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IS PLURALITY THE ANSWER? We understand from the above verse that people were obsessed by their ancestral heritage of traditions they could not abandon despite clear injunctions of the Quran to the contrary. The Quran addressed man to use his intelligence and not to follow what he received from his forefathers. PROPHETS ARE REFORMISTSThe history of religions is the story of the clash between intellect and traditions. Every prophet has the mission to make radical changes in his community. He conveys the messages he receives from God, and the faithful obey God’s commandments in the light of the dictates of reason. In doing this, he disposes of the customs and traditions that clash with the revealed message. The disbelievers accuse the prophets of treachery and betrayal of ancestral traditions, denying all rational thinking and logic. To refute a novelty they need nothing but discord between what has been revealed and their actual practices. Blindfolded imitation of the ways of the forefathers is the motto among these people. Noah was addressed in the following way:The Prophet Hud was interrogated as follows: And the prophet Salih was asked the following question: The following was the address to the Prophet Shuaib: And they said to Abraham: Moses received the following answer: The Prophet Muhammad was ascribed the following qualification: GLORIOUS ANCESTORSThe Quran says that truth can only be reached by reason and based on God’s Book.. The defenders of the traditionalist Islam, opponents of this thesis of the Quran, do their utmost to obliterate this conjecture, deviating the naive people’s rational and logical tendencies towards the acceptance and adoption of sectarian dictates transformed into deep-seated traditions. The devotees of these traditions, who have replaced God’s revelation with man-made religion, argue, on the grounds that the majority of the believers have acted in emulation of their ancestors, that their forefathers could not have erred in their practices, so ipso facto they must be duly obeyed.21. And when they are told, “Follow what God has sent down,” they say, “No, we follow the ways that we found our parents doing.” We observe from the above verses that the ways of our ancestors were opposed to God’s revelation at the time of the Prophet, in total disregard of the verses of the Quran which they tried to replace by an infinite number of fabricated sources defying intellect as such. PURSUE NOT THAT OF WHICH YOU HAVE NO KNOWLEDGEThe exponents of sectarian and traditional Islam have always contended the uselessness and disadvantage of intelligence and reason in religion. Reason contradicts religion, according to them. No wonder that is so, since numerous absurdities and inconsistencies concocted could not possibly stand up to reason. The masses have been led to face a dilemma: either they will deny reason and accept religion or they will stick to their reasoning faculty and deny religion. The Quran announces that evidence attesting to God’s existence may be obtained by deductive reasoning. However, the Quran does not limit the use of intelligence to evidence that prove God’s existence. Reaching the conclusion that God exists through the working of one’s intelligence is proof that the Quran gives importance of the intellect and of God’s providing man with the capacity of finding out evidence when he uses his brain. PLURALITY AMONG THE HINDUSA person born into a Hindu family will believe that there is an infinite number of divinities incarnated in the cows around. It seems very natural for him to think along the lines of his forefathers. A child born into a practicing Christian family will find it only natural to think that Christ is God incarnate as preached by Catholicism and Orthodoxy. The traditionalist Islamist stands justifiably against such conceptions and in proof quotes the following verses of the Quran:As one can see from these verses, to fall in line with the majority may, more often than not, cause people to swerve from the right path. It has often been the case that the minorities were right in their judgment. God has not allowed us to find out truth by having recourse to the majority but has encouraged us to use our brains. You can find in the manner by which a traditionalist Muslim tries to point out the errors committed by a Hindu or a Christian delivering discourses like the above by reference to this and other verses. When traditionalist sects who use the right criteria in advising Hindus and Christians are called back to the Islam preached in the Quran, they prefer to take refuge behind their status as partisans of the majority, faithful to their historical past. Nevertheless, the traditionalists know how to admonish those who had been led astray and taken Christ for the Son of God and the calf for the refuge of divinities. They were the self-same people who had come up with the support of the majority behind them to stick to their old customs and traditions. FOR THE SAKE OF TRUTHIndividuals are required to defend their religion and must not fear to be cast out. Prophets who stood firm in their beliefs and suffered for their cause while trying to spread their messages are good examples. A great majority of people are afraid of being excommunicated, and prefer to stick to the established faith and traditions. If these people are comparatively near to the so-called devotee, so much the worse. |