him I
turn. "
( Thunder. 3 5 )
f. The Prophet being a mortal, is equally subject to Allah's
reward and punishment:
"If He will, He will have mercy on you
( Muhammad ), or if He will, He will
chastise you."
(The Night Journey: 55)
g. The Prophet is warned by Allah:
"Set not up with Allah
another God, or you
wilt be cast into
Gehenna ( Hell ), reproached
and condemned. "
( The Night Journey: 40 )
So far the Prophet has claimed that he is just a human who has
been forced by Allah to convey His message to the people. He
desperately needs this approach to convince people that he is
simply discharging his duty. Thus it is easier for the masses to
listen to him and believe him, but when he becomes powerful enough
and can stand on his own, he discards this style and expresses
himself as an integral part of Allah:
h. It is no longer enough to obey God only:
" Obey God and the Messenger
( Muhammad ) .
( The House of Imram: 25 )
i. "Obey God and the Messenger: haply so
you will find mercy."
( The House of Imram: 125 )
j. "Whoso obeys God
and His Messenger, He will admit him
to gardens...."
(Women: 15 )
k. As the Prophet gets stronger, he becomes a co-sovereign with
Allah because whatever they do, they do it together, and people
are not left with any choice but to obey the decision:
"It is not for any believer, man or woman, when God and His
Messenger have decreed a matter, to have the choice in the affair.
Whosoever, disobeys God and His Messenger, has gone astray into
clear error." (The Confederates: 35)
Gradually, the Prophet, who was once a mortal and Allah's servant,
and then an equal partner in Godhead, now raises himself to the
status of real God, and Allah himself becomes Muhammad's devotee.
It sounds blasphemous, but this is how the Koranic truth is. Here
is the authority:
"God and His angels pray peace to the Prophet,
O believers, do you also bless him, and
pray him peace."
(The Confederates: 55)
Praying peace is the highest form of worship. It is very much like
the devotional movement within Hinduism known as Bhagti which came
into being during second or third century A.D. The Bhagti attitude
has been inspired by the Bhagavadgita though Ramayana and Puranas
have also contributed towards it.
Bhagti means the intense emotional attachment and love of a
devotee to his personal God. Though a Hindu can choose any of his
gods as the centre of his devotion, it has been particularly
developed around Vishnu represented by his two earthly
incarnations, namely, Rama and Krishna.
The Hindu worship includes the recitation of God's name, singing
of hymns in his praise, undertaking pilgrimages to the places
associated with him, adoring him in shrines, private meetings and
temples as well as through charitable acts.
The Muslims, especially of the Indian sub-continent have adopted
the same attitude towards the Prophet: they have developed a
highly emotional cult known as "Ishq-e-Rasool" i.e. the
intense love of Muhammad. This devotion is so great that a priest,
politician or "pioneer" can easily mislead the Muslims
in the name of Muhammad and make them do anything, no matter, how
irrational. The Muslims hold that a priest, politician or
"pioneer" can easily mislead the Muslims in the name of
Muhammad and make them do anything, no matter, how irrational. The
Muslims hold exclusive meetings to recite the name of Muhammad for
hours, sing his praises endlessly, visit the holy places and even
recite his name in the regular daily prayers.
It is amazing that when the Hindus pray to their gods with the aid
of their statues, which are symbolic representations of the
Reality, they are dubbed as idolators, but when the Muslims resort
to similar practices, they become monotheists! In fact, they carry
the magic of this riddle even further. In Hinduism, it is
inevitably man who worships God, but in Islam, both angels and
Allah worship Muhammad by praying peace to him!
Islam is essentially the cult of Muhammad-worship, yet it is
called the True Religian of God, instead of being termed as
Muhammadanism. How did the Prophet create such a large band of
followers, who worship kim but claim to prostrate before God?
One can find the answer to this enigma by considering the
following facts:
1. He destroyed the statue of Allah which was housed in the Kaaba:
it was considered the most sacred idol of the Arabs because people
took it for the real God owing to ignorance and tradition. As long
as the statue of Allah existed, nobody could take the place of
Allah because His statue was His divine symbol. It had to be
demolished by someone to present himself as the divine symbol of
Allah. Muhammad did that by projecting himself as the sole
representative of Allah on earth, and like other idols came to be
treated as the real God. He chose Allah because it represented his
tribe and was considered the most sacred and powerful.
