A Journey

A Journey

1987 10 October 24-31 A Journey (3061) In November 1985 the President of the Islamic Centre, Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, attended an Assembly of the World’s Religions held in New York. Representatives of a large majority of the world’s religions, both great and small, took part in this Assembly. The Assembly was organized by the International Religious Foundation and its aims were designated as Spiritual Unity and World Peace.

It is a long way from India to America-about 20 hours by air-and 1985 had been the worst year ever for air accidents in the entire history of civil aviation. Whereas over the previous 20 years the average annual death-toll had been only 900, by August of that year, there had been no less than 22 air crashes resulting in the loss of 1698 lives. On June 23, 1985, a disaster involving an Air India air-liner, which claimed 329 lives, occurred on the very same route which our aircraft was about to follow. I knew that according to the Hague Protocol, the next of kin of those who perish in air accidents are entitled to $20,000 dollars compensation. But, somehow, this thought did little to soothe me. When I took my place in AI flight number 104, I felt, therefore, as if I were setting out on a dangerous journey. Then I remembered the words of John Shedd, that “A ship in harbour is safe, but that is not what ships are for.”

Parting of the ways

On the outward journey, the aircraft reaches New York via Bombay while the return journey is via London. When we reached New York we had the illusion that it was our first halt, Bombay, all over again – only on a much larger scale. These two cities, in fact, are similar in that a few centuries ago they were both tiny settlements on the ocean shore, both grew enormously, Bombay becoming the financial capital of India, and New York the financial capital of the world. They have been like two runners in a race who started from the same point, but with one for outdistancing the other because of more favourable concatenation of events.

Counter productiveness of politically motivated action

I happened to glance at an advertisement aimed at Air India’s first class passengers in the November-December 1985, issue of Al’s in-flight magazine Namaskar. One of the facilities listed was: “A selection of the finest wines and liqueurs.” (p.52) It crossed my mind that prior to independence, India’s freedom fighters used to picket liquor-shops, with students of Arabic madrasahs also coming to Delhi to join in the picketing. They regularly put forward religious and moral arguments against alcoholic drinks but their action, in fact, had nothing to do with religious strictures on the consumption of alcohol. Its true purpose was purely to show how evil the British were and to increase popular aversion to them. This was the reason, after the end of British rule in India, for the increase in the consumption of alcohol without there being anyone in evidence to picket against it. Movements which are launched on the basis of such political motivations only end in an increase in social evils, no matter how noble the name initially attached to them is.

Real and relative thinking

After a seven-hour non-stop flight from Dubai, our aircraft touched down in London. This part of the journey had proved extremely boring. Reflecting upon this, I imagined what would have happened if, a thousand years ago, anyone had said that he would make the journey from the Middle East to England in just seven hours. Far from contemplating the tedium of the journey, people would have thought it as some kind of miracle. And if they had actually been put in a carriage and transported as promised, they would have felt, when they were arriving at their destination, that they had only just taken their places-the interval of time would have seem so short to them. Yet, in this jet-age, seven hours seem like a lifetime. Man usually thinks in relative term, but has the illusion that they are real terms.

The burden eased

Imagine our mental distress then when it was announced that the flight from London to New York would take seven hours, having found the Dubai-London flight of the same duration so intensely boring. Yet, astonishingly, the time spent on this flight passed with the greatest of ease. When the Captain announced, “We are about to land in New York,” we found that the seven hours had passed in what seemed like seven minutes. And the reason? Most of this journey had elapsed while we were asleep, unlike the Dubai-London trip during which we had been wide awake. Our slumbers, in fact, were only disturbed before landing, when a member of the cabin crew announced: “Please, fasten your seat belts”. So sleep had come to our rescue,

“…sore labour’s bath,

Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course,

chief nourisher in life’s feast...”1

in other words, that amazing blessing which God has given His servants for their rest and recuperation.

1. Shakespeare: Macbeth, Act II, Scene I.

Impressions of America: Superficial Affluence

In 1928, Herbert Hoover assured his countrymen that his government would very quickly put an end to poverty in America. But between 1929 and 1932, a severe economic depression set in, during which five thousand banks closed down and the purchase of industrial produce was suspended. One third of the population of America fell a victim to unemployment. The depression, therefore, was caused by diminished purchasing power rather than by a paucity of goods to buy. That is why there was the extraordinary situation of people going “hungry while fruit, vegetables and grain were in abundance. Houses were unheated while coal piled up in mountains.”

