“Who is Bulleh Shah? Hindu, Muslim, both or none?” Bulleh Shah is neither Hindu nor Muslim. He believed in mysticism where one focused on their relationship with God spiritually. In fact, as we discussed in class, he would criticize both religions for the rituals they would “blindly” follow. Why did people think he was not a Muslim? According to the reading by Robin Rinehart, Bulleh Shah “…neglected to follow all the dictates of Islamic law”, and he “learned to sing and dance”. During the class discussion, I remember Dr. Bhatt mentioning that Islamic laws prohibit singing and dancing to take place in Islamic society. Bulleh Shah also claimed that he did not believe that completing a pilgrimage in Mecca as a duty for a Muslim, would bring him closer to God. …show more content…
According to Lajwanti Raman Krishna, a scholar mentioned by Rinehart, Bulleh Shah transitioned from a having “Islamic theological ideas” during his time with Inayat Shah, to having his poetry greatly resemble him to be a Vaishnava devotee during later stages of his life.
What sets Bulleh Shah apart from these two religions is that during his third phase of life, Krishnas’ study demonstrated how Bulleh Shah was a firm believer in “Avaita”, which means that he saw God “in all and independently of all religions”. He believed that God was everywhere rather than compartmentalized into various religions and religious sects. Apart from evidence suggesting whether Bulleh Shah was Hindu or Muslim, his poetry greatly portrayed a man who was more of a humanist and mystic that is seeking a “personal experience” with God rather than being a refined Muslim or Hindu. In one of his poems, Bulleh shah expresses how he is from no religion but rather, he is a part of a state of consciousness knowing that God is all around, and one must be devoted to God spiritually. In Shahs’ poem, “Ishq di navio navi bahar”, he says “I grew tired reciting Vedas and Qurans I wore down my forehead performing
prostrations God is not at the [Hindu] pilgrimage site or in Mecca” Moreover, the poem also mentions that using physical objects such as a rosary will not bring people closer to God. The poem also says that the love that Bulleh Shah seeks is “not found in texts such as the Vedas or the Quran”. It appears that he did not believe in religion, but rather lived for building a relationship between himself and God without external influences.
The Major religions spread across Eurasia and Africa through trade routes and conquest. Along with the religions came ideas and practices to new and distance places, changing local populations and create new traditional beliefs and customs.
Roy Mottahedeh is a professor of Islamic history at Harvard University. He has written widely in the history of Islam and religion. The Mantle of the Prophet is one of the books that Mottahedeh wrote. In this book, Mottahedeh covers different aspects that include Islamic faith, Iranian city of Qom, traditions derived from the history of Iran, political change in Iran and secular Islamic learning among other issues. Ali Hashemi and Parviz studied together in the same elementary school courtyard. However, each of them took different turns. This paper is a review of The Mantle of the Prophet by Roy Mottahedeh. It will discuss the similarities and differences of the ideologies of Hashemi and Parviz and their oppositions to the Shah. It will also discuss their social backgrounds and cultural influences on their outlook of the world.
Salman Rushdie’s problems all began when he published The Satanic Versus. The leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini, called it blasphemous for its irreverent depiction of the prophet Muhammad. Although Rushdie isn’t even Iranian, Khomeini issued a fatwa for his death. He stated, “the author of the book The Satanic Verses, which has been compiled, printed and published in opposition to Islam, the Prophet and the Koran, as well as those publishers who were aware of its contents, have been sentenced to death.”(Lustig) Rushdie had committed the crime of apostasy, abandoning the Islamic faith, which is punishable by death. Any Muslim that encountered Rushdie had an obligation to kill him, and to disobey the fatwa would be a sin (Lustig). The mandate was broadcast on Radio Tehran, and fundamentally destroyed Rusdhie’s life from that point on. He was forced to go into hiding and was put under the protection of the British government (Allingham). He became famous ...
Reza Shah with the role to improve a better perspective about Islam and to protect the
Rushdie was not the only author that publicized forms of religion or politics. Naguib Mahfouz was an Arabic literature ...
