Buddhism-an Analytical View

Buddhism, an analytical view Life of Gautama Buddha The term Buddha, literally meaning “awakened one” or “enlightened one”, is not a proper name but rather a title, such as messiah (the Christ). At the outset we must confess that almost the unanimous opinion of the scholars is that there is no authentic account of his life or teachings. We have dealt in detail about this subject in our pamphlet on ‘Buddhism and fallacies of idol worship’. The present day Buddhist scripture and legends tell us that the Buddha was born about the year 563 BC in the kingdom of Sakyas (on the borders of present day Nepal and India). As the son of Suddhodana, the king, and Mahamaya, the queen, the Buddha thus came from a Kastriya family (the warrior caste or ruling class). The story of Buddha’s life, however, begins with an account of a dream that his mother Mahamaya had one night before he was born: a beautiful elephant white as silver, entered her womb through her side, Brahmins were asked to interpret the dream, and they foretold the birth of a son who would become either a universal monarch or a Buddha. Ten lunar months after the conception, the queen and her retinue left Kapilavastu, the capital of the Sakya kingdom, on a visit to her parents in Devadaha. She passed through Lumbini, a park that was owned jointly by the people of both cities. There she gave birth to a son in a curtained enclosure. Immediately upon hearing of the birth of a son, the sage Asita (also called Kala Devala), who was King Suddhodana’s teacher and religious adviser, went to see the child and predicted that he would become a Buddha. On the fifth day after birth, for the name giving ceremony, 108 Brahmins were invited, among whom eight were specialists in interpreting bodily marks. Of these eight specialists, seven predicted two possibilities: if the child remained at home, he would become a universal monarch; if he left home, he would become a Buddha. But Kondanna, the youngest of the eight, predicted that he would definitely become a Buddha. Later, this same Kondanna became one of Buddha’s companions and was one of his first five disciples. The child was given the name Siddharta, which means, “One whose aim is accomplished”. On the seventh day after his birth, his mother died, and her sister Mahaprajapati Gotami, Suddhodana’s second consort, brought up the child. At the age of 16, Siddharta married his cousin Yasodhara, also 16 years old. The turning point in Siddharta’s life came when he was 29 years old. While driving with his charioteer Channa, he had the opportunity to see (1). An old man, (2). A sick man, (3). A dead body and (4). A shaven headed man, a wanderer, wearing the yellow robe. The impact of the ‘dark side’ of life was so great on him that on the same night he renounced the world and left his wife and baby son Rahula secretly,

donning the robe of the wandering ascetic. It is said that he spent some six years in his quest for truth, a quest which was born when he came face to face with the fact of suffering. He studied the sacred lore of the Hindus and practiced the Hindu disciplines and exercises but found no answer to the burning problem of his life. Similarly he passed through Jainism. He practiced rigorous fasting and went through a period of extreme self-mortification, which he found to be damaging. Still he attained no enlightenment. He finally gave up his rigorous exercises and in the process lost the five disciples who had clung to him and returned to his common sense to take up his begging bowl and resume the life of the wandering mendicant. Six years of search, along the two most widely recognized roads to salvation known to India, philosophic meditation and bodily asceticism had yielded no results. Gautama was now thrown back on his own resources and it was not long before he sighted his goal as he sat rapt in meditation under a Bodhi tree. He passed through different stages of meditation until finally he attained ‘enlightenment’, thus he came to be known as Gautama Buddha or the enlightened one. After this he spent the next 45 years of his life in preaching the truths he had discovered. His first sermon was delivered at Sarnath. Here he expounded the famous Four Noble Truths that all is suffering (Dukh), it has a cause (Tanha), this cause can be removed, and there is a method by which it can be removed. This method consists of following the Noble Eight Fold Path of right understanding (samma ditthi), right thought (samma sankappa), right speech (samma vacha), right conduct (samma kammanta), right livelihood (samma ajiva), right endeavor (samma vayama), right thinking (samma sati) and right meditation (samma Samadhi). A comparative view…… Now ‘suffering’ is, and must always be, associated with ‘feeling’ and ‘emotion’. We shall hardly be disposed to name as ‘suffering’ that which is not accompanied by some ‘feeling’ of pain or ‘emotion’ of grief. In this sense of the word, it is clearly an over-statement to say that ‘all is suffering’. We all experience the ‘feeling’ of pleasure and the ‘emotion’ of joy and happiness. Indeed, no one can deny having experienced joy and happiness. It may not have been in the measure or for as long as one would have liked. But while I am there it is real, and when it is gone it is treasured in memories, not as something which was unreal, but rather a something which was as real as the suffering which may have preceded or followed it. We shall have to rewrite all our Psychology textbooks if we wish to deny the ‘feeling’ of pleasure and the ‘emotion’ of happiness. But it may be that Buddha did not use the word Dukh in this sense-the psychological sense. Perhaps he meant it as an intellectual assessment of ‘the life of this world’ as a whole. Now, without a metaphysic (belief in an all powerful, all knowing, creator,