2. To further his cause, the Praphet claimed that he was sent into
this world as mercy i.e. love for mankind:
"We have not sent you, except as mercy unto all
beings." (The Prophets: 100)
By projecting himself as love, he helped himself to become the
centre of love of his followers. There are several hadiths which
ardently advocate for the love of Muhammad. For example:
"No person attains faith, till I am dearer to him than the
persons of his household, his wealth and the whole of
mankind." (Muslim, Vol. 1: 70)
3. To be obeyed to the dot, he claimed that he was the divine
model of behaviour and must be copied by all his followers:
"You (believers) have a good example in God's
Messenger for whosoever hopes for God and the Last
Day." (The Confederates: 20)
It is clearly stated herein that whoever wants to go to paradise (
"hopes for God and the Last Day" ) must imitate the
behaviour-pattern of the Prophet. This is what Sunnah is; all
Muslims want to live as Muhammad did, even to the minor details
such as eating, drinking, walking, talking, sleeping, dressing,
etc. In fact, the Prophet has come to control the psyche of his
followers.
4. Intercessory power of the Prophet is the master stroke of his
divinity. Though I have given its fuller account in the Second
Volume, 6th issue of "Liberty," I may briefly state here
the Koranic attitude for the benefit of readers; it repeatedly
states that on the Last Day, it is exclusively for Allah to decide
whether a person will go to heaven or hell.
To suit Muhammad's purpose, as in several other important affairs,
the Koran changes its tone and eventually states:
"On that Day no intercession availeth except (that of)
him unto whom the Beneficient (God) hath given leave
and whose He accepleth." (TA HA: 109)
This point is well explained by the following Hadith (Sahih
Muslim: Vol. 4: 5655)
"I will be the first intercessor and the first person whose
intercession will be accepted (by Allah).
It means that the Prophet has the power to force Allah to do
whatever he wills. He will send his followers to paradise even if
they are murderers, rapists, thieves and liars but shall specify
hell for all non-believers even if they have been highly
righteous. The Koran states:
"Truly this is the word of a noble Messenger
having power, with the Lord of the Throne secure,
obeyed, moreover trusty."
(The Darkening: 15-20)
The Muslims interpret it to mean that on the Day of Judgement, the
Prophet will share the Throne of Justice with Al lah and sit on
His right-hand side. His recommendations will be binding on God.
This is what they sincerely believe is meant by "obeyed,
moreover trusty."
Now, one can see that Allah is no more than a figure of speech
because the Prophet has taken over the destiny of humankind. In
"Islam, The Arab National Movement,'' I have shown that Allah
is a factotum of Muhammad because He does what He is told by the
latter. For example, the change of Kibla, the vital issue, is
decided by Allah to please Muhammad. Again, it is an Islamic law
that if a Muslim has more than one wife, he must treat them all
equally but God gave dispensation to the Prophet to suspend any of
his wives as he thought fit. One should also bear in mind that the
Islamic law lays down that a Muslim cannot have more than four
wives at the same time, but the Prophet had at least nine wives
simultaneously. He was obviously above Allah's laws. It is
universally accepted that law is equally binding on the law-giver.
Unless Muhammad believed himself to be Allah's superior, he could
not defy His law. It shows the intensity of the Prophetic
dominance-urge.
Now, it is obvious that the Prophet did not disapprove of
idolatory but hated other idols because he wanted to substitute
himself for them. In short, he himself aspired to be worshipped to
the total exclusion of all other idols.
However, the Prophet realised that there are other people who have
a tremendous ego and want to be remembered as spiritual heroes and
adored accordingly. So he allowed the creation of a pantheon under
his own divine shadow, which means that whoever believed in these
lesser deities, automatically followed him. One learns about these
minor divinities in Hadith no. 145 of the Sahih Muslims: they are
members of the household of the Prophet, namely Ali (Fatima,
Hassan and Hussain) as well as Abu Bakr, Umar Usman and several
others who served him well to make his mission a success.
