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 Vaishnavism 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
unauthorized demigod worship. Although Mohammed factually accepted and respected all the sacred images as a
genuine method to honor 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 between
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 favor of Allah. The Arabs of the Syrian 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
worshiped the sun. Others were worshiping the moon and still others the stars. Most of them worshiped idols.
Traditions and rites were exclusively aimed to fulfill 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 realize this plan of the Lord. 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 characterized 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 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 realized
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. 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 worshiped through the sankirtana- yajna, the congregational chant of the holy names of the Lord.

Seite 3 von 3

"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.

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 coloring?" (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
colors 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 transcends 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 physical 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.