If Islam considers idolatry the greatest sin how can it co-exist with Hinduism?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, if Muslims consider that idolatry is the greatest of all sins and this is the mainstream idea then how can they coexist with other religions? Yes, that is where the reformation is required.
So, we have to understand that every tradition will need, tradition is not just a matter of connection with the past. A living tradition is connected with the past but it’s also connected with the present and that connection with the present is what makes the tradition relevant. Connection with the past makes the tradition faithful, that is the fidelity of the tradition.
Connection with the present requires flexibility. If there is no flexibility then sooner or later the tradition becomes simply a museum exhibit, that just becomes extinct. So, there is, as far as the moderate Muslims are concerned, they do recognize that there are people who are going to have different beliefs from ours and because we live in a multicultural world, we cannot impose our beliefs on them.
So, now to what way they themselves reconcile the concept, the worship of the deities, the worship of images, that is up to them. So, many Christians reconcile it by, they talk about the Saguna Brahma and Nirguna Brahma and they say, okay, this form is worship and there is a formless also. And then they find it that, okay, this is something which is for some people, this is for bhakta, this is the form, but for the jnanis there is no form.
That’s how they reconcile it. So, each tradition will find its own way to reconcile the beliefs of some other traditions which don’t agree with it. So, that is the whole challenge of being connected with the current world.
So, those who cannot stick, those who are not ready to connect like that, either they have to, they will become irrelevant or they become dominant, then others have to leave from there because they cannot live. They cannot live in harmony with others. So, we as devotees, we need to focus on, there are significant differences between the deity and the idol.
The first and foremost is that there is a clear description of the form of God given in our scriptures and it is based on that description of the form that there is a depiction. So, in that sense, this is not an imagination, this is not a concoction, this is a replication as per the description given in the scriptures. So, that’s why what was applicable at that time is not applicable now.
The condemnation of idol worship that was done at that time, that is not applicable now. And I was at this Christian Vaishnav dialogue and there one Christian scholar he spoke that he had come to a, he had come to one of our temple and he stayed there for a few days and he had his own seminars and other things for other people here organized. When he was leaving, he stayed for about 10 days, when he was leaving, he was asking, how was your stay over here? He said, it was very challenging.
He said, what do you mean challenging? Now, normally we treat, we are very hospitable to guests, we take care of them. He said, what did you find challenging? He said, every morning when I would come and see you doing your worship to the deities, you know, I had been taught to believe this is satanic, this is worship of the satan, but I could see that there is so much intense devotion over here. So, I just could not deny the devotion.
So, how do I reconcile this genuine devotion with my conception that this is worship of a false god? So, that was very challenging. He is honest enough to admit that. But the point is that if even people who have certain cultural conceptions, if they interact with genuine practitioners, then they may say that no, no, this is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong.
But it’s like giving the earlier metaphor of disease. You know, somebody may say, the allopathic doctor says Ayurveda is bogus, Ayurveda is bogus. It doesn’t work.
It cannot work. But then you may say this prescription is wrong. This prescription is wrong, but the patient is cured.
Now, you can see patient is cured means actually the person has developed genuine devotion for god. So, the person has actually been cured. So, if you see that, then you start thinking, maybe my idea that this prescription is wrong is itself wrong.
There is something right about this prescription. So, Ayurvedic medicine may not make sense from the allopathic perspective. But if a patient is cured, you cannot deny the cure of the patient, the patient’s restoration of health.
So, like that, if Muslims, they may have certain conceptions, but if they interact with bhaktas who are worshipping the deity and who are devoted to god, who are spiritually advanced, then that spiritual advancement, it’s self-evident, it will be seen. And then their conceptions will be challenged. And then they will have to come to their own reconciliation that okay, that condemnation of idolatry that I was talking about, that applies at that time.
It does not necessarily have to apply now to all forms of worship that are done in some other tradition. That’s how they can come to reconciliation.