Siddartha Gautama: Buddha --what is the Islamic opinion on him?

Discussion in 'Tarikh' started by sherkhan, Nov 26, 2008.

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  1. Aqdas

    Aqdas Staff Member

  2. sherkhan

    sherkhan Veteran

    Kalki

    Another disgusting trend of late is to seek the truth about Islam from hindu scriptures (as if there are not many reasons to believe in the authenticity of Islam based on the sources our elders relied on!). I'm not aware of any Qur'anic verse stating that the Prophet's :sas: advent has been foretold in any other divine books other than Torah, Injeel & Zaboor.

    To believe in hindu scriptures is to legitimise the animism and abomination that passes off as hinduism. If vedas have indeed foretold the coming of the last Prophet :sas:, then we better believe in every verse of vedas!

    Thanks to mischievous work by one Pandit Ved Prakash Upadhyay (in "Muhammad in the Hindu Scriptures"), a number of well-meaning Muslims have fallen into the trap of believing that Kalki is indeed the Prophet :sas: (maz'Allah)! This aforementioned book is a bestseller on many Islamic online bookstores from the US to Malaysia!

    For the uninitiated, Kalki is the tenth avatar of Vishnu. Among other avatars of Vishnu are boar, dwarf, tortoise etc.! If we are to believe that Kalki is indeed the Prophet :sas: as foretold by vedas, then who was the swine/boar ('varaha') in his earlier life? Any belief in authenticity of Kalki, is to believe in all other avatars. How many Muslims are willing to believe in the above chain of avatars?

    Time and again, I have seen few Muslims citing Kalki as the incontrovertible evidence of the truth and the finality of the last Prophet :sas:. I heard Zakir Naik spewing this disgusting lie the other day (but he can be excused since he hardly knows anything about Islam!). I was aghast to listen one very learned alim repeat the same disgusting tripe on Noor TV today. I have seen this disgusting idea being discussed on a number of Islamic forums. If the current belief in Kalki isn't caulkised soon, then heaven forbid we will soon start believing in all avatars ('dasavatar')!

    What state are we in? Buddha as a Prophet, Kalki as our liege-lord :sas:, Nanak as a wali ... As brother aH rightly pointed out, our bankrupt brothers are fast running out of foreign 'personalities' that Islam direly needs to lean on for prop of legitimacy.
     
  3. abu Hasan

    abu Hasan Administrator

    is food for thought. a few quick points:

    1. about luqman and dhu'l qarnayn who are mentioned in the qur'an: if we are not sure if they are prophets, then how be buddha?

    2. if we are not sure about khadir being a prophet, though his story is mentioned in the qur'an; how about buddha? though the popular opinion is that khadir is a prophet, Allah ta'ala knows best.

    3. his time is centuries away and the true story of the man (if he really lived) or the myth can never be known. one way of knowing these details is by revelation, but that stopped 1400+ years ago. you may find ancient writings but none can be trusted to make a statement of faith.


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    4. he could have been one, but we really don't know. we bear faith in all prophets in general (if buddha was one, so he will be there) and specifically name only those mentioned in the qur'an and hadith. about 25.

    the best course is to say Allah ta'ala knows best and leave the rest.
     
    Last edited: Nov 24, 2008
  4. abu Hasan

    abu Hasan Administrator

    Last edited: Nov 24, 2008
  5. abu Hasan

    abu Hasan Administrator

    i would rather undertake to read sirah books about whom scholars of ahlu's sunnah have NO DOUBT at all that he was a messenger. of whom i have no doubt that he was the greatest messenger and human who ever lived.

    then there are people like the sahabah and the imams and the tabiyins (siyar al-a'alam is BIG and it does not cover the sufi lives)

    and then there are great aimmah. ah, no amount of reading about the life of the great nu'man bin thabit ceases my wonderment about the man. and ghazali and ghawth al-a'azam...

    oh, wait! we also need the marham of taSawwuf to mend our broken limbs and parts; a pacemaker of ikhlas for the heart requires recharging with dhikr.

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    sorry, ain't got no time to worry about buddha and nanak.

    ---
    dear brother, make haste before YOU become a buddah.
     
    Last edited: Oct 13, 2009
    Ali_Bash and Nur al Anwar like this.
  6. Aqdas

    Aqdas Staff Member

  7. sherkhan

    sherkhan Veteran

    I have not read Zia-un-Nabi myself, but I am given to understand that Pir Karam Shah al-Azhari extensively refuted the possibility of Buddha being a Prophet.

    A number of "broad-minded ulemas" in India have even attributed prophethood to Rama! On the other hand, the Indian Govt. is currently having a tough time proving that Rama was anything other than a mythological figure of an epic. Check here.
     
  8. abu nibras

    abu nibras Staff Member

    a few ulema of hind have written that there is a possibility that he was from the messengers.

    Abul Kalam Azad, infamously pronounced that he could be Dhul Kifl ; with his inventive reasoning that kifl was a arabic rendering of of kapilvastu.

    it is better if we do not assume things in these cases.
     
  9. :s1:

    I am interested in religion in general and have read quite a lot about this person and it seems he was a genuine seeker after Truth (though his followers later practically deified him) but what have the ulama of ahlus sunnah said of him? It is inconceivable that they've said naught.

    Thanks!
     

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