If Hinduism and Judaism have common origins, and if they have both suffered the same corruption of original Truth in, for example, their common exceptionalism, as disclosed in this address, we can expect them to march together in the End-time.
Brothers and Sisters.
Assalaamu ‘alaikum!
We begin with Allah’s Blessed Name. We praise Him and we glorify Him as He ought to be praised and glorified; and we pray for peace and for blessings on all His noble Messengers, including the last of them all, the blessed Prophet Muhammad Shallallahu 'alayhi wasallam.
Thank you for your kind invitation for me to address this important symposium organized by the Department of International Relations and Political Science (Faculty ofSocial Sciences) of the Lahore Garrison University, on the topic of “Rising Hindutva: Threat to peace in South Asia”.
The relationship between Islam and Hinduism, in the stage of history in which mankind is now located, lies at the very heart of this subject; hence we have chosen to address you on the topic of ‘Islam, Hinduism and Ākhir al- Zamān’. In doing so, however, we realize that we would have to sail in uncharted waters since contemporary Islamic scholarship has chosen to remain sorrowfully silent, not only on this subject, but also on so many critically important matters pertaining to the modern age – which is the age of the ascendancy of modern Western civilization.
In assessing the current Hindu government of India, and the role which it is playing in regional and international affairs, in order to determine whether or not it poses a threat to regional peace and security, our first comment is to direct attention to Hindu India’s strategic alliance with Jewish Israel as the most important means through which Islamic scholarship can judge Hinduism in Ākhir al- Zamān.
There will be Hindus, some of them scholars, who will view this address; hence it is important for them to be informed that there is no malice against Hinduism in our scholarship – rather we seek to penetrate Truth, and to explain Truth, with a scholarship which constantly seeks to achieve integrity. It is because of that effort to adhere to scholarly integrity that we have consistently condemned centuries-long Mughal Muslim rule over Hindu India as Islamic imperialism – when there is no place for imperialism in the religion of Islam. We have also condemned the centuries-long Ottoman Muslim rule over the Orthodox Christian world in the Balkans and beyond, as the same pathetic imperialism.
We are not diplomats who must speak and write in the language of international discourse. Rather, we adhere, as Iqbāl did, with Allah’s Command in the Qur’ān to speak in a straight-forward way:
وَقُوْلُوْا قَوْلًا سَدِيْدًاۙ
Iqbāl did not hesitate in declaring that the League of Nations was a “League of Thieves”, and we, also, will not hesitate to call ‘a spade a spade’
when we denounce many blood- stained centuries of (so-called Islamic) Ottoman oppression and imperialism over Orthodox Christians, as well as the present effort by Turkey for recreating an Ottoman Empire that would use the same bogus Jihād against Orthodox Christians in order to sabotage Muslim- Orthodox Christian relations in this age as well.
We also will not hesitate to warn of the grave danger posed by the strange and mysterious so-called Hadīth which prophesies a Ghawatul Hind that would seek to provoke another bogus Jihād against Hindu India, in a futile effort to seek to restore the previous sorry Mughal imperial rule over Hindu India.
If Hindus and Orthodox Christians, with bitter memories in their hearts of ‘Islamic’ oppression and humiliation, now hate Islam and Muslims, there is much that explains and justifies that hatred. The only proper way to address that hatred, and to seek to remove it, is with a scholarship derived from the blessed Qur’ān that is characterized by stern scholarly integrity.
When we study India’s present alliance with Israel, we find many significant things they have in common with each other, and I want to suggest that it is through an analysis of those commonalities that we get a means through which we can discern whether the religious conduct and policies of the present Hindu government of India pose a threat to regional peace and security.
The Cow, Sūrah al-Baqara, Hinduism and Judaism
We commence by recognizing it to be a matter of supreme significance that Allah Most High chose to commence the Qur’ān, which is the last scripture to be revealed to mankind, with a chapter entitled ‘The Cow’ (al-Baqarah).
The strategic alliance between Jewish Israel and Hindu India appears to have its origins in the first chapter of history which witnessed a misguided Israelite worship of a golden cow; and it is with the Hindu reverence of the cow as a sacred animal – sometimes even worshipped – and the continuing Jewish attachment to the cow, characterized by their belief in the appearance of a ‘red cow’ in the End-time, that we can commence any effort to determine whether Hinduism and Judaism have common origins.
If they both have common origins, and if they have both suffered the same corruption of original Truth in, for example, their common exceptionalism, as disclosed later in this address, we can expect them to march together in the End-time.
