Islam Vs. Buddhism - part 2

"In any future contest between Islam and Buddhism, Islam is bound to emerge victorious. ^=This must be so because of the clear superiority of Islam over Buddhism as a religion which is capable of responding to the awesome challenges of the modern age,-political, economic, moral, spiritual etc."
Chapter Ten,
Comparison Of Islam and Buddhism.
Islam and Buddhism in the Modern World.
By; Imran Nazar Hosein

Scriptural comparison;
                                  I do not doubt that the author must have done a great deal of research on the teachings of the Buddha and especially on the Buddhist Texts which he has himself admitted to be extensive and in two canons; that of the Pali and and the Sanskrit. The Buddha is said to have taught in the Pali canon originally and through His miraculous powers also simultaneously imparted his sermons in Sanskrit. The Buddha was a miracle worker just like the Christ and the Prophet of Islam; it is for one to accept the fact or not depending on one's prejudices. I grew up both as a Buddhist as well as a Muslim due to family circumstance and my sense of curiosity and the urge to know. I take to study both the religions very close through every form they present to me albeit reading, listening observing or worshiping and have come to realize in my own way what is for me the nature of their truths.
I do not claim to be an expert on Buddhissm nor Islam but i feel for both like they have been a strong part of my consciousness in Being who I am. I was born a Buddhist and later at the age of twelve converted to Islam, however i was exposed to Islam while growing up among my relatives and cousins who were all Muslims. In short I was exposed to the question of religious believe and of faith at a very early age and had I not the mind that could swim with the current of the time I would have drowned with insanity from struggling with the issues of right and wrong. Today I am still unveiling the truths that has merged from my quest to understand both the religions which is a part of me; how can I reconcile and justify to my Maker.
I spent two years of my life in doing a solid Zen Buddhist Practice in San Francisco where I was exposed to some of the most intriguing Buddhist texts and met some of the most outstanding Buddhist Scholars of our times. I walked out ( more like evicted) of the monastery awakened; at least i felt so even for a brief period of time in my life, I felt a sense of liberation from the bonds of ignorance, fear and delusions. This i felt grateful to the teachings of the Buddha and later when I stepped back home to Malaysia and took upon the practice of Islam I felt only sadness and slowly succumbed to rejection of what I see. Islam as practiced and preached by the so called ulamas and ustaz I came upon is far from instilling in me a sense of belonging, a sense of pride, or even a sense of truth. This was evideneced in the manner in which my late wife suffered in just trying to be converted to Islam in the Penang religious department, a day I would sooner forget. Then I came to realize that this is not the Islam that I have come to embrace, this is the Islam of the peddlers of ignorance whose intention is far from healing my splintered soul but cohesion and accusation through their own petty understanding always claiming their ways to be the right way and when in doubt throwing the holy verses or the hadiths of the Prophet at me to prove me in error.
I must admit that my knowledge of Islam or Buddhism for that matter is not perfect and far be it for me to claim myself an authority on both, but I am a seeker of 'The truth' and I have gambled my soul in the process. My knowledge and understanding of islam comes mostly from having read the translations and interpretations of great Muslim writers such as Imam Al Ghazali and Muhyidin Abn. Arabi, Muyiddin Shaikh Kadir Al Jilani and Al Rumi and the Ayatollah Hoemini whose works I find very insightful.  One of my mentor and religious teacher was my martial arts instructor,(Silat Seni Gayong, Malaysia) who was at the time i knew him was the Head of the Terengganu religous Department, Encik Abu Johan was a well rounded educated and an intellectual who had the respect of both the religious and the secular. Another teacher I had the privillage of learning from was my late mentor and friend Cikgu Yusof Ali who inroduced to me the ways of the Sufis.But these are my own personal understanding from what I have understood having read these teachers and I am not claiming that i have thoroughly understood to the point of being an authority or Islam. What I learned most about the religion is the feeling or the presence of my Lord in my hours of utter need or when in the nadir of my life when I felt lost to the point of despair. Then when I invoke my Lord's name I feel His Grace over me like a soothing shower, a healing, a forgiveness and acceptance, it is in these moments of challenges i face as a man that i find Allah: I am the prodigal son who has wandered far and returned to Islam through the back door of the religion.
I must declare that Buddhism has led me to Islam through the process of gnosis;
"Gnosticism (from gnostikos, "learned", from Greek: γνῶσις gnōsis, knowledge; Arabic: الغنوصية‎) is the dualistic belief that the material world should be shunned and the spiritual world should be embraced. Gnostic ideas influenced many ancient religions[1] which teach that gnosis (variously interpreted as enlightenment, salvation, emancipation or 'oneness with God') may be reached by practising philanthropy to the point of personal poverty, sexual abstinence (as far as possible for hearers, total for initiates) and diligently searching for wisdom by helping others.[2]"
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"Journey to the Lord of Power is the first English translation of lbn Arabi's twelfth-century text dealing with spiritual ascent Arabi, whose metaphysical teachings have had a profound influence on both the Muslim and Christian worlds, is known as one of the greatest writers of mystical love poetry of all time.
Written in answer to the questions of a friend, this illuminating guide describes the evolutionary path of our higher spiritual aspirations - the quest for the ultimate reality, the journey toward Cod. It is chiefly concerned with spiritual retreat, an advanced and potentially dangerous Sufi practice that aims at the attainment of the Presence of Cod through absolute abandonment of the world. Realizing the imagination's deceptive power, 'Arabi warns that this form of retreat should not be undertaken except at the order of a sheikh or by one who has mastered the self. Each stage of the journey is accompanied by a temptation which can be overcome only by an unshakable desire for Cod.
Arabi explains each step of the ascent leading toward human perfection. In this perilous voyage of self-discovery, the reader will encounter the Realms of the mineral, vegetable, and animal worlds, eventually reaching the Gardens and the Throne of Mercy. The traveler of the Sufi mystic path is called upon to cleanse his or her heart in order to safely reach the final destination - the Lord of Power."
                                                                                                translated by Rabia Terri Harris

My personal journey happened out of necessity from having to discover for my own sanity why I am as I am when it comes to faith and religions. I set upon the path of self discovery when I first went to college and stumbled upon books on Buddhism written by contemporary Budhist scholars such as Aldous Huxley, Alan Watts, Shunryu Suzuki, Daistz Suzuki, Thich Naht Hahn and numerous others. I took to reading them like duck take to water; I discovered the essence of Buddhism and what it was that the Buddha had intended for mankind to understand of himself. Mankind suffer from three illnesses the Buddha was said to have declared.; Greed, Hate and Ignorance. From this declaration alone one can see the errors of man that had caused Adam and Hawa to be casted out from the garden, to fall from grace. The Buddha's mission was to heal man from these three inflictions, to awaken man from their effect. Islam does this through absolute faith and total submission to the Will of Allah. The Buddha ask that we solve our problem here and now, that we liberate from the bondage or ignorance that we are not well from the beginning.
The question is how do we heal a sick mind and become whole in order that we may approach our Lord as a clean slate each time we face Him in worship? (five times a day). How many good devoted Muslims have erred simply because our Lord is Oft Forgiving and Merciful by indulging in all the transgressions believing that at the end of the day God will forgive especially if we go to perform the Haj? It is this error in perception and right understanding of the truth that many of us have strayed claiming our ways are the right ways so long as we perform the required rituals in our worship of God. God in His infinite Compassion has allocated us the time and space to exist on this planet as His servant... to serve Him and in serving Him we are served, but man has the idea of self serving as I and not God is Number One. Most Muslims today especially in my country are manifesting hypocrisy and using the religion as a crutch to survive and to hide behind. A true Muslim is a rare specie in this day and age but they are out there no doubt and that is why the good Lord has not decided to fold up His experiment and call it quit. The battle between good and evil, of light and darkness still raging ever more so as we head into the uncertain future and Iblis still is on the look out for his pound of flesh in the form of deranged or lost souls.
It is safe to say that the most atrocity committed by man upon his fellow man is happening among the Muslims all over the world, we are at war with ourselves and in the process has dragged the religion through the mud of civilization. If the Prophet of Allah were to be in our midst today He would cry bitter tears over what has become of our Ummah and yet we have the audacity to claim that our religion is better than others. I will have to resist from further pointing out the weaknesses in Islam as practice today by the majority of Muslims around the world for fear that i might be construed as an Islam basher. But suffice it is to say that Islam in this day and age can look at Buddhism and its ways of dealing with the human mind and consciousness in order that we may correct our own ways and better understand the teachings of the Prophet of Allah and the Holy Book. Islam is perfect, but Muslims has allot to understand about themselve in relation to their faith and belief.
 Islam may claim not to have monks and priests but there Muftis and Ulama's in Islam, and there are uniformed religious departments handling Islam which to me are no better than monks and priests; in essence monks and priests practice their religions to liberate their own minds from ignorance through the practice of austerity and so forth but none were required to become lifelong practitioners as nowhere in Buddhism is this mandated by the Buddha. Monks can return to their laity life after their ppractice period. The act celibacy is also not something imposed upon any in Buddhism but encouraged during certain times of their practice period as sexual indulgences are a hinder to the acquiring of knowledge especially in the spiritual nature. Most Sufi adepts practice celibacy while going through their rigorous training and this is common practice in Islam. The Buddha was no ordinary man even if the author refutes this and having attained to the state of Buddhahood He had transcended the human form and its base needs and his wife and son were among the first to follow his path. Mahatma Ghandi went through similar practice in his life and he shook civilization from its foundation with his abstinence.
Lastly in this entry I would like to declare that to me Buddhism is not a religion, it is a Way of life; a way of dealing with the day to day art of living. Buddhism is a healing process for the ills of man and his environment; it was founded as an agnostic approach towards the errors of the religion of Hinduism.

"In the popular sense, an agnostic is someone who neither believes nor disbelieves in the existence of a deity or deities, whereas a theist and an atheist believe and disbelieve, respectively.[2] In the strict sense, however, agnosticism is the view that humanity does not currently possess the requisite knowledge and/or reason to provide sufficient rational grounds to justify the belief that deities either do or do not exist."
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