Posts

Showing posts from March 15, 2009

CONCEPT OF GOD IN HINDUISM

CONCEPT OF GOD IN HINDUISM by Dr. Zakir Naik 1. Common Concept of God in Hinduism: Hinduism is commonly perceived as a polytheistic religion. Indeed, most Hindus would attest to this, by professing belief in multiple Gods. While some Hindus believe in the existence of three gods, some believe in thousands of gods, and some others in thirty three crore i.e. 330 million Gods. However, learned Hindus, who are well versed in their scriptures, insist that a Hindu should believe in and worship only one God. The major difference between the Hindu and the Muslim perception of God is the common Hindus’ belief in the philosophy of Pantheism. Pantheism considers everything, living and non-living, to be Divine and Sacred. The common Hindu, therefore, considers everything as God. He considers the trees as God, the sun as God, the moon as God, the monkey as God, the snake as God and even human beings as manifestations of God! Islam, on the contrary, exhorts man to consider himself and his surround

CONCEPT OF GOD IN JUDAISM

CONCEPT OF GOD IN JUDAISM Judaism is one of the major Semitic religions. Its followers are known as Jews and they believe in the prophetic mission of Prophet Moses (pbuh). (i) The following verse from Deuteronomy contains an exhortation from Moses: (pbuh) "Shama Israelu Adonai Ila Hayno Adna Ikhad" It is a Hebrew quotation which means "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord" [The Bible, Deut 6:4] (ii) Consider the following verses from the Book of Isaiah : "I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no saviour." [The Bible, Isaiah 43:11] (iii) "I am lord, and there is none else There is no God besides me." [The Bible, Isaiah 45 : 5] (iv) "I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me." [The Bible, Isaiah 46:9] (v) Judaism condemns idol worship in the following verses : "Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in he

CONCEPT OFGOD IN CHRISTIANITY

CONCEPT OFGOD IN CHRISTIANITY by Dr. Zakir Naik I INTRODUCTION TO CHRISTIANITY: Christianity is a Semitic religion, which claims to have nearly 1.2 billion adherents all over the world. Christianity owes its name to Jesus Christ (peace be on him). The Holy Bible is the sacred scripture of the Christians: a) The Bible is divided into two parts, the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament is the Holy Scripture of the Jews and contains records of all the prophets of the Jews that came before Jesus (pbuh). The New Testament contains records of the life of Jesus (pbuh). b) The complete Bible, i.e. the Old Testament and the New Testament put together, contains 73 books. However, the Protestant Bible i.e. the King James Version, contains only 66 books as they consider 7 books of the Old Testament to be apocrypha, i.e. of doubtful authority. Therefore the Old Testament of the Catholics, contains 46 books and that of the Protestants, 39 books. However the New Testament of bot