Why Blasphemy Has No Place in Oriental Spirituality

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 10 May 2023 I agree with Mr M K Bajaj's comment that, ' We in Hinduism never feel offended if someone questioned the existence of god.' The so-called, 'Revealed' faiths (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) are structured, definite, organized and rigid religious systems with a prophet as a conduit. Each Semitic faith believes that it's the one and only true faith. When a faux notion of superiority and supremacy creeps into a setup, haughtiness is bound to emerge as a predominant religious spirit. Islam goes a step further and believes that its Quran is the only PERFECT book, which Allah 'revealed' after 'cancelling' the earlier Books, viz, Torah and Bible. This is the biggest misconception which, according to many religious scholars, is the bane of Islam. The followers of Islam erroneously think that this 'PRISTINE PURITY' of their religion must remain intact and any question of its authenticity and validity must be dealt with severely. This is an over-protective attitude and a feral instinct. You may have noticed that a lone tigress may not attack humans but when she's with her cubs, she tends to pounce upon anyone she perceives as a danger to her cubs. Islam behaves in the same manner. It perceives everything as a danger to its prophet, book and religion itself. So, it tries to eliminate that perceived danger in the garb of blasphemy. While Judaism and Christianity relatively changed with the changing times, Islam and its Quran remained like inscriptions on a piece of granite with its deluded followers still thinking that each and every word of the book is from Allah. Let me come back to Mr Bajaj's statement that blasphemy is alien to Hinduism. Eastern faiths, all originated from Hinduism, are not definitive because the oriental spirituality is not lapidary but liquid; not fixed but fluid; not firm but flexible. In such an all-encompassing system, everyone has his say and every thought, even a dissenting one, has its place. You can jolly well deny the existence of a creator, the way the exponents of Samkhya Darshan do. Yet, you'll not be punished. You can very well claim that there's no hell or heaven, like Charvakas. Nothing untoward will happen. But say that there's no Hereafter in Indonesia, a majority Muslim country. You'll be punished under Blasphemy rules of that country. Agreed, today's Hinduism has become as obstinate as Islam or any other faith has ever been, it still doesn't kill you if you ask how Draupadi, the epitome of feminism, meekly agreed to be the wife of other four Pandavas when Arjun chose her to be his wife? But ask anything about Khadija, a 40-yr-old widow who chose a much younger Muhammad as her husband or Ayesha, Muhammad's nubile young wife. Muslims will start shouting, ' Sar tan se juda.' It's time for all of us, esp. Muslims, to introspect and try to become humans. Most of them are still religious robots with no independent thinking. Muslims should also be openly vocal to condemn the executions of two Iranians for casting aspersions on Muhammad's character. Accept that your prophet was also a human and also concede that your Quran was an earthly compilation. That's why, its Arabic is not uniform and is tampered with a number of linguistic interpolations coming from Syriac, Aramaic, Yiddish among others. Why did Quran take 23 years in its completion is a question no Muslim asks. Only by accepting the grey areas in their faith, can Muslims be universally respected. ----- A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/blasphemy-oriental-spirituality/d/129743 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism