Buddhism, an analytical view

Life of Gautama Buddha

The term Buddha, literally meaning “awakened one” or “enlightened one”, is not a
proper name but rather a title, such as messiah (the Christ). At the outset we must
confess that almost the unanimous opinion of the scholars is that there is no
authentic account of his life or teachings. We have dealt in detail about this subject in
our pamphlet on ‘Buddhism and fallacies of idol worship’. The present day Buddhist
scripture and legends tell us that the Buddha was born about the year 563 BC in the
kingdom of Sakyas (on the borders of present day Nepal and India). As the son of
Suddhodana, the king, and Mahamaya, the queen, the Buddha thus came from a
Kastriya family (the warrior caste or ruling class). The story of Buddha’s life,
however, begins with an account of a dream that his mother Mahamaya had one
night before he was born: a beautiful elephant white as silver, entered her womb
through her side, Brahmins were asked to interpret the dream, and they foretold the
birth of a son who would become either a universal monarch or a Buddha. Ten lunar
months after the conception, the queen and her retinue left Kapilavastu, the capital
of the Sakya kingdom, on a visit to her parents in Devadaha. She passed through
Lumbini, a park that was owned jointly by the people of both cities. There she gave
birth to a son in a curtained enclosure. Immediately upon hearing of the birth of a
son, the sage Asita (also called Kala Devala), who was King Suddhodana’s teacher
and religious adviser, went to see the child and predicted that he would become a
Buddha.

On the fifth day after birth, for the name giving ceremony, 108 Brahmins were
invited, among whom eight were specialists in interpreting bodily marks. Of these
eight specialists, seven predicted two possibilities: if the child remained at home, he
would become a universal monarch; if he left home, he would become a Buddha. But
Kondanna, the youngest of the eight, predicted that he would definitely become a
Buddha. Later, this same Kondanna became one of Buddha’s companions and was
one of his first five disciples. The child was given the name Siddharta, which means,
“One whose aim is accomplished”. On the seventh day after his birth, his mother
died, and her sister Mahaprajapati Gotami, Suddhodana’s second consort, brought
up the child.

At the age of 16, Siddharta married his cousin Yasodhara, also 16 years old. The
turning point in Siddharta’s life came when he was 29 years old. While driving with
his charioteer Channa, he had the opportunity to see (1). An old man, (2). A sick
man, (3). A dead body and (4). A shaven headed man, a wanderer, wearing the
yellow robe. The impact of the ‘dark side’ of life was so great on him that on the
same night he renounced the world and left his wife and baby son Rahula secretly,
donning the robe of the wandering ascetic. It is said that he spent some six years in
his quest for truth, a quest which was born when he came face to face with the fact of
suffering.

He studied the sacred lore of the Hindus and practiced the Hindu disciplines and
exercises but found no answer to the burning problem of his life. Similarly he passed
through Jainism. He practiced rigorous fasting and went through a period of
extreme self-mortification, which he found to be damaging. Still he attained no
enlightenment. He finally gave up his rigorous exercises and in the process lost the
five disciples who had clung to him and returned to his common sense to take up his
begging bowl and resume the life of the wandering mendicant. Six years of search,
along the two most widely recognized roads to salvation known to India,
philosophic meditation and bodily asceticism had yielded no results. Gautama was
now thrown back on his own resources and it was not long before he sighted his
goal as he sat rapt in meditation under a Bodhi tree. He passed through different
stages of meditation until finally he attained ‘enlightenment’, thus he came to be
known as Gautama Buddha or the enlightened one. After this he spent the next 45
years of his life in preaching the truths he had discovered. His first sermon was
delivered at Sarnath. Here he expounded the famous Four Noble Truths that all is
suffering (Dukh), it has a cause (Tanha), this cause can be removed, and there is a
method by which it can be removed. This method consists of following the Noble
Eight Fold Path of right understanding (samma ditthi), right thought (samma
sankappa), right speech (samma vacha), right conduct (samma kammanta), right
livelihood (samma ajiva), right endeavor (samma vayama), right thinking (samma sati)
and right meditation (samma Samadhi).

A comparative view……

Now ‘suffering’ is, and must always be, associated with ‘feeling’ and ‘emotion’. We
shall hardly be disposed to name as ‘suffering’ that which is not accompanied by
some ‘feeling’ of pain or ‘emotion’ of grief. In this sense of the word, it is clearly an
over-statement to say that ‘all is suffering’. We all experience the ‘feeling’ of pleasure
and the ‘emotion’ of joy and happiness. Indeed, no one can deny having experienced
joy and happiness. It may not have been in the measure or for as long as one would
have liked. But while I am there it is real, and when it is gone it is treasured in
memories, not as something which was unreal, but rather a something which was as
real as the suffering which may have preceded or followed it. We shall have to re-
write all our Psychology textbooks if we wish to deny the ‘feeling’ of pleasure and
the ‘emotion’ of happiness.

But it may be that Buddha did not use the word Dukh in this sense-the psychological
sense. Perhaps he meant it as an intellectual assessment of ‘the life of this world’ as a
whole. Now, without a metaphysic (belief in an all powerful, all knowing, creator,
sustainer, provider) to support him, Buddha would be hard put to project this, his
fundamental teaching, as anything more than his own personal viewpoint. For, ‘all is
suffering’ would be a universal judgment; and, as such, it presupposes a standpoint,
a criterion, purpose and destiny of, not only human life, but also all life. Without this
metaphysic, his judgment cannot but be relative. We all have our different outlooks
towards life and our different goals in life. Joy and suffering, pleasure and pain
would be relative to our individual readings of the world and our individual goals
in life. Thus even with this interpretation of Dukh, ‘all is suffering’ falls to the
ground.

Let us now proceed to a sympathetic understanding of Buddha’s statement. It is an

undeniable fact that different people view the same world differently. The identical
environment may be heaven in the estimation of one person and hell in the view of
another. All Buddhists would agree that Buddha’s development from infancy
through childhood and adolescence to adulthood to the age of 29 to be precise was
abnormal. In fact, he is the only person, perhaps in the whole history of mankind,
who was deliberately kept away from the fact of suffering until he was 29 years of
age. He was kept away from the view of old age, sickness, death and asceticism.
And, to make matters worse, this abnormality was supplemented with another
abnormality. He was fed up to his throat, so to say, with joys of this world-dancing
and singing girls, good food and drink, luxurious clothes, joyful sports, and as
pleasant and beautiful an abode and environment as the royal purse could afford.
He was, in fact, confined in a cage of happiness! According to the Anguttara Nikaya,
a canonical text from the sutra pitaka, Buddha himself is reported to have said later
about his upbringing.

“Bhikkus (monks), I was delicately nurtured, exceedingly delicately nurtured,

delicately nurtured beyond measure. In my father’s residence lotus ponds were
made; one of blue lotuses, one of red and another of white lotuses, just for my
sake…. Of kasi cloth was my turban made; of Kasi my jacket, my tunic and my
cloak… I had three palaces; one for winter, one for summer and one for the rainy
season. Bhikkus, in the rainy season palace, during the four months of the rains,
entertained only by female musicians, I did not come down from the palace”.

At the age of 29 he came in contact with the real world-with the fact of suffering
which he never knew before, and, what is just as important, with the temporary
nature of the joys and happiness which he, up till then, believed to be real and
permanent. It was only natural that this should give rise to an abnormal impact of
the reality of suffering and the unreality of happiness on the mind of the
disillusioned young man. I believe this to be the fundamental psychological
explanation for the over emphasis on suffering on which Buddha founded his
religion!
Desire (Tanha)

In analyzing ‘suffering’, Buddha found that it had a cause, and that was ‘desire’
(Tanha). In its technical sense Buddha used Tanha to stand for ‘the desire and
craving for life’. This is the second of the ‘four noble truths’.

Now, if Tanha is taken in its general sense to mean desire as such, it is obvious that
all desires do not lead to suffering. It is only wrong desires or desires in a wrong
measure, which lead to suffering. The Qur’an, for example, asks mankind to restrain
the desires of the baser self, not all desires.

“…….and follow not (i.e., restrain the ego from) lower desires” (Qur’an 38:26)

It is the desires of the baser self, which, as a matter of fact, really lead to suffering.
Dr. Fazlul Rahman Ansari, in his book “Which Religion’ states “It turns human
beings into stones. It is only stones that may be conceived to have no desires. As
regards human beings, desire is the first and foremost condition of their activity and
the most vital foundation of their progress”. Dr Ansari concludes that: “In the
domain of moral philosophy, the doctrine of the total negation of all Desire is a
hopeless doctrine”. On the other hand the Buddhist concept of total negation of all
desires is self-contradictory. One has to annihilate all desires to fulfill the desire of
attaining the ultimate goal ‘Nirvana’. If all desires have been annihilated, the desire
for attaining ‘Nirvana’ cannot exist which makes this concept self-contradictory. The
corner stone on which the Buddhist Philosophy is built is the ‘Theory of Dependent
Origination’ or Paticca samuppada. What this theory in fact states is that no object, no
event, is independent in respect of its mundane existence or its appearance. All
objects are dependent for their existence or appearance on other objects, all events on
other events. There is a casual connection running through all things, such as A is
the cause of B and B is the cause of C and C is the cause of D etc. This theory states
that all is contingent and nothing is necessary. Buddha applied this philosophical
theory to his theology and traced the cause of suffering through some twelve
intermediary stages or links until he arrived at the last cause ‘the will to live or the
clinging to life’. This is the technical meaning of the term Tanha. Both the
philosophical theory and what we call its theological application are defective.

The Scottish Philosopher, David Hume, has shown very conclusively that there is no
necessary relation between ‘cause’ and ‘effect’ such that, given the former, the latter
must appear. Secondly, and this is very important, the universal law of causation,
even if affirmed despite the assertions of David Hume, can only be affirmed within
the framework of observable phenomena. Take it beyond or before this and we enter
into the region of guesswork. That which precedes life is beyond our observation.
Hence, it is that the theological application of this theory is defective. The jump from
‘clinging to life’, as the cause, to ‘birth’ as the effect, just cannot be proved. It cannot
be admitted as more than a mere hypothesis and a very far fetched one too! And
even as a hypothesis, it fails to answer the most vital question of ‘the origin of life’.
That which can end, must also have begun sometime. The explanation found in the
Agganna sutra in Deega Nikaya about the origin of some natural and social
phenomena make it a text not worth the trouble to read in the scientifically advanced
era of the twenty first century. We would like you to visualize the scenario of whole
of or a major portion of mankind choosing to attain salvation through this method. If
the whole of mankind choose this method, the life will come to a stand still and the
human race will be wiped off from the face of the earth completely within about 100
years, as no human reproduction will take place from the time of choosing this path,
due to annihilation of desire.

Karma

The theory of Karma, which Buddhists have borrowed from Hinduism, is the moral
application of the theory of dependent origination (Paticcasmuppada). It is an
inescapable, indisputable law of justice and moral retribution, which states, in as
many words, that every single act has its necessary consequence, be it for better or
for worse. As the Dhammapada puts it: “Neither in the sky, nor in the midst of the
sea, nor by entering into clefts of mountains is there known a place on earth where,
stationing himself, a man can escape from the consequence of his evil deeds”. There
can be no relaxation to this law, for the slightest deviation will break down the
structure of causal necessity which runs through the theory of dependent
origination. Side by side with theory of Karma is the theory of the transmigration of
souls, another Hindu loan to Buddhism. Strangely enough this doctrine also found
its way into Greek thought. Pythagoras supported it so firmly that the Greeks made
fun of him. “Once, they say, Pythagoras was passing by when a dog was being ill
treated. ‘Stop’, he said, ‘don’t hit it! It is the soul of a friend! I knew it when I heard
its voice’.” (Xenophanes). Not only does Karma govern this life but also our previous
lives. In fact, in accordance with the manner in which we lived our previous life,
Karma determines in what station or status we shall be born in this life. A good past
life may earn for us the reward of being born as a human being. Invariably the
animal life was the punishment for those who fell below human qualification. It
becomes difficult in such a society to argue the case for the prevention of cruelty to
animals. Of course, the thought that that donkey may be your dead uncle can serve
as a preventive against beating it. But, by the same token, you cannot object to a man
beating a dog and defending himself on the ground that whoever the dog may be, he
must have lived a very evil life to be born as a dog and so it deserves punishment!
The defect of the theory of Karma is that it can easily give rise to the problem of
despair if faithfully believed in and applied to the ups and downs of the moral
struggle. Despair, in turn, destroys the psychological drive or impetus, which be
present for healthy participation in the moral struggle.
Islam solves the problem of despair with its concept of God, Who is full of
Compassion and Mercy, and Who Himself proclaims to the sinners:

“Say, O my servants who have transgressed against their souls! Despair not of the
Mercy of God, for God forgives all sins (on sincere repentance and amendment of
conduct) for He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful” Qur’an 39:53.

Secondly, Islam provides the psychological impetus for healthy, vigorous

participation in the moral struggle, with its system of rewards and punishments
(heaven and hell) which does not remain confined within the limits of a
mathematically computerized exactitude (as in Karma) but which is balanced in
favour of rewards for the good.

“He who doeth good shall have ten times as much to his credit; and he that doeth
evil shall be recompensed according to his evil” Qur’an 6:160

The basic defect of Buddhist Ethics is that it lacks the belief in a Creator God. It
ignores man’s emotional nature, his religious consciousness. Man, in his moral
struggle, craves for a source of unfailing hope and comfort. This can only be
provided with the concept of a Compassionate, Loving, Forgiving God Who is full of
Grace, and with a system of rewards and punishment balanced in favour of good.
Islam and Islam alone provides both. Buddhism provided neither and has paid the
penalty of being turned upside down by unassuming Buddhists who today worship
even idols and statues of Buddha, and the gods of Hinduism.

Existence of One True God

Now the question of existence of a Creator God arises out of this discussion. The
general belief in the present day Buddhism is that there is no Creator God, Who is
Omniscient, Omnipotent and Un-created. Let us examine what Buddha himself has
said about the existence of a God without a beginning or end. In Udana (chapter 8
verse 3), a part of Kuddaka Nikaya of Suttaka Pitaka, Buddha has explained this
concept as follows:

'There is, O monks, an Unborn, Un-originated, Unformed and Uncreated. For if there
were not this Unborn, Un-originated, Unformed, Uncreated, there would be no
escape possible from the born, originated, formed and created. But since, O monks,
there is this Unborn, Un-originated, Unformed and Uncreated, therefore an escape is
possible from the born, originated, formed and created.'

Let us get an opinion of an independent source such as Encyclopedia Britannica

regarding this verse in Udana. "Though it is true that Buddha avoided discussion of
the Ultimate Reality that lay beyond the categories of the phenomenal world, he did
not seem to have had any doubts about the Absolute. He said, 'There is an Unborn,
an Un-originated, an Unmade, Uncompounded; were there not, there would be no
escape from the world of the born, the originated, the made and the compounded'.
The Buddha believed in something that endures beneath the shifting appearances of
the visible world." This quotation from the Encyclopedia Britannica very clearly
explains the meaning of the verse in Udana given above. Unfortunately, the
Buddhists scholars tend to interpret this verse as indicating to Nirvana, which is not
acceptable at all.

Further, the present day Buddhism believe that Buddha attained enlightenment and
as a result became omniscient (sarvanja), which is an indispensable pre-requisite to
formulate a religion involving explanations about the unseen. Very strangely
Buddha states the following in the 'Thevijjavajjagotta Sutta' of the 'Majjima Nikaya'
(Sutta Pitaka). "I am not omniscient (sarvanja) and if anyone has stated that I am
omniscient, it is not a statement made by me and this is a false allegation made to
insult me". Unfortunately, according to this statement of Buddha, most of the
present day Buddhists are insulting him by calling him a sarvanja (omniscient).
Omniscience is an attribute that belong to the God Almighty and the following
explanations will prove to any unbiased person that Lord of the Worlds is indeed
Omniscient and Omnipotent

