14 Jun 2024
O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,
1. Please give Your reply on the following statement of a Muslim.
[Shri Anil Antony asked: Padanamaskaram Swami. A Muslim devotee Dr. Zakir Naik preaches the following points. I request You to give responses to these points, at Your Lotus Divine Feet-anil.
Allah cannot be Brahma: Muslims can have no objection if Almighty God is referred to as ‘Kaaliq’ or ‘Creator’ or ‘Brahma’. However if it is said that Brahma is Almighty God who has four heads with each head having crown, Muslims take strong exception to it. Describing Almighty God in anthropomorphic terms also goes against the following verse of Yajurveda, “Na tasya Pratima asti”.]
Swami replied:- Brahmaa means the four headed mediated God carrying on the creation. Brahma is the unimaginable God doing creation by merging with the mediated God Brahmaa, carrying on the maintenance of the creation by merging with the four handed mediated God Vishnu and carrying on the dissolution of the creation by merging with the five headed mediated God Shiva. The Muslim preacher is confused between Brahmaa and Brahma.
2. Are there any unscientific points in the Vedas?
[Quran Vs Veda: Allah says in Surah Hijr 15 Verse no. 9 that “We have revealed the Qur’an & we shall guard it from corruption” Qur’an is also called as the Furqaan, the Criteria to judge right from wrong. So what I say that whatever is matching with the Qur’an in the Vedas I accept it to be true. What doesn’t match I leave it aside, because Vedas hasn’t maintained its pure form according to the Hindu scholars. So what I say whatever matches with the Qur’an I say I’ve got no objection this part may be the word of God but I don’t agree everything of the Vedas. There are many unscientific points in the Vedas I can give a talk on that which I don’t intend giving. I can give hundreds of unscientific things mentioned in the Vedas.]
Swami replied:- This is the blind fascination towards the scripture of one’s own religion. If you give a hundred unscientific points about other religions, all other religions will give you one lakh unscientific points in your own scripture. It is not the question of scientific or unscientific because science can never explain the unimaginable miracles done by the unimaginable God through His mediated forms. We should analyze logical and illogical concepts present in all the scriptures without any prejudice and bias. We shall accept all logical concepts and reject all illogical concepts from every scripture irrespective of religion.
3. The Veda is not mentioned in the Quran. Please comment.
[Veda not mentioned in Quran: Can I consider Vedas to be the word of God? Do I consider the Veda totally to be correct? See by name only 4 are mentioned Torah, Zaboor, Injeel & the Qur’an but there were many books revealed by Allah. Now regarding Veda, can I consider it to be the word of God? Since Veda is not mentioned by name in the Qur’an or in any authentic Hadith I cannot say for sure that it is the word of God. I can say may be it is or may be not. But even if Veda was the word of God it was meant for those people and for that time. Today we have to follow the last and final revelation i.e. the Glorious Qur’an for the whole of humankind.]
Swami replied:- Time is meaningless in the view of a concept since a logically decided concept is always authoritative by itself either in the past or in the present or in the future. This preacher is fully blind with the fascination towards the scripture of his religion. Unless you have an open and a broad mind to find out the truth irrespective of the scripture of any religion, you are not fit to enter the stage of scholars with universal outlook because God is one and this universe is one.
4. Shall we have to follow only Quran as Mohammed is the last Prophet?
[Jesus’ second coming: In Jesus’s second coming he will not get any new message. Messenger means who gets a message. He will not come as a Rasool. He will come to testify to the Christians I (Jesus) never claimed divinity. The message that got, the Injeel, was there about 2000 years back that has been corrupted now Muhammad came so even Prophet Jesus when he comes back he will follow the message of the Qur’an and the message of Prophet Muhammad. So as a messenger in following the message the last is Prophet Muhammad Peace.]
Swami replied:- If you say that Jesus never claimed divinity, it means that He has not done any miracle. But, He did several miracles and He attributed the divine power to the Divine Father (call Him Allah or Jehova or Brahma). In fact, Jesus and Mohammad are also one God since both are incarnations of the same one God. If the incarnation is not announcing its divinity, it only means that the devotee shall not get ego if the devotee attains any divine power from God and that the devotee shall always pass on the credit to God only.
5. Can a Muslim take Prasadam from the temples?
[Eating Prasadam from temple: To the question ‘Can a Muslim take Prasadam from the temples?’ “Forbidden to you for food are dead meat, blood, the flesh of swine and any food on which any name besides Allah’s name is taken.” So eating Prasad is Haram. It’s not permitted in Islam. But we know many Muslims, we don’t want to offend, we don’t want to offend our non-Muslims so what they do, some of the Muslims, they say Bismillah and eat it. Eating any food on which any name besides Allah’s name is taken is prohibited in Islam.]
Swami replied:- This preacher is always parroting the lines of the scripture straight, taking only its literal sense. He should read in between the lines and understand the implied sense also. There is nothing to talk or discuss with any preacher, who is totally blind with climax fascination towards the scripture of his/her own religion. Speaking with such a preacher will be like speaking with a deaf fellow! Such preacher will not reach God since he will reach only the liquid fire of hell.
6. What is the essence of the following Quranic verse?
[General question on Quran: “I did not create the jinns and the humans except to worship Me alone” as per Quran. What is the essence of this verse?]
Swami replied:- Here, the word ‘Me’ means the unimaginable God mediated in different forms like a single person dressed in different clothes. A narrow-minded soul takes God in a specific form with a specific name only. A good devotee takes the good God in universal sense as the one unimaginable God existing in different forms with different names. A good devotee has all the three eyes (the third eye is hidden on the forehead called Jnaana Netram or eye of knowledge) in opened state whereas a blind conservative has all the three eyes in closed condition!
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