The Hindu would affirm that without reverence for the cow there is no Hinduism, and the Jew would confirm that without the blood of an unblemished red cow there can be no restoration of the Temple built by Solomon (عليه السالم) and, therefore, no advent of the Messiah. We pause to note, significantly so, that there is a reference to that unblemished cow in the Qur’ān when Moses, i.e., Nabī Mūsa (عليه السالم) conveyed a Divine Command to the Israelite people to sacrifice a cow. They persisted in their questions about the cow until Allah Most High disclosed that it had to be a cow neither old nor immature, but of an age in-between; a yellow cow, bright of hue, pleasing to the beholder; and it should have been used neither to till the soil, nor water the fields, and be wholesome and without blemish.
Hinduism, Judaism, and the claim to a Birth-right of Superiority
There is startling further evidence, beyond their common religious attachment to the cow, and sometimes up to the worship of the cow, of a common origin of both Hinduism and Judaism, in their common belief in a birthright of Hindu superiority over non-Hindus, and of Jewish superiority over non-Jews. In much the same way that Jews claim an elite status amongst mankind in their belief that they are the chosen people of the Lord-God, so too does Hinduism offer a classification of mankind in which the Brahmin Hindu is born with a birthright of superiority over all the rest of mankind.
Jewish exceptionalism, and perhaps, Hindu exceptionalism as well, are both located in the first chapter of history, and hence appear to have a common origin. The Qur’ān has condemned that exceptionalism as false. Allah Most High challenged, in Sūrah al-Jumu’ah of the Qur’ān, the claim of the Jews to be the chosen people of the Lord-God:
قُلْ يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ هَادُوٓا۟ إِن زَعَمْتُمْ أَنَّكُمْ أَوْلِيَآءُ لِلَّهِ مِن دُونِ ٱلنَّاسِ فَتَمَنَّوُا۟ ٱلْمَوْتَ إِن كُنتُمْ صَـٰدِقِينَ
(Qur’ān, al-Jumu’āh, 62:6)
Say: 'O Jews! If you claim that you are the chosen people of the Lord- God, to the exclusion of all other people, then you should be longing for death – if what you say is true!
Satan claims a Birth-right of Superiority
The Qur’ān also disclosed an event connected with this subject located in the very first page of the first chapter of history, when Allah Most High commanded Iblīs (i.e., Satan), to bow down in prostration before Ādam (السالم عليه). He refused, while arguing a birthright of superiority over Ādam who was created from clay, while he was created from fire. This arrogant claim to a birthright of superiority – Hindu, Jewish or Satanic (i.e., that of Iblīs) – was dismissed as false. The Qur’ān proclaimed that status among men and women is classified on the basis of faith and conduct, rather than birth.
يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلنَّاسُ إِنَّا خَلَقْنَـٰكُم مِّن ذَكَرٍۢ وَأُنثَىٰ وَجَعَلْنَـٰكُمْ شُعُوبًۭا وَقَبَآئِلَ لِتَعَارَفُوٓا۟ ۚ إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عِندَ ٱللَّهِ أَتْقَىٰكُمْ ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ عَلِيمٌ خَبِيرٌۭ
(Qur’ān, al-Hujurāt, 49:13)
O mankind! Behold, We have created you all out of a male and a female, and have made you into nations and tribes so that you might know that the noblest of you in the sight of Allah is the one who fears Him the most, and is most deeply conscious of Him. Behold, Allah is all-knowing, all-aware.
Jewish exceptionalism explains Israel’s indifference for the suffering of the oppressed Palestinians – Muslims and Christians. It is as though, when compared with Jews, they are sub-human. An Israelite Prime Minister once referred to Arabs as grasshoppers! Hindu exceptionalism must also be recognized to explain Hindu indifference for the suffering of the oppressed Muslims of Kashmir. It is as though, when compared to the superior Brahmin Hindu, they are sub-human.
Hindu and Jewish Exceptionalism and regional dominion
In the same way that Israeli exceptionalism is driving Israel to expand her territory, or to impose her dominion over territory, all the way from the River Nile to the River Euphrates, with calamitous consequences for peace and security in the world, so too is Hindu exceptionalism the driving force which explains Hindu India’s quest to expand her dominion over the entire region in which India is located. While nuclear Pakistan may be at the top of the list over which India must impose her dominion, let us not forget that nuclear China is also located in the region. Hence this misguided quest for Hindu dominion cannot but lead to disaster.
Prophet Muhammad Shallallahu 'alayhi wasallam dismissed this arrogant exceptionalism with his comment that all of mankind would stand before the Lord-God on Judgement Day “as equal in His Sight as are the teeth of a comb”.
We cannot conclude this part of our address without returning to the first chapter of history to warn that Hindu and Jewish exceptionalism is doing more than simply seeking Israeli and Indian political, economic, and military dominion over the regions in which both States are located; rather both Hinduism and Judaism recognize the territories in which they are located to be Holy Lands, and hence they must seek eternal dominion for their Holy Land.
