University Finds Fragments of World's Oldest Qur'an

The University of Birmingham has found what may be the world’s oldest fragments of the holy Qur’an.

According to a BBC article, Radiocarbon dating found the manuscript to be at least 1,370 years old, making it among the earliest in existence.

The pages of the Muslim holy text written in "Hijazi script", an early form of written Arabic had remained unrecognised in the university library for almost a century.

It forms part of the Mingana Collection of more than 3,000 Middle Eastern documents gathered in the 1920s by Alphonse Mingana, a Chaldean priest born near Mosul in modern-day Iraq.

This "exciting discovery" would make Muslims "rejoice", said Dr Muhammad Isa Waley, The British Library's expert on such manuscripts.

Dr Waley said the two folios, in a beautiful and surprisingly legible Hijazi hand, almost certainly date from the time of the first three caliphs".

The first three caliphs Hazrat Abu Bakr, Hazrat Umar & Hazrat Uthman ibn Affan (RA) were leaders in the Muslim community between about 632 and 656.

Dr Waley says that under the third caliph, Hazrat Uthman ibn Affan (RA), copies of the "definitive edition" were distributed.

"The Muslim community was not wealthy enough to stockpile animal skins for decades, and to produce a complete Mushaf, or copy, of the Holy Koran required a great many of them."

Professor David Thomas, the university's professor of Christianity and Islam says the dating of the Birmingham folios would mean it was quite possible that the person who had written them would have been alive at the time of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

"The person who actually wrote it could well have known the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). He would have seen him probably, he would maybe have heard him preach. He may have known him personally - and that really is quite a thought to conjure with."

Professor Thomas says that some of the passages of the Qur’an were written down on parchment, stone, palm leaves and the shoulder blades of camels - and a final version, collected in book form, was completed in about 650.

He says that "the parts of the Qur’an that are written on this parchment can, with a degree of confidence, be dated to less than two decades after Prophet Muhammad's (PBUH) death".

"These portions must have been in a form that is very close to the form of the Qur’an read today, supporting the view that the text has undergone little or no alteration and that it can be dated to a point very close to the time it was believed to be revealed."

According to Muslim tradition, the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) received the revelations that form the Qur’an between the years 610 and 632, the year of his death."

The local Muslim community has already expressed its delight at the discovery in their city and the university says the manuscript will be put on public display.

"When I saw these pages I was very moved. There were tears of joy and emotion in my eyes. And I'm sure people from all over the UK will come to Birmingham to have a glimpse of these pages," said Muhammad Afzal, chairman of Birmingham Central Mosque.

Charges to be Laid Against School Accused of Bullying & Victimising Muslim Boy

The attorney for a Johannesburg father whose 11-year-old son was victimised and bullied by teachers and the principal last year says he will be laying criminal charges against the prestigious school.

The principal at the King Edward VII Preparatory School allegedly made offensive remarks against Islam last year and told the boy that he was behaving badly in the name of Islam and that some Islamic people were killing Korkie and that the religion was skewed.

Pierre Korkie was a Bloemfontein teacher who was held captive by Al-Qaeeda for over a year and died in December last year during a rescue operation.

The father says he forgave the principal on the condition that his son would not be victimized, but the Muslim boy was allegedly roughed up by another pupil in the presence of a teacher.

Attorney Yousha Tayob says they are taking the allegations of Islamophobia very seriously

“Clearly an orchestrated bullying endorsed by the teacher tried to fluff away by an Islamophobic principal.

Tayob says they will be taking action against the school.

 “I am expecting a detailed written statement from my client and I will use that as a basis to lay criminal charges of assault.”

The father of the 11 year old has decided to remove his son from the school amid the Islamophobia and victimisation allegations.

Muslim women repudiate typification

There is only one thing worse than sensationalist trends amidst Western media wanting to save brown women from brown men: Muslim women having to prove they’re human!  If it wasn’t enough that Muslim women make the news largely to feed the propaganda machine against Islam, i.e. honour killings, genital mutilation and burqa abuse, Muslim women now face media scrutiny to prove they enjoy human activities, among them marital relations. An article featured on Jezebel, which is a feminist blog aimed at women's interests faced the repugnant ire of Muslim women earlier this month when they published what many deemed reductive Islamaphobia viz. “horny Muslim women.”  This reductive Islamophobia - “normalising the Muslim” trend also caused TLC, an American cable TV channel owned by Discovery Communications to cancel a show on Muslims – “because it made Muslims seem too normal.”