Let me quote Dr. Ansari again to elaborate this point. "Firstly, to those who say that
there is no God, we would like to say that no human being has the right to say that
there is no God. This statement of denial of God is the most irrational, illogical and
baseless statement which any human being can make. Even those of you who are not
students of logic and philosophy can understand very well that, if a person says that
a certain thing is not present in this building, then he will have to prove that he has a
comprehensive knowledge of this building. If that person does not possess a
comprehensive knowledge of every nook and cranny such a person has no right to
make that statement. However, if another person states that a certain thing is to be
found in this building, then it is not necessary for that person to know every nook
and cranny of this building, for it is quite possible that that thing is lying at the door
as he entered. Therefore his statement is accepted. Thus, anybody who makes the
statement that there is no God will have to prove that he possesses a comprehensive
knowledge of all that exists. If he can prove it, then alone it may be possible to make
this statement. Even then his statement may be wrong, for there are illusions from
which human beings suffer. Therefore this stand that there is no God is not possible
for any human being on the face of the earth and it should be completely ruled out.
Furthermore, we can take the argument through another channel. There can be two
points of view about what exists and about what we experience about this world.
One point of view is that this world has been created by a Supreme Being, by God,
and it has been created ab novo, from nothing. The other point of view is being put
forward nowadays that this world has not been created by a God or by anything
else. The question then arises: if this world has not been created by God, then how
did it come into being except by accident? It further means that this world has come
into being by chance, and, chance means absence of Law. Thus this world is in its
very origin a place without a purpose, a blind world and process. If there is no God
then material reality is the only reality and everything in this world is only physical
or material. This is the line of argument which the materialists take. Bear in mind
that materialistic metaphysics is wedded to behavioristic or mechanistic psychology.
Mechanistic psychology denies the existence of the soul and considers it as
idiosyncratic; even the mind is regarded as something nonsensical. On the basis of
the materialistic philosophy, everything is conceived in physical terms. The human
being is only a physical being and this world is only physical or material. To
conceive of the mind or the spirit in the human being is explicitly ruled out. If this
world is a chance order because it came into being by chance, what does it mean? It
implies that everything in this world comes into being by chance; human beings
enjoy, suffer and die out by chance. And because this world is physical, there can be
no moral bond of unity between the different human beings. The moral bond of
unity can only be when we postulate a Creator who created this world and all
human beings according to a plan and for a particular purpose. It is through God
that this moral bond of unity emerges. If this world is a chance order, then every
human being comes into this world by chance. There can be no question of any
rational bond of unity between human beings except in terms of physical values; and
physical values are always based on expediency. Furthermore, if the human being is
only a physical being, then the ideal for a human being would be to acquire the
maximum amount of pleasure because it is human nature to acquire pleasure and
avoid pain. To acquire the maximum amount of pleasure for human being would
mean to acquire the maximum amount of sensuous pleasure. Then the principle of
fellow feeling or sympathy, which is the highest principle of morals, will fall to the
ground. To carry the argument further, logically, you will find that there are groups
who believe in materialism and atheism but they also talk about the welfare of the
common man. But their principles of welfare for fellow human beings and disbelief
in God are combined in the principle of expediency. It is not based on any rational
principle because the two cannot be combined." Dr. Ansari deals on this subject
extensively and let us examine the views expressed by another scholar, Harun
Yahya, who in one of his works 'The Creation of the Universe' provides very
relevant material in this regard. "…..What all this shows is that alternative models to
the Big Bang such as steady-state, the open and close universe model, and quantum
universe models in fact spring from the philosophical prejudices of materialists.
Scientific discoveries have demonstrated the reality of the Big Bang and can even
explain 'existence from nothingness'. And this is very strong evidence that the
universe is created by Allah, a point that materialists utterly reject. An example of
this opposition to the Big Bang is to be found in an essay by John Maddox, the editor
of Nature (a materialist magazine), that appeared in 1989. In 'Down with the Big
Bang', Maddox declares the Big Bang to be philosophically unacceptable because it
helps theologists by providing them with strong support for their ideas. The
author also predicted that the Big Bang would be disproved and that support for it
would disappear within a decade. Maddox can only have been even more
discomforted by the subsequent discoveries during the next ten years that have
provided further evidence of the existence of the Big Bang. In addition to explaining
the universe, the Big Bang model has another implication that the science has proven
an assertion hitherto supported only by religious sources. The truth that is defended
by religious sources is the reality of creation from nothingness. This has been
declared in the holy books that have served as guides for mankind for thousands of
years. In all holy books revealed by God, and the last and the final revealed book to
whole of mankind the Qur'an, it is declared that the universe and everything in it
were created from nothingness by Allah. In the only book revealed by Allah that has
survived completely intact, the Qur'an, there are statements about the creation of the
universe from nothing as well as how this came about that are parallel to 21 st century
knowledge and yet were revealed fourteen centuries ago. First of all, the creation of
this universe from nothingness is revealed in the Qur'an as follows:

'He (Allah) is the Originator of the heavens and the earth……'(Chapter Al Anam-
101). Another important aspect revealed in the Qur'an 14 centuries before the
modern discovery of the Big Bang and findings related to it is that when it was
created, the universe occupied a very tiny volume:

We feel that it is relevant to add the opinion expressed by Mustafa Malaika, in his
work on 'What is the purpose of life?' in this regard. "Besides religious guidance, the
Qur'an contains hundreds of verses that speak of the universe, its components and
phenomena such as the earth, the sun, the moon, the stars, mountains, wind,
running water, plants, embryological animals, and the successive stages of
development of the human being. More than 1000 verses relating to cosmic facts or
cosmic phenomena can be counted in the Qur'an. During the early days of the
Qur'an, scientific knowledge of the universe was limited and it was not easy to
elaborate on the verses relating to the universe or its phenomena except within the
limitations of that time. However, we now know much more about the laws of the
universe than before, and that is why reviewing the 1000 or more verses relating to
the cosmos, man and his surroundings can be one of the most obvious miraculous
aspects of the Qur'an. This is because of the precedence of the Qur'an, which was
revealed more than 14 centuries ago, containing many scientific facts at a time when
people had no knowledge whatsoever of such facts. The Qur'an has addressed so
many of these facts in a language that is more precise, accurate and concise than
scientists have been able to do. Nothing in the Qur'an contradicts any established
scientific fact. These cannot all be covered in a short article and hence I have chosen
only five verses that can testify to the miraculous nature of the Qur'an from a
scientific point of view.

1. The creation of the universe is explained by astrophysicists in a widely

accepted phenomenon, popularly known as the "Big Bang". It is supported
by observational and experimental data gathered by astronomers and
astrophysicists over decades. According to the "Big Bang" theory, the
whole universe was formed from the explosion of a singularity, a point of
infinite smallness and density that expanded uniform mass which then
separated to form galaxies. These then divided to form stars, planets, the
sun, the moon etc. The origin of the universe was unique and the
probability of it occurring by "chance" is zero. The Qur'an contains the
following verse, regarding the origin of the universe: "Have those who
disbelieved not considered that the heavens and the earth were (once) a
joint entity, and then We separated them and made from water every
living thing? Then will they not believe?" (Qur'an 21:30) The striking
congruence between the Qur'anic verse and the "Big Bang" is inescapable!
How could a book, which first appeared in the deserts of Arabia 1400
years ago, contain such a profound scientific truth

2. In 1925 an American astronomer by the name of Edwin Hubble provided

observational evidence that all galaxies are receding from one another,
which implies that the universe is expanding. The expansion of the
universe is now an established scientific fact. This is what the Qur'an says
regarding the formation of the universe. "And the heaven, We
constructed with strength, and indeed, We are (its) expander" (Qur'an
51:47) Stephen hawking, in his book " A brief History of Time", says, "The
discovery that the universe is expanding is one of the great intellectual
revolutions of the 20th century". The Qur'an mentioned the expansion of
the universe before man even learned to build a telescope!