This book, I Dared to Call Him Father: The Miraculous Story of a Muslim Woman’s Encounter with God, is, as the subtitle indicates, the story of how an aristocratic Pakistani woman, a lifelong Muslim, became a Christian in her fifties. Bilquis Sheikh was born in 1912 to conservative Muslim parents. As she grew up, she did not reject her Muslim faith, but acquired a disdain for anything spiritual or supernatural. If she could see it and explain it, she would believe it. Bilquis’ family was well known, hosting people from all over the world and often visiting London or Paris. Her husband was the Minister of the Interior, but they had divorced five years before, and feeling “the shame of rejection,” she secluded herself in her family’s ancestral home in the village of Wah. She lived with her servants and four-year-old grandson, and for the most part only visited with other family members.
“If I were asked to define the Hindu creed, I should simply say: Search after truth through non-violent means. A man may not believe in God and still call himself a Hindu. Hinduism is a relentless pursuit after truth... Hinduism is the religion of truth. Truth is God.”
Asani, Ali. “In Praise of Muhammad: Sindhi and Urdu Poems.” Religions of India in Practice. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995.
Bhikkhuni is the name given to a woman who is an ordained Buddhist nun. Women were not always allowed to become ordained and able to live their lives in a monastery. Today there are a lot of women practicing Buddhism and living in monasteries as nuns. Monasteries for nuns are more common in Asian countries then in the United States. There is a lot of history behind the first Buddhist Bhikkhuni and the way nuns live out their lives today. Being a Bhikkhuni consists of the history of the first Bhikkhuni, the eight Garudhammas, how a woman can become a Buddhist nun, the vows taken by a Buddhist nun and the life of a nun in a monastery.
... life, he even felt like Islam was a roadblock into his progressive views and ideas. Spiritually losing Islam, he did not only take up Hinduism – instead picked and chose certain beliefs from multiple religions, such as Sufism and Hinduism, creating his own set of religious ideas to abide by.
Devotion to Shri Krishna emerges as one of the most popular type of devotion in Hinduism. Krishna is the reincarnated human form of God, the God of all Gods. Devotional followers are drawn to Lord Krishna because of his beauty, kindness and personal magnetism, as well as His overwhelming affection for all living creatures. These are the main attributes that encourage lesser beings to strive to attain Divine love and Bliss.
He stressed that Islam is and always will be a monotheistic, ethical religion. I agree with this statement and with the education of the youth and the world, others will see that Islam is not evil or that much different from Christianity in faith. In his randomness he also hit on the ideas of sin. In Islam Ma’arvt and Mounkar are the Islamic terms for what Christians call sinless and sinful acts or the expectable and not expectable behaviors. From these aspects of faith one can seek justice and morality through God, the one who wills and acts justly.
... Dirk Collier states in an interview with Times Of India, ‘Akbar faced the same difficulty as the one we are facing in today's world: he ruled over a vast, extremely diverse empire, inhabited by people of countless many creeds, castes and ethnic origins. As a matter of principle, but also for pragmatic, "imperialist" reasons, he wanted them to be united – if not in brotherhood, then at least in mutual respect and harmony.’ (4). Akbar had a loyal following, after the defeat of Rajput rulers, he allied with the Rajput and instead of demanding a high “tribute tax” and leaving them with their territories unsupervised, he integrated them into his empire and formed a centralized government to rule over. This practice brought stability to his empire and his rules and sovereignty was embraced by Non-Muslims and Muslims. He abolished Jizya tax in 1562 but reinstated in 1575.
Once in power Islam was the last thing on Khomeini’s mind. I believe that he actually came to symbolize ‘change.’ What united the people of Iran around the revolution was that everyone wanted change because the Shah had failed to deliver on his promises, and any person could have become the leader, as long as they condemned the Shah. However, the so-called
Ghodratollahi, Eshan . "Akbar, The Doctrine of Shol-i-Khol and Hindu-Muslim Relations." Journal of Religious Thought: A Quarterly of Shiraz University 21 (2007): n. pag. Archive of SID. Web. 2 May 2012.