Page 88 - Islam and Buddhism

Islam and Buddhism

gle question: how does this karma operate? If Buddhism doesn't ac-

cept the existence of God, then who judges a person's former life and
sends him back into the world in a new body? This question has no
answer! Buddhists believe that karma is a "natural law" that functions
by itself, spontaneously, like gravity or thermodynamics. However, it
is God Who created all natural laws. No natural law observes what
people do throughout their lives, keeps an account, and judges them

after death on that basis. No natural law determines, as a result of this
judgment, what kind of new life a person will have and re-creates him
accordingly; and no natural law imposes this process flawlessly on
billions of people, much less animals. Clearly no such natural law ex-
ists, and so, neither can such a process exist.
So many people throughout the world believe in reincarnation,
even though it has no logical basis, because they have no religious
faith. Denying the existence of an infinite afterlife, they fear death and

cling to the idea of reincarnation as a way to escape their fear. Belief in
reincarnation—like belief in karma—is based in the false consolation
that death is nothing to be feared, and that anyone will be able to at-
tain his goals in a new birth.
If reincarnation can't occur on its own, as a natural law, then clearly
it could exist only through a supernatural act of creation. But a look at
the Qur'an tells us that reincarnation is a myth. The Book that God sent

down as a guide to humanity openly declares that reincarnation is false.

R e i n c a r n a t i o n A c c o r d i n g t o I s l a m
Reincarnation According to Islam
As in every other matter, the Muslim point of view regarding to
the philosophy of karma must be based on what God says in the
Qur'an, which states there is only one birth and resurrection.

Everyone lives only once on this earth, and then he dies. In verse 62:
8, our Lord gives the following command:

86