sustainer, provider) to support him, Buddha would be hard put to project this, his fundamental teaching, as anything more than his own personal viewpoint. For, ‘all is suffering’ would be a universal judgment; and, as such, it presupposes a standpoint, a criterion, purpose and destiny of, not only human life, but also all life. Without this metaphysic, his judgment cannot but be relative. We all have our different outlooks towards life and our different goals in life. Joy and suffering, pleasure and pain would be relative to our individual readings of the world and our individual goals in life. Thus even with this interpretation of Dukh, ‘all is suffering’ falls to the ground. Let us now proceed to a sympathetic understanding of Buddha’s statement. It is an undeniable fact that different people view the same world differently. The identical environment may be heaven in the estimation of one person and hell in the view of another. All Buddhists would agree that Buddha’s development from infancy through childhood and adolescence to adulthood to the age of 29 to be precise was abnormal. In fact, he is the only person, perhaps in the whole history of mankind, who was deliberately kept away from the fact of suffering until he was 29 years of age. He was kept away from the view of old age, sickness, death and asceticism. And, to make matters worse, this abnormality was supplemented with another abnormality. He was fed up to his throat, so to say, with joys of this world-dancing and singing girls, good food and drink, luxurious clothes, joyful sports, and as pleasant and beautiful an abode and environment as the royal purse could afford. He was, in fact, confined in a cage of happiness! According to the Anguttara Nikaya, a canonical text from the sutra pitaka, Buddha himself is reported to have said later about his upbringing. “Bhikkus (monks), I was delicately nurtured, exceedingly delicately nurtured, delicately nurtured beyond measure. In my father’s residence lotus ponds were made; one of blue lotuses, one of red and another of white lotuses, just for my sake…. Of kasi cloth was my turban made; of Kasi my jacket, my tunic and my cloak… I had three palaces; one for winter, one for summer and one for the rainy season. Bhikkus, in the rainy season palace, during the four months of the rains, entertained only by female musicians, I did not come down from the palace”. At the age of 29 he came in contact with the real world-with the fact of suffering which he never knew before, and, what is just as important, with the temporary nature of the joys and happiness which he, up till then, believed to be real and permanent. It was only natural that this should give rise to an abnormal impact of the reality of suffering and the unreality of happiness on the mind of the disillusioned young man. I believe this to be the fundamental psychological explanation for the over emphasis on suffering on which Buddha founded his religion!

Desire (Tanha) In analyzing ‘suffering’, Buddha found that it had a cause, and that was ‘desire’ (Tanha). In its technical sense Buddha used Tanha to stand for ‘the desire and craving for life’. This is the second of the ‘four noble truths’. Now, if Tanha is taken in its general sense to mean desire as such, it is obvious that all desires do not lead to suffering. It is only wrong desires or desires in a wrong measure, which lead to suffering. The Qur’an, for example, asks mankind to restrain the desires of the baser self, not all desires. “…….and follow not (i.e., restrain the ego from) lower desires” (Qur’an 38:26) It is the desires of the baser self, which, as a matter of fact, really lead to suffering. Dr. Fazlul Rahman Ansari, in his book “Which Religion’ states “It turns human beings into stones. It is only stones that may be conceived to have no desires. As regards human beings, desire is the first and foremost condition of their activity and the most vital foundation of their progress”. Dr Ansari concludes that: “In the domain of moral philosophy, the doctrine of the total negation of all Desire is a hopeless doctrine”. On the other hand the Buddhist concept of total negation of all desires is self-contradictory. One has to annihilate all desires to fulfill the desire of attaining the ultimate goal ‘Nirvana’. If all desires have been annihilated, the desire for attaining ‘Nirvana’ cannot exist which makes this concept self-contradictory. The corner stone on which the Buddhist Philosophy is built is the ‘Theory of Dependent Origination’ or Paticca samuppada. What this theory in fact states is that no object, no event, is independent in respect of its mundane existence or its appearance. All objects are dependent for their existence or appearance on other objects, all events on other events. There is a casual connection running through all things, such as A is the cause of B and B is the cause of C and C is the cause of D etc. This theory states that all is contingent and nothing is necessary. Buddha applied this philosophical theory to his theology and traced the cause of suffering through some twelve intermediary stages or links until he arrived at the last cause ‘the will to live or the clinging to life’. This is the technical meaning of the term Tanha. Both the philosophical theory and what we call its theological application are defective. The Scottish Philosopher, David Hume, has shown very conclusively that there is no necessary relation between ‘cause’ and ‘effect’ such that, given the former, the latter must appear. Secondly, and this is very important, the universal law of causation, even if affirmed despite the assertions of David Hume, can only be affirmed within the framework of observable phenomena. Take it beyond or before this and we enter into the region of guesswork. That which precedes life is beyond our observation. Hence, it is that the theological application of this theory is defective. The jump from ‘clinging to life’, as the cause, to ‘birth’ as the effect, just cannot be proved. It cannot

be admitted as more than a mere hypothesis and a very far fetched one too! And even as a hypothesis, it fails to answer the most vital question of ‘the origin of life’. That which can end, must also have begun sometime. The explanation found in the Agganna sutra in Deega Nikaya about the origin of some natural and social phenomena make it a text not worth the trouble to read in the scientifically advanced era of the twenty first century. We would like you to visualize the scenario of whole of or a major portion of mankind choosing to attain salvation through this method. If the whole of mankind choose this method, the life will come to a stand still and the human race will be wiped off from the face of the earth completely within about 100 years, as no human reproduction will take place from the time of choosing this path, due to annihilation of desire. Karma The theory of Karma, which Buddhists have borrowed from Hinduism, is the moral application of the theory of dependent origination (Paticcasmuppada). It is an inescapable, indisputable law of justice and moral retribution, which states, in as many words, that every single act has its necessary consequence, be it for better or for worse. As the Dhammapada puts it: “Neither in the sky, nor in the midst of the sea, nor by entering into clefts of mountains is there known a place on earth where, stationing himself, a man can escape from the consequence of his evil deeds”. There can be no relaxation to this law, for the slightest deviation will break down the structure of causal necessity which runs through the theory of dependent origination. Side by side with theory of Karma is the theory of the transmigration of souls, another Hindu loan to Buddhism. Strangely enough this doctrine also found its way into Greek thought. Pythagoras supported it so firmly that the Greeks made fun of him. “Once, they say, Pythagoras was passing by when a dog was being ill treated. ‘Stop’, he said, ‘don’t hit it! It is the soul of a friend! I knew it when I heard its voice’.” (Xenophanes). Not only does Karma govern this life but also our previous lives. In fact, in accordance with the manner in which we lived our previous life, Karma determines in what station or status we shall be born in this life. A good past life may earn for us the reward of being born as a human being. Invariably the animal life was the punishment for those who fell below human qualification. It becomes difficult in such a society to argue the case for the prevention of cruelty to animals. Of course, the thought that that donkey may be your dead uncle can serve as a preventive against beating it. But, by the same token, you cannot object to a man beating a dog and defending himself on the ground that whoever the dog may be, he must have lived a very evil life to be born as a dog and so it deserves punishment! The defect of the theory of Karma is that it can easily give rise to the problem of despair if faithfully believed in and applied to the ups and downs of the moral struggle. Despair, in turn, destroys the psychological drive or impetus, which be present for healthy participation in the moral struggle.

