Page 76 - Islam and Far Eastern Religions

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cake to living cobras. The Ganesha Chaturthi festival is dedicated to
Ganesha, a god represented as half elephant, half man. During this fes-

tival, an idol made of clay measuring 8 meters (26 feet) is brought home.
For between 2 and 10 days this idol is perversely revered and then caste
into the sea or a lake by a large crowd with offerings of coconuts and
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balls of sweet cakes. (According to the so called sacred Hindu scrip-
tures Ganesha is a god prominent with his elephant head and it is be-
lieved that he is the son of the gods Shiva and Parvarti, themselves im-
portant deities in the Hindu tradition. One day, Parvati cuts Ganesha’s
head off by mistake. Saddened by this, Parvati puts the head of the first
creature that passes by Ganesha and thus revives him. This idol invari-
ably has offerings of cake and milk before him.) The Hindus’ supersti-
tious love and reverence for their deities is an act of ignorance commit-
ted by the deniers by association. Allah reveals:

Some people set up equals to Allah, loving them as they should love
Allah. But those who have faith have greater love for Allah. If only
you could see those who do wrong at the time when they see the
punishment, and that truly all strength belongs to Allah, and that
Allah is severe in punishment. (Surat al-Baqara: 165)

The few examples of the superstitious rituals cited above serve to
expose the irrational aspects of the Hindu religion. Those who consider
Hinduism as a so-called “religion of spiritual freedom and salvation” are
in a great error as the myths of the superstitious Hindu faith force peo-
ple to blindly follow a system of traditions without having a rational ba-
sis for them. The Hindu religion has made an educated, civilized and
cultured people prostrate themselves before cows and obliges them to
make food offerings to stone idols.
Accepting and practicing the traditions of their ancestors without
questioning them rationally or conscientiously has been one of the great-

Islam And Far Eastern Religions