To typify and caricaturise, first Muslim men (bearded ‘jihadists’ and their seventy virgins in Paradise) and Muslim women (exotic, submissive sex slaves) says more about the hypersexual Orientalist than anything else. It does however provide the platform to highlight three more issues. The first among them, the obvious amongst us Muslims: sexuality is a normal part of our faith.  In recent years there is an increasingly positive trend among Muslim therapists and Islamic scholars to promote sexual health, not merely as the absence of disease, dysfunction or infirmity, but physical, emotional, mental and social well being in relation to sexuality. While Islamic societies may go to great lengths to make sure all things sex-related remain out of the public eye, sexual relations between a married man and woman is deemed an act of worship, even if not for the purpose of procreation. This outward or external bashfulness, if it could be called that, is part of the self-theophany within every Muslim under the umbrella of hayaa.

The second issue is that there is no honour or prestige entitled to one who opts for (non) marriage or perpetual celibacy as a form of worship in Islam. A monastic existence has only been encouraged in dire circumstances. The Messenger of Allah (pbuh): “By Allah, I am the one among you with the most fear and awareness of Allah, yet I fast and break the fast for days, I pray and I sleep a part of the night, and I marry women. Whoever disdains my way is not of my creed.” (Al Bhukari)

Related to this, is the question of why Maryam bint Imraan, (umm Eesa) is eternally honoured with the epithets ‘al-Batul and al-‘Azraa’, both of which are emphatic ways of saying “the chaste virgin”.  If it were such an honour to marry and enjoy married life and in that marital relations, so much so that Islam has granted women the right of talaq (divorce) if their sexual needs are not fulfilled, why was it seen as an honour for Mayam (as)?

Maryam bint Imraan’s greatest virtue as being a ‘pure virgin’ in an Islamic context is not the same as in Catholicism. Islam encourages the remarriage of widows and divorcees and abhors celibacy, especially if it seen as an act of worship. In Arabic ‘Batul’ from “tabattul”, means “to cut oneself off in worship. And from this meaning, Maryam was called, the virgin, al-Batul (an intensive form showing emphasis), because she completely cut herself off from (interactions with strange) men. This was the only way the birth of Eesa (as) would seem such an effective enough miracle.

One must bear in mind that the dogma of the Catholic Church “The Immaculate Conception”maintaining that from the moment Mary was conceived in the womb of her mother, she was kept free of original sin is not to be confused with her virginal conception of her son Jesus. This misunderstanding of the term immaculate conception is frequently met in the mass media. Likewise, Catholicism, among the world’s major religions looks down on all forms of non-procreative sex. In a bid to equate the subjugation delivered by Catholicism onto Muslims, the media thrust is to malign woman's sexual rights within the guidelines of Islam: from a woman's right to a pleasurable experience to her Islamic right to be free from every form of abuse.

Lastly, when Muslim women (as witnessed in responses to the Jezebel post) speak against a reductive Islamophobia and a typification of what it means to be veiled, we alter the goal posts and how the game is being played. We become players, instead of the played.

If our very non-homogeneous lives are to serve as a reflection of our faith, defending its rights and promoting its liberties, how far will we go in living our Muslimness? After instituting pervasive racial profiling, is it now just a question of waiting till they cut us up to determine what produces an Islamic DNA?  As an example, Georges Cuvier wrote in his studies on race: “The Negro race is marked by black complexion, crisped or woolly hair, compressed cranium and a flat nose. The projection of the lower parts of the face, and the thick lips, evidently approximate it to the monkey tribe: the hordes of which it consists have always remained in the most complete state of barbarism.” It is an uncontested fact that in the United States this type of “scientific racism” was used to justify Black African slavery thereby assuaging moral opposition to the Atlantic slave trade. What we see here in the ‘normalising of the Muslim woman’ ‘ horny just like you’ is a reverse form of scientific racism, i.e. a pseudo-scientific technique to support and classify individuals of different phenotypes into discrete races or ethnicities. Any thinking person would only be forced into a deeper state of Muslimness to contest such gobbledygook. An obvious start would be through the discipline involved in actualising the concepts of hijab and salaah. Wa billah at taufeeq.

DR ZAKIR NAIK

A medical doctor by professional training, Dr Zakir Naik is renowned as a dynamic international orator on Islam and Comparative Religion. He is the President of Islamic Research Foundation, Mumbai, India. He is 49 years old. Dr Zakir clarifies Islamic viewpoints and clears misconceptions about Islam, using the Qur’an, authentic Hadith and other religious Scriptures as a basis, in conjunction with reason, logic and scientific facts. He is popular for his critical analysis and convincing answers to challenging questions posed by audiences after his public talks.

