Compare and Contrast: Buddhism and Islam

Two of the major religions in Asia were and especially now are Islam and Buddhism. A major part of Buddhism is the images and statues of the Buddha himself, which are revered, worshipped, and decorated. Islam has a major difference here, where they refuse to and find it horribly offensive to their religion to show any images, statues, or any physical depiction of their god. This major difference was a cause of dispute between the two religions and a major reason Islam did not appreciate Buddhism, especially as they did not have a set book by which their god detailed the religion (Scott, 1995). They were able to find a major similarity with Judaism and Christianity due to their own religions base of a book (Scott, 1995).

Although the two religions certainly had their differences they also had similarities and the first would be their location in Asia, which meant contact between the two religions was common, especially in border areas such as Sri Lanka which hosts both religions.

Both religions have a love and appreciation for meditation (Scott,1995). They both found it important for their spirituality, and even had similar beliefs about it and similar ways they practiced meditation (Scott, 1995). They both believed that meditation included incantations and hosted both silent and recitation based meditation techniques (Scott, 1995).

Similar to the Buddhists the Muslims believe that the actions taken in life determine where the soul goes after death (Scott,1995). While this belief was similar, Islam is given only two options, one for those who lead a good life and one for those who did not, while Buddhism hosts a greater realm of possibilities (Scott, 1995). Buddhism believes in reincarnation and those living a human life will earn themselves different reincarnated lives based on their human life, a terrible person can be born an animal while a man who was strictly Buddhist and achieved enlightenment could rise to the level of the gods and escape the cycle of reincarnation. Both religions based their afterlives on actions rather than belief, so even belief and practice of a religion could not change their position in the afterlife (Scott, 1995).

The one thing that was surprising to me here is Islam's acceptance of other religions. They believed that the religion itself did not determine afterlife positioning but actions for all people of all religions (Scott, 1995). Even going so far as to validate other religions by calling them true! (Scott, 1995). This was surprising to me having learned a bit of the origins of Christianity and its inability to accept the pagan gods that were popular at the time, which caused them great persecution (Scott,1995). I had assumed that monotheistic religion had no room to allow other gods to exist and would deny them and not recognize them. However I seem to recall Buddhism has a similar view and even depicted other gods attending the funeral of Buddha.

In the end the religions are actually quite similar, although they have their differences they have been able to live near each other. The reading talks about modern day relations as well, and I believe that they are quite good, as it speaks of a Buddhist chief monk who visits the Muslim College annually (Scott, 1995). If someone wanted to improve relations between the two religions a media campaign showcasing the similarities between the two religions, without highlighting differences of theirs or pitting them against a common enemy would be effective. Perhaps unifying them in their community goals e.g. aid the homeless etc.

References

Scott, David. “Buddhism and Islam: Past to Present Encounters and Interfaith Lessons.” Numen 42.2 (1995): 141-155.