Immeasurable changes have taken place since then, and Americans are visibly affluent. But this affluence is artificially bolstered, with more than 50% of the population owing money to banks. Almost every individual here possesses a credit card which enables him to buy cars, television sets, houses etc., on credit. This facility has encouraged everyone to raise his or her standard of living and has led people to live beyond their actual means. Because the loans people take are subject to interest, most of the population owing money to banks spend their entire lives paying back the interest on their loans and frequently leave this world with their debts still unpaid.

The Government of America is in much the same situation, and, in order to maintain the supremacy of the dollar, it pays high interest rates on it, thus encouraging investment in American banks. The resulting impression is one of broad-based economic abundance-which is totally artificial. Were investors to withdraw their money from American banks, the U .SA would become a pauper nation overnight.

Arrangements for the conference

To accommodate the delegates to the Assembly, the entire Americana Great Gorge Resort in New Jersey was reserved for one week. The arrangements made for the participants were excellent and since this was a religious conference, the conference guide book made discreet mention of the fact that alcoholic beverages would not be provided.

The Conference opens

The inauguration of the Assembly took place on the evening of November 15, with more than eight hundred people present in the spacious modern auditorium. The delegates came from no less than 85 different countries and represented nearly all the major and minor religions of the world. It is worth mentioning here that a World Parliament of Religions was held in Chicago in 1983, which was attended by Swami Vivekanand, who had travelled by sea from India and had undergone much hardship to be present. He had not been invited to this conference, but had gone there solely out of personal enthusiasm. It was, therefore, with great difficulty that he was admitted and given permission to deliver an address. He began his speech with the words: “Sisters and brothers of America ...” and, ninety years ago, this was a correct assessment of the composition of the audience, because most of the participants were, indeed, from America. The present conference was, in tremendous contrast, having representatives of every religion from all over the world. It was, therefore, heartening to hear the President of the conference begin his address with: “Sisters and brothers, from south and north, east and west.”

Making use of English

Just one language was used in this conference from beginning to end and that was English. Accents and pronunciation differed, just as creeds and wearing apparel did, depending upon which part of the world the delegates hailed from, but the language remained quite intelligibly English.

If English is used on such occasions, it is due to the dominance of English culture, and one of Great Britain’s first concerns had always been to make English a universal language. With Great Britain’s loss in status as a world power in the twentieth century, this might not have been possible, had it not been for America stepping into the breach and perpetuating the use of English in every corner of the globe. This common use of English, once a matter of national or class prejudice, is now a necessity in the smooth operation of national and international affairs and in global cooperation. If we think of its use as a form of elitism, we are missing the point of its broad utility and, in protesting against it, are wasting much valuable time. If, on the contrary, we regard its use as an aid to everyday functioning, the universality of English will strike us as a positive blessing. Making it possible to address all the inhabitants of the world in one single language, it will kindle within us the very spirit of dynamism which is so essential to world unity in the present age.

Freedom of expression

The participants in this Assembly held in New York were all of different religious denominations, but they all stayed in the same hotel, ate and drank together, had informal conversations with one another and assembled under one roof to hear what the others had to say. All this took place without the discussions being marred by a quarrelsome tone or the adherents of the religion being treated in a prejudiced manner by those of another. I too conversed with people of religions other than Islam, but I never came across any sourness, nor did the conversation ever take an unpleasant turn.

Here we have a completely new phenomenon, for it is only in our own times that it has become possible for people of diverse religions to gather together in a serious frame of mind and listen to what the others have to say without anyone losing his temper. This coming-together of religions was out of the question in former times and we should recognize that this remarkable feature of our age gives us a new-found opportunity to acquaint others with the teachings of our religion. As an opportunity, it is unparalleled.

Diversity of religions represented in the conference

For the purposes of this conference, efforts had been made to bring together people of every religion. There were, for example representatives of the tribal religions of Africa, idol-worshippers whose chiefs, in accordance with their exotic beliefs, brand their faces with hot irons, which leaves an ineradicable mark on them for the rest of their lives. In great contrast were the heads of some of the other religions who lived an ultra-modern life, driving around in their Rolls Royces and flying in their own personal jet planes. But, if there were idol-worshippers at this conference, there were also the God-worshippers. There were some who worshipped the spirit, and some who did not believe in anything of the nature of a God.

Islam in comparison to other religions

At this gathering we heard speeches both for and against God and religion. The following utterance of different individuals will illustrate the diversity of viewpoints expressed:

The God of the theologians is dead. I am a Buddhist, there is no God for me. Life is nothing but a chemical process. There is no other God than Truth. Religious people are God-centered people. I have no belief in God, but I do profess faith in the spirit of Man. Man, ethically, is an end in himself. The main aim of religion is peace and happiness.

Were the conference to be summed up from an Islamic point of view, the main objective of religion as subscribed to by the majority of the participants, would emerge as personality-building. The representatives of Islam, for their part, went one step further in saying – with almost total unanimity –that what distinguishes Islam so clearly from other religions is that it is aimed, not just at the individual, but at complete social revolution. Personally, I do not subscribe to this view, for I consider the real target of Islam to be the individual, not society. If social change is to come about, it must happen indirectly as a result of individuals changing themselves. I thought it best, however, to refrain from airing my views in the presence of representatives of other religions. Such public disagreement would have done little to benefit our cause. I did, however, attempt to put my point of view before them in private, for such an interpretation of Islam as theirs obscures the fact that that very personality-building, which is the stated aim of other religions, is likewise the aim of Islam.

The difference between Islam and other religions is not one of completeness and incompleteness, but of authenticity and the lack of it. Islam is an authentic version of divine religion, the scriptures of which are preserved in their original form, while other religions, once divine in origin, have become corrupted over a long period of time. In their underlying purpose, there is no difference between Islam and other religions, but for its fulfillment, Islam is today the only reliable source, the other religions having lost their reliability.

Alterations in and additions to the true essence of religion eventually bring about a change in its basic character. The Hindu religion, for example, considers self-betterment to lie in self-realization, whereas, according to Islam, the secret of human fulfillment lies in realization of God. According to Christianity, human fulfillment is dependent upon acknowledging God’s Prophet as being the Son of God, whereas Islam says that human fulfillment comes from acknowledging God’s Prophet as a bearer of His message. Buddhism, for its part, searches for the source of moral sensitivity in this world, whereas Islam holds that moral sensitivity is created by the belief that we are accountable for our actions in the next world. Some religions maintain that to build the human personality, one must believe in the truth of all religions, whereas Islam holds that there is only one truth, the discovery of which will set one on the path to self-betterment. According to yet other religions, man reaches perfection after passing through lengthy stages of life and death, whereas Islam says that this is a world in which man is being tested, and that, on the basis of his actions in this life he will be rewarded or punished after death.

Because of the transmutations which have taken place in other religions, the Word of God-so-called-has completely changed in complexion, while in Islam, the Word of God has remained preserved in its true and original form. Islam may be adopted with full conviction of its authenticity, but the adoption of other religions is like attempting to derive knowledge from later editions of a book which have gradually become erroneous throughout the ages, when an authentic edition of the original book is still readily available.

Impressions at the United Nations

On November 18 we were all taken to see the United Nations building in New York. Outside that vast UN headquarters stands a tall statue presented to the UN in 1959 by Soviet Russia. It is of a powerful man using all his strength to strike a sword with a hammer, thus exemplifying the peace-loving wish expressed in the legend:” we shall beat our swords into * plowshares”.

*American spelling of ‘Ploughshare’.

On June 24, 1945, fifty nations came together to form the United Nations Organization. Now the number of member countries has reached a total of 160. According to its original charters, its purpose was to rebuild the world devastated by the Second World War, to create an environment of peace, security, progress and mutual respect and to set up an International Order of nations. But forty years of United Nations, history have passed without this organization having been able to accomplish any of these aims. Of all the hundreds of conflicts erupting among nations during this period, the U N has not succeeded in settling even one. Today, the UN, far from representing the fulfillment of human aspirations, is a graveyard of human hopes. How easy it is to erect a statue showing swords being turned into ploughshares, but how difficult it is to make this happen in actuality.

Song and recitation

On the evening of the same day, a session of the Assembly of World Religions was held in New York, in the Metropolitan Baptist Church. The session concluded with a programme of alternate recitations from the Bible and gospel singing.

The songs were rendered by a soloist introduced to us as the “best Gospel singer in the world.”

At the Hotel Americana where the Assembly delegates were staying, the representatives of every religion made a practice of reciting from their own Sacred Books. For example, on November 9, Muni Sushil Kumar gave a reading from the Scriptures of the Jain religion. Excerpts from the Holy Books of Hinduism, Sikhism, Judaism, Zoarastrianism and other religions were also recited. On hearing these, I weighed them up in my mind with the recitation of the Quran, and the latter appeared in every way so greatly superior and so vastly more attractive that there was really no comparison. This is because the wording of all the other scriptures is human in origin, while each word of the Quran is divine. Recitation of the Quran, therefore, makes a greater impact and is of an attractiveness not to be found in any other scriptures. The Quran is indeed a unique work whose art cannot be rivalled by any other book in the world.

(To be continued)