(Q) Non-Muslim: Why does Islam call Buddhists and Hindus?


(A) The Muslim: Islam comes to correct, address, and control the course of beliefs that deviate from their proper path, including:


- The doctrine of incarnation and union: In general, the principle of incarnation and union means God's incarnation in inanimate objects, statues, animals, and others. According to their whims, some people believe that God is in cows and other animals, while some sects believe that He is in the sun, stars, planets, trees, plants, or in everything, including unclean and stinky places. Therefore, many gods are worshiped apart from Almighty God.


Islam calls for God's oneness and glorification, purifying Him from inappropriate attributes.


- It is inappropriate for Him to incarnate in a person who sleeps, urinates, defecates, and carries excretion in the belly. Also, it does not befit Him to be in a lowly animal such as a mouse and the like, or an animal that urinates, dung, and carries impurities in its bellies, such as cows, other animals, and humiliating statues.


- What happens after the death of a man or animal and its transformation into a stinking carcass and the destruction of that statue


Why choose Islam as a religion?


by breaking or otherwise? Is the God still in that stinking carrion or that humiliating perished statue?


- The above doctrine makes everything in this universe a god worthy of worship, and more precisely, the difference between the Creator and the creature disappears. There is no doubt that this is a dispute with the Creator God in His divinity and depriving Him of His greatest right, uniqueness in divinity.


Instead of everyone turning their face to the one Creator God in supplication, worship, and everything, we find that the believers in that doctrine divert their faces to different gods, not Almighty God, the only true God.


- Trinity in its various forms: In Hinduism, they claim the existence of three main gods or three images and persons of God. It means that creation is done by the God Brahma and not by the other two gods, good is done by the God Vishnu only, and the God Shiva does evil.


As we have explained, Islam calls for believing in God's oneness without sharing anything in His divinity, not to direct supplication and worship to others, and not to fear and hope from another god.


If there are three gods, who is the God who has the power to exist and create others out of nothing?


Whoever can create is the true God; whoever is incapable cannot be a god and is a creature obligated to obey and worship the one who created him.


Why choose Islam as a religion?


Repeating the same question (who created this God?) will lead us to the same answer (He must be a God described by power and the ability to create from nothing), so he is the only true God worthy of worship alone.


- The doctrine of divine incarnation, as claimed by Krishna in Hinduism and Buddha in Buddhism or some of its sects:


From a mental point of view, just as the compatibility of human nature with animal nature cannot be accepted (such as the mating of a human being with a cow) to be born half a human being and the other half a cow because it is considered moral degradation and underestimation of human beings, it is unacceptable to accept the convergence of the divine nature with the humans to give birth to a God incarnated in human form so that human nature is the embodiment of the divine image because this is a disparagement of the Almighty Creator God and an apparent contradiction to reason.


- The doctrine of reincarnation, meaning the transfer of a person's soul after death to another body, animal, insect, tree, or inanimate object according to his work to reward other bodies with the reward of their deeds in this world. If they are good, they will be blessed in that body in which they were placed, and if they are evil, they will be tortured.


To illustrate the logical invalidity of this belief:


- What if we asked if any human being felt anything from the previous life of his soul that he lived in another body before? Does he remember anything about it?


Why choose Islam as a religion?


To reach a high degree of credibility in the answer, let us make this question directed to different races of people from different continents: Europe, Africa, North and South America, Australia, and Asia, and then facilitate this through modern means of communication such as the Internet and others.


Since we do not find anyone sensing such a life, this confirms that the claim of reincarnation is an illusory assumption with no basis.


It may be said that there are rebirths of many human beings. Therefore, not necessarily that every human being has a previous life that he feels, and the answer to this is that the absence of a human being sensing such a life shows that this is not true and hence the invalidity of the claim of reincarnation.


- Additionally, if the statement that claims that the soul of man is transmitted after his death to animals (some of which benefits man) and trees are accepted, and other things that are used as a reward for man for his good deeds and as a punishment for his sins, this would have been a reason not to abandon sins for such animals and trees to abound due to their usefulness and importance to man, and then oppose adherence to good morals.


- Also, if the argument that claims that the soul of man is transmitted after his death to the poor, the sick, and the disabled is accepted as a punishment for man for his sins, this would have been a reason for mistrusting both the poor, the sick, the disabled and the like, as they are thought bad and that they did not reach this miserable state except because


Why choose Islam as a religion?


they committed sins in a previous life. There is no doubt that this is moral, human, and mentally unacceptable.


 Islam calls for the belief that there is another day on which creatures will be resurrected after their death, in which God will restore the soul to the body of its owner again. Then, there will be a reckoning so that the compensation will be with great reward in eternal life for doing good and severe punishment for a naughty life for doing evil.


Hence, there is complete compatibility between what is morally, humanly, and mentally acceptable and what Islam claims. It will let people strive for good deeds, adhere to high values, principles, and good morals and let them think well of others, not mistrust them, and abandon bad and obscene deeds.


 Islam calls for not depicting Almighty God in the form of statues or others because this is an insult from the creature to Him. The Creator God is more significant than any form in which one of His creatures can portray Him.


Instead of everyone turning their face to the one Creator God in supplication and worship, we find them turning their faces to different gods in the form of images and statues.


- Furthermore, we find that such images and statues of different shapes, images, and sizes are a reason for the human soul to tend to glorify them and worship them, especially if they are large in size and terrible in appearance. This is seen a lot in many countries where people call other than Allah (God) the only true God who deserves love, glorification, and worship. He is the Creator God, and he creates everything else.


Why choose Islam as a religion?


Hence, the wisdom of Islam appears in forbidding the depiction of the Creator God and representing Him in the form of stones and statues.


- Please refer to the book:


A Quiet Dialogue Between a Hindu and a Muslim


A Peaceful Dialogue Between a Buddhist and a Muslim