3. Scientists state that before the galaxies in the universe were formed,
celestial matter was initially in the form of gaseous matter. In short, huge
amount of gaseous matter or clouds were present before the formation of
the galaxies. To describe initial celestial matter, the word "smoke" is more
appropriate than gas. The following Qur'anic verse refers to this state of
the universe by the word "dukhan" which means "smoke": "Then He
(Allah) directed Himself to the heaven while it was smoke…" (Qur'an
4111) Again, this fact is a corollary to the "Big Bang" theory and was not
known to mankind during the time of Prophet Muhammed. What then,
could have been the source of this knowledge?
 4. It was once thought that the sense of feeling and pain was only dependant
on the brain. Recent discoveries prove that there are pain receptors present
in the skin without which a person would not be able to feel pain. When a
doctor examines a patient suffering from burn injuries, he verifies the
degree of burns by a pin prick. If the patient feels pain, the doctor is
happy, because it indicates that the burns are superficial and the pain
receptors are intact. On the other hand if the patient does not feel any
pain, it indicates that it is a deep burn and the pain receptors have been
destroyed. The Qur'an gives an indication of the existence of pain
receptors in the following verse: "Indeed, those who disbelieve in Our
verses (i.e. signs, proofs), We will drive them into a Fire. Every time
their skins are roasted through We will replace them with other skins so
they may taste the punishment. Indeed, Allah is ever Exalted in Might
and Wise. But those who believe and do righteous deeds, We will admit
them to gardens beneath which rivers flow, wherein they abide forever"
(Qur'an 4: 56 & 57).

Professor Tagatat Tejasen (a Buddhist by birth), Chairman of the Dept.of Anatomy at

Chiang Mai University in Thailand, had spent a great amount of time on research of
pain receptors. Initially he could not believe that the Qur'an mentioned this scientific
fact 1400 years ago. He later verified the translation of this particular Qur'anic verse.
Prof. Tejasen was so impressed by the scientific accuracy of the Qur'anic verse, that
at a Medical Conference in 1985 he proclaimed in public the Shahadah (declaration of
faith), embracing Islam.

5. About the source of iron (Fe), we read in the Qur'an: "Indeed, We have
sent down iron, wherein is great (military) might and benefits for the
people" (Qur'an 57:25)

It has recently been proven that all iron, not only in our planet but also in the
entire solar system, was obtained from outer space. This is because the moderate
temperature of the sun cannot generate iron. The sun has a surface temperature
of 6000 degrees Celsius and a central temperature of about 20 million degrees
Celsius. Much hotter stars exist, known as novae or super novae, where
temperature can reach hundreds of billion degrees Celsius, and it is in these stars
that iron is formed. When the percentage of iron reaches a certain proportion of
the mass of the star it explodes, and these exploded particles travel in space until
they are captured by the gravitational fields of other heavenly bodies. This is how
our solar system obtained its iron, and it is an established scientific fact today
that all the iron in our solar system was not generated or created within the
system but came to it from outer space.
One wonders why the Qur'an mentions matters like these, things that were not
known to anyone at the time of revelation or even for centuries afterwards. But
Allah knew in His Eternal Knowledge that a time would come when man would
immediately realize that the Qur'an is the word of Allah and that Muhammed was
His last messenger. Allah says in the Qur'an: "We shall show them Our signs in the
horizons and within themselves until it becomes clear to them that it is the truth"
(Qur'an 41:53)".

The above facts, we feel, adequately refutes the concept commonly held by
Buddhists and atheists about the non existence of a Creator God.

Let us go back to our discussion on Buddhist theological concepts. The theory of

Transmigration of Souls, as found in Buddhism, is quite puzzling. Normally,
transmigration of souls involves the transference of a soul-substance from one body
(which is now dead) to another body (which has just been born). But there is no such
transference in the Buddhist theory. The Buddhist conceives of himself as a pre-
existent moral entity which died in a previous existence and transferred its moral
status to that conglomeration of Skandas, which he calls himself. The very fact of his
existence, therefore, casts an insult on the unique purity and status of his moral
personality. The purpose of his life and all his lives to come is to achieve Nirvana or
deliverance from recurring cycle of birth and the suffering to which birth gives rise.
But the theory of transmigration of souls with its accompanied theory of Karma falls
to the ground when we ponder over the fact that we have no way of remembering
the pitfalls of our previous life because of which we have landed ourselves into this
life. Of what use is another life if I unknowingly repeat all the mistakes of the
previous life? If my present state is due to the mistakes and blunders of an
individual completely unknown to me, is not it to be considered as a miscarriage of
justice? Let me quote Dr. Ansari from his book “Which Religion”.

“This theory however does not stand the test of reason. In the first instance, to
realize that a person is suffering or benefiting on any particular occasion in this life
because of action performed in a previous life, it is necessary that every human
being should have complete picture of his supposed previous life at all moments and
on all occasions. Otherwise, the purpose of his re-birth would be defeated. But no
such picture exists in the mind of any human being.”

Christianity has a similar concept of inheritance of sin. 'Therefore as by the offence of

one (Adam) unto all men to condemnation; so also by the justice of one (Christ) unto
all men to justification of life. For as by the disobedience of one (Adam) many were
made sinners, so also by the obedience of one (Christ) many shall be made just.
(Holy Bible – Rom.5 18, 19). This is an innovation introduced by the self appointed
apostle St.Paul and finds no support in the words of Jesus or of the Prophets who
had come before him.
'In those days they shall say no more. The fathers have eaten a sour grape and the
children's teeth are set on edge. But every one shall die for his own iniquity; every
man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge. (Holy Bible Jeremiah
31: 29-30). It is worth referring to Ezekiel 18: 1-9 and 20-21 in the Holy Bible for
further refutation of this illogical dogma. Islam teaches that the man has only the
present worldly life for him to lead a righteous life, which will earn him the highest
reward in the hereafter. If he errs regarding the purpose of life in this world, he only
has to bear the burden of it's consequences in the hereafter. This is the best concept
to promote the whole of mankind to live a virtuous life that would be pleasing to
him and to fellow human beings. "That no bearer of burdens shall not be made to
bear the burden of another." Holy Quran 53:38.

