The two religions; Hinduism and Islam are considered poles apart from each other for many reasons, though one fails to consider their similarities as well. Being humans, no matter what religion or sect one belongs to, they think that their knowledge of the religion is best. For instance, all human beings alike whether they are Hindus or Christians or Muslims seek guidance from their religion’s holy scriptures; that is for the Muslims it is The Holy Quran while the Vedas, Upanishads, Itihaas, Bhagavad Gita, and the Puranas are for Hindus. Are these two religions are different in concepts?
The most basic form of similarity between the two religions is the concept of; ‘see no evil, speak no evil and hear no evil’ that is the followers should always speak the truth, shouldn’t lie or steal, and should be kind to those around them and not cruel (King & Char, 1997). Many people are with the view that Islam was founded and bought about by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) 1400 years ago. This is a misconception amongst humankind as this religion has been there since the time of Moses and has preached the same thing on and on – oneness and uniqueness of Allah and the complete submission of mankind. On the other hand, the word ‘Hindu’ means people who lived near River Indus. According to them, Hinduism encompasses the beliefs of everyone in India minus the Muslims and Christians. In Hinduism, those Hindus who are well versed in their religion are with believe in worshiping only one God, however, some others worship three gods or ten or even 330 million.
On the other hand, the major difference between these two religions of Hinduism and Islam is that while the Muslims say that everything in this universe belongs to God, the Hindus say that everything on this universe is God i.e. the sun is god, the cow is God, the moon is God, humans are God, etc. “According to Dr. Naik, if somehow we manage to solve this problem between belonging to God and being God then these two religions would stand united” (King & Char, 1997). Another conflict between the concepts of these two religions is that according to Hinduism, God comes down in one way or another to protect his religions while Islam says that God never comes down in human or any form whatsoever as no form is strong enough to contain him nor does God need food to survive nor he sleeps. One can conclude that even though Hinduism and Islam are more similar than different; this is one argument that will go on indefinitely.
Reference
King, N., & Char, S. (1997). Hinduism and Islam in India: Caste, Religion, and Society from Antiquity to Early Modern Times. London: Markus Wiener Publishing Inc