In the last 19 years (by the year 2015) Dr Zakir Naik has Alhamdulillah delivered over 2000 public talks in the USA, Canada, UK, Italy, France, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Egypt, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Botswana, Nigeria, Ghana, The Gambia, Morocco,  Algeria, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Thailand, Hong Kong, China, Guyana (South America), Trinidad, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Maldives and many other countries, in addition to numerous public talks in India. In March 2012, his public talk in Kishanganj, Bihar, in India was MashaAllah attended by over one million people, being one of the largest gathering in the world for any religious lecture by a lone orator.

Amongst the billion plus population of India Dr Zakir Naik was ranked No. 82 in ‘The 100 Most Powerful Indians’ list published by Indian Express in the year 2009 and ranked No. 89 in 2010. He was ranked No. 3 in the ‘Top 10 Spiritual Gurus of India in 2009’ and topped this list in 2010. He was ranked in the top 70 list of the ‘500 Most Influential Muslims in the World’ issued annually by Georgetown University, USA, in the years 2011, 2012, 2013/14 and 2014/15.

He has successfully participated in several symposia and dialogues with prominent personalities of other faiths. His public dialogue with Dr William Campbell (of USA) on the topic, “The Qur’an and the Bible in the Light of Science” held in Chicago, USA, on 1st April 2000 was a resounding success. His interfaith Dialogue with prominent Hindu Guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on the topic, “The Concept of God in Hinduism and Islam in the Light of Sacred Scriptures” held at Palace Grounds, Bangalore, on 21st January 2006, was highly appreciated by people of both faiths.

Shaikh Ahmed Deedat, the world famous orator on Islam and Comparative Religion, who had called Dr Zakir “Deedat Plus” in 1994, presented a plaque in May 2000 with the engraving “Awarded to Dr Zakir Abdul Karim Naik for his achievement in the field of Da’wah and the study of Comparative Religion.” “Son what you have done in 4 years had taken me 40 years to accomplish, Alhamdulillah.”

The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud presented the prestigious ‘King Faisal International Prize’ - 2015 for ‘Service to Islam’ to Dr Zakir Naik on 1st March 2015 in Riyadh. This prize is the most Prestigious Prize in the Muslim world, similar to the Nobel Prize. The prize consisted of a certificate indicating Dr Zakir’s achievements, a commemorative 24-carat 200-gram gold medal and Saudi Riyals 750,000 (US $ 200,000). The entire prize money was donated by Dr Zakir Naik to the Waqf of Peace TV Network.

Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President & Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai, presented the prestigious Dubai International Holy Qur’an Award’s ‘Islamic Personality of 2013’ Award and Citation to Dr Zakir Naik on 29th July 2013, for providing outstanding service to Islam and Muslims at a global level in Media, Education and Philanthropy. Along with he received a reward of UAE Dirhams 1 million (US $ 272,000) which he donated to start a Waqf (endowment) fund for Peace TV Network. Dr Zakir at 47 years then, was the youngest recipient of the award.

The Agong, Tuanku Abdul Halim Mu’adzam Shah, the King of Malaysia, presented to Dr Zakir Naik the highest award of Malaysia the ‘Tokoh Ma’al Hijrah Distinguished International Personality Award for the Year 2013’ for his significant service and contribution to the development of Islam on 5th November 2013. Also presented to Dr Zakir was a citation plaque signed by the Prime Minister of Malaysia Datuk Seri Mohd. Najib Razak.

Shaikh Dr. Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Ruler of Sharjah, conferred on Dr Zakir Naik the ‘Sharjah Award for Voluntary Work’ for the year 2013, for his voluntary service for Islam on an international scale, on 16th January 2014. 
Dr Yahya Jammeh, the President of the Republic of The Gambia conferred Dr Zakir Naik with ‘The Insignia of the Commander of the National Order of the Republic of The Gambia’ the Highest National Award in The Gambia on 15th October 2014. He was also presented an Honorary Doctorate — ‘Doctor of Humane Letters’ (Honoris Causa) — by the Vice Chancellor of the University of The Gambia, in recognition of his outstanding contribution and dissemination of knowledge in promoting research and delivery of community services internationally.

As of June 2015, Dr Zakir Naik Alhamdulillah received more than 8 million likes on his Facebook Page in less than 2 years, it being not only one of the highest amongst the Muslim English Speakers on Religion but also one of the highest amongst any English Speaker on Religion in the world. YouTube Vice President, Tom Pickett, certified Dr Zakir as ‘awesome’ for his ‘likes’ and ‘popularity’ on YouTube.

