Our Lord has sent Messengers to every nation who called on their people to believe in Allah. They conveyed to them Allah’s commandments and recommendations and taught them ways of worship. In Hinduism and other false beliefs on the other hand, superstitious practices and traditions developed over the centuries are continue in the form of “pseudo -worship” and under the pretext of loyalty to ancestors. In reality it is superstitious ritualistic idolatry. Hindus believe that this ritualistic worship brings them closer to their gods and that they are doing good which will benefit them in their next incarnation. Surely all these beliefs are a grave error. Allah reveals the situation of people who deny by association in the following way:
… Which are not capable of helping them and cannot even help themselves? (Surat al-A‘raf: 192)
The world of the Hindus is a dark one. Superstitious rituals, idolatrous ceremonies, perverted practices and offerings dominate every moment of the lives of a billion people, preventing them from the peace of believing in Allah, and from experiencing the dignified and happy life prescribed by Him, by keeping them imprisoned in a dark and gloomy world. A Hindu is obliged to follow certain superstitious rituals from birth until death and one of the meanings of the word “Hindu” (darkness) is fairly descriptive of this religion.16
There are over one hundred religious festivals in the Hindu calendar, the examination of which reveals many astonishing, bizarre and irrational practices. For instance, the Naga Panchami festival is dedicated to a god called “eternity snake”. Millions of Hindus, many of whom are well educated, make and mindlessly worship huge snake idols. First, they wash the stone idols with milk and then make offerings of milk and cake to living cobras.17 The Ganesha Chaturthi festival is dedicated to Ganesha, a god represented as half elephant, half man. During this festival, an idol made of clay measuring 8 meters (26 feet) is brought home. For between 2 and 10 days this idol is perversely revered and then caste into the sea or a lake by a large crowd with offerings of coconuts and balls of sweet cakes.18 (According to the so called sacred Hindu scriptures Ganesha is a god prominent with his elephant head and it is believed that he is the son of the gods Shiva and Parvarti, themselves important deities in the Hindu tradition. One day, Parvati cuts Ganesha’s head off by mistake. Saddened by this, Parvati puts the head of the first creature that passes by Ganesha and thus revives him. This idol invariably has offerings of cake and milk before him.) The Hindus’ superstitious love and reverence for their deities is an act of ignorance committed by the deniers by association. Allah reveals:
Some people set up equals to Allah, loving them as they should love Allah. But those who have faith have greater love for Allah. If only you could see those who do wrong at the time when they see the punishment, and that truly all strength belongs to Allah, and that Allah is severe in punishment. (Surat al-Baqara: 165)
The few examples of the superstitious rituals cited above serve to expose the irrational aspects of the Hindu religion. Those who consider Hinduism as a so-called “religion of spiritual freedom and salvation” are in a great error as the myths of the superstitious Hindu faith force people to blindly follow a system of traditions without having a rational basis for them. The Hindu religion has made an educated, civilized and cultured people prostrate themselves before cows and obliges them to make food offerings to stone idols.
Accepting and practicing the traditions of their ancestors without questioning them rationally or conscientiously has been one of the greatest predicaments afflicting pagans throughout history. Allah reveals this type of bigotry in the Surah Luqman:
When they are told: “Follow what Allah has sent down,” they say, “No, we will follow what we found our fathers doing.” What! Even if satan is calling them to the punishment of the Blazing Fire? (Surah Luqman: 21)
Islam on the other hand invites people to follow the only absolute and permanent truth in the universe, Allah’s revelation instead of superstitious traditions. People who enter Islam abide in Almighty Allah, He Who created them and all the universe, and His revealed book of guidance, and not some culture created by people at a certain time in history. Islam, the true religion of Allah, frees people from superstitious beliefs, myths, nonsensical traditions and unquestioned social rules. It calls a person only to abide and live by Allah’s rules and His infinite wisdom which is the only way to find happiness and salvation as Allah, Who made this religion and created man, knows every need of man’s soul and body, its weaknesses, necessities and remedies. Allah has chosen Islam as the religion for us, the people He created. Since the beginning of time, Allah has taught this religion to people through His messengers such as the Prophets Noah (pbuh), Abraham (pbuh), Moses (pbuh) and Jesus (pbuh) and revealed it again to us through his final messenger the Prophet Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace). That is why Allah says: “…Today I have perfected your religion for you and completed My blessing upon you and I am pleased with Islam as a religion for you” (Surat al-Ma’ida: 3)
The true faith sent down by Allah purges believers of all irrationality, pessimism, idol-worship and nonsense. Hinduism, on the other hand, imprisons its believers in a bigoted world that depresses the spirit and represses the mind. The perverted rituals of Hinduism once again demonstrate this fact.