Islam solves the problem of despair with its concept of God, Who is full of Compassion and Mercy, and Who Himself proclaims to the sinners: “Say, O my servants who have transgressed against their souls! Despair not of the Mercy of God, for God forgives all sins (on sincere repentance and amendment of conduct) for He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful” Qur’an 39:53. Secondly, Islam provides the psychological impetus for healthy, vigorous participation in the moral struggle, with its system of rewards and punishments (heaven and hell) which does not remain confined within the limits of a mathematically computerized exactitude (as in Karma) but which is balanced in favour of rewards for the good. “He who doeth good shall have ten times as much to his credit; and he that doeth evil shall be recompensed according to his evil” Qur’an 6:160 The basic defect of Buddhist Ethics is that it lacks the belief in a Creator God. It ignores man’s emotional nature, his religious consciousness. Man, in his moral struggle, craves for a source of unfailing hope and comfort. This can only be provided with the concept of a Compassionate, Loving, Forgiving God Who is full of Grace, and with a system of rewards and punishment balanced in favour of good. Islam and Islam alone provides both. Buddhism provided neither and has paid the penalty of being turned upside down by unassuming Buddhists who today worship even idols and statues of Buddha, and the gods of Hinduism. Existence of One True God Now the question of existence of a Creator God arises out of this discussion. The general belief in the present day Buddhism is that there is no Creator God, Who is Omniscient, Omnipotent and Un-created. Let us examine what Buddha himself has said about the existence of a God without a beginning or end. In Udana (chapter 8 verse 3), a part of Kuddaka Nikaya of Suttaka Pitaka, Buddha has explained this concept as follows: 'There is, O monks, an Unborn, Un-originated, Unformed and Uncreated. For if there were not this Unborn, Un-originated, Unformed, Uncreated, there would be no escape possible from the born, originated, formed and created. But since, O monks, there is this Unborn, Un-originated, Unformed and Uncreated, therefore an escape is possible from the born, originated, formed and created.' Let us get an opinion of an independent source such as Encyclopedia Britannica regarding this verse in Udana. "Though it is true that Buddha avoided discussion of the Ultimate Reality that lay beyond the categories of the phenomenal world, he did not seem to have had any doubts about the Absolute. He said, 'There is an Unborn, an Un-originated, an Unmade, Uncompounded; were there not, there would be no

escape from the world of the born, the originated, the made and the compounded'. The Buddha believed in something that endures beneath the shifting appearances of the visible world." This quotation from the Encyclopedia Britannica very clearly explains the meaning of the verse in Udana given above. Unfortunately, the Buddhists scholars tend to interpret this verse as indicating to Nirvana, which is not acceptable at all. Further, the present day Buddhism believe that Buddha attained enlightenment and as a result became omniscient (sarvanja), which is an indispensable pre-requisite to formulate a religion involving explanations about the unseen. Very strangely Buddha states the following in the 'Thevijjavajjagotta Sutta' of the 'Majjima Nikaya' (Sutta Pitaka). "I am not omniscient (sarvanja) and if anyone has stated that I am omniscient, it is not a statement made by me and this is a false allegation made to insult me". Unfortunately, according to this statement of Buddha, most of the present day Buddhists are insulting him by calling him a sarvanja (omniscient). Omniscience is an attribute that belong to the God Almighty and the following explanations will prove to any unbiased person that Lord of the Worlds is indeed Omniscient and Omnipotent Let me quote Dr. Ansari again to elaborate this point. "Firstly, to those who say that there is no God, we would like to say that no human being has the right to say that there is no God. This statement of denial of God is the most irrational, illogical and baseless statement which any human being can make. Even those of you who are not students of logic and philosophy can understand very well that, if a person says that a certain thing is not present in this building, then he will have to prove that he has a comprehensive knowledge of this building. If that person does not possess a comprehensive knowledge of every nook and cranny such a person has no right to make that statement. However, if another person states that a certain thing is to be found in this building, then it is not necessary for that person to know every nook and cranny of this building, for it is quite possible that that thing is lying at the door as he entered. Therefore his statement is accepted. Thus, anybody who makes the statement that there is no God will have to prove that he possesses a comprehensive knowledge of all that exists. If he can prove it, then alone it may be possible to make this statement. Even then his statement may be wrong, for there are illusions from which human beings suffer. Therefore this stand that there is no God is not possible for any human being on the face of the earth and it should be completely ruled out. Furthermore, we can take the argument through another channel. There can be two points of view about what exists and about what we experience about this world. One point of view is that this world has been created by a Supreme Being, by God, and it has been created ab novo, from nothing. The other point of view is being put forward nowadays that this world has not been created by a God or by anything else. The question then arises: if this world has not been created by God, then how