According to Islam, man is not born with inherited sin. He is God's vicegerent on
earth. Every child is born with the fitra, an innate disposition towards virtue,
knowledge, and beauty. Islam considers itself to be the 'primordial religion', din al-
hanif, it seeks to return man to his original, true nature in which he is in harmony
with creation, inspired to do good, and confirming the Oneness of God.

Former states of Existence

The allusions of Buddha to a perfect knowledge of the past is set forth in the
following terms: "The arahat is endowed with the power, called 'pubbeniwasananan',
of revealing his various former existences. Thus, I am acquainted with one existence,
two existences, three existences, four existences, five existences, twenty existences,
thirty existences, forty existences, fifty existences, a hundred existences, a thousand
existences, and a hundred thousand existences; innumerable sanwatta kappa,
innumerable wiwatta kappa, innumerable sanwatta-wiwatta kappa. But without
entering in to any argument on the general question, we may safely assert that
Buddha's views about the past do not reconcile with the modern scientific
discoveries. By the pursuits of the geologist many phenomena have been brought to
light. If we know the form of an animal or a plant that formerly existed, we can tell
in what kind of earth or rock it will most probably found; and if we know the earth
or rock, we can tell what kind of form will be the most abundant in its fossil remains.
Near the shore, in the ocean, were fishes with a pavement of teeth covering the
palate, and enabling them to crush and eat the crabs, lobsters, and other shell fish
that there abounded. Reptile like animals were at one time the most numerous and
powerful. The dinosaurs united the characters of the head of a lizard, with the teeth
of a crocodile, to a neck of immoderate length. On the land were crocodiles in great
variety. One animal was taller than an elephant; but instead of a trunk it had a long
narrow snout, armed with strong and shark tusks. The Himalayas contain the
remains of a gigantic land tortoise, twelve feet in length and six in height. There can
be no doubt that the condition of the world, in the ages of which we are speaking,
was very much different to anything that is present in our day. Now if Buddha lived
in these distant ages, and had a perfect insight in to their circumstances, as he tells us
he had, how is it that we have no intimation whatever, in any of his numerous
references to the past, that the world was so different, in these respects, to what it is
now? We have exaggerations of present forms of existence; a thousand arms given to
Mara, and a height higher than the moon to Rahu; but of the innumerable creatures
that then lived, and are now found in fossil state, he says not a word. According to
his discourses, there were, at that time, the same kinds of trees, of reptiles, of fishes,
of birds, and of beasts, as in his own day. He was himself, as we learn from Jataka
stories, was born as an elephant, a lion, a horse, a bull, a deer, a dog, a jackal, a
monkey, a hare, a pig, a rat, a serpent, a frog, a fish, an alligator, a swan, a peafowl,
an eagle, a cock, a woodpecker, a water fowl, a jungle fowl, a crow, a merman
(kindura), which is a fabulous creature, commonly met with in fairy tales, but never
seen in this era of universal observation and enquiry. How is it that in his numerous
births he was never any kind of creature except those that are common to India? The
only conclusion we can come to is, that he was not aware of beasts that roamed in
other lands or the birds that flew in other skies. It will be said that he was never born
but in Jambudipa, and that therefore, he could not be any creature not found in
India; but it is evident that by Jambudipa he meant the whole of the space inhabited
by men, or man's earth, about the size and shape of which he was sadly not aware of
as all the other men who then lived.

Then again, how are we to believe his statements when he speaks of Benares and
other cities as having existed for many myriads of years, when we know that an
entire change in the very formation of the countries in which they are situated has
taken place? That the region now called India has partaken in the general
interchange of land and water, we have proof in the fossil remains that are
plentifully and extensively found in the peninsula. Remains of the sivatherium and
mastodon, large animals that once haunted its plains, and of the hippopotamus that
once frequented its rivers, may now be seen in museums. The remains of the
vegetable world tell us of the difference between its present and former atmosphere
and temperature. At Chirra Ponji, north of Calcutta, there is a bed of coal, 4300 feet
above the sea level, and there are evidences, in the same neighborhood, of great
upheavement from igneous action. The hills not far distant are covered with a
stratum of marine shells, and in some places there are remains of ancient coast, as is
seen by extensive deposits of shingle. Not far from Benares coal has been found, and
it is certain that no city could have existed in this country at the time these deposits
were formed.

These facts are sufficient to convince every observant mind that what Buddha says
about his past births, and those of others are without anything whatever to support
it from historical and scientific discoveries.
The Buddawansa is a history of the twenty four Buddhas who preceded Gautama. In
speaking of Kakusanda, the third Buddha before himself, he says: "In this kappa
Kakusanda was born, whose allotted term of existence was forty thousand years.
That term of existence gradually decreasing was reduced to ten years; and
subsequently increasing again to an asankya (until a number reaches 33 zeros), and
from that point again diminishing, had arrived at the term of thirty thousand years".
It is in this manner that the decrease and increase in the term of human life takes
place. It is worth referring to Mahapadana Sutra in Deega Nikaya for more details in
this regard. It commences with an asankya and goes down gradually to ten years;
and it then rises again, until it reaches an asankya. In the same commentary we are
told that when the term of human existence is 100,000 years or upwards, it is not a
proper time in which for a Buddha to appear, because " under so protracted an
existence the human race have no adequate perception of birth, decay or death". One
kalpa is supposed to be 1344 millions of years. The periods to which we are taken
back by the authorities of Buddhism are so remote as to be beyond the power of
numbers to express them. Yet in the most distant of these ages, astonishingly, the
same languages were spoken as in the time of Buddha; there were the same manners
and customs, the same kinds of dress and ornaments, and the same kinds of food;
men had the same names, and followed the same occupations; there were the same
modes of government, the same castes, the same forms of religion, the modes of
traveling, the same denominations of coin, the species of grain, and the same
diseases and medicines. But how is it possible for this unchangeableness to have
continued so long? It cannot be, that in myriads of years, and with intervals of
myriads of years as well, there has been so little change in the economy of the world,
as is represented by Buddha; and so little difference, as to the manners and customs
of mankind, between these distant times and the times in which Buddha is said to
have lived.

