"Buddha's rationality and morality had a transcendental base above. This transcendence is the highlight and essence of Buddha's teachings, the justification of his claim to be a great world teacher and guide.

1/4 Similarly, Buddha's compassion was not merely secular or even humanistic; rather it was a deep and living concern of the "Enlightened One" for worldly creatures caught in the wheel of existence, birth, disease, decay, old age, death.

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Modern societies are outside the pale of varṇa-asrama dharma. There are no true Brahmins and Kshatriyas, nor true Vaishyas and Shudras. Mere wealth, industry and commerce do not make a Vaishya class.

1/6 In spiritual thought, the foundation of wealth is not exploitation of fellow-men and fellow-creatures and the destruction of Nature's resources for maximum personal profits.

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"Smriti is very inadequately translated as 'memory' but memory is narrow both in connotation as well as in denotation. Memory now means forgotten impression and experiences of the present life but, in Hindu thought, smriti stores the impression of the past lives also and+

1/5 therefore as a corollary even carries the impulsion of future lives as well. There are other differences too.

Memory refer to a man's capacity for recalling a certain forgotten events or idea;

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"All Muslims are equal but some are more equal than others. Islam recognizes different degrees of equality within itself. The Hidayab discusses this ranking, and different "orders" of inter-marriageability. It declares that "a Quraish is the equal of Quraish." It means that there is no pre-eminence between Hashmees, Niflees, Teymees or Adwees. Sayyads who trace
their descent fromn Bibi Fatimah, the Prophet's daughter, are a race apart.

"After all this Paradise-mongering, the book ends on a more down-to-earth note. JAbir reports: “We accompanied the Messenger of Allah on an expedition. When we came back to Medina and were going to enter our houses, he said:

1/5 ‘Wait and enter your houses in the later part of the evening so that a woman with dishevelled hair may have used the comb, and a woman whose husband has been away may have removed the hair from her private parts’ ” (4727).

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Brain teasers:

"Muslim theology is not without its brain-teasers. Two men, one the slayer and the other the slain, both go to Paradise. The Companions ask Muhammad: “How?” He replied: “One is slain in the Way of Allah [in jihAd] and dies a martyr.

1/7 Then Allah turns in mercy to the murderer who embraces Islam; he too fights in the Way of Allah and dies abmartyr” (4658-4659).

Another puzzle seeking solution. Two men, again one of them a slayer and the other the slain, go to hell but never “gathered together.”

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Reward of Mujahid:

"The rewards of being a Muslim are great, but the rewards of being a mujAhid are immensely greater. The Prophet said: “Whoever cheerfully accepts Allah as his Lord, Islam as his religion and Muhammad as his Apostle is necessarily entitled to enter Paradise ..+ [yet] there is another act which elevates the position of a man in Paradise to a grade one hundred [higher], and the elevation between one grade and the other is equal to the height of the heaven from the earth . . .. What is that act? ...JihAd in the way of Allah!

JihAd appears again.

"In a book on government containing 358 ahAdIs, 92 are on jihAd and mujAhids (crusaders) and martyrs. This is understandable, for jihAd is central to Islam and mujAhids are its Army of Liberation.

1/4 Without jihAd, there is no Islam. JihAd is a religious duty of a Muslim state. All lands not belonging to the territory of Islam (dAr al-islAm) must be conquered by the Muslims, and are therefore called the “territory of war” (dAr al-harb).

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Warning against bad times:

"Muhammad warns against the coming bad days when people will arise “who will adopt ways other than mine and seek guidance other than mine” and yet “they will be a people having the same complexion as ours and speaking our language.”

1/6 What should a believer do if he lives in those times? He “should stick to the main body of the Muslims and their leader” (4553). In those days “there will be leaders who will not be led by my guidance and will not adopt my ways.

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Warning against schism:

"Muhammad tells his followers that after him there will be no prophet but many KhalIfas. Somebody asks him what to do when there are more KhalIfas than one. Muhammad says: “The one to whom allegiance is sworn first has a supremacy over the others”(4543). Infact, “When oath of allegiance has been taken for two KhalIfas, kill the one for whom the oath was taken later” (4568). Very thorough.

This injunction was followed to the letter by ’Umar. As he lay dying, he appointed a board of six electors to choose the new KhalIfa after him

Quraish Supremacy:

“The Caliphate will remain among the Quraish even if only two persons are left on the earth,” Muhammad says (4476). This principle has been held very high in the Muslim world, though the Shias limit the office still further to the descendants of Muhammad,+ and specifically to the branch descended from ’AlI, the Prophet’s cousin and son-in-law, and his wife FAtima, the Prophet’s daughter.

