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Authenticity of the True Path By: Bijla Singh An Unfounded Statement Muslims claim that Guru Sahib did not speak against “certain evil practices” which is completely false. Guru Sahib’s message clearly condemns the immoral and evil practices of the past and present time. This is because the divine message is based on principles which are the foundation of morality. Gurbani rejects idol worship, caste system, widow burning, abortion (female feticide), subjugation of women and many other evil practices. Listing every evil practice is absurd because it makes the divine message dependent on time and place and becomes useless once the evil practice is abolished. This is why Gurbani is superior to Quran because it contains principles which are universal and independent of time and place. It was Mohammad who, instead of stopping people from engaging in evil practices, advocated them and made them part of his own lifestyle and Islam. Polygamy, owning and raping slaves, dowry and pedophilia are some of the practices advocated by Mohammad. He also did not speak against caste system, burning of the widow, devdasi system, female feticide and inequality of women. Quran greatly subjugates and mortifies women by taking away their personal rights and making them go through a humiliating and evil divorce process. They are degraded to the level of personal property. Where then is the so-called “revealed” message in Quran and how can it be universal and applicable to the entire humanity when it does not even have a shred of morality and instead advocates many immoral and evil practices which are considered illegal in many countries in the modern world? Authenticity of Islam In this section we analyze some of Islamic core beliefs and scrutinize their authenticity. 1) Kalima Every person must recite Kalima in order to become a Muslim. Reciting Kalima is the first step or initiation in Islam. It is an astonishing fact that the very first step in becoming a Muslim, reading Kalima, is missing from Quran. Also, there is not a single verse in Quran that explicitly makes it obligatory for Muslims to recite Kalima. Hence, the method of initiation is missing from the so-called “revealed” text. Due to absence of a clear guidance of initiating others into Islam, Muslims were forced to create one on their own for all Muslims to follow. This is why we find Kalima written in Hadiths which came into existence during later time period. Even then, there is no evidence to prove that Mohammad himself read the Kalima and if it has been unaltered since then. Muslims believe that Mohammad was the first one to recite it at the moment he found out he was the messenger. Assuming Mohammad did recite the first Kalima then its form would’ve been something like “There is no god but Allah, and I am his messenger”. Mohammad could not have referred to himself as third person. Therefore it is reasonable to assume that if Mohammad ever recited the Kalima (which he never did) then its form has been changed by Muslims (replacing “I” with Mohammad) to make it more suitable for others to recite it. It goes to show that Mohammad established no clear way of initiation into his religion. In its absence Muslims had to come up with a new way to bring in more converts. Hence, reciting Kalima is simply a method created by gullible Muslims. On the other hand, initiation ceremony in Sikhi was started by Guru Nanak Sahib. Every person (man and woman equally) was given Naam through ‘charan-amrit’ as a way of initiation. Rehat (explained above) was given. Guru Gobind Singh Ji in 1699 changed ‘charan-amrit’ to ‘Khanday Da Amrit’ (double edged sword) which has been the traditional practice ever since. The ceremony is performed exactly the way it was by Guru Sahib and the same rehat is given to new initiates. Thus, Guru Sahib established a firm way of initiation into Sikhi. 2) Quran Before questioning the rehat maryada, Muslims need to pay more attention to Quran and try to make it an error free document as far as grammar and math is concerned. Even then its authenticity cannot be established since it was not written by Mohammad. There is no single proof to verify if Gabriel understood the actual words of God and what Gabriel further passed to Mohammad was fully understood in literal and contextual sense by Mohammad. Further, the message written down by Muslims could not even be verified and checked for errors by Mohammad since he was an illiterate person. Quran was written after the message was verbally “revealed” from God to Gabriel to Mohammad to Muslims. Deliverance of any verbal message is prone to different interpretations, errors and deficiencies. Thus, Quran is not free of errors and is a document of opinions and interpretations of pagans turned Muslims who neither had any divine knowledge nor did they have any reference let alone “revelation” to rectify their own mistakes. Furthermore, abrogation (replacing or cancelling one verse with another) is allowed which means that the so-called ‘revealed’ message is not consistent throughout Quran and word of Allah is not unchanged as suggested in verses 4:82 and 10:64. Not a single copy of the Quran exists that was written and finalized while Mohammad was alive. It was compiled by Abu Bakr after Mohammad’s death. When Uthman was the caliph many various copies of Quran were circulating which resulted in him finalizing the Quran and ordering the other copies to be burnt. This is in stark contrast to the Sikh scripture, Guru Granth Sahib, that was written and checked by the Gurus themselves. Sikh Gurus ensured that the divine message was written exactly the same as it was revealed and did not lose its true interpretation. The first ever written copy of Guru Granth Sahib still exists today. Many copies bearing the signatures of Guru Sahib are preserved in many Gurdwaras and in private households. 3) Salah Reciting five prayers daily is considered one of the five pillars of Islam. Each prayer must be read at a particular time of the day. It is generally believed by Muslims that one who does not follow this principle is not a Muslim even if he has recited Kalima. Surprisingly, Quran is quite about specific prayers that must be read, how many times a day and at what times. Although it does mention that prayers must be read but specific times, prayers and number of prayers are not mentioned. The “last prophet” or “Allah” simply forgot to mention the very prayers that must be read. How ridiculous is the fact that it was made obligatory for Muslims to pray but were never told which prayers to recite. In the absence of clear guidance, Muslims were left with no choice but to rectify this shortcoming of Islam by selecting five times for the prayers. Even then, there is no clear guidance on which particular prayers must be read. Muslims usually read the opening suras (Al-Fathia) and then say whatever they want. It is noteworthy to mention that reciting Quranic verses daily is not a requirement set forth by Mohammad. Was it because he did not consider verses worthy enough to be part of the prayers or were they ‘revealed’ for some other purpose? Only he knows but the fact remains that requirement of praying five times a day is simply an opinion of gullible and simple minded Muslims and not an instruction given to Muslims by Mohammad. On the contrary, all Sikh prayers are found in Guru Granth Sahib and Dasam Granth Sahib. These prayers are revealed word of Akal Purakh (God) and have been part of Sikh rehat from the beginning. The times of reading are also found in many authentic texts such as Vaars and Rehatnamas. 4) Other Practices It is worth mentioning that many of the Muslim practices can be found being part of the pre-Islamic traditions. Pilgrimage (including hajj, shaving, running between Safa and Marwa, kissing black stone, throwing pebbles), fasting, circumcision and five prayers etc. all originate from pagan and Jewish practices. In fact, word “Allah” is also not revealed since Mohammad’s father and uncle were named Abdallah and Obeidallah respectively. Furthermore, the holiest place of Muslims, Mecca, used to be the worshipping place of pagan and ancient Arab tribes. Muslims during Mohammad’s time forcibly took over and converted it to a Muslim place of worship. Direction to be faced during prayer was changed from Jerusalem to Kaaba by Mohammad, which is clearly copied from the Jews. Mohammad had no idea of what to preach and in order to establish his fake prophethood, he copied and modified practices of pagans and other traditions. It is clear that Mohammad’s message is not revealed and Muslim code of conduct is copied from ancient religions, customs and cultures. This makes the Islamic message and practices unauthentic. Other Sikh practices such as the four cardinal sins (cutting or trimming hair, eating kutha meat, tobacco and adultery), kirtan (singing hymns), going to sangat (holy congregation), Naam japna (meditation), seva (self-less service), dasvandh (giving tenth of income to charity) etc all have been part of the rehat since the times of the Gurus. Again, references can be found in the Vaars, Rehatnamas and other historical sources. |
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