Introduction
Knowing the Pagan Far Eastern Religions
The superstitious Far Eastern religions are a mystery to most. When superstitious faiths like Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Shinto, Confucianism and Taoism are mentioned, people tend to think of religious communities who worship or pray to idols carved out of stone or wood, make offerings to and put on shows of seeming respect for them and perform mysterious ceremonies in dimly lit temples. Whereas Divine and monotheistic religions like Islam, Christianity and Judaism (–the original state of Christianity and Judaism is referred to here as they have been tampered with and altered since their revelation—) are based on revelation and call humanity to an enlightened, happy, safe and just life. The superstitious Eastern religions with their 1.5 billion believers1 worldwide, represent a gloomy life filled with pagan rituals, social injustices and miserable conditions, that is to say, a warped life. The most fundamental mistake of the believers in these superstitious faiths is that they deny the certainty of Allah’s existence (Allah is beyond that) and put their faith into hundreds of millions of idols, perversely worshipping them and ignorantly hoping for help and salvation from them.
Do not mix up truth with falsehood and knowingly hide the truth. (Surat al-Baqara, 42)
The majority of Asian people believe in pagan religions like Hinduism and Buddhism. Buddhists prostrate before Buddha idols, making supplications and offerings to them, and Hindus worship literally millions of different idols. The irrationality and perversion of believing in the power of stone idols, of believing that such idols have the power to punish or reward, of respecting or fearing them is self-evident. Even worse, Hinduism demands reverence to cows, apes, mice, trees, rivers etc., which leads to even greater spiritual perversion, ignorance and darkness.
However, people who have such pagan beliefs have always existed in all periods of history. The narratives in the Qur’an of the many holy prophets reveal that they had met such people, whom they invited to stop worshipping other deities, and to worship and believe in Allah Almighty instead. The Surat al-‘Ankabut reveals how Allah’s beloved servant the Prophet Abraham (pbuh) spoke to his people:
Instead of Allah you worship only idols. You are inventing a lie. Those you worship besides Allah have no power to provide for you. So seek your provision from Allah and worship Him and give thanks to Him. It is to Him you will be returned. (Surat al-‘Ankabut: 17)
The modern day pagans are no different to the Prophet Abraham’s (pbuh) nation. They too foolishly defended their beliefs by saying: “No, but this is what we found our fathers doing.” (Surat ash-Shuara: 74). These people whose minds have been dulled with myths and pagan teachings are unable to realize their irrationality and misguided spirituality. They have given themselves up to these superstitious religions’ inherited from their ancestors, whereas if they were to question their perverse beliefs rationally and conscientiously, if they were to seek to find the truth rather than to follow their ancestors path, they surely would realize the infinite might and power of our Lord Who has created them as well as everything else in the universe. Consequently, they would then also free themselves from their lives being determined by myths and find Allah’s path of wisdom revealed to mankind by His messengers.
This book will reveal the flawed aspects, perversions, irrational and illogical practices, as well as the teachings that sanction the racism, violence and cruelty of these superstitious Eastern religions, as well as the teachings that, in their own minds, sanction racism, violence and cruelty. We hope that the practitioners of these religions will come to realize the perverted nature of their lifestyles and the losses that following blindly in the footsteps of their forefather’s causes them in this life, as well as in the hereafter, so they can leave these pagan beliefs behind and surrender to Allah.
We will also examine the far-reaching effects of these superstitious beliefs on the Western culture. The influence of superstitious Eastern religions on Western society is not easily recognizable at first. The Enlightenment of the 18th century followed by the materialism of the 19th century distanced European people from Divine religions and the spiritual void thus created enabled false Eastern religions like Hinduism and Buddhism to move into Western thought. These false religions played a major role in removing the good and positive morality of religions, in promoting the materialist worldview, and in misleading people in search of spirituality by misleading people with “a false religion opposed to belief in Allah.”
The comprehensive propaganda campaign on behalf of the New Age movement which comprises all pagan teachings of the Far Eastern cultures, and is sometimes termed to be “the religion of the 21st century” or “the millennium religion”, proves that New Age-like movements will be an issue in the 21st century Western world. Many Christian churches, especially the Vatican, consider such movements based on superstitious Far Eastern religions as one of the biggest threats to Christianity. A report prepared by the Vatican titled “A Christian reflection on the New Age”, seen as a new interpretation of Christianity by some, just shows how big a threat this movement is considered to be by the Christian world.2
No doubt it is necessary that all people who genuinely believe in Allah unite and begin a coordinated ideological resistance against such movements which distance people from the belief in Allah, and try to replace the good morality revealed by the Divine religions with materialist and pagan beliefs. One of the things that needs to be done in this respect is to demonstrate the huge gulf between the world of peace, happiness, security, justice, equality, solidarity, compassion, mercy and love recommended. and called for by the Divine religions. and the pagan religions worldview based on materialistic and spiritual perversion. It must not be forgotten that most people who are inclined to fall for these pagan religions in some Western world are people who seek attention by being different and original and mistakenly hope to find happiness in these superstitious religions. They are being led away from the true religions revealed to them by Allah through His Messengers into an abyss of spiritual darkness, gloom, fear and suffering.
It must be known that true happiness in this life as well as in the hereafter is only attainable by believing genuinely in Allah and by abiding by His will, because “… Allah is the Real and what you call on apart from Him is false. Allah is the All-High, the Most Great…” (Surat al-Hajj: 62)
He is Allah – there is no god but Him. He is the King, the Most Pure, the Perfect Peace, the Trustworthy, the Safeguarder, the Almighty, the Compeller, the Supremely Great. Glory be to Allah above all they associate with Him. (Surat al-Hashr: 23)