As a result, for six hundred years, though the center of power of Islam shifted from Mecca to Damascus to Baghdad, the Caliphate remained with+

The conquest of Mecca:

Though Muhammad and the Meccans had entered into a ten-year truce, he made secret preparations to invade Mecca.

“O God, take eyes and ears from Quraish so that we may take them by surprise,” he prayed to Allah, and stealthily+

1/10 advanced on Mecca with ten thousand men.

Ibn IshAq tells us that when the Apostle reached Marr al-ZaharAn, the Quraish were completely ignorant of the fact and did not even know what he was doing. He took Mecca by surprise.

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"Those who follow the Prophet must become new men with a new conscience and new loyalties. They must be hardened in the difficult school of Islam. They must become participants in its blood-rites.

1/3 They must become parties to an act which is effective in the measure that it is compromising.

A man who still has some integrity is un-safely independent. In any case the followers should not be allowed to feel superior and to refrain from an act simply because they+

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The fate of BanU Quraiza (Jewish tribe):

"Commanded by Allah through Gabriel, Muhammad approached the fort of the Quraiza, where they had gathered for shelter. He told them: “O ye brothers of monkeys and swines, we have arrived, Allah has disgraced you and brought+

1/11 His vengeance upon you.”

The Apostle “besieged them for twenty-five nights until they were sore pressed and God cast terror into their hearts.” They surrendered
unconditionally and were taken captive.

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Rights of Husband and Wife:

A husband has complete sexual rights over his wife. “Your wives are your tilth; go then unto your tilth as you may desire”(3363). The same idea is also found in the QurAn(2:223). Another hadIs in the same group tells the husband that+

1/7 “if he likes he may have intercourse being on the back or in front of her, but it should be through one hole” (3365), which means vagina only, as the commentators tell us. It is the duty of a wife to be responsive to all of her husband’s overtures.

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Prohibitions in Islam:

"The law appears to be quite indulgent, but it is not entirely so. There are many restrictions on grounds of number, consanguinity, affinity, religion, rank, etc. For example, a man cannot marry more than four free women at a time (QurAn 4:3) —

1/13 there is no restriction on the number of slave concubines.

Also, one cannot marry one’s wife’s father’s sister nor her mother’s sister (3268-3277). It is also forbidden to marry the daughter of one’s foster brother, or even the sister of one’s wife if the wife is+

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On temporary marriage:

"Muhammad allowed temporary marriages. ’Abdullah b. Mas’ud reports: “We were on an expedition with Allah’s Messenger and we had no women with us. We said: Should we not have ourselves castrated? The Holy Prophet forbade us to do so.

1/7 He then granted us permission that we should contract temporary marriage for a stipulated period giving her a garment [for a dowry].” At this ’Abdullah felt happy and remembered the QurAnic verse: “The believers do not make unlawful the good things which Allah has made lawful+

On Marriage:

"The eighth book is entitled the “Book of Marriage”; one section of it also discusses divorce (al-talAq). Muhammad forbids celibacy.

“Those among you who can support a wife should marry, for it restrains eyes from casting evil glances and preserves one+

1/6 from immorality”(3231). One of his Companions wanted to live in celibacy, but Muhammad“forbade him to do so” (3239).

In fact, Muhammad discouraged self-denial in general. One of his Companions said, “I will not marry women”; another said, “I will not eat meat”;

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Women's prayers in Islam:

"Women can go to the mosque but they “should not apply perfume” (893),a privilege not denied to men who can afford it.

They were also told not to precede men in lifting their heads from prostration. The translator explains that this hadIs relates to a period when the Companions were very poor and could not afford proper clothing. The instruction was meant to give them time to adjust their clothing before the women lifted their heads (hadIs 883 and note 665).

"While giving his opinion of the first mosques, Muhammad makes some interesting disclosures. He does not deny that the Jews and the Christians also had their prophets but adds: “I have been given superiority over the other prophets in six respects:

1/6 1. I have been given words which are concise but comprehensive in meaning;
2. I have been helped by terror (in the hearts of the enemies);
3. spoils have been made lawful to me...;
4. I have been sent to all mankind; 5. The line of prophets is closed with me” (1062).

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"Muslim theologians and writers are in the habit of painting a very dark picture of pre-Islamic Arabia.

1/5 They describe it as morally depraved and utterly lacking in any sense of chivalry and generosity, referring to this period of history as the “state of ignorance or barbarism” (jahilIyya). Everything good began with Muhammad. But there are many ahAdIs which prove the contrary

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