Saturday, March 10, 2012

Are All Paths Correct?

In the history of mankind we have seen a large number of conflicts.
Many of these battles were fought for religion.
Mankind is by disposition averse to war because man likes well being to the extreme levels.
Hence man wants to avoid war at any cost.
Or any kind of conflict. So if religious matters lead to conflict man would like to avoid that also.
And then man also devises a philosophical paradigm to justify this.
They just say that all religions are true.
All paths lead to the same goal. Sort of - all roads lead to Rome.
Even amongst Muslims some people have fallen prey to this deception of our Baser Self. Or of Satan the cursed - or both. They should know better. Only if they'll find a few minutes to browse through the Noble Qur'an.

The religion near Allah(SWT) is Islam.

If this is true then any other religion is not the route to salvation.

And no other religion except Islam will be acceptable of you.

This also clearly says that we must guard our religion very carefully.

Allah(SWT) says that truth and falsehood can not be the same. Good and bad can not be the same. This type of statements clearly hint to the direction that we should turn away from those sweet philosophies that assert that any thing is good and every thing is good. Perennial philosophy is precisely that - it asserts that I'm OK and you are OK. This is not always true. The whole point of this world is that it is a test. In any test there is a right answer and there is a wrong answer. Every answer is not the right answer. Such examination, such test is phony. The world does not seem to be a phony place. Just a few days back an upright police officer was brutally crushed to death by a illegal miner. Nothing phony about it. Life is full of such events. If life is full of painful things then how can we imagine that in the hereafter everything will be OK - whatever path we choose in this world? Even intellect does not accept it that there will be no punishment in the hereafter whatever we do in this world. If we believe that all paths are correct then beloved Prophet(PBUH)'s sacrifices, na'aoozubillah, become irrelevant because whether we follow his path or any other path it, n'aaoozubillah, is the same. Just because we are hesitant to tell others that you are following the wrong path we should not ourselves start believing that all paths lead to Jannah. All paths may lead to Rome, and even that does not seem to be correct, but all paths lead to Jannah is not the correct thing to say. In Surah Fatiha we beg to be shown the correct path. Why bother about it when all paths are the same. In Surah Fatiha we beg for protection from the path of those who went astray. Why bother about that if that path is also correct. In Surah Fatiha we seek protection from the path of those on whom Allah(SWT)'s wrath has been there. Clearly there are some paths which shall invite Allah(SWT)'s wrath. Should we not try to avoid them? What is the use of such faith if we do not have complete faith even in Surah Fatiha? How can we be so naive as to believe the sweet poison that everything is OK? If I bad mouth you then it is not OK. How can it be OK if we take that path which is not preferred by Allah(SWT)?