Islam And Sri Caitanya

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Islam And Sri Caitanya

 

by Swami B.V. Parivrajak

Co-ordinator of the World Vaisnava Association

 

Inter-religious debates have a deep value for all those who hanker

to see the establishment of Vaishavism as the world religion for all

mankind. Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism and so many other

beliefs have all their relative importance in the development of

theism. This can be loosely compared to the relative function of

many rooms in a house. That house, or Vaishnava dharma, is beyond

the reach of all those who neglect the eternal, original function of

the soul.

 

Saints and prophets reveal the knowledge of Krishna according to

time, place and circumstances. In the age of Kali, however, the

sacrifice of the saints is more intense due to the high degree of

moral corruption and forgetfulness of God. In this short essay we

are going to examine briefly the nature of the Islamic faith and its

link with the Vaishnava dharma. The article draws heavily from "The

Hidden Treasure of Al-Qu'ran", the authoritative research-work of

Dr. Akif Manaf Jabir to whom I extend here my heartfelt gratitude.

References to the Holy Koran, Sri Caitanya- caritamrita and Jaiva

Dharma are also interspersed in the presentation.

 

Idolatry

 

The mission of the holy prophet Mohammed was to reestablish the

worship of the only true God and stop idolatry, or unauthorised

demigod worship. Although Mohammed factually accepted and respected

all the sacred images as a genuine method to honour Allah, he could

not reveal this confidential information because the people of his

times were in a condition of great moral degradation. To have more

than a wife was the rule and incestuous relations beween mothers and

sons were common.

 

The ancient Arabs believed in Allah, the only God, but actually they

did not worship Him. They thought that Allah had entrusted the

management of the various functions of the universe to different

demigods. The faithful addressed these gods to invoke their

blessings. They prayed to them to get the favour of Allah. The Arabs

of the Sirian desert considered Al- Manat, the goddess of fortune,

wife of Allah and mother of all the gods. Some deities as Al- lat,

the goddess of heaven, and Al- Uzza, the goddess of Venus, were

considered the daughters of Allah. The tribes of Yemen worshipped

the sun. Others were worshipping the moon and still others the

stars. Most of them worshipped idols. Traditions and rites were

exclusively aimed to fulfil material desires. The degradation of the

moral and religious principles had reached such a level where a

messenger of God was necessary. Hazrat Muhammad (Mohammed) appeared

in order to realise this plan of the Lord.

 

 

 

 

BDas

10/21/01 3:38 PM 2 out of 5

 

 

Mohammed

 

Mohammed took birth at Mecca around 570 AD. His father died before

his birth and his mother shortly after. It was his grandfather, the

respectable Abdul Muttalib who took care of him. The Kaba was under

the custody of his grandfather. This temple, built by Adam of

Biblical reminiscence and rebuilt by others for the worship of the

only one God, was called the House of Allah. However, the main

objects of worship were 360 idols. Those who did not approve of this

situation which prevailed since centuries were known as Hunafas.

They practiced ascetic life and meditation. They often withdrew from

social life and went to live in solitary places. Mohammed grew in

the beginning as a devotee of the goddess Al-Uzza, but gradually he

came to realize the anomalies in the religious practices of his

people. He naturally came closer to the life style of the Hunafas.

For one month in a year he withdrew from family life and lived in a

cave in the desert. His place of meditation, Hira, was a desertic

hill not far from Mecca. It was there that one night he received the

first revelation of God through the angel Gabriel. During the rest

of his life, Mohammed continued to receive revelations during which

he was experiencing an ecstatic trance characterised by tremor and

profuse perspiration. This trance induced him to shout and faint

several times. The Koran (Al-Qur' an), the compilation of the

revelations of Allah, was edited only after the demise of the

prophet. Mohammed had to refound the religious consciousness of

Islam. His task was to uproot the problem of idolatry which was like

a spreading disease. In order to achieve this aim, he apparently

acted in an extremely radical way. Once, anyhow, Mohammed accepted a

sacred image. This happened during the conquest of Mecca. On that

occasion he entered the Kaba and ordered the destruction of all the

idols. There were paintings on the walls among which an image of the

Holy Mary with baby Jesus. According to the tradition, Mohammed did

not allow this image to be destroyed.

