Page 163 - Islam and Buddhism
P. 163

Could Buddhism Be A True Religion That's Become Distorted?


                 [Buddhism] did not claim to be a new teaching. The tradition holds
                 that it had been promulgated many times before—that Gotama [sic]
                 was only one of a long series of Buddhas who arise at intervals and

                 who all teach the same doctrine. The names of twenty-four of such
                 Buddhas who appeared before Gotama have been recorded . . . It
                 was held that after the death of each Buddha, his religion flourishes
                 for a time and then decays. After it is forgotten, a new Buddha
                 emerges and preaches the lost Dhamma, or Truth. 14
                 All of this suggests that Buddhism could be one of the perverse,
             distorted beliefs that came to degenerate in the wake of the prophets.
             On the other hand, Buddhism's set, conservative structure reminds

             one of the classic distortions that can occur during the degeneration
             of the true religion.
                 In the Qur'an, God says that Christians and Jews have fallen into
             the same trap and have smothered their religions with useless minu-
             tiae and prohibitions. For example, erroneous ideas in Buddhism
             about withdrawing from the world and subjecting one's self to pain
             also arose in Christianity as it degenerated through the years. God
             speaks of this error in the Qur'an (57: 27):

                 Then We sent Our Messengers following in their footsteps and
                 sent Jesus son of Mary after them, giving him the Gospel. We put
                 compassion and mercy in the hearts of those who followed him.
                 They invented monasticism—We did not prescribe it for them—
                 purely out of desire to gain the pleasure of God, but even so, they
                 did not observe it as it should have been observed. To those of
                 them who believed, We gave their reward, but many of them are
                 deviators.

                 Buddhism may have been a true religion that was ruined after
             the development of a priesthood. It has certainly degenerated much
             more than Judaism or Christianity. However much these two reli-




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