Dr Zakir Naik appears regularly on many International TV channels in over 200 countries of the world. He is regularly invited for TV and Radio interviews. Over a hundred of his talks, dialogues, debates and symposia are available on DVDs. He has authored many books on Islam and Comparative Religion.

Dr Zakir Naik is the ideologue and driving force behind Peace TV Network. He launched Peace TV English, in January 2006, it being the largest watched ‘Islamic’ as well as ‘any Religious’ Satellite TV channel presently in the world, with over 100 million viewership, of which 25% are Non-Muslims. In its footsteps he launched Peace TV Urdu in June 2009, Peace TV Bangla in April 2011 and will In Sha Allah launch Peace TV Chinese in October 2015. ln Sha Allah, he plans to expand the Peace TV Network to cover the ten major languages of the world. 

Atheism

PROVING THE EXISTENCE OF ALLAH (SWT) TO AN ATHEIST    by Dr. Zakir Naik

CONGRATULATING AN ATHEIST Normally, when I meet an atheist, the first thing I like to do is to congratulate him and say, " My special congratulations to you", because most of the people who believe in God are doing blind belief - he is a Christian, because his father is a Christian; he is a Hindu, because his father is a Hindu; the majority of the people in the world are blindly following the religion of their fathers. An atheist, on the other hand, even though he may belong to a religious family, uses his intellect to deny the existence of God; what ever concept or qualities of God he may have learnt in his religion may not seem to be logical to him. My Muslim brothers may question me, "Zakir, why are you congratulating an atheist?" The reason that I am congratulating an atheist is because he agrees with the first part of the Shahada i.e. the Islamic Creed, ‘La ilaaha’ - meaning ‘there is no God’. So half my job is already done; now the only part left is ‘il lallah’ i.e. ‘BUT ALLAH’ which I shall do Insha Allah. With others (who are not atheists) I have to first remove from their minds the wrong concept of God they may have and then put the correct concept of one true God. LOGICAL CONCEPT OF GOD  My first question to the atheist will be: "What is the definition of God?" For a person to say there is no God, he should know what is the meaning of God. If I hold a book and say that ‘this is a pen’, for the opposite person to say, ‘it is not a pen’, he should know what is the definition of a pen, even if he does not know nor is able to recognise or identify the object I am holding in my hand. For him to say this is not a pen, he should at least know what a pen means. Similarly for an atheist to say ‘there is no God’, he should at least know the concept of God. His concept of God would be derived from the surroundings in which he lives. The god that a large number of people worship has got human qualities - therefore he does not believe in such a god. Similarly a Muslim too does not and should not believe in such false gods. If a non-Muslim believes that Islam is a merciless religion with something to do with terrorism; a religion which does not give rights to women; a religion which contradicts science; in his limited sense that non-Muslim is correct to reject such Islam. The problem is he has a wrong picture of Islam. Even I reject such a false picture of Islam, but at the same time, it becomes my duty as a Muslim to present the correct picture of Islam to that non-Muslim i.e. Islam is a merciful religion, it gives equal rights to the women, it is not incompatible with logic, reason and science; if I present the correct facts about Islam, that non-Muslim may Inshallah accept Islam. Similarly the atheist rejects the false gods and the duty of every Muslim is to present the correct concept of God which he shall Insha Allah not refuse. (You may refer to my article, ‘Concept of God in Islam’, for more details) QUR’AN AND MODERN SCIENCE  The methods of proving the existence of God with usage of the material provided in the ‘Concept of God in Islam’ to an atheist may satisfy some but not all. Many atheists demand a scientific proof for the existence of God. I agree that today is the age of science and technology. Let us use scientific knowledge to kill two birds with one stone, i.e. to prove the existence of God and simultaneously prove that the Qur’an is a revelation of God. If a new object or a machine, which no one in the world has ever seen or heard of before, is shown to an atheist or any person and then a question is asked, " Who is the first person who will be able to provide details of the mechanism of this unknown object? After little bit of thinking, he will reply, ‘the creator of that object.’ Some may say ‘the producer’ while others may say ‘the manufacturer.’ What ever answer the person gives, keep it in your mind, the answer will always be either the creator, the producer, the manufacturer or some what of the same meaning, i.e. the person who has made it or created it. Don’t grapple with words, whatever answer he gives, the meaning will be same, therefore accept it. SCIENTIFIC FACTS MENTIONED IN THE QUR’AN: for details on this subject please refer to my book, ‘THE QUR’AN AND MODERN SCIENCE – COMPATIBLE OR INCOMPATIBLE? THEORY OF PROBABILITY  In mathematics there is a theory known as ‘Theory of Probability’. If you have two options, out of which one is right, and one is wrong, the chances that you will chose the right one is half, i.e. one out of the two will be correct. You have 50% chances of being correct. Similarly if you toss a coin the chances that your guess will be correct is 50% (1 out of 2) i.e. 