The Cursed Tree in Heaven and the lust for rule eternal, as well as life eternal
Allah Most High alerted mankind concerning this lust for political, economic, and military dominion by a people who would consider themselves exceptional, when He ordered Ādam (عليه السالم) to dwell in Heaven with his wife but prohibited him from coming even close to a cursed Tree. It was Satan himself who disclosed the identity of the Tree when he said to Ādam:
فَوَسْوَسَ إِلَيْهِ ٱلشَّيْطَـٰنُ قَالَ يَـٰٓـَٔادَمُ هَلْ أَدُلُّكَ عَلَىٰ شَجَرَةِ ٱلْخُلْدِ وَمُلْكٍۢ لَّا يَبْلَىٰ
(Qur’ān, Tā-Hā, 20:120)
‘O Ādam! Shall I lead thee to the tree of life eternal, and to a kingdom that will never decay?’
The Divine messages conveyed in this verse inform us not only about a cursed lust of those who seek to impose their eternal rule over others, and who also lust for life eternal, but also that these two lusts are as inter- connected as are a pair of footprints in the sand.
It should now be clear that Hindu India is seeking to not only impose eternal political, economic, and military dominion over all territories adjoining, or close to Holy Bharat, but it should come as no surprise to those who locate absolute Truth in the Qur’ān, when Hindu and Jewish scientists of Artificial Intelligence (AI) surprise the world with a claim that they can now deliver life eternal. The footprints of lust for eternal rule, and for life eternal, are so interconnected that when one appears, the other would be just beside it.
The Jewish Money-lender and the Hindu Money-lender
The Israelite people betrayed Truth in a corrupted Torah when they became the moneylenders of the world and chose to use Ribā as an instrument through which they could seek to rule over others (including rule over Pakistan). Shakespeare exposed them in his Merchant of Venice. When Hindu Banias also became moneylenders, they walked as brethren on the same road of oppression chosen by the Jewish moneylender.
Hinduism, Judaism, and Modern Western Civilization
Finally, we must turn to the strange and mysterious relationship of modern Western civilization with both Hindu India and Jewish Israel, and we hasten to note that it is a civilization with the same arrogant jingoistic claim to exceptionalism: The West represents the end of history! All previous civilizations, including Islam, are now obsolete and moribund, and belong to the museums of history! The West has come to civilize the world!
It is a dominant characteristic of modern Western secular political thought which has emerged from modern Western civilization to relegate religion to the personal life located in private space, and to deny it any significant role in public space in matters pertaining, for example, to the conduct of State.
We are familiar with the declaration that religion and politics must be kept separate from each other; and whoever turns to a Book of Scripture for knowledge, or for guidance, in matters pertaining to politics, economics, and matters pertaining to the State, is deemed to have questionable scholarly credentials.
Whenever religion attempts to intrude upon secular political space and advance a religious agenda such as Afghanistan’s forlorn effort for the recognition of the supremacy of Truth over the State, both in domestic conduct as well as in international affairs, it is demonized as fundamentalism and a threat to peace and political stability. This reckless scholarly arrogance makes no distinction between Islam’s Khilāfah State, and Orthodox Christianity’s continuing reverence for the Holy Byzantine State that was once located in Constantinople. Both religions are demonized.
It is quite mysterious, however, that when the very same religious agenda is advanced in Judaism for the establishment of a Jewish State, i.e., Holy Israel, and in Hinduism’s current attempt to impose the supremacy of Hinduism over India, Western secular scholarship has fallen mysteriously silent.
The mystery did not end there; rather it again appeared from behind a screen of deception in recent Western covert efforts to raise, nurture, support, finance, and arm (with state-of-the-art weapons such as drones) a bogus ISIS Jihād which tried to highjack Islam and to present to the world such a terrifyingly false Islamic State as would have delivered for them a propaganda bonanza. It was not by accident that this Islamic State would have been established just next door to Israel. It was also not by accident that success in that bogus Jihād would have paved the way for a neo-Ottoman Empire to rise again. This Western effort was enthusiastically supported by Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, and, naturally so, Turkey. If this effort had succeeded, the West would also have determined which face of Islam the world would have seen, and easily accepted.
Had it not been for the exceptionally courageous and surprisingly successful Orthodox Christian Russian military intervention in Syria and Iraq, the bogus Jihād would have succeeded; Syria would have become another Libya; and Russia’s two military bases in Syria — an air base located in western Syria's Latakia province, and a naval base at Tartus on the Mediterranean coast — would have made way for NATO’s military bases instead.
Western psychological propaganda warfare has succeeded in brainwashing mankind to study this subject today on a canvas painted with terrorism. Islam is terrorism! Muslims are terrorists! The West paved the way with a 9/11 false-flag terrorist attack on America (that was blamed on Muslims), for the trumpets of terrorism to blast away with equal ferocity from both Israel and India.