I think that I have said enough about the nature of Islamic
attitude towards idolatory: it is really not iconoclastic i.e.
anti-idol, but idolatrous as long as it is only the Prophet
Muhammad, his close relations and associates, who are adored under
his spiritual hegemony.
The heading of this article is "Idolatory, Islam and
India." I have so far discussed the relationship of Islam and
idolatory but have not touched upon the Islamic attitude towards
India, especially in terms of idol-worship.
As students of history know, the Muslims have always done their
worst to destroy the pre-Islamic period of every country where
they have been able to spread their tentacles. Even Arabia, the
cradle of Islam, is no exception to this rule. It is not easy to
trace its pre-Islamic history. However, certain facts can be
discovered from the Hadith (sayings and practices of the Prophet)
and scholarly writings found in the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Having studied these sources of information, I come to the
conclusion that the Prophet Muhammad had developed an unfavourable
attitude towards India. It is because he was a national leader,
par excellence. His patriotic zeal required of him to destroy the
glory of Egypt, Iran, Byzantine and India. The last i.e. India,
posed a special problem. Why?
It is because India constituted a real threat to the dreams of
Muhammad, who was highly enthused by the love of his people, the
Arabs, and wanted to make a great nation of them. He also knew
that Moses, before him, had created a magnificent nation of Jews
who should perpetuate his name. So the national dream of Muhammad
sought to deify himself through the efforts of a great Arab nation
to fight for his glory, which should also prove the pivot of Arab
nationalism. Having told this story in my book: "Islam, The
Arab National Movement," I need not repeat it here but must
explain, why India stood in the way of the apostolic designs of
Muhammad. The reason was that the Arabian way of life and religion
were deeply influenced by the Indian culture and religious
attitudes. To make the position clear, I must add that as the
Indian sub-continent is dominated by the Islamic way of life
today, so was the Arabian peninsular under the Hindu influence at
the time of the Prophet's advent. Unless he could successfully
strike at the roots of Hinduism, he could not make himself
adorable. In a nutshell, he had to destroy the Hindu idols to
erect his own.
Is there evidence for this point of view? Of course, there is. Let
us start with the following hadith:
Abdullah bin Amr bin Al-As reported: "Allah's
Messenger (may peace be on him) saw me wearing
two clothes dyed in saffron, whereupon he said:
These are the clothes (usually worn by) the non-
believers, so do not wear them."
(Sahih Muslim: 5173)
The next hadith no. 5175 reports this event in a more heated
manner:
Seeing Abdullah b. Amr attired in two clothes which had been dyed
in saffron, the Prophet said, "Has your mother ordered you to
do so?" Abdullah replied: "I will wash them." The
Prophet replied: "Burn them."
The Hadith no. 5177 adds that the Prophet forbade reciting the
Koran when one wore gold and clothes dyed in saffron!
To understand the built-in prophelic hatred of Hinduism in
particular, and India at large, one must realise that colour of
the Hindu or Om flag is saffron, which is also called Bhagwa,
Gerva and Kesariya. The Om flag also represents the rising sun
which not only alludes to the saffron colour but also to the
internationally ascendant might of the then India. I have
discussed these historical facts in my book: "The Wonders of
the Rgveda." Saffron was, in fact, the national colour of
India because the Hindu heroes, seers, sages and monks wore
clothes dyed in saffron. Moreover, it implied the Hindu tradition
of valour, elegance and commitment to noble causes as laid down by
the Scriptures: some hymns of the Atharva Veda openly refer to the
saffron colour. Therefore, it is not just traditional but also a
part of the Hindu religious piety, purity and probity.
From the above quoted hadiths, it is evident that not only the
Arab divines but also ordinary people wore yellowish clothes under
the Indian influence which the Prophet hated to such an extent
that he advocated burning of satfron dresses and forbade the
recitation of the Koran when one wore such garments.
One should bear in mind that the Prophet wanted to create a
distinct Arab nation dedicated to spreading his greatness. This is
the reason that he told his followers to dye their hair and beards
red (henna) so that they should look different from the Jews; to
wean them from the Hindu tradition, he prescribed green colour for
his followers.