1/2. If you toss a coin the second time, the chances that you will be correct in the second toss is again 50% i.e. half. But the chances that you will be correct in both the tosses is half multiplied by half (1/2 x 1/2) which is equal to 1/4 i.e. 50% of 50% which is equal to 25%. If you toss a coin the third time, chances that you will be correct all three times is (1/2 x 1/2 x 1/2) that is 1/8 or 50% of 50% of 50% that is 12½%. A dice has got six sides. If you throw a dice and guess any number between 1 to 6, the chances that your guess will be correct is 1/6. If you throw the dice the second time, the chances that your guess will be correct in both the throws is (1/6 x 1/6) which is equal to 1/36. If you throw the dice the third time, the chances that all your three guesses are correct is (1/6 x 1/6 x 1/6) is equal to 1/216 that is less than 0.5 %. Let us apply this theory of probability to the Qur’an, and assume that a person has guessed all the information that is mentioned in the Qur’an which was unknown at that time. Let us discuss the probability of all the guesses being simultaneously correct. At the time when the Qur’an was revealed, people thought the world was flat, there are several other options for the shape of the earth. It could be triangular, it could be quadrangular, pentagonal, hexagonal, heptagonal, octagonal, spherical, etc. Lets assume there are about 30 different options for the shape of the earth. The Qur’an rightly says it is spherical, if it was a guess the chances of the guess being correct is 1/30. The light of the moon can be its own light or a reflected light. The Qur’an rightly says it is a reflected light. If it is a guess, the chances that it will be correct is 1/2 and the probability that both the guesses i.e the earth is spherical and the light of the moon is reflected light is 1/30 x 1/2 = 1/60. Further, the Qur’an also mentions every living thing is made of water. Every living thing can be made up of either wood, stone, copper, aluminum, steel, silver, gold, oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, oil, water, cement, concrete, etc. The options are say about 10,000. The Qur’an rightly says that everything is made up of water. If it is a guess, the chances that it will be correct is 1/10,000 and the probability of all the three guesses i.e. the earth is spherical, light of moon is reflected light and everything is created from water being correct is 1/30 x 1/2 x 1/10,000 = 1/60,000 which is equal to about .0017%. The Qur’an speaks about hundreds of things that were not known to men at the time of its revelation. Only in three options the result is .0017%. I leave it upto you, to work out the probability if all the hundreds of the unknown facts were guesses, the chances of all of them being correct guesses simultaneously and there being not a single wrong guess. It is beyond human capacity to make all correct guesses without a single mistake, which itself is sufficient to prove to a logical person that the origin of the Qur’an is Divine.   CREATOR IS THE AUTHOR OF THE QUR’AN  The only logical answer to the question as to who could have mentioned all these scientific facts 1400 years ago before they were discovered, is exactly the same answer initially given by the atheist or any person, to the question who will be the first person who will be able to tell the mechanism of the unknown object. It is the ‘CREATOR’, the producer, the Manufacturer of the whole universe and its contents. In the English language He is ‘God’, or more appropriate in the Arabic language, ‘ALLAH’. QUR’AN IS A BOOK OF SIGNS AND NOT SCIENCE  Let me remind you that the Qur’an is not a book of Science, ‘S-C-I-E-N-C-E’ but a book of Signs ‘S-I-G-N-S’ i.e. a book of ayaats. The Qur’an contains more than 6,000 ayaats, i.e. ‘signs’, out of which more than a thousand speak about Science. I am not trying to prove that the Qur’an is the word of God using scientific knowledge as a yard stick because any yardstick is supposed to be more superior than what is being checked or verified. For us Muslims the Qur’an is the Furqan i.e. criteria to judge right from wrong and the ultimate yardstick which is more superior to scientific knowledge. But for an educated man who is an atheist, scientific knowledge is the ultimate test which he believes in. We do know that science many a times takes ‘U’ turns, therefore I have restricted the examples only to scientific facts which have sufficient proof and evidence and not scientific theories based on assumptions. Using the ultimate yardstick of the atheist, I am trying to prove to him that the Qur’an is the word of God and it contains the scientific knowledge which is his yardstick which was discovered recently, while the Qur’an was revealed 1400 year ago. At the end of the discussion, we both come to the same conclusion that God though superior to science, is not incompatible with it.   SCIENCE IS ELIMINATING MODELS OF GOD BUT NOT GOD  Francis Bacon, the famous philosopher, has rightly said that a little knowledge of science makes man an atheist, but an in-depth study of science makes him a believer in God. Scientists today are eliminating models of God, but they are not eliminating God. If you translate this into Arabic, it is La illaha illal la, There is no god, (god with a small ‘g’ that is fake god) but God (with a capital ‘G’). Surah Fussilat: "Soon We will show them our signs in the (farthest) regions (of the earth), and in their own souls, until it becomes manifest to them that this is the Truth. Is it not enough that thy Lord doth witness all things?" [Al-Quran 41:53]