did it come into being except by accident? It further means that this world has come into being by chance, and, chance means absence of Law. Thus this world is in its very origin a place without a purpose, a blind world and process. If there is no God then material reality is the only reality and everything in this world is only physical or material. This is the line of argument which the materialists take. Bear in mind that materialistic metaphysics is wedded to behavioristic or mechanistic psychology. Mechanistic psychology denies the existence of the soul and considers it as idiosyncratic; even the mind is regarded as something nonsensical. On the basis of the materialistic philosophy, everything is conceived in physical terms. The human being is only a physical being and this world is only physical or material. To conceive of the mind or the spirit in the human being is explicitly ruled out. If this world is a chance order because it came into being by chance, what does it mean? It implies that everything in this world comes into being by chance; human beings enjoy, suffer and die out by chance. And because this world is physical, there can be no moral bond of unity between the different human beings. The moral bond of unity can only be when we postulate a Creator who created this world and all human beings according to a plan and for a particular purpose. It is through God that this moral bond of unity emerges. If this world is a chance order, then every human being comes into this world by chance. There can be no question of any rational bond of unity between human beings except in terms of physical values; and physical values are always based on expediency. Furthermore, if the human being is only a physical being, then the ideal for a human being would be to acquire the maximum amount of pleasure because it is human nature to acquire pleasure and avoid pain. To acquire the maximum amount of pleasure for human being would mean to acquire the maximum amount of sensuous pleasure. Then the principle of fellow feeling or sympathy, which is the highest principle of morals, will fall to the ground. To carry the argument further, logically, you will find that there are groups who believe in materialism and atheism but they also talk about the welfare of the common man. But their principles of welfare for fellow human beings and disbelief in God are combined in the principle of expediency. It is not based on any rational principle because the two cannot be combined." Dr. Ansari deals on this subject extensively and let us examine the views expressed by another scholar, Harun Yahya, who in one of his works 'The Creation of the Universe' provides very relevant material in this regard. "…..What all this shows is that alternative models to the Big Bang such as steady-state, the open and close universe model, and quantum universe models in fact spring from the philosophical prejudices of materialists. Scientific discoveries have demonstrated the reality of the Big Bang and can even explain 'existence from nothingness'. And this is very strong evidence that the universe is created by Allah, a point that materialists utterly reject. An example of this opposition to the Big Bang is to be found in an essay by John Maddox, the editor

of Nature (a materialist magazine), that appeared in 1989. In 'Down with the Big Bang', Maddox declares the Big Bang to be philosophically unacceptable because it helps theologists by providing them with strong support for their ideas. The author also predicted that the Big Bang would be disproved and that support for it would disappear within a decade. Maddox can only have been even more discomforted by the subsequent discoveries during the next ten years that have provided further evidence of the existence of the Big Bang. In addition to explaining the universe, the Big Bang model has another implication that the science has proven an assertion hitherto supported only by religious sources. The truth that is defended by religious sources is the reality of creation from nothingness. This has been declared in the holy books that have served as guides for mankind for thousands of years. In all holy books revealed by God, and the last and the final revealed book to whole of mankind the Qur'an, it is declared that the universe and everything in it were created from nothingness by Allah. In the only book revealed by Allah that has survived completely intact, the Qur'an, there are statements about the creation of the universe from nothing as well as how this came about that are parallel to 21 st century knowledge and yet were revealed fourteen centuries ago. First of all, the creation of this universe from nothingness is revealed in the Qur'an as follows: 'He (Allah) is the Originator of the heavens and the earth……'(Chapter Al Anam101). Another important aspect revealed in the Qur'an 14 centuries before the modern discovery of the Big Bang and findings related to it is that when it was created, the universe occupied a very tiny volume: We feel that it is relevant to add the opinion expressed by Mustafa Malaika, in his work on 'What is the purpose of life?' in this regard. "Besides religious guidance, the Qur'an contains hundreds of verses that speak of the universe, its components and phenomena such as the earth, the sun, the moon, the stars, mountains, wind, running water, plants, embryological animals, and the successive stages of development of the human being. More than 1000 verses relating to cosmic facts or cosmic phenomena can be counted in the Qur'an. During the early days of the Qur'an, scientific knowledge of the universe was limited and it was not easy to elaborate on the verses relating to the universe or its phenomena except within the limitations of that time. However, we now know much more about the laws of the universe than before, and that is why reviewing the 1000 or more verses relating to the cosmos, man and his surroundings can be one of the most obvious miraculous aspects of the Qur'an. This is because of the precedence of the Qur'an, which was revealed more than 14 centuries ago, containing many scientific facts at a time when people had no knowledge whatsoever of such facts. The Qur'an has addressed so many of these facts in a language that is more precise, accurate and concise than scientists have been able to do. Nothing in the Qur'an contradicts any established scientific fact. These cannot all be covered in a short article and hence I have chosen

only five verses that can testify to the miraculous nature of the Qur'an from a scientific point of view. 1.

The creation of the universe is explained by astrophysicists in a widely accepted phenomenon, popularly known as the "Big Bang". It is supported by observational and experimental data gathered by astronomers and astrophysicists over decades. According to the "Big Bang" theory, the whole universe was formed from the explosion of a singularity, a point of infinite smallness and density that expanded uniform mass which then separated to form galaxies. These then divided to form stars, planets, the sun, the moon etc. The origin of the universe was unique and the probability of it occurring by "chance" is zero. The Qur'an contains the following verse, regarding the origin of the universe: "Have those who disbelieved not considered that the heavens and the earth were (once) a joint entity, and then We separated them and made from water every living thing? Then will they not believe?" (Qur'an 21:30) The striking congruence between the Qur'anic verse and the "Big Bang" is inescapable! How could a book, which first appeared in the deserts of Arabia 1400 years ago, contain such a profound scientific truth

2.