The Koran has stated almost all its major tenets ambiguously i.e.
relationship between Allah and Prophet, free will and
predestination and so on. It equally applies to the Idea of
creation and procreation. In this context, one can see the
influence of the Gita on the Koran, which states:
"God originates creation, then
brings it back again,
and unto him you shall be returned."
(The Greeks: 10)
The Druzes of Lebanon, a sect of Islam, practise the Hindu
doctrine of Samsara ardently even today. This is a continuation of
the pre-Islamic tradition which is a remnant of the Hindu
influence on the Arab culture.
The Prophet practically obliterated the pre-Islamic history of his
people, which makes cultural assessment of Arabia a very hard
task, indeed. Yet the modern scholarship has discovered certain
religious facts about this country which confirm that it would
have been impossible to establish Muhammadanism without destroying
Hinduism in Arabia and elsewhere.
The truth is that the Arabs were not only statue-worshippers but
their idolatory was founded on the Hindu principle of triad, also
known as Trimurti. Since the Prophet wanted to plant his own image
in people's mind, it was not possible without aupplanting the
Hindu idols, which had considerable appeal owing to their visual
effect and the legendary magic, built-up over a period of many
centuries. I am certainly not forging history, the hadith
(Prophet's sayings and record of his actions) provides cogent
evidence to this effect:
"Jabir b. Samura reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be
upon him) as saying: I recognise the stone in Mecca which used to
pay me salutations before my advent as a Prophet and I recognise
that even now. (Sahih Muslim: 5654)
The hadith confirms three facts:
1. Though the Muslims assert that Muhammad was a prophet even
before the creation of Adam, this statement demonstrates that it
is not so, and is borne out by "before my advent as a
Prophet." Again, it is historically known that he claimed to
have received his first revelation when he was forty. It is.at
this point of life that the Prophet started preaching Islam.
Obviously, it could not have been his religion earlier. If it
were, he would have started disseminating its fundamentals from
his cradle. What was then his religion previously? This hadith
also answers this question:
2. "Stone in Mecca" cannot be anything but the Black
Stone (Hajr-E-Aswad) at Kaaba, the main temple of Mecca, which
also housed many other statues. The words: "used to pay me
salutations" clearly show that the Prophet Muhammad was a
fairly regular visitor to the temple before becoming the founder
of Islam. I hardly need say why people go to the temples.
The Black Stone, as I shall discuss shortly, is an unshaped idol
which still adorns the Kaaba and forms a prominent part of the
Islamic rituals. The Prophet claims that this statue used to
salute him. Since salutation is a form of worship, Muhammad was
inspired by idolatory at Kaaba to be worshipped like an idol.
Therefore, it was necessary for him to replace other idols with
his own person to perpetuate Muhammadanism. He picked on Hinduisnn
because it was the source of the Arab idolatory. Am I making it
up? Not at all. Here is the evidence drawn from the most reliable
source i.e. Encyclopaedia Britannica:
Though there is no mention of idolatory in the Rgveda, the
principle of triad or trimurti is clearly stated therein:
"I laud the seven-rayed, the triple-headed
Agni all perfect...." (R.V.1: CXLVI: 1)
Triad or Trimurti is the fundamental principle of Hinduism. It
means three-in-one i.e., the reality has three faces yet in
essence it is one. For example, the most sacred Sanskrit word: ''Om"
represents the triad of Vishnu, Brahma and Shiva as well as the
Hindu belief in three universes, and so on.
Description of the god Agni as having three faces is the basis of
the three-headed Shiva, who has been depicted as such on some
seals found in the Indus Valley. It should be borne in mind that
Shiva is a Vedic god, known as Rudra. He has been mentioned so
often in the Rgveda that it is hard to call him a minor deity.
Though there is no mention of image- worship in the Rgveda, the
Shivite traditions represent the tampered form of the Vedic
doctrines the same way as non- violence has become the basic
principle of the modern Hinduism though the Vedas and Gita
prescribe fighting for a righteous cause and declare it the
greatest honour for a true Hindu. Dasa and Dasyus, the epithets of
contempt, were invented for these dissenters, who were every bit
as Aryan as anyone else. It shows that the Rgveda is older than
the Indus Valley Civilisation, and this fact is also supported by
the archaelogical excavations which have taken place in the areas
close to Rawalpindi (Pakistan) during recent years. It
demonstrates the antiquity of the Indian civilisation. The
idolatrous principle associated with the three-faced Shiva became
a fundamental doctrine of the Arab religion and culture as triad
in the same way as it is known in India the triad of Vishnu-Brahma
and Shiva. One has only to look at the Arab history to realise
this fact:
Despite their lofty claims of antiquity, the word
"Arabs" does not appear in historical sources until the
middle of the First millenium B.C. The Arabian peninsula had
received cultural inspiration from the Indus Valley many centuries
earlier, but its religious influence increased dramatically when
changes took place in the Greco-Roman trade routes to India during
the first century B.C. The southern Arabia i.e. Yemen had
experienced the Indian faith for a long time, but then its
cultural effect shifted northward to the Hejaz, land of the
Prophet Muhammad.
In the south Arabian kingdom, the principle of Triad or Trimurti
was practised extensively. For example, they had a triad of astral
deities representing the moon god, the sun goddess and the Venus
god. The chief deity of this triad was the moon god, who protected
the principal cities. However, it ought to be mentioned that the
god EL, the Allah of Mecca was not well known in the south. A
triad of gods was also found in Palmyra; it consisted of Bel,
Yarhibol, a solar deity, and Aglibol; a lunar deity. Belshamini
(Lord of the Heavens) also stood in a triadic relationship with
the god Malakbel and Aglibol.
This triadic principle travelled from the south to Mecca. The
Koran itself describes the three daughters of Allah, namely, ar-Lat,
al-Uzza and Manat. It is worth mentioning that al- Lat in Palmyra
was equated with the Greek goddess of Athena; al-Uzza was a
goddess of the Nabataeans whereas Manat (Fate) was associated with
Ihe Greek Nemesis at Palmyra.
It is absolutely misleading to say that Islam is free from
idolatory. They have an idol in the central Islamic shrine of
Kaaba which marks the climax of hajj because the faithful have to
kiss it individually. This is the Black Stone known as
Hajr-E-Aswad, and according to Ibn al-Kalbi, is a continuation of
the Square Stone which was central to the cult of al-Lat at at-Taif.
Suidas, a Greek compiler of encyclopaedia of C.A.D 1000 states
that the Dhu-Shara at Petra had a similar Black Stone on a gold
base.
The Muslims say that when Allah expelled Adam from paradise, He
gave Adam the Black Stone which is now built into the eastern wall
of the Kaaba and consists of three large pieces and some
fragments, surrounded by a stone ring and held together by a
silver band. It was carried away by members of the Qarmatian sects
in 930. However, the above evidence shows that the other Arab
temples had similar black stones; God would not have given Adam
that many black stones to carry. What was then, the reality behind
a black stone in the Arab culture?
"A principal sacred object in Arabian religion was the stone,
either a rock outcropping or a large boulder, often a rectangular
or black basaltic stone without representative sculptural
details." Such stones were considered suitable material of
worship to form part of the house of a god i.e. temple. This is
the reason that the Christian writers of Byzantine during the 5th
and 6th centuries called such a stone Baetyl, which is derived
from Bet'EI (House of the god).
Shape or no shape, a stone which is an object of worship, is an
idol. Moses forbade images of any kind but Muhammad allowed to
continue the worship of the Black Stone in the Kaaba to make it
the most sacred shrine of Islam for national reasons. The idea
was, if Arabia, lost its political dignity, even then the Muslim
nations must bow before it. God lives everywhere in the world but
the genius af Muhammad seems to have permanently housed Him in
Mecca for the benefit of his own people, the Arabs.
One should also realise that an annual pilgrimage was a principle
celebration of the pre-Islamic Arabs. All tribes having the sarne
god were required to gather at his sanctuary and go around the
baetyl in a cermonial procession. The Prophet also retained this
pre-Islamic rite to benefit his nation financially. What
relationship can have this pagan ceremony with the true God?