Hinduism

INTRODUCTION TO HINDUISM      by Dr. Zakir Naik

INTRODUCTION TO HINDUISM:

The most popular among the Aryan religions is Hinduism. ‘Hindu’ is actually a Persian word that stands for the inhabitants of the region beyond the Indus Valley. However, in common parlance, Hinduism is a blanket term for an assortment of religious beliefs, most of which are based on the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita.

II INTRODUCTION TO HINDU SCRIPTURES.

There are several sacred scriptures of the Hindus. Among these are the Vedas, Upanishads and the Puranas.

1.  VEDAS:

1. The word Veda is derived from vid which means to know, knowledge par excellence or sacred wisdom. There are four principal divisions of the Vedas (although according to their number, they amount to 1131 out of which about a dozen are available). According to Maha Bhashya of Patanjali, there are 21 branches of Rigveda, 9 types of Atharvaveda, 101 branches of Yajurveda and 1000 of Samveda).

2. The Rigveda, the Yajurveda and the Samveda are considered to be more ancient books and are known as Trai Viddya or the ‘Triple Sciences’. The Rigveda is the oldest and has been compiled in three long and different periods of time. The 4th Veda is the Atharvaveda, which is of a later date.

3. There is no unanimous opinion regarding the date of compilation or revelation of the four Vedas. According to Swami Dayanand, founder of the Arya Samaj, the Vedas were revealed 1310 million years ago. According to other scholars, they are not more than 4000 years old.

4. Similarly, there are differing opinions regarding the places where these books were compiled and the Rishis to whom these Scriptures were given. Inspite of these differences, the Vedas are considered to be the most authentic of the Hindu Scriptures and the real foundations of the Hindu Dharma.

2.  UPANISHADS:

1.  The word 'Upanishad' is derived from Upa meaning near, Ni which means down and Shad means to sit. Therefore ‘Upanishad’ means sitting down near. Groups of pupils sit near the teacher to learn from him the secret doctrines.

According to Samkara, ‘Upanishad’ is derived from the root word Sad which means ‘to loosen’, ‘to reach’ or ‘to destroy’, with Upa and ni as prefix; therefore ‘Upanishad’ means Brahma-Knowledge by which ignorance is loosened or destroyed.

2.  The number of Upanishads exceeds 200 though the Indian tradition puts it at 108. There are 10 principal Upanishads. However, some consider them to be more than 10, while others 18.

3.  The Vedanta meant originally the Upanishads, though the word is now used for the system of philosophy based on the Upanishad. Literally, Vedanta means the end of the Veda, Vedasua-antah, and the conclusion as well as the goal of Vedas. The Upanishads are the concluding portion of the Vedas and chronologically they come at the end of the Vedic period.

 4.  Some Pundits consider the Upanishads to be more superior to the Vedas.

3.  PURANAS:

Next in order of authenticity are the Puranas which are the most widely read scriptures. It is believed that the Puranas contain the history of the creation of the universe, history of the early Aryan tribes, life stories of the divines and deities of the Hindus. It is also believed that the Puranas are revealed books like the Vedas, which were revealed simultaneously with the Vedas or sometime close to it.

Maharishi Vyasa has divided the Puranas into 18 voluminous parts. He also arranged the Vedas under various heads.

Chief among the Puranas is a book known as Bhavishya Purana. It is called so because it is believed to give an account of future events. The Hindus consider it to be the word of God. Maharishi yasa is considered to be just the compiler of the book.

4.  ITIHAAS:

The two epics of Hinduism are the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.

A. Ramayana:

According to Ramanuja, the great scholar of Ramayana, there are more than 300 different types of Ramayana: Tulsidas Ramayana, Kumbha Ramayana. Though the outline of Ramayana is same, the details and contents differ.

