Reconciling Religions
By Lindsay Norcott
Staff Writer

Despite the title, "God and His Message: How Do We Differ?" the lecture series at McAlister this month aims to find similarities between religions as a method for understanding.

On March 3, the first of the lectures, which focus on Islam using a comparative approach, concentrated on comparisons between Hinduism and Islam. Later sessions will discuss Jewish and Christian traditions, the messengers of God, and the impact of various religions worldwide.

This series is led by Dr. Aslam Abdullah, editor of The Minaret, a monthly magazine, and The Muslim Observer, a weekly publication based in Detroit. Dr. Abdullah has published 11 books and over 400 articles pertaining to Muslims and Islam.

Dr. Abdullah began his Monday lecture with a broad discussion of Hinduism. The religion has changed its face over its long existence, responding to encounters with other cultures and religions. For example, a practitioner of Hinduism used to be as loosely defined as "one who lives by a code of life" which would mean that Christians, Jews, and Muslims could also be considered Hindus.

Over time, however, the caste system in India became heavily incorporated into the religion. Current Hindu belief is that the four castes correspond to the head, chest, abdomen, and feet of the primary god, Brahma. In addition, there are the "untouchables," who include anyone who doesn't fit into one of the other four castes. "Untouchables" consist of menial laborers and members of all other religions now that Hinduism is no longer as inclusive as it once was.

As in most religions, Hinduism has its own cosmology and creation story. Hindus believe that we are in the third and last age of humanity, which will last 240,000 years. We are currently about 3,000 years into the epoch. All things originally came from Brahma and are an extension of divinity. Humanity will continue in cycles until the human soul ultimately rejoins Brahma.

Dr. Abdullah turned his discussion toward Islam half an hour into the lecture. Most of his discussion referred to what had been said in the Hinduism section. For example, Abdullah pointed out that there is no hierarchy of faith or heritage in the Islamic tradition corresponding to that of the Hindu caste system.

The actions and intentions of each person will determine his or her fate on Judgment Day, according to Islamic belief. All souls will be reunited with their earthly bodies on that day and will stand before God to have their eternal fate decided.

Because the Word of God was present in the world before Muhammad, the paths of Christians and Jews are valid, under Islamic faith, as long as they believe that there is only one God. In Abdullah's personal understanding of Islam, "one has to be consciously convinced of their own path and then seek the mercy of God." He sees many paths as being valid, so long as they center on worship of one God.

Because this short discussion of Islam was so defined in contrast with the structure of Hinduism, it was not particularly useful as a method for better understanding Islam. The question and answer session focused more on clarifying how and when Hinduism changed than on any aspect of Islam.

Asked what the value of a comparison between religions could be, Dr. Abdullah answered that it could help us understand "the historical development of the human mind." This provides insight into what religious developments are leading us to, both sociologically and religiously, he said.

These aims weren't even touched on by such a cursory comparison. Those who attended were left with a hastily sketched skeleton of Hinduism and no new knowledge or understanding of Islam. Perhaps this will be a jumping-off point that the rest of the series will build on. A continuing dialogue on the many faces of Islam is likely to find an audience at the Claremont Colleges.