Is Allah & Brahman the Same? | Dr. Shabir Ally
Let the Quran Speak
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yM8sRnKnmG4

Transkript (automatisch erstellt)

0:00 Welcome back. Now we answer questions we receive from you, our viewers.
0:03 If you have a question, visit our website quranspeaks.com. Dr. Shabir the question is,
0:09 is the Allah of the Quran and the Brahman of Hinduism the same?
0:13 Brahman is the ultimate reality and it is formless, timeless,
0:16 eternal spaces and is beyond our senses and our languages.
0:20 I wanna know if they're the same, are we a part of God or separate from God?
0:24 Is Allah everywhere? And is it in everything?
0:26 Please explain further. That's a question from someone from India.
0:30 - Yeah, that's an interesting question. And it gets me thinking about these concepts,
0:35 the concept of Allah in Islam, the concept of Brahman in Hinduism.
0:40 And I have to confess I don't know that much about the concept of Brahman in Hinduism.
0:45 Nonetheless, from the little I've been able to gather. Brahman is considered to be a universal soul.
0:52 And the goal of Hinduism is for the individual soul, the human being to merge with that universal soul,
1:00 as if that universal soul might be compared with an ocean to use a physical imagery.
1:07 And the individual soul is a drop of water, and the best that this drop
1:13 of water can do is to merge with that ocean, so it becomes part of something big and significant,
1:19 rather than be just an individual drop. So it is understood then that the human spirit
1:26 or soul would do well to merge with that universal soul which is called the Brahman.
1:36 Now in Islamic thought, generally the thinking is slightly different
1:41 in that while on the one hand, we believe Allah to be infinite,
1:47 and many Muslims would say that Allah is timeless. So Allah has many of the qualities
1:56 that the question there has attributed to Brahman and hence we can see some similarities.
2:01 So it might seem that what Muslims are speaking about when we speak of Allah.
2:06 Hindus are speaking about when they speak of Brahman as a kind of universal soul.
2:11 The Quran describes God Allah as the Lord of the universe.
2:15 So he is universal and He is the One God that pervades everything and
2:20 that encompasses everything. God says that in the Quran that he is we call it
2:26 (Dr. Shabir speaks in foreign language) like he is encompassing everything.
2:30 He is wise, he is vast and so on. At the same time, the Quran seems
2:37 to present a lot as a separate and distinct from his creation.
2:41 So there is no merging of the individual with Allah. We remain His creatures forever basking in his glory
2:49 and in the vision of him everlast, in everlasting bliss and paradise but not merging with the creators
2:56 so the Creator remains distinct and separate from the creation.
3:01 Having said that, though, in some Sufi traditions within Islam,
3:07 some ideas emerge, which are similar to the Hindu idea of merging with the universal soul.
3:15 So the Sufi might go through some practices to sort of in a way, efface oneself so
3:25 that the Sufi devotee wants to merge with that God and with God and even without reaching
3:34 that stage of merging, they may feel so intoxicated with the idea that they are part of God,
3:42 that it is even mentioned in one of our traditions that a certain mystic, by the name of
3:47 (Dr. Shabir speaks in foreign language) I am the truth because he felt so much
3:51 at one with God, that he could say I am the truth, which is one of the names
3:57 of God in the Islamic tradition. But he was declared a heretic and
4:02 that did not become the standard Muslim, a way of speaking of God.
4:06 So what remains is that we speak of God being transcendent,
4:10 being distinct from humans. But nonetheless, he has many of the qualities
4:15 which our questioner described as being the properties or attributes of Brahman,
4:22 the universal soul. - So could someone believe in both?
4:26 - Well, it looks like there are two separate concepts and as I said, some Sufi's seem
4:32 to have merged the two concepts. So, I wouldn't say that they are not Muslims,
4:37 they are Muslims. And so it's possible that one may enter
4:41 the religion of Islam, through that avenue by following a Sufi tradition
4:47 that is similar to what they already understand. But I would invite people to think
4:54 of God as being distinct from his creatures. In the Bible and in the Quran
5:01 this is how God is being presented. - Why do you think it's important
5:05 to think of God as being distinct? - Well, we're called upon in the Quran
5:09 to worship our Creator God, rather than to merge with God.
5:14 And if we think of ourselves as being separate and distinct from God,
5:18 we retain that humility as servants of God and His worshipers, rather than if we merge with God.
5:25 In that case, we think of ourselves as becoming one with God and becoming, in a sense, God.
5:30 So theosis has been an idea among some Christians, that eventually we the true believer merges with God.
5:40 But it is not an Islamic ideal, except in some Sufi traditions.
5:45 - Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I know this is an interesting subject,
5:48 but also a new one for you. - Yes definitely.
5:51 - Thank you. - You're welcome.