In 1925 an American astronomer by the name of Edwin Hubble provided observational evidence that all galaxies are receding from one another, which implies that the universe is expanding. The expansion of the universe is now an established scientific fact. This is what the Qur'an says regarding the formation of the universe. "And the heaven, We constructed with strength, and indeed, We are (its) expander" (Qur'an 51:47) Stephen hawking, in his book " A brief History of Time", says, "The discovery that the universe is expanding is one of the great intellectual revolutions of the 20th century". The Qur'an mentioned the expansion of the universe before man even learned to build a telescope!

3.

Scientists state that before the galaxies in the universe were formed, celestial matter was initially in the form of gaseous matter. In short, huge amount of gaseous matter or clouds were present before the formation of the galaxies. To describe initial celestial matter, the word "smoke" is more appropriate than gas. The following Qur'anic verse refers to this state of the universe by the word "dukhan" which means "smoke": "Then He (Allah) directed Himself to the heaven while it was smoke…" (Qur'an 4111) Again, this fact is a corollary to the "Big Bang" theory and was not known to mankind during the time of Prophet Muhammed. What then, could have been the source of this knowledge?

4.

It was once thought that the sense of feeling and pain was only dependant on the brain. Recent discoveries prove that there are pain receptors present in the skin without which a person would not be able to feel pain. When a doctor examines a patient suffering from burn injuries, he verifies the degree of burns by a pin prick. If the patient feels pain, the doctor is happy, because it indicates that the burns are superficial and the pain receptors are intact. On the other hand if the patient does not feel any pain, it indicates that it is a deep burn and the pain receptors have been destroyed. The Qur'an gives an indication of the existence of pain receptors in the following verse: "Indeed, those who disbelieve in Our verses (i.e. signs, proofs), We will drive them into a Fire. Every time their skins are roasted through We will replace them with other skins so they may taste the punishment. Indeed, Allah is ever Exalted in Might and Wise. But those who believe and do righteous deeds, We will admit them to gardens beneath which rivers flow, wherein they abide forever" (Qur'an 4: 56 & 57).

Professor Tagatat Tejasen (a Buddhist by birth), Chairman of the Dept.of Anatomy at Chiang Mai University in Thailand, had spent a great amount of time on research of pain receptors. Initially he could not believe that the Qur'an mentioned this scientific fact 1400 years ago. He later verified the translation of this particular Qur'anic verse. Prof. Tejasen was so impressed by the scientific accuracy of the Qur'anic verse, that at a Medical Conference in 1985 he proclaimed in public the Shahadah (declaration of faith), embracing Islam. 5.

About the source of iron (Fe), we read in the Qur'an: "Indeed, We have sent down iron, wherein is great (military) might and benefits for the people" (Qur'an 57:25)

It has recently been proven that all iron, not only in our planet but also in the entire solar system, was obtained from outer space. This is because the moderate temperature of the sun cannot generate iron. The sun has a surface temperature of 6000 degrees Celsius and a central temperature of about 20 million degrees Celsius. Much hotter stars exist, known as novae or super novae, where temperature can reach hundreds of billion degrees Celsius, and it is in these stars that iron is formed. When the percentage of iron reaches a certain proportion of the mass of the star it explodes, and these exploded particles travel in space until they are captured by the gravitational fields of other heavenly bodies. This is how our solar system obtained its iron, and it is an established scientific fact today that all the iron in our solar system was not generated or created within the system but came to it from outer space.

One wonders why the Qur'an mentions matters like these, things that were not known to anyone at the time of revelation or even for centuries afterwards. But Allah knew in His Eternal Knowledge that a time would come when man would immediately realize that the Qur'an is the word of Allah and that Muhammed was His last messenger. Allah says in the Qur'an: "We shall show them Our signs in the horizons and within themselves until it becomes clear to them that it is the truth" (Qur'an 41:53)". The above facts, we feel, adequately refutes the concept commonly held by Buddhists and atheists about the non existence of a Creator God. Let us go back to our discussion on Buddhist theological concepts. The theory of Transmigration of Souls, as found in Buddhism, is quite puzzling. Normally, transmigration of souls involves the transference of a soul-substance from one body (which is now dead) to another body (which has just been born). But there is no such transference in the Buddhist theory. The Buddhist conceives of himself as a preexistent moral entity which died in a previous existence and transferred its moral status to that conglomeration of Skandas, which he calls himself. The very fact of his existence, therefore, casts an insult on the unique purity and status of his moral personality. The purpose of his life and all his lives to come is to achieve Nirvana or deliverance from recurring cycle of birth and the suffering to which birth gives rise. But the theory of transmigration of souls with its accompanied theory of Karma falls to the ground when we ponder over the fact that we have no way of remembering the pitfalls of our previous life because of which we have landed ourselves into this life. Of what use is another life if I unknowingly repeat all the mistakes of the previous life? If my present state is due to the mistakes and blunders of an individual completely unknown to me, is not it to be considered as a miscarriage of justice? Let me quote Dr. Ansari from his book “Which Religion”. “This theory however does not stand the test of reason. In the first instance, to realize that a person is suffering or benefiting on any particular occasion in this life because of action performed in a previous life, it is necessary that every human being should have complete picture of his supposed previous life at all moments and on all occasions. Otherwise, the purpose of his re-birth would be defeated. But no such picture exists in the mind of any human being.” Christianity has a similar concept of inheritance of sin. 'Therefore as by the offence of one (Adam) unto all men to condemnation; so also by the justice of one (Christ) unto all men to justification of life. For as by the disobedience of one (Adam) many were made sinners, so also by the obedience of one (Christ) many shall be made just. (Holy Bible – Rom.5 18, 19). This is an innovation introduced by the self appointed apostle St.Paul and finds no support in the words of Jesus or of the Prophets who had come before him.