The faithful usually forget that the Prophet was the founder of
the Arab Empire; it could not be built without structuring a
really strong nation which could batter, blast and bewilder the
powers of the time such as Iran and Byzantine. As other nations
sought strength from their gods through crying, cringing and
crawling, the Prophet wanted his people to sigh, solicit and
supplicate him for inspiration, might and victory. For this
reason, he aspired to become an idol himself, the object of
adoration and worship. Adroitly, he projected Allah as the God but
became the driving force behind Him on the Indian principle, which
holds that there is a deity behind every physical pehnomenon.
However, he could achieve this ambition by destroying other idols
only. As long as they existed, his chances of becoming the object
of worship were minimal. Since India was the home of idolatory,
the Muslim warriors made this land the target of their ambitions.
Human culture is not based on uniformity but multiety. It is
because man is endowed with free will. Without free choice humans
cease to be human. Therefore, Allah, if He is the real God, cannot
order murder of those who do not believe in him. In the case af
India, it is even more absurd because the Hindus had developed the
concept of Prajapati, the Lord of Creatures; He was more
monotheistic than the Arabian Allah whose divinity is shared by
the Prophet, his descendants and companions. His oneness is
theoretical only. Therefore, the Muslims had no quarrel with India
on account of a Universal God. Their dispute centred around
Muhammad who declared that faith without believing in him along
with Allah, was useless.
The true God is the champion of virtue, but the God, who sanctions
murder, rape, arson, slavery to make people acknowledge Him, falls
far short of the standard of righteousness. He is not only
extremely selfish but also impotent; if He is the Almighty
Creator, He could have surely created a believing and obedient
man. Again, what kind of God is He whose own satisfaction depends
upon man's acknowledgement? When man accepts Allah, He feels glad
but when he rejects Allah, He becomes sad. This concept of Godhead
is nothing but the gross contempt of Allah. The Muslims must
realise that they do not adore Allah but deplore Him.
Finally, religion is the search for peace of mind and moral
perfection. Making innocent children orphans, and turning happily
married women into widows, cannot be the command of God. Seeking
suzerainty over other people for usurping their freedom is no part
of righteousness, but the religion that the Prophet Muhammad
invented, expressly sought dominance over non-believers. The Koran
repeatedly says:
"He (Allah) it is who hath sent His messenger with
the guidance and the Religion of Truth, that He may
cause it to prevail over all religions, however much
the idolators may dislike." (Repentance: 33)
To establish a pe-manent excuse for fighting non- believers, the
Prophet abrogated all other religions by declaring them, as false
(Sahih Muslim, chapter: LXXI) and then announced a permanent state
of war against them until they were completely uprooted (Sahih
Muslim no. 31, 32 and 33). The whole purpose of acquiring
dominance through carnage is that the Prophet should have the
largest following. (Sahih Muslim no. 381)
This search for followers to satisfy the Prophetic urge of
dominance brought the Muslims to India, the home of polytheism.
A serious search for the roots of polytheism not only leads to
India but also to the Indian glory whose radiance has been
tarnished by the dark clouds of history for a very long time,
indeed. I am not trying to be a misguided patriot who treats
fiction as a fact to mollify the painful national scars inflicted
by the caprices of history but a sober student of this subject,
who is satisfied with establishing the truth irrespective of its
palatability.
The Hindu aversion to writing, especially the reluctance to
keeping historical records, is the main cause of the Hindus
lacking pride in their traditions; it has heavily contributed to
the lowering of national aspirations and standards of honour.
However, the truth cannot be held back indefinitely. It is like
the sunlight which eventually breaks through the barriers of a
dark eclipse. Until some fifty years ago, we were told that the
Hindus had been so primitive in their ways that they never left
the Indian soil. Thanks to the modern technical advancement, which
revealed that the Hindus held a political sway over the Malay
Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, Bali, Borneo, Champa (Annam), Cambodia,
Burma, Siam and Indo-China. The political hegemony of India over
these lands extended for about a 1000 years, while her cultural
influence over all the Far Eastern countries survives even today.
