Vivekanada on Islam, Part 1
Dinesh Agrawal
Swami Vivekananda was like Rama. He never spared his words. His exhortations
to cast away fear and speak the unvarnished truth earned him titles like the
'cyclonic Hindu' the "warrior monk". His thinking on Islam makes very
perceptive reading.
Swami ji said "people who deny the efficiency of any investigation into
religion seem to me somewhat to be contradicting themselves. For instance the
Christian claims that his religion is the only true one, because it was
revealed to so and so. The Mohammedan makes the same claims for his religion;
his is the only true one because it was revealed to so and so. But the
Christian says to the Mohammedan, "Certain parts of your ethics do not seem to
be right. For instance, your books say, Mohammedan friend, that an infidel may
be converted to the religion of the Mohammed by force and if he will not accept
the Mohammedan religion he may be killed; and any Mohemmedan who kills such an
infidel will get a sure entry into heaven, whatever may have been his sins or
misdeeds". The Mohammedan will retort by saying, "It is right for me to do so
because my book enjoins it. It will be wrong on my part not to do so". The
Christian says: "But my book does not say so". The Mohammedan replies " I do
not know. I am not bound by the authority of your book; my book says, I kill
all the infidels'. How do you know which is right and which is wrong? Surely
what is written in my book is right and what your book says, 'Do not kill, is
wrong..'The books fighting among themselves cannot be the judges. Decidedly
then we have to admit that there is something higher than we have to admit that
there is something more universal than these books, something higher that all
the ethical codes that are in the world, something which can judge between the
strength of inspirations of different nations. Whether we declare it boldly
clearly or not - it is evident that here we appeal to reason (The Complete
Work of Swami Vivekananda, Vol I 368-69).
After giving a brief history of Mohammed's early life that: He grew up a
trader. At the age of 25 he became an overseer of the rich widow Khadija. In
595 AD he married Khadija. By the time he reached 40 he started spending some
time in a year in a lonly cave on Mount Hira. It was here that he experienced
a vision of the Angel Gabriel who addressed him as the Messenger of Allah or
God and not the prophet. Mohammed's mother Amminah often claimed that she was
visited by spirits and at times claimed to have visions and religious experien-
ces. This background prompted Swamiji to say: " Mohammed claimed that the Angel
Gabriel came to him in a cave one day and took him on the heavenly horse, Harak
and he visited the heavens. But with all that Mohammed spoke some wonderful
truths. If you read the Koran, you find the most wonderful truths mixed with
superstitions. How will you explain this? That man was inspired, no doubt, but
that inspiration was as it were stumbled upon. He was not a trained Yogi, and
did not know the reason of what he was doing. Think of the great evil that has
been done through his fanaticism! Think of the millions massacred through his
teachings, mothers bereft of their children, children made orphans whole
countries destroyed, millions upon millions of people killed". (I. 184)
"Mohammedanism came as a message for the masses. The first massage was
equality, this great message was perfectly simple. Believe in one God, the
creator of heaven and earth. Their temples are like protestant churches, no
music, no paintings, no pictures. A pulpit in the corner. On that lies the
Koran. The people all stand in line. No priest, no parson, no bishop" (I.481).
Swamiji further said: "The Mohammedan who thinks that every ritual, every
form, image or ceremony used by a non-Mohammedan is sinful does not think so
when he comes to his own shrine, the Kaaba. Every religious Mohammedan where-
ever he prays, must imagine that he is standing before the Kaaba. When he
makes a pilgrimage there, he must kiss the black stone in the wall of the
shrine. All the kisses that have been imprinted on that stone, by millions
and millions of pilgrims will stand up as witnesses for the benefit of the
faithful on the last day of judgement. Then there is the well of Zam Zam.
Mohammedans believe that who ever draws a little water out of that well will
have sins pardoned, and he will, after the day of resurrection, have a fresh
body, and live for ever (II:39). The Mohammedans use the graves of their
sainst and martyres almost in the place of images (III:61).
Of the Muslim Paradise, Swamiji said: "They say that the heaven is a
place where there are gardens, beneath which rivers run. In the desert of
Arabia, water is very desirable, so the Mohammedan always conceive of his
heaven as containing much water. (II:316)
Following is an often quoted Swamiji's view on the synthesis of Hinduism
and Islam, the people do not go in the depth of this Utopian hope: "My
experience is that if any religion approached equality in an appreciable manner
it is Islam and Islam alone. Therefore, I am firmly persuaded that without the
help of practical Islam, theories of Vedantism, however fine and wonderful they
may be, are entirely valueless to the vast mass of mankind. We want to lead
mankind to the place where there is neither the Vedas, nor the Bible, nor the
Koran yet this has to be done by harmonising the Vedas, the Bible and the
Koran... For our own motherland a junction of the two great systems, Hinduism
and Islam-Vedanta brain and Islam body- is the only hope." Here Swamiji is
very clear that concept of equality of Islam has to be extended to the univer-
sal equality as propounded in the Vedantic thought, and the division of the
mankind into the land of believers and non-believers or Muslims, Zimmis and
Kafirs as enjoined and sanctioned in the Koran has to be done with by synthe-
sizing the basic Islamic truths with the Vedantic truth of divinity in all,
then only the fusion of Islamic body and Vedantic brain would work.
.......to be continued....