Valmiki’s Ramayana:

Unlike the Mahabharata, the Ramayana appears to be the work of one person – the sage Valmiki, who probably composed it in the 3rd century BC. Its best-known recension (by Tulsi Das, 1532-1623) consists of 24,000 rhymed couplets of 16-syllable lines organised into 7 books. The poem incorporates many ancient legends and draws on the sacred books of the Vedas. It describes the efforts of Kosala’s heir, Rama, to regain his throne and rescue his wife, Sita, from the demon King of Lanka.

Valmiki's Ramayana is a Hindu epic tradition whose earliest literary version is a Sanskrit poem attributed to the sage Valmiki. Its principal characters are said to present ideal models of personal, familial, and social behavior and hence are considered to exemplify Dharma, the principle of moral order.

B. Mahabharata:

The nucleus of the Mahabharata is the war of eighteen days fought between the Kauravas, the hundred sons of Dhritarashtra and Pandavas, the five sons of Pandu. The epic entails all the circumstances leading upto the war. Involved in this Kurukshetra battle were almost all the kings of India joining either of the two parties. The result of this war was the total annihilation of Kauravas and their party. Yudhishthira, the head of the Pandavas, became the sovereign monarch of Hastinapura. His victory is supposed to symbolise the victory of good over evil. But with the progress of years, new matters and episodes relating to the various aspects of human life, social, economic, political, moral and religious as also fragments of other heroic legends came to be added to the aforesaid nucleus and this phenomenon continued for centuries until it acquired the present shape. The Mahabharata represents a whole literature rather than one single and unified work, and contains many multifarious things.

C. Bhagavad Gita:

Bhagavad Gita is a part of Mahabharata. It is the advice given by Krishna to Arjun on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. It contains the essence of the Vedas and is the most popular of all the Hindu Scriptures. It contains 18 chapters.

The Bhagavad Gita is one of the most widely read and revered of the works sacred to the Hindus. It is their chief devotional book, and has been for centuries the principal source of religious inspiration for many thousands of Hindus.

The Gita is a dramatic poem, which forms a small part of the larger epic, the Mahabharata. It is included in the sixth book (Bhismaparvan) of the Mahabaharata and documents one tiny event in a huge epic tale.

The Bhagavad Gita tells a story of a moral crisis faced by Arjuna, which is solved through the interaction between Arjuna, a Pandava warrior hesitating before battle, and Krishna, his charioteer and teacher. The Bhagavad Gita relates a brief incident in the main story of a rivalry and eventually a war between two branches of a royal family. In that brief incident - a pause on the battlefield just as the battle is about to begin - Krishna, one chief on one side (also believed to be the Lord incarnate), is presented as responding to the doubts of Arjuna. The poem is the dialogue through which Arjuna’s doubts were resolved by Krishna’s teachings.

Christianity and Islam

Christianity is a Semitic religion, which claims to have nearly 1.2 billion adherents all over the world. Christianity owes its name to Jesus Christ (peace be on him). The Holy Bible is the sacred scripture of the Christians:

a)  The Bible is divided into two parts, the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament is the Holy Scripture of the Jews and contains records of all the prophets of the Jews that came before Jesus (pbuh).

The New Testament contains records of the life of Jesus (pbuh).

b)   The complete Bible, i.e. the Old Testament and the New Testament put together, contains 73 books. However, the Protestant Bible i.e. the King James Version,  contains  only  66  books as  they  consider  7 books of the Old Testament to be apocrypha, i.e. of doubtful authority.

Therefore the Old Testament of the Catholics, contains 46 books and that of the Protestants, 39 books. However the New Testament of both these sects contains 27 books.

CONCEPT OF GOD IN CHRISTIANITY            by Dr. Zakir Naik

I) Position of Jesus (pbuh) in Islam:

(i)Islam is the only non-Christian faith, which makes it an article of faith to believe in Jesus (pbuh). No Muslim is a Muslim if he does not believe in Jesus (pbuh).

(ii) We believe that he was one of the mightiest Messengers of Allah (swt).

(iii) We believe that he was born miraculously, without any male intervention, which many modern day Christians do not believe.

(iv) We believe he was the Messiah translated Christ (pbuh).

(v) We believe that he gave life to the dead with God’s permission.

(iv) We believe that he healed those born blind, and the lepers with God’s permission.

