Page 17 - Islam and Karma

elief in karma is an important element in supersti-
tious eastern religions such as decadent Hinduism,
Buddhism and Jainism. Karma is a Sanskrit word

meaning "action" or "movement”. In Indian religions,
karma is conceived of as "the law of cause and effect”. According to
those who believe in karma, in the future people will experience the
consequences of whatever they have done in the past. Good comes
from good, and evil from evil. It therefore follows that the situation
they are in today is the result of the past.
According to this belief, however, what is meant by "the past" is
the life that a person lived before their current life; what is meant by
"the future" is their next life back on this Earth that will begin (or so it

is claimed), after death. The reason for this is that the belief in karma
is based on a belief in reincarnation—the belief that after death, peo-
ple return to the world in a different body, and that this process of
death and rebirth is continuous. It therefore follows that someone who
believes in karma believes that in the so-called life they will have after
death, whatever successes they have, whatever position in society
they occupy and whatever way of life they enjoy will

have been determined by how they behaved in
their previous life and on

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