 

The nature of Allah

 

The Koran establishes the impersonal nature of God, but a closer

reading reveals the personal God. Once Mohammed explained that in

each of the verses of the Koran there is an external as well as an

internal meaning. Five hundred years ago, in the conversation with

the saint Abdullah Pathan, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu offered His

realised interpretation of the Sacred Koran. After visiting

Vrindavan, Sri Caitanya was on the way to Allahabad when, in a

condition of ecstatic rapture, he fainted in a village. Some Pathan

soldiers saw the condition of Sri Caitanya and concluded that His

companions must have poisoned Him and killed Him in order to steal

His possessions. Balabhadra Bhattacharya and other assistants of Sri

Caitanya were immediately arrested. It was only after Sri Caitanya

went back to the external consciousness that they were released.

 

 

 

 

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10/21/01 3:41 PM 3 out of 5

 

 

Among the Muslims was present the saint Abdullah Pathan, who

discussed with Sri Caitanya about the nature of Allah. Abdullah

Pathan tried to establish the impersonal nature of God on the basis

of the revelations of the Koran. All historians confirm that Sri

Caitanya was a great expert of all the religions of the world and

had full knowledge of all the meanings, external as well as

internal, of the verses of the Sacred Scripture. Sri Caitanya

said, "The Koran has certainly established the impersonal nature of

God, but ultimately it rejects impersonalism and establishes the

personal God." Sri Caitanya pointed out that according to the Holy

Koran, Allah is also a person. One who thinks, wills, feels, has

senses, desires, qualities, remembrance, knowledge, relationship

with others, individual existence, activities and identity is

defined as a person. If this definition of a person is applicable to

Allah, we should accept Mahaprabhu's statement regarding the

personal aspect of Allah.

 

Since the Koran proclaims that Allah is unlimited, then He must be

simultaneously personal and impersonal. This is possible because

Allah is not a person in a limited mundane sense. His personality is

completely spiritual, free from any material qualities and beyond

the limits of time and space. The Koran itself suggests that Allah

has different personal features.

 

Innallaaha la-Zuu-Fazlin 'alan-naasi wa laa- kinna 'aksa- rahum laa

yash-kuruun

 

"Allah is bountiful toward men, but most of them are ungrateful"

(10.60)

 

Inna Rabii Latiful-limaa yashaaa / 'inna-huu Huwal- 'Aliimul- Hakiim

 

"My Lord is tender to whom He will. For He is the knower, the wise."

(12.100)

 

Innallaaha la-'Afuw-wun Gafur"

 

"Behold! Verily Allah is mild and forgiving." (22.60)

 

In these few Qur'anic verses, Allah has been described as fazlin, or

bountiful; latif, or tender; hakim, or wise; afuw, or mild; gafur,

or forgiving. Obviously the owner of these qualities must be a

person. Otherwise how can an abstract power be bountiful or

forgiving, mild or wise? To say that an impersonal truth has all

these qualities, which factually require a personal awareness, is

meaningless. Sri Caitanya explained to the Pathans that Allah is the

Supreme Person and should be worshipped through the sankirtana-

yajna, the congregational chant of the holy names of the Lord.

 

"Chant the name of Rahman!"

 

Mahaprabhu found references in the Holy Koran to show the Pathan

soldiers how this spiritual method is not the exclusive monopoly of

any religious sect. It is a universal method and is recommended in

all the true Scriptures of the world. It is possible to develop love

of God if we sincerely take shelter in the Supreme Lord and sing His

holy names. In the Sacred Koran (17.110) it is said,

 

qulid-'ullaha 'awid-'ur rahman 'ayyama tad-'u fala-hul-'asma-'ul-

husna

 

"Invoke Allah, invoke Rahman, the most merciful one. Invoke Him

through any of His names. To Him belong the most beautiful names."

According to a famous Islamic tradition, the knowledge of Allah is

based upon one hundred names, one of which remains secret. It is

said that one can conquer the world, if he discovers the hidden name.

(A list of the 99 names of Allah is available on request.

