Why Not Comparative Religion?

Why Not Comparative Religion?

by Nisaar Y. Nadiadwala on Thursday, June 23, 2011 at 11:30am

 

In 2005 April, I was in Oman with Dr. Zakir Naik. Oman is a beautiful place, and if you watch the mountain ranges from your plane it looks like a carved work of an architect with model mountains of cardboard.

The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque is the main Mosque in the Sultanate of Oman, a huge and a pretty one, being an ideal location for Da'wah to Europeans. I there I saw hundreds of them at a time watching the beauty of the Masjid and inquiring about the masjid (or rather Islam). Oman offers a lot of opportunity to interact directly with the western tourists. It was here that I realized that in modern times essential knowledge of comparative religion is very useful during the call to Islam especially when interacting with highely educated people.

A British couple visited me along with their 15 years old son. The father introduced himself as a staff in the British consulate. He said " My son is only 15 and he wants to be a Muslim and he has brought us here to meet you." After some formal talking I understood that the parents were here to persuade the boy not to accept Islam. They chose to talk about Palestine.....What is the root cause of the Palestine problem? Why dont the Arabs tolerate a tiny Israel state midst them? why are Arabs hostile against the very name of Israel.........?

I never knew that some one can use Palestine issue as a block to prevent the spread of Islam !

Back in Mumbai, I started digging out more information on Palestine issue. I studied Shaikh Deedat's talk on the subject like I had never done on any of his topics. Then I looked into Jamal Badawi's material. Both the scholars had made a good discovery to be useful for us.

Is the Middle east problem specially Palestine connected to certain religious issues or is it just a mere political problem?

Many people are made to think that it is a group of hostile Arab nations who are intolerant of Israel and refusing them their promised land...

My Hindu friend once aked me " Why do the Palaestinians fight against Israel ?" I asked him back " Why did Sri Krishna asked Arjun to fight the Kauravas?" What was the fight for? For the land that rightly belonged to the Pandavas.."For Sri Krishna Fighting for your land is called DHARM YUDH (Religious War) !

The main question is " Is Palestine really a promised land for today's Jews?"

The Promised land is reffered back to the times of Abraham in the Bible

Genesis 17 : 8 King James Version (KJV)

" And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.

Exodus 32:13 King James Version (KJV)

Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever.

If you analyse both the verses you will notice that promise was to Abraham and his seeds.. not to the Jews dirctecly. Did Abraham really get the promised land during his life time? The Bible says NO! Did his seed Isaac or Ishmael got in their life time? NO!

The Promise was not fulfilled in the lifetime of Abraham, Isaac or Jacob.

Hebrew  11:13

This all died in faith.. not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off  

Gen 25:10 Abraham was buried in the land purhcased by himself!

The field which Abraham purchased of the sons of Heth: there was Abraham buried, and Sarah his wife.

Acts 7:5

God gave Abraham no inheritance in the land, no so much as to set his foot on....

Did God gave a wrong promise? Or he did not promise at all?

Deuteronomy 18:21-22
You may say to yourselves, "How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD?"'"

when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD , if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken.. the Prophet has spoken it presumptuously, you shall not be afraid of him.....

I did not get a chance to meet  that boy again, nor do i know if he got reverted to Islam...yet one thing I got to learn is that comparative religion is also an essential tool in this age of knock out debates.

Though comparative religion is another specialised field.. yet some of us have to excell in it if not all. One day Inshallah I wil share  good inputs on this subject and expereincs of the stalwarts of this field... 

Author : Nisaar Nadiadwala speaks and writes on socio-educational topics from Islamic view point. He can be reached at nisaar_yusuf@yahoo.com

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