'In those days they shall say no more. The fathers have eaten a sour grape and the children's teeth are set on edge. But every one shall die for his own iniquity; every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge. (Holy Bible Jeremiah 31: 29-30). It is worth referring to Ezekiel 18: 1-9 and 20-21 in the Holy Bible for further refutation of this illogical dogma. Islam teaches that the man has only the present worldly life for him to lead a righteous life, which will earn him the highest reward in the hereafter. If he errs regarding the purpose of life in this world, he only has to bear the burden of it's consequences in the hereafter. This is the best concept to promote the whole of mankind to live a virtuous life that would be pleasing to him and to fellow human beings. "That no bearer of burdens shall not be made to bear the burden of another." Holy Quran 53:38. According to Islam, man is not born with inherited sin. He is God's vicegerent on earth. Every child is born with the fitra, an innate disposition towards virtue, knowledge, and beauty. Islam considers itself to be the 'primordial religion', din alhanif, it seeks to return man to his original, true nature in which he is in harmony with creation, inspired to do good, and confirming the Oneness of God. Former states of Existence The allusions of Buddha to a perfect knowledge of the past is set forth in the following terms: "The arahat is endowed with the power, called 'pubbeniwasananan', of revealing his various former existences. Thus, I am acquainted with one existence, two existences, three existences, four existences, five existences, twenty existences, thirty existences, forty existences, fifty existences, a hundred existences, a thousand existences, and a hundred thousand existences; innumerable sanwatta kappa, innumerable wiwatta kappa, innumerable sanwatta-wiwatta kappa. But without entering in to any argument on the general question, we may safely assert that Buddha's views about the past do not reconcile with the modern scientific discoveries. By the pursuits of the geologist many phenomena have been brought to light. If we know the form of an animal or a plant that formerly existed, we can tell in what kind of earth or rock it will most probably found; and if we know the earth or rock, we can tell what kind of form will be the most abundant in its fossil remains. Near the shore, in the ocean, were fishes with a pavement of teeth covering the palate, and enabling them to crush and eat the crabs, lobsters, and other shell fish that there abounded. Reptile like animals were at one time the most numerous and powerful. The dinosaurs united the characters of the head of a lizard, with the teeth of a crocodile, to a neck of immoderate length. On the land were crocodiles in great variety. One animal was taller than an elephant; but instead of a trunk it had a long narrow snout, armed with strong and shark tusks. The Himalayas contain the remains of a gigantic land tortoise, twelve feet in length and six in height. There can be no doubt that the condition of the world, in the ages of which we are speaking,

was very much different to anything that is present in our day. Now if Buddha lived in these distant ages, and had a perfect insight in to their circumstances, as he tells us he had, how is it that we have no intimation whatever, in any of his numerous references to the past, that the world was so different, in these respects, to what it is now? We have exaggerations of present forms of existence; a thousand arms given to Mara, and a height higher than the moon to Rahu; but of the innumerable creatures that then lived, and are now found in fossil state, he says not a word. According to his discourses, there were, at that time, the same kinds of trees, of reptiles, of fishes, of birds, and of beasts, as in his own day. He was himself, as we learn from Jataka stories, was born as an elephant, a lion, a horse, a bull, a deer, a dog, a jackal, a monkey, a hare, a pig, a rat, a serpent, a frog, a fish, an alligator, a swan, a peafowl, an eagle, a cock, a woodpecker, a water fowl, a jungle fowl, a crow, a merman (kindura), which is a fabulous creature, commonly met with in fairy tales, but never seen in this era of universal observation and enquiry. How is it that in his numerous births he was never any kind of creature except those that are common to India? The only conclusion we can come to is, that he was not aware of beasts that roamed in other lands or the birds that flew in other skies. It will be said that he was never born but in Jambudipa, and that therefore, he could not be any creature not found in India; but it is evident that by Jambudipa he meant the whole of the space inhabited by men, or man's earth, about the size and shape of which he was sadly not aware of as all the other men who then lived. Then again, how are we to believe his statements when he speaks of Benares and other cities as having existed for many myriads of years, when we know that an entire change in the very formation of the countries in which they are situated has taken place? That the region now called India has partaken in the general interchange of land and water, we have proof in the fossil remains that are plentifully and extensively found in the peninsula. Remains of the sivatherium and mastodon, large animals that once haunted its plains, and of the hippopotamus that once frequented its rivers, may now be seen in museums. The remains of the vegetable world tell us of the difference between its present and former atmosphere and temperature. At Chirra Ponji, north of Calcutta, there is a bed of coal, 4300 feet above the sea level, and there are evidences, in the same neighborhood, of great upheavement from igneous action. The hills not far distant are covered with a stratum of marine shells, and in some places there are remains of ancient coast, as is seen by extensive deposits of shingle. Not far from Benares coal has been found, and it is certain that no city could have existed in this country at the time these deposits were formed. These facts are sufficient to convince every observant mind that what Buddha says about his past births, and those of others are without anything whatever to support it from historical and scientific discoveries.

