Page 256 - Islam and Far Eastern Religions
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atom has a common order governing it all which proves the existence
of one Creator. To think otherwise, to think that there are other deities
besides Allah Who have separate powers, is great ignorance and fool-
ishness. Allah reveals in the Qur’an that idolaters like the Shintoists
who believe in millions of imaginary deities are erring:
Allah has no son and there is no other god accompanying Him, for
then each god would have gone off with what he created and one of
them would have been exalted above the other. Glory be to Allah
above what they describe, (Surat al-Muminun: 91)
Shintoists who accredit the dead with divinity should reflect upon
this verse carefully, should free themselves from fictitious and perverse
beliefs in their minds, acknowledge Allah’s clear existence and submit
to him.
Shintoists, with such nonsensical beliefs about the dead, have on
the other hand no concept of death, Judgment Day, the life of the here-
after, hell or paradise. Their false beliefs led them to irrational and non-
sensical practices in these matters which are incompatible with reason
or logic. According to the erroneous Shinto scriptures, the well-being of
the dead “depends on the care, food and other offerings presented to
their graves by the living”. They hold to the illogical belief that the
dead will take revenge if they are not revered, presented with offerings
or given presents. For this reason a Japanese person believing in
Shintoism considers the reverence of the dead, visits to the grave, and
offerings made to the dead as a very important duty, at least in his own
eyes. This belief regarding death and the dead, like all the other beliefs
of Shintoism, is another great error inherited by the Japanese from their
ancestors.
No manmade teaching can be accurate about what comes after
death because no man has died and then come back. The only reliable
source from which we can acquire true knowledge about death and the
Islam And Far Eastern Religions