Present Existence

No one but Buddha himself, according to his own account, knew the manner of the
origin of the universe, and as it would have been of no benefit to his disciples to
understand it, he did not reveal it to them, and says that all speculation upon this
subject is profitless and vain. But in his teachings on the manner of the origin of the
present race of men, he is much more communicative. He taught, correctly, that the
first inhabitants of the earth were pure, and free from evil; but he said, in addition,
incorrectly, that they first appeared by the apparitional birth, and could soar through
the air, and live without food; their fall taking place through the tasting of a
substance, like boiled milk, that then grew temptingly upon the surface of the earth
(Ref: Agganna Sutra in Deega Nikaya). Though born as men, we may subject to the
most extraordinary transformations. We may change our sex, not only in passing to
the next birth, but now. We may be born as men, for part of our lives, and when the
power of our merit is exhausted, we may change to the inferior condition of women.
We may have to expiate some former misdeeds, and on that account be born as a
female; but we may live to accomplish the expiation, and then be changed, in the
same life, from a woman into a man. We may be the one and the other alternatively;
for a time man, and then woman, in the present life, and then return back again to
our original condition. A belief of this nature could only have been thought of in
connection with a system that regards the state of womanhood as a punishment, and
the privileges she is permitted to enjoy as greatly inferior to those of the other sex.

We learn from the same authorities, that men and women may be produced by the
apparitional, opapatika, birth, thereby starting at once into the full maturity of being;
and that others are generated by touch, by look, by perfumes, by flowers, by food, by
the garment, by the season, and by the voice. Beings not human receive their
existence from perspiration, and putridity, from wind, from warmth, and from the
sound of rain. Beings not human may have human children. The Nagas have
naturally a serpentine form, but they can assume the shape of men, and have been
known to have children as such and to have become priests; and it is only when, by
inattention, they have lost the assumed form, that it has been discovered they were
reptiles. These fanciful notions will therefore make Buddhist dogmas unsafe as
guides whether in science or religious truth.

Man

We have seen that the voice, or a look, may produce the germ of human existence,
according to Buddhism, from which we should conclude that the nature and
constitution of man must be something eminently subtle and ethereal. But instead of
this, everything about him, after his birth, is represented as being material or the
effect of causes that are material; and as his existence is only the result of collection
and continuance of certain constituents under certain circumstances. At the
separation or breaking up of these constituents he ceases to be, in the same way that
the cloud ceases to be when its particles are separated and scattered in the shower or
the cart when it is broken up and made into bundles of firewood for the market.
According to Buddhism, there are five khandas which are the essentialities of
sentient being. 1. Rupa, the organized body, 2. Wedana, sensation 3. Sannya,
perception 4. Sankhara, impulses and emotions and 5. Winyana, consciousness.
Besides these five khandas there is no other constituent that forms part and parcel of
man as a sentient being. There is therefore, belonging to man, no soul, not anything
equivalent to what is commonly understood by the soul. The absence of the soul
seems to render it impossible that there can be any moral retribution after the
present life; but the Buddhists profess to evade this question by saying that when
man ceases to exist, the principle of upadana, or cleaving to existence, causes the
production of another being, to which the karma of the producer, the aggregate of all
his actions, in every state of existence, is transferred intact. Buddhism presents us
with no medium by which the influence of the deceased being reaches the being
that, of necessity, he causes to be produced. When man dies, as he has been no more
than a heap, how can he produce another being, and that being, perhaps, a dewa on
the summit of Maha Meru, or a Timira Pingala, myriads of miles beneath the surface
of the deep? The man who, during his life, could not produce an atom of sand or a
blade of grass, at his death, of his own inherent energy, and not as an
instrumentality employed by another, may cause the existence of the highest and
most glorious of the brahmas, or may pass onward an influence that in the cause of
ages will produce a supreme Buddha. But this method of retribution is imperfect,
and altogether unsatisfactory. It is one being that does good, and another that is
rewarded. It is one being that commits evil, and another being that is punished. The
Buddhists may say, " Why need I care about the being who is to succeed to my
merit? When he is, I shall not be. His existence involves my non existence. I can
never know anything about him, and he will never know anything about me. And
as, when he lives, I shall be broken up, gone out, and non sentient, what matters is to
me whether the heir of my acts to be a seraph or a sprite? Let us eat and drink, for
tomorrow we die."

Upon these principles, there can be no transmigration, in the usual acceptance of the
term. That which transmigrates is not the spirit, the soul, the self; but the conduct
and character of the man, something too subtle to be defined or explained. The
analogy of the flame and the tree is misleading and defective. The flame produces
another flame of the same nature, but the existence of the one does not involve the
going out of the other; and from one flame thousand flames may be produced, all
burning simultaneously.