The Buddawansa is a history of the twenty four Buddhas who preceded Gautama. In speaking of Kakusanda, the third Buddha before himself, he says: "In this kappa Kakusanda was born, whose allotted term of existence was forty thousand years. That term of existence gradually decreasing was reduced to ten years; and subsequently increasing again to an asankya (until a number reaches 33 zeros), and from that point again diminishing, had arrived at the term of thirty thousand years". It is in this manner that the decrease and increase in the term of human life takes place. It is worth referring to Mahapadana Sutra in Deega Nikaya for more details in this regard. It commences with an asankya and goes down gradually to ten years; and it then rises again, until it reaches an asankya. In the same commentary we are told that when the term of human existence is 100,000 years or upwards, it is not a proper time in which for a Buddha to appear, because " under so protracted an existence the human race have no adequate perception of birth, decay or death". One kalpa is supposed to be 1344 millions of years. The periods to which we are taken back by the authorities of Buddhism are so remote as to be beyond the power of numbers to express them. Yet in the most distant of these ages, astonishingly, the same languages were spoken as in the time of Buddha; there were the same manners and customs, the same kinds of dress and ornaments, and the same kinds of food; men had the same names, and followed the same occupations; there were the same modes of government, the same castes, the same forms of religion, the modes of traveling, the same denominations of coin, the species of grain, and the same diseases and medicines. But how is it possible for this unchangeableness to have continued so long? It cannot be, that in myriads of years, and with intervals of myriads of years as well, there has been so little change in the economy of the world, as is represented by Buddha; and so little difference, as to the manners and customs of mankind, between these distant times and the times in which Buddha is said to have lived. Present Existence No one but Buddha himself, according to his own account, knew the manner of the origin of the universe, and as it would have been of no benefit to his disciples to understand it, he did not reveal it to them, and says that all speculation upon this subject is profitless and vain. But in his teachings on the manner of the origin of the present race of men, he is much more communicative. He taught, correctly, that the first inhabitants of the earth were pure, and free from evil; but he said, in addition, incorrectly, that they first appeared by the apparitional birth, and could soar through the air, and live without food; their fall taking place through the tasting of a substance, like boiled milk, that then grew temptingly upon the surface of the earth (Ref: Agganna Sutra in Deega Nikaya). Though born as men, we may subject to the most extraordinary transformations. We may change our sex, not only in passing to the next birth, but now. We may be born as men, for part of our lives, and when the

power of our merit is exhausted, we may change to the inferior condition of women. We may have to expiate some former misdeeds, and on that account be born as a female; but we may live to accomplish the expiation, and then be changed, in the same life, from a woman into a man. We may be the one and the other alternatively; for a time man, and then woman, in the present life, and then return back again to our original condition. A belief of this nature could only have been thought of in connection with a system that regards the state of womanhood as a punishment, and the privileges she is permitted to enjoy as greatly inferior to those of the other sex. We learn from the same authorities, that men and women may be produced by the apparitional, opapatika, birth, thereby starting at once into the full maturity of being; and that others are generated by touch, by look, by perfumes, by flowers, by food, by the garment, by the season, and by the voice. Beings not human receive their existence from perspiration, and putridity, from wind, from warmth, and from the sound of rain. Beings not human may have human children. The Nagas have naturally a serpentine form, but they can assume the shape of men, and have been known to have children as such and to have become priests; and it is only when, by inattention, they have lost the assumed form, that it has been discovered they were reptiles. These fanciful notions will therefore make Buddhist dogmas unsafe as guides whether in science or religious truth. Man We have seen that the voice, or a look, may produce the germ of human existence, according to Buddhism, from which we should conclude that the nature and constitution of man must be something eminently subtle and ethereal. But instead of this, everything about him, after his birth, is represented as being material or the effect of causes that are material; and as his existence is only the result of collection and continuance of certain constituents under certain circumstances. At the separation or breaking up of these constituents he ceases to be, in the same way that the cloud ceases to be when its particles are separated and scattered in the shower or the cart when it is broken up and made into bundles of firewood for the market. According to Buddhism, there are five khandas which are the essentialities of sentient being. 1. Rupa, the organized body, 2. Wedana, sensation 3. Sannya, perception 4. Sankhara, impulses and emotions and 5. Winyana, consciousness. Besides these five khandas there is no other constituent that forms part and parcel of man as a sentient being. There is therefore, belonging to man, no soul, not anything equivalent to what is commonly understood by the soul. The absence of the soul seems to render it impossible that there can be any moral retribution after the present life; but the Buddhists profess to evade this question by saying that when man ceases to exist, the principle of upadana, or cleaving to existence, causes the production of another being, to which the karma of the producer, the aggregate of all

his actions, in every state of existence, is transferred intact. Buddhism presents us with no medium by which the influence of the deceased being reaches the being that, of necessity, he causes to be produced. When man dies, as he has been no more than a heap, how can he produce another being, and that being, perhaps, a dewa on the summit of Maha Meru, or a Timira Pingala, myriads of miles beneath the surface of the deep? The man who, during his life, could not produce an atom of sand or a blade of grass, at his death, of his own inherent energy, and not as an instrumentality employed by another, may cause the existence of the highest and most glorious of the brahmas, or may pass onward an influence that in the cause of ages will produce a supreme Buddha. But this method of retribution is imperfect, and altogether unsatisfactory. It is one being that does good, and another that is rewarded. It is one being that commits evil, and another being that is punished. The Buddhists may say, " Why need I care about the being who is to succeed to my merit? When he is, I shall not be. His existence involves my non existence. I can never know anything about him, and he will never know anything about me. And as, when he lives, I shall be broken up, gone out, and non sentient, what matters is to me whether the heir of my acts to be a seraph or a sprite? Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." Upon these principles, there can be no transmigration, in the usual acceptance of the term. That which transmigrates is not the spirit, the soul, the self; but the conduct and character of the man, something too subtle to be defined or explained. The analogy of the flame and the tree is misleading and defective. The flame produces another flame of the same nature, but the existence of the one does not involve the going out of the other; and from one flame thousand flames may be produced, all burning simultaneously. The tree lives, in some instances many hundreds of years, after it has begun to produce fruit, and it always produces its like, from a mango fruit comes a mango tree, and not a goraka, as from the goraka fruit comes a goraka tree, and not a mango. The tree is one, but its fruits are many. But on the principles of Buddhism, when the man dies, he only produces one another being, and the being that he produces is most generally a being of a nature entirely different to himself; it may be an ant, a crow, a monkey, a whale, a naga, an asur, an evil spirit, or a deity. The number of sentient beings in the universe must ever remain the same, if each being inherits one separate and unbroken series of karma, unless it be in the period in which men attain nirwana. And by what means does it happen that just as one being dies another is always beginning to exist, as the new being is produced, not by the upadana of the former being alone, but through the agency of other causes, entirely separate from itself, but required to act in unison with it. And how is it that these causes are always in simultaneous operation at the very moment they are required? There must not only be these causes in operation at the very moment of the death of