Yet, it is only a part of the Indian glory. This picture becomes
more vivid when we study the European civilisation with reference
to paganism. Then, one can see that once European countries were
dominated by the Vedic culture, which is a peculiarity of India,
and clearly shows that the Aryans were the people of Indian
origin, and not the other way round, as we have been led to
believe by historians. If this were not true, one could not find
the Europeans observing Asvamedha i.e., the horse-sacrifice,
closely associated with the Vedas. On a 5,000 year old Harappan
seal, we find an ithyphallic figure seated in a yogic position,
which is the prototype of Shiva, also known as Pasupati, Lord of
Beasts. We also notice this figure (Shiva as Pasupati) on the
interior of the cauldron, which is in the Danish National Museum,
Copenhagen, and belongs to the 2nd century. Shiva, a Vedic god,
would not have reached the Western lands without the Hindus
themselves. That the Europeans took their polytheistic faith from
India is proved by the triadic principle of representing godhead
as discussed earlier. Having dealt with this issue fully in my
unpublished work, "The Wonders of The Rgveda," I need
not go into detail here hut ought to point out that even today
there are thirty images of a three-headed god extant on the
European Continent. That is the mighty Shiva of India.
By comparing the Greek mythology with that of India, we realise
that Zeus, the Chief God of Greece, is none other than Indra, the
Chief God of India. There is abundant evidence which demonstrates
that the Greco-Roman polytheism is firmly rooted in the Indian
doctrine of idol- worship. The Christian writers refer to it as
paganism or heathenism.
As Islam challenged idolatory in India, Christianity declared war
on it in the West. However, the two tales have different endings.
Christianity succeeded in smashing idolatory in the West, and
whatever persists in the Roman Catholic Church is just a shadow of
the original but it has survived in India despite persistent
persecution at the hands of the foreign predators and has risen
once again with a vigour, virility and vivacity unknown to any
religious movement. On the contrary, Islam has ceased to have any
relevance with the Koranic principles; it has become a slogan of
the power- seekers, and this fact is fully vouched for by the
recent histories of Palcistan and Afghanistan.
Why do these monotheistic religions i.e., Islam and Christianity
seek destruction of idolatory?
Firstly, both these religions are dictatorial in essence, and
violently oppose the principle of People's Power. They both claim
that the government belongs to God and must be run by the
theocrats i .e., the clergy and the Mullah. Idea of the Oneness of
God is appealing and logical but presenting God as a power-maniac,
is the gross insult to Him. To start with, presentation of
monotheism through the exclusive- agency of a prophet is a big
joke, indeed. No matter, what the prophet calls himself, he is an
equal partner in Godhead right from the outset; for example,
belief in Allah alone is totally useless unless Muhammad is also
included in it. If God is absolute and Almighty, then believing in
the Prophet is a glaring proof of Shirk or polytheism. Not only
that, a prophet always bestows divinity on the members of his
family, and thus creates a pantheon. Just look at the Sayyads of
the Indian sub-continent, who are believed to possess intercessory
powers for their Muslim followers. What applies to the Muslims, is
equally true of the Christians. The Popes became infallible
despite the fact that many of them wer just mundane rulers, and
had mistresses and illegitimate children. The Christ rose to
become the Son of God, and many Christians believe that He was
God-incarnate.
Why do these so-called monotheists oppose polytheism? It is
because monotheism serves the purpose of dominance-urge by
concentrating power in one person. It is the representation of
human jealousy for personal worship and glory. On the contrary,
polytheism advocates belief in many gods, who happen to be equally
sacred. This doctrine distributes power from person to people.
This is the reason that the Vedic society calls for electing a
king if he fails to govern according to the dharma, or leaves no
issue to follow him.
More sins have been perpetrated to please God than to suppressing
Devil. Destruction of the Indian idols was partly an exercise of
the Muslim invaders to satisfy their lust for power and wealth.
This is what brought Mahmud Ghaznavi to India repeatedly. Though
his raids were abominable, yet I am reluctant to praise my Hindu
ancestors who defied the Vedic Principle of Power and became the
devotees of Ahimsa, an utterly non-Hindu doctrine. I find it hard
to bear this most painful disgrace but accept the fact that it is
the destiny of a sparrow to be humbled by a falcon. One ought to
know that Falcon, being a Vedic bird, is a symbol of the Ksatriya
qualities. The Hindus brought misery on themselves by acting as
sparrows. The nation which loses its hawkish virtue is bound to be
molested, mutilated and murdered by the Messengers of perdition
such as Mahmud Ghaznavi, Juna Khan and Feroz Shah Tughlaq.