II) Concept of God in Christianity:

1. Jesus Christ (pbuh) never claimed Divinity

One may ask, if both Muslims and Christians love and respect Jesus (pbuh), where exactly is the parting of ways? The major difference between Islam and Christianity is the Christians’ insistence on the supposed divinity of Christ (pbuh). A study of the Christian scriptures reveals that Jesus (pbuh) never claimed divinity. In fact there is not a single unequivocal statement in the entire Bible where Jesus (pbuh) himself says, "I am God" or where he says, "worship me". In fact the Bible contains statements attributed to Jesus (pbuh) in which he preached quite the contrary. The following statements in the Bible are attributed to Jesus Christ (pbuh):

(i) "My Father is greater than I."
[The Bible, John 14:28]

(ii) "My Father is greater than all."
[The Bible, John 10:29]

(iii) "…I cast out devils by the Spirit of God…."
[The Bible, Mathew 12:28]

(iv) "…I with the finger of God cast out devils…."
[The Bible, Luke 11:20]

(v) "I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgement is just; because I seek not my own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me."
[The Bible, John 5:30]

2. The Mission of Jesus Christ (pbuh) – to Fulfill the Law

Jesus (pbuh) never claimed divinity for himself. He clearly announced the nature of his mission. Jesus (pbuh) was sent by God to confirm the previous Judaic law. This is clearly evident in the following statements attributed to Jesus (pbuh) in the Gospel of Mathew:

"Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the Prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

"Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven."

"For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven."
[The Bible, Mathew 5:17-20]

3. God Sent Jesus' (pbuh)

The Bible mentions the prophetic nature of Jesus (pbuh) mission in the following verses:

(i)"… and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me."
[The Bible, John 14:24]

(ii)"And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent."
[The Bible, John 17:3]

4. Jesus Refuted even the Remotest Suggestion of his Divinity

Consider the following incident mentioned in the Bible:

"And behold, one came and said unto him, ‘Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?’

And he said unto him, ‘Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.’ "
[The Bible, Mathew 19:16-17]

Jesus (pbuh) did not say that to have the eternal life of paradise, man should believe in him as Almighty God or worship him as God, or believe that Jesus (pbuh) would die for his sins. On the contrary he said that the path to salvation was through keeping the commandments. It is indeed striking to note the difference between the words of Jesus Christ (pbuh) and the Christian dogma of salvation through the sacrifice of Jesus (pbuh).

5. Jesus (pbuh) of Nazareth – a Man Approved of God    
The following statement from the Bible supports the Islamic belief that Jesus (pbuh) was a prophet of God.

"Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know."

[The Bible, Acts 2:22]

6. The First Commandment is that God is One

The Bible does not support the Christian belief in trinity at all. One of the scribes once asked Jesus (pbuh) as to which was the first commandment of all, to which Jesus (pbuh) merely repeated what Moses (pbuh) had said earlier:  

"Shama Israelu Adonai Ila Hayno Adonai Ikhad."

This is a Hebrew quotation, which means:

"Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord."
[The Bible, Mark 12:29]

It is striking that the basic teachings of the Church such as Trinity and vicarious atonement find no mention in the Bible. In fact, various verses of the Bible point to Jesus’ (pbuh) actual mission, which was to fulfill the law revealed to Prophet Moses (pbuh). Indeed Jesus (pbuh) rejected any suggestions that attributed divinity to him, and explained his miracles as the power of the One True God.

Jesus (pbuh) thus reiterated the message of monotheism that was given by all earlier prophets of Almighty God.

NOTE: All quotations of the Bible are taken from the King James Version.

III) Concept of God in Old Testament:

1. God is One

The following verse from the book of Deuteronomy contains an exhortation from Moses (pbuh):

"Shama Israelu Adonai Ila Hayno Adna Ikhad".
It is a Hebrew quotation which means:
"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord"
[The Bible, Deuteronomy 6:4]

2.  Unity of God in the Book of Isaiah

The following verses are from the Book of Isaiah:

(i) "I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no saviour."
[The Bible, Isaiah 43:11]

(ii) "I am Lord, and there is none else, there is no God besides me."
[The Bible, Isaiah 45:5]

(iii) "I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me."
[The Bible, Isaiah 46:9]

3. Old Testament condemns idol worship

(i) Old Testament condemns idol worship in the following verses:

"Thou shalt have no other gods before me."

"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:"

"Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God."
[The Bible, Exodus 20:3-5]

(ii) A similar message is repeated in the book of Deuteronomy:

"Thou shalt have none other gods before me."

"Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that in the earth beneath, or that is in the water beneath the earth."

"Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them; for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God."
[The Bible, Deuteronomy 5:7-9]