HINDUISM’S SO-CALLED SACRED SCRIPTURES ARE FULL OF ERRONEOUS MYTHS
Our Lord has sent forth a messenger to every nation to guide them to salvation. Messengers lead their nations by the word of Allah, He Who has created the universe out of nothing and knows the truth of everything. Allah revealed the Torah to the Prophet Moses (pbuh) the Psalms to the Prophet David (pbuh) and the Gospel to the Prophet Jesus (pbuh). The source of Islam is the holy book of the Qur’an, revealed to our Prophet Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) by our Lord. Allah reveals in the Qur’an that the Torah, Psalms and the Gospel have been tampered with and falsified by people since their revelation, but the Qur’an has reached us exactly as it was revealed to our Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace). Allah says: “It is We Who have sent down the Reminder and We Who will preserve it.” (Surat al-Hijr: 9)
The Qur’an was revealed for us to read, to understand and to learn from, to get to know our Lord, He Who has created the universe out of nothingness, and to know how to serve Him and to respect His limits. Allah explains His verses by many examples and narratives. As Allah reveals with the following verse, the Qur’an is complete and faultless: “… We have not omitted anything from the Book.” (Surat al-An‘am: 38). Many details of this life on earth as well as the hereafter are revealed in great detail and in the most befitting way in the Qur’an, and Allah reveals this fact with this verse: “We have sent down to you a Book containing your Reminder. So will you not use your intellect” (Surat al-Anbiya’: 10) The Qur’an is Allah’s word and guidance to salvation for all people. It addresses every human being on earth and covers all eras since it revelation.
Hinduism on the other hand is a sum total of superstitions without divine foundations, produced by certain people thousands of years ago reflecting their false beliefs, narrow-mindedness and ignorance. It therefore defies logic and reason. The scriptures considered to be the Hindus’ sacred books, have been written by the Aryan conquerors of India and various Hindu leaders, and contain myths, tales and pure fantasy. However, Hindus do not wish to acknowledge this fact but chose to consider the Hindu texts, especially the Vedas, as so-called Divine guidance. They persist in regarding the erroneous teachings of these scriptures and their invented, irrational, and illogical tales as infallible guidance. For this reason they consider, according to their own ignorant minds, their dark and gloomy world as the ideal social model of life.
Throughout history, many nations persisted in allegiance to the false religions and traditions inherited from their ancestors despite being taught Allah’s true religion:
When they are told, “Come to what Allah has sent down and to the Messenger,” they say, “What we found our fathers doing is enough for us.” What! Even if their fathers did not know anything and were not guided! (Surat al-Ma’ida: 104)
When they are told, “Follow what Allah has sent down to you,” They say, “We are following what we found our fathers doing.” What, even though their fathers did not understand a thing and were not guided! (Surat al-Baqara: 170)
They said, “Have you come to us to turn us from what we found our fathers doing, and to gain greatness in the land? We do not believe you.” (Surah Yunus: 78)
It is possible to define Hinduism as the accumulated total of ways of life promoted by various people without a basis in Allah’s revelation, and brought together after a time under one name and then declared supposedly sacred by man. However, even false religions have a book or scriptures containing their rules and practices. Especially when the numbers of followers begin to swell and these false beliefs’ reach widens, written scriptures become an ever greater necessity and thus the myths, worship rituals and erroneous beliefs that were circulating for centuries by word of mouth, come to be committed to paper. These books are written by various people. For this reason it is possible to find in such scriptures many contradictions, irrational and illogical narratives, much nonsense, tales glorifying moral and psychological degeneration and whole chapters promoting sexual misconduct and perversion. This is an invitation to a gloomy life based on myths.
The various branches of Hinduism are based on four books known as the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Puranas and the holy Brahmans. Hindus’ lives, perverse worship, complex beliefs and rituals are all based on these superstitious books. The Brahman, termed to be the “science of sacrifice”, contains detailed descriptions of rules and rituals and is essentially an explanation of the Vedas. Despite the fact that these books are full of contradictions, nonsense and moral perversion, they have become the guiding principles of Hindus.
Almost the entire content of these scriptures, considered to be sacred by Hindus, are contradictory and nonsensical, which is why it is such a grave and surprising error on the part of the Hindus to adopt these texts as guiding principles which are strictly adhered to. This chosen, but false, religion brings them much grief in this world. Worshipping their deities for days, even months on end, praying to their idols in shocking rituals and all their other efforts made in this respect will not benefit them in any way. Unless they abandon this mistake of theirs, our Lord’s revelation will bring everything the idolaters do to naught. (Surat al-An‘am: 88)
Islam and Far Eastern Religions 