The tree lives, in some instances many hundreds of years, after it has begun to
produce fruit, and it always produces its like, from a mango fruit comes a mango
tree, and not a goraka, as from the goraka fruit comes a goraka tree, and not a
mango. The tree is one, but its fruits are many. But on the principles of Buddhism,
when the man dies, he only produces one another being, and the being that he
produces is most generally a being of a nature entirely different to himself; it may be
an ant, a crow, a monkey, a whale, a naga, an asur, an evil spirit, or a deity. The
number of sentient beings in the universe must ever remain the same, if each being
inherits one separate and unbroken series of karma, unless it be in the period in
which men attain nirwana. And by what means does it happen that just as one being
dies another is always beginning to exist, as the new being is produced, not by the
upadana of the former being alone, but through the agency of other causes, entirely
separate from itself, but required to act in unison with it. And how is it that these
causes are always in simultaneous operation at the very moment they are required?
There must not only be these causes in operation at the very moment of the death of
the being that produces the new being; but the result, the position of the new being,
must be of such a character as to give opportunity for the reception of the karma that
has to be transferred, with all its properties, and afford facilities for its exercise, in its
own essential character, whether of good or evil. To these grave difficulties
Buddhism offers no solution. I can give no further explanation of the mysterious
upadana, except that it forms one link in the patichcha samuppada, or causes of
continued existence. "On account of awijja, ignorance, sankhara, merit and demerit
are accumulated; on account of these accumulations, winyanan, the conscious faculty
is produced; in consequence of the faculty of consciousness, namarupa, the sensitive
powers, the perceptive powers, the reasoning powers, and the body are produced;
on account of namarupa, the body and sensitive faculties, the sadayatanan, the six
organs of sense (the eye, the ear, the tongue, the nose, the body, and the mind), are
produced; on account of the six bodily organs, phassa, contact (the action of the
organs) is produced; on account of contact, wedana, sensation is produced; on
account of sensation, Tanha, desire is produced; in consequence of desire, upadana,
attachment is produced; in consequence of attachment, bhawa, existence is produced;
in consequence of a state of existence, jati, birth, is produced in consequence of birth,
decay, death, sorrow, weeping, grief, and vexation are produced." This is the theory
of causation, or of a series of causations, to which we cannot assent. We can
understand how demerit may arise from ignorance; but how the conscious faculty is
produced by merit and demerit we cannot tell. The conscious faculty once in
existence, from it perception may arise. But how does perception produce the body
and sensitive faculties? Where these are, there will be the organs of sense, and then
contact, and sensation, and desire, in the prescribed order. But the great mystery
still is how desire produce existence. But upadana is not a desire to produce life,
but a desire to enjoy life; and for the above rule to be applicable here, the desire of
enjoyment ought to produce the power of enjoyment; but that it does so is contrary
to all experience. There is a further law to be taken into the account, that where there
is no possibility of communication, there can be no consequence or effect; and as it is
utterly impossible for upadana to act in places with which it cannot communicate, it
must be powerless as to the act of production, in the manner claimed for it by
Buddha.

Prophesies of Buddha

According to Buddhist teaching, there is a periodical destruction and renovation of

the universe, not of our own earth, or sakwala, alone, but in like manner of limitless
(kap-laksha) sakwalas, with their Maha Merus, suns, moons, circles of rock,
continents, and seas. The destruction is by water, fire, and wind; in this order, but
not in alternate succession, the destruction by wind being only at every sixty forth
occurrence. Of the destruction by fire, which will be the next in order, Buddha thus
speaks: "Priests! There is a period in which, for many hundreds of years, for many
thousands of years, for many tens of thousands of years, for many hundreds of
thousands of years, no rain will fall; by which all cereals, trees, and creepers, all
medicinal plants, with all grasses, all nuga and other large trees, and all forests will
be dried up, and will be no more: thus, priests! All existing things are impermanent.
After the lapse of a further immense period, a second sun appears, by which the
smaller rivers, and the inferior tanks and lakes are dried up and are no more. After
the lapse of another immense period, a third sun appears, by which the five great
rivers are dried up. After the lapse of another immense period, a fourth sun appears,
by which the great lakes whence the great rivers have their source, are dried up.
After the lapse of another immense period, a fifth sun appears, by which the water in
the seas, a hundred miles deep, is dried up; then a thousand, ten thousand, and
eighty thousand yojanas, until only four thousand yojanas of water are left, which
still further decreases until the water is only one hundred miles deep, fifty miles, a
mile, a cubit (many different numbers being mentioned) until at last there is not
more than would fill the feet marks of cattle, or moisten the end of the finger. After
the lapse of another immense period, a sixth sun appears, when Maha Meru begins
to ignite, and the whole world, from the sakwala rocks to the mansion of Sakra,
sends forth one unbroken volume of smoke. At the appearance of the seventh sun,
the earth and Maha Meru are burnt up, and the flame reaches to the Brahma Lokas.
From the hell Awichi to the Brahma Loka Abassara, there is then one dark abyss,
and the whole space is void". These revelations are made that the priests may learn
there from the impermanence of all things, and seek to free themselves from all
sensuous attachments.

That the next destruction of the earth will be by fire, as usual, when the sacred books
of Buddhism present before us a religious truth, they so spoil it that in their hands it
becomes an untruth. How the smaller rivers, still run, or the lakes have any water in
them, when there has been no rain for hundreds of thousands of years, would
puzzle even Buddha himself to explain.

"He it is who has sent forth His Messenger (Muhammed) with the (task of
spreading) guidance and the religion of Truth. To the end that He may cause it to
prevail over all (false) religion – however hateful this may be to those who ascribe
divinity to aught God" (Qur'an 9:33)

"And return (in repentance) to your Lord and submit to Him before the
punishment comes upon you: then you will not be helped. And follow the best of
what was revealed to you from your Lord (i.e. the Qur'an) before the punishment
comes upon you suddenly while you do not perceive, lest a soul should say, 'Oh,
(how great is) my regret over what I neglected in regard to Allah and that I was
among the mockers'. Or (lest) it say, 'If only Allah had guided me, I would have
been among the righteous'. Or (lest) it say when it sees the punishment, 'If only I
had another turn so I could be among the doers of good'. But yes, there had come
to you My verses, but you denied them and were arrogant, and you were among
the disbelievers. And on the Day of Resurrection you will see those who lied
about Allah (with) their faces blackened. Is there not in Hell a residence for the
arrogant? And Allah will save those who feared Him by their attainment, no evil
will touch them, nor will they grieve." (Qur'an 39: 54-61).