 

 

 

 

 

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10/21/01 3:44 PM 4 out of 5

 

Shyama-kalevara

 

Then Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, tomara shastre kahe sheshe 'eka-i-

ishvara sarvaishvarya-purna tenho - shyama kalevara (Caitanya-

caritamrita Madhya-lila 18.190)

 

"In your Holy Scripture it is said that ultimately there is only one

God. He is full of opulence and His bodily complexion is shyama,

blackish like a monsoon cloud." In the sura "Al-Baqarah", or "The

Cow" of the Holy Koran there is a specific verse which confirms this

statement of Mahaprabhu's.

 

sibgatallah wa man 'ah - sanu minallahi sibgah

 

"We take our colour from Allah and who is better than Allah at

colouring?" (2.138)

 

In this verse it is explained that nobody can surpass Allah in

lending colour to His own creation. He is the source of all colours

and possesses them too. No wonder that some colour of this material

world should resemble His colour. Besides, Mohammed personally said

to his associates, "We take our colour from Allah". If the colour of

the Arabs resembles that of Allah, we can safely conclude that Allah

is of a beautiful dark complexion. And Krishna is that selfsame

Allah. In fact, one of the most celebrated names of Krishna is

Shyamasundara, the beautiful boy with shyama kalevara, the colour of

a stormy cloud. This dark colour(shyama), fully spiritual, is beyond

the perception of the material senses and the mind.

 

Esk is the goal of life

 

Sri Caitanya explained that the purpose of the Holy Koran is to

establish within the human society that Allah (Krishna), is the

Absolute Truth, the Supreme Being, and that to develop esk, or pure

love, for Allah is the ultimate goal of life.

 

The saint Abdullah Pathan, fully convinced by the expert preaching

of Sri Caitanya, was later on initiated into the Vaishnava faith.

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu renamed him Ram Das. Afterwards all the

soldiers, transformed by the charismatic presence of Sri Caitanya,

embraced the life of renunciation.

 

In Jaiva Dharma Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura has reported an exchange

of opinions about the ultimate goal of life between the Vaisnava

saint Lahiri Mahashaya and the Head of the Mohammedan community or

Kazi. Lahiri Mahashay put a question to the Kazi, "Will you kindly

give me your definition of mukti as per your Koran?" The Kazi

replied,"According to the Holy Koran, there are two kinds of 'ru' or

individual souls. The ru in bondage is known as tarkavi-ru, the ru

which is eternally free is the mujarradi-ru.'Alam-misala' is the

name of the spiritual world. 'Esk' means prema. By culturing esk, ru

becomes pure and trascends mundanity. All this has been stated in

the Koran, but all Mohammedans are not competent to understand these

points." Are 'esk' and 'prema' on the same level? Again we find the

answer in Jaiva Dharma. The words of Srila Sanatana Goswami, who was

deeply learned in the Muslim language and tradition, are quoted in

this regard. Sanatan Goswami said, "The word esk means love, but

unfortunately the Muslim preachers cannot understand it properly. By

the word esk they mean either phyical or mental demonstration of

love on the mundane plane."

 

Links

 

The religion of the jivas is one. Apparently there is no reason why

the religion of the individual souls should vary according to race,

language and country. We can see that a variety of mental

dispositions causes the jaiva dharma to appear in a perverted form.

Actually all religions are pure in proportion to the degree of

Vaishnava dharma they display. As humble preachers we are glad to

find the connecting points between the different beliefs and the

eternal sanatana-dharma. For instance, at the end of the Gita

(18.66) Sri Krishna had requested Arjuna to abandon any form of

irreligion and religion, and simply surrender unto Him. The Holy

Koran (3.31) maintains the same principle:

 

qul 'in-kuntum tuhibu-nallaha fatabi -'uni yahbib-kumullahu wa

yagfir lakum zunubakum wallahu gafurur-rahim

 

"If you love Allah, follow me. Allah will love you. He will forget

your sins because Allah is the One who forgives, the Merciful." We

shall end here by remembering that Allahu Akbar. Yes, Allah

(Krishna) is great and Mohammed is His prophet (or a prominent one).

Nobody before Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, however, had revealed to the

world the real meaning of Allah's greatness and glory.

 

Swami B.V. Parivrajak

Co-ordinator of the World Vaisnava Association