Dajjāl, Gog and Magog, and the Modern Judeo-Christian West
What is the explanation of this conduct? Why is the West pursuing this devilish hypocritical agenda while paving a way for both Israel and India to profit from the terrorist drama? Why has India joined Saudi Arabia as a sister of Israel?
Our answer, from the perspective of Islamic eschatology, is that Dajjāl, the false Messiah or Anti-Christ, is the mastermind who has created and fashioned modern secular, decadent, and essentially godless Western civilization, and then guided and assisted the scientific and technological revolutions which delivered to that civilization unprecedented power. He then proceeded to use that civilization to wage manifestly unjust wars ofimperialism and colonialism to establish its rule over all of mankind, and to then transform the colonized world into carbon copies of the secular godless decadent West. My teacher, Dr. Ansari, warned that they even sought to colonize the ‘mind’.
Even when the West decolonized the rest of the world, it continued to rule that world by proxy. Perhaps the most effective instrument of proxy political and economic rule was located in the creation of the United Nations Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the international banking system.
Dajjāl did all of this in order to achieve his ultimate goal of ruling the world from Jerusalem so that he could succeed in so impersonating the true Messiah that he could eventually declare from Jerusalem: “Ana al-Masīh!” i.e., “I am the Messiah”.
Several of my books devoted to Islamic eschatology, such as ‘Jerusalem in the Qur’ān’, ‘Constantinople in the Qur’ān’, ‘Dajjāl the Qur’ān and the Jasad’ and ‘The Qur’ān the Great War and the West’, have provided an explanation of the subject derived from the blessed Qur’ān.
Islamic eschatology not only identifies Dajjāl at work in the relentless Western effort to bulldoze the way that would make it possible for Israel to become a ruling State, but it also identifies the presence of Gog and Magog in that civilization. They are Dajjāl’s foot soldiers; they control power in the West, and they use power to oppress, and to corrupt the world – not just with bogus money, but even with viruses, vaccines, et al. ( كُونُوا۟ قِرَدَةً خَٰسِـِٔينَ ), but also that He would use the West to send against those who rejected the true Messiah such of His creations as would inflict on them, until the Last Day, the worst possible punishment:
وَإِذْ تَأَذَّنَ رَبُّكَ لَيَبْعَثَنَّ عَلَيْهِمْ إِلَىٰ يَوْمِ ٱلْقِيَـٰمَةِ مَن يَسُومُهُمْ سُوٓءَ ٱلْعَذَابِ ۗ إِنَّ رَبَّكَ لَسَرِيعُ ٱلْعِقَابِ ۖ وَإِنَّهُۥ لَغَفُورٌۭ رَّحِيمٌۭ
(Qur’ān, al-A’rāf, 7:167)
And lo! Thy Lord-God has declared that He would most certainly send against them, unto Resurrection Day, those who would afflict them with terrible punishment: verily, your Lord-God is swift in retribution – yet, verily, He is [also] much-forgiving, a Dispenser of Grace.
The chips are falling! Not only has Hindu India been firmly embraced by Wall Street and has been used as a Guinea Pig in the effort to achieve a cashless world of electronic money, but India’s Bollywood has embraced all the decadence of Hollywood. In fact, Hindu India dances with them to the extent that India is now resolved to increase the legal age of marriage for girls to 21.
But this address focuses primarily on the challenge posed by the relentless Western secular dogma that religion and politics must be kept separate from each other, except when a Jewish or a Hindu State is being established.
Islam, the Khilāfah State and Truth
What then, is the Islamic view of the relationship between religion and politics, and between religion and the State?
The Islamic view of this subject is derived from the Qur’ān which recognizes the supremacy of Truth over the State, and hence that Truth must play a dominant role in the conduct of State.
The Qur’ān has presented to us the very first page of the book of history. It is a page which has disclosed that Allah Most High created mankind in order that Khilāfah might be established on earth:
وَإِذْ قَالَ رَبُّكَ لِلْمَلَٰٓئِكَةِ إِنِّى جَاعِلٌ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ خَلِيفَةً
(Qur’ān, al-Baqarah, 2:30)
And your Lord-God declared to the angels: I am going to place a Khalīfah on earth...
What is Khilāfah? Who or what is a Khalīfah? Are we at liberty to offer our own views of the subject, or should we first turn to the Qur’ān for answers?
Schoolboys are not scholars. A scholar would turn first to the Qur’ān for answers, and here is the answer from the Qur’ān.
Allah Most High began His response by declaring that He granted to the progeny of Abraham, i.e., Nabī Ibrāhīm ( عليه السالم), a great State or Kingdom:
فَقَدْ ءَاتَيْنَآ ءَالَ إِبْرَٰهِيمَ ٱلْكِتَـٰبَ وَٱلْحِكْمَةَ وَءَاتَيْنَـٰهُم مُّلْكًا عَظِيمًۭا