The Christians acted likewise against polytheism in the West. They
closed down pagan temples and confiscated their property.
Constantine discouraged pagan sacrifices; Constaus went even
further to forbid them on pain of death. Constantius ordered the
closing of all pagan temples and rituals. Those who disobeyed,
perished at his command. However, these Byzantinian Emperors were
succeeded by Flavius Claudius Julianus, who was born in 332. He
was not only a competent administrator and soldier but also a
philosopher. He ridiculed the basic tenets of monotheism and
justified use of idols in worship. He thought of the deities of
polytheism as impersonal forces and did not believe in their
anthropomorphic forms. He preferred to be called the priest of
polytheism instead of an emperor. He was able to reverse the tide
of Christianity, at least during his reign, by withdrawing state
subsidies from the Church and closing to the Christians, chairs of
rhetoric, philosophy, and literature in the universities. He
insisted that these subjects should be taught by the pagans only.
He went even further: he permitted demolition of the Christian
Churches, which had been built on the lands seized from the pagan
shrines. He ordered reconstruction of the pagan temples and
imposed levies on the Christians to make full reparations for the
damage that had been caused to the pagan institutions during
preceding reigns of the Christian emperors. His orders provoked
riots but he stood firm, and succeeded.
Here is an example for the Hindus to follow. Polytheism represents
the Hindu ethos. They shall not be able to live honourably without
sticking to their basic way of life, especially when it harms
nobody. Though I am not an idolator, I support the human right to
worship as one thinks fit.
Dominance urge is the biggest predator of human rights. Though I
have said enough to explain it, yet its description is not
complete. It has another aspect; human psychology is polar like
physical objects, which have negative and positive sides. As
humans are naturally kind and curt, sagacious and stupid, they are
also dominant and submissive. Thus, dominance and submissiveness
are the opposite poles of human disposition. They both have their
virtues, but when dominance has no purpose except enjoyment of
power at the expense of people's honour, safety and freedom, then
it becomes the worst evil that there can be. On the other hand,
submission without fighting the dominance-seeker or aggressor is
even greater vice because it makes the dominant or aggressor a lot
more daring, devilish and destructive. A wolf without pugnacity is
just a lamb - only fit for the dining table. The nation which
loses nerve to defend its honour, becomes a football to be played
with by every Tom, Dick and Harry. By making Ahimsa i.e,
non-violence the uay of life, Hindus have made themselves a
tempting target for any aggressor. This is not a religious virtue
but a sign of profanity and a shameful exercise to enshrine a most
despicable vice as a splendid virtue. Gods do not want cowards for
devotees; they bless the Vedic patriots who fight with a sense of
honour.
Finally, as a footnote to the above discussion, I may add that
this thesis agitated my mind for a long time but I resisted the
temptation of putting it on paper because I did not want to open
up the old wounds. After reading works of some patriotic Hindu
scholars, I realised my mistake; their cuts have not healed but
become deeper. Though it is painful, it is a sign of renaissance -
a new life, because it is only the senseless who forget the
humiliation of 1000 years; the lively seek rejuvination through
honourable conduct based on determination and the will to succeed.
Though my views are totally different, I salute the Indian writers
who have written on this subject. Among them is the intellectual
giant, Sri Ram Swarup, whose piety forbids him to pass judgement
on the atrocious conduct of the foreign iconoclasts. Sri Sita Ram
Goel is another scholar whose patriotic protests echo through the
flourish of his pen and desperately seek the restoration of Hindu
ascendancy. Sri G. M. Jagtiani, the Maratha mystic, is a Vedic
preacher, whose writings are expressive of deep grief, which seeks
relief through an immortal national glory. Sri A. Ghosh of Texas,
is the Ksatriya stalwart who wonders what happened to the cutting
edge of his ancestral sword. He will do anything to revive the
martial character of his people.
If
you enjoyed this article, please visit: http://www.hinduunity.org
|
