ALLAH'S MESSAGE IS BEST DELIVERED THUS
: Allah, Bhagawan, God, etc are all different names for the one Ultimate Reality.
: However, the best way to convert a non-believer into a believer, is not by symbolising his faith as a dangerous, devouring animal such as a tiger, and that you feel it is your duty to warn him of this tiger.This is a sure-fire way fo raising his hackles, and making him a hard-liner against your faith. For every man, his faith is like his mother. But every man has the right to have his own mother's love, there is no point in saying my mother is better than yours, so give her up, even if your mother IS better, this is surely the worst way to approach the man. I am sure this is easy to understand.
: The answer was given by Mahatma Gandhi who said "My life is my message". An we know how successful he was, unprecedented numbers of people, even today, use Gandhi as a yard-stick. They followed and still follow the good things of Gandhi. And yet he was only a simple man who embraced everybody, not just Hindus. If a man lives a pure life, that is the most potent way of converting others.
: Trying to convert people of other faiths out of fear of jihad, out of fear or the wrath of God etc are all counter-productive. These attempts only awaken the fanatic streak in others who create their own kind of counter-madrassas where they turn out equal numbers of suicide squads of unintelligent robots.
: If a person hijacks a plane of innocent people and says to them that they should follow Allah/Bhagawan/Christ- or else I will thrown the hand-grenade at you, it is terror-tactics and has little to do with religious faith. To bully others is not a good answer to the problem of world peace.
: Similarly, a lot of people "confess" in police custody,to their non-crimes merely because they might get whipped by the authority in charge if they fail to do so. One cannot call their confession a true "conversion". Many Indian Hindus have "converted" like this to curry favour and keep out of the bad books of the emperors and rulers. Instead if only people would show kindness and goodness rather than hand-grenades they would gather more converts to their faith.
: When we see non-aggressive self-contentment in Islamic followers, many of us will be converted in spirit. And there are, definitely, some Islamic followers like that, unfortunately they do not form the leadership of the faith. The only leaders one sees are those that harrangue other faiths and deride their practices and turn a blind eye at the negatives in their own faith. What a pity. And how sad.
: Every religion has faults, it would be mature and acceptable for us to reject those parts of the faith that are obsolete and unacceptable in today's world. And this is done by mature people, emotional maturity does not come to zealots, whichever faith, Hindu Muslim or whatever. Because the "book" is only a collection of wise thoughts, and wisdom, true wisdom will last, and the dross will be sifted out. If one says that no word can be wrong from that holy book, no matter how silly it might be in reality today, then one is painting oneself into a corner. Some gullible souls. Certainly, might follow one, but the intelligent ones certainly won't. And education is therefore anathema to the fanatic, because he cannot deal with people thinking for themselves.
For Muslims, a word of sisterly advice: be kind, be good, and interfere in matters where Muslims are going wrong and leave the Hindus to sort out their own mess. Try to bring about change in the mindset of those Muslims that have gone wrong and are suffering due to poverty, deprivation, illilteracy etc, and help them. You have a major job on your hands, that will last you a life-time. Meanwhile, don't interfere in non-Muslims' lives. Make your hospitals, your schools your orphanages, widows' homes etc. Work within. Be happy on your own, without finding fault with Hindus and others. Once we see the good that Muslims do for their own flock, we would be fools not to follow that faith that helps man. We will readily convert and follow you then. And our conversion would count for something then.
Muslims need to heed this and give it serious thought.People in glass-houses should not throw stones. Hindus have no business only seeing the negatives in another man's faith and ignoring, at the same time, the backwardness and gender bias in their own. There are families in North India that are averse to family planning and are breeding like rabbits; child-marriages are quite common in Rajasthan etc.etc. We need to look at the garbage in our own house and throw it out rather than point fingers at the neighbour's dirty house.
Similarly, Muslims are poorer, less educated etc than the Hindus in India. There are a lot of social and economic problems that Muslims face, and they need to tend to their flock first. That is the best service they can do for the Prophet and Allah, peace be upon him. And I hope that I am not misunderstood, whether by Hindus, Muslims or Christians. I mean well, sincerely. I find many extremist Muslims and Hindus, many fanatical Christians who waste their lives trying to explain to a follower of the other faith how bad their faith is. Such people only keep hurting themselves time and again trying to beat their heads against the Hindu/Christian/Muslim wall. This is tragic. We need to meditate on this. This does not mean that I say all religions are the same, because that is hypocricy and untrue. All religions are different and unique in their own way and yet they are all meant to be sign-posts to the spiritual reality of the One Reality.
May Allah guide Muslims to the positive upliftment of other down-trodden Muslims. And may we as Hindus, instead of paying too much attention to women in burqas, pay some attention to the women in ghungats. That is the best thing we can do for our faith, and that will naturally help towards world peace and prosperity.
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Lata Jagtiani
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