Page 86 - Islam and Buddhism

Islam and Buddhism

a
Belief in Karma
m

n
K
a
B
f
e
i

e
r
i
l
The doctrine of karma supposes that everything a person does
will have its effect on him sooner or later, and will have a bearing on
his so-called next incarnation. According to this belief, people are
continually reborn into this world, where they must bear the conse-
quences in that later life of what they did in a former one. Buddhism
denies the existence of God and believes that karma is the unique
power that governs everything.
Karma is a Sanskrit word that means "act," and refers to the law
of cause and effect. According to those who believe in it, a person will
experience in the future what he has done in the past, for good or ill.
The past is one's former life; the future is supposed to be a new life
they will begin after death. According to this belief, anyone who is
poor in this life is paying with his poverty the price for evil that he
committed in some former life. This superstitious belief also claims
that in a later life, an evil person may be "demoted" to rebirth as an
animal or even a plant.
One harmful result of believing in karma is that it teaches that
present helplessness, poverty and weakness are punishments for a
person's moral evils. According to this belief system, if a person is dis-

abled, it's because he has inflicted a similar injury on someone else in a
former life and therefore deserves it. This superstitious belief is the
main reason why the unjust social structure of the caste system domi-
nated India for so many centuries. (It must be remembered that karma
is a Hindu idea, and Buddhism actually arose from Hinduism.)
Because the caste system was based on karma, the poor, sick and dis-
abled within India were despised and oppressed. The wealthy high-
caste ruling class regarded their own privileges as natural and just.
In Islam, however, being weak is not a retribution; it is accepted

as a test from God. Furthermore, other people have the very impor-
tant duty of helping those who are in need. For this reason, Islam—

84