Page 163 - Islam and Buddhism
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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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