the being that produces the new being; but the result, the position of the new being, must be of such a character as to give opportunity for the reception of the karma that has to be transferred, with all its properties, and afford facilities for its exercise, in its own essential character, whether of good or evil. To these grave difficulties Buddhism offers no solution. I can give no further explanation of the mysterious upadana, except that it forms one link in the patichcha samuppada, or causes of continued existence. "On account of awijja, ignorance, sankhara, merit and demerit are accumulated; on account of these accumulations, winyanan, the conscious faculty is produced; in consequence of the faculty of consciousness, namarupa, the sensitive powers, the perceptive powers, the reasoning powers, and the body are produced; on account of namarupa, the body and sensitive faculties, the sadayatanan, the six organs of sense (the eye, the ear, the tongue, the nose, the body, and the mind), are produced; on account of the six bodily organs, phassa, contact (the action of the organs) is produced; on account of contact, wedana, sensation is produced; on account of sensation, Tanha, desire is produced; in consequence of desire, upadana, attachment is produced; in consequence of attachment, bhawa, existence is produced; in consequence of a state of existence, jati, birth, is produced in consequence of birth, decay, death, sorrow, weeping, grief, and vexation are produced." This is the theory of causation, or of a series of causations, to which we cannot assent. We can understand how demerit may arise from ignorance; but how the conscious faculty is produced by merit and demerit we cannot tell. The conscious faculty once in existence, from it perception may arise. But how does perception produce the body and sensitive faculties? Where these are, there will be the organs of sense, and then contact, and sensation, and desire, in the prescribed order. But the great mystery still is how desire produce existence. But upadana is not a desire to produce life, but a desire to enjoy life; and for the above rule to be applicable here, the desire of enjoyment ought to produce the power of enjoyment; but that it does so is contrary to all experience. There is a further law to be taken into the account, that where there is no possibility of communication, there can be no consequence or effect; and as it is utterly impossible for upadana to act in places with which it cannot communicate, it must be powerless as to the act of production, in the manner claimed for it by Buddha. Prophesies of Buddha According to Buddhist teaching, there is a periodical destruction and renovation of the universe, not of our own earth, or sakwala, alone, but in like manner of limitless (kap-laksha) sakwalas, with their Maha Merus, suns, moons, circles of rock, continents, and seas. The destruction is by water, fire, and wind; in this order, but not in alternate succession, the destruction by wind being only at every sixty forth occurrence. Of the destruction by fire, which will be the next in order, Buddha thus speaks: "Priests! There is a period in which, for many hundreds of years, for many

thousands of years, for many tens of thousands of years, for many hundreds of thousands of years, no rain will fall; by which all cereals, trees, and creepers, all medicinal plants, with all grasses, all nuga and other large trees, and all forests will be dried up, and will be no more: thus, priests! All existing things are impermanent. After the lapse of a further immense period, a second sun appears, by which the smaller rivers, and the inferior tanks and lakes are dried up and are no more. After the lapse of another immense period, a third sun appears, by which the five great rivers are dried up. After the lapse of another immense period, a fourth sun appears, by which the great lakes whence the great rivers have their source, are dried up. After the lapse of another immense period, a fifth sun appears, by which the water in the seas, a hundred miles deep, is dried up; then a thousand, ten thousand, and eighty thousand yojanas, until only four thousand yojanas of water are left, which still further decreases until the water is only one hundred miles deep, fifty miles, a mile, a cubit (many different numbers being mentioned) until at last there is not more than would fill the feet marks of cattle, or moisten the end of the finger. After the lapse of another immense period, a sixth sun appears, when Maha Meru begins to ignite, and the whole world, from the sakwala rocks to the mansion of Sakra, sends forth one unbroken volume of smoke. At the appearance of the seventh sun, the earth and Maha Meru are burnt up, and the flame reaches to the Brahma Lokas. From the hell Awichi to the Brahma Loka Abassara, there is then one dark abyss, and the whole space is void". These revelations are made that the priests may learn there from the impermanence of all things, and seek to free themselves from all sensuous attachments. That the next destruction of the earth will be by fire, as usual, when the sacred books of Buddhism present before us a religious truth, they so spoil it that in their hands it becomes an untruth. How the smaller rivers, still run, or the lakes have any water in them, when there has been no rain for hundreds of thousands of years, would puzzle even Buddha himself to explain. "He it is who has sent forth His Messenger (Muhammed) with the (task of spreading) guidance and the religion of Truth. To the end that He may cause it to prevail over all (false) religion – however hateful this may be to those who ascribe divinity to aught God" (Qur'an 9:33) "And return (in repentance) to your Lord and submit to Him before the punishment comes upon you: then you will not be helped. And follow the best of what was revealed to you from your Lord (i.e. the Qur'an) before the punishment comes upon you suddenly while you do not perceive, lest a soul should say, 'Oh, (how great is) my regret over what I neglected in regard to Allah and that I was among the mockers'. Or (lest) it say, 'If only Allah had guided me, I would have been among the righteous'. Or (lest) it say when it sees the punishment, 'If only I had another turn so I could be among the doers of good'. But yes, there had come

to you My verses, but you denied them and were arrogant, and you were among the disbelievers. And on the Day of Resurrection you will see those who lied about Allah (with) their faces blackened. Is there not in Hell a residence for the arrogant? And Allah will save those who feared Him by their attainment, no evil will touch them, nor will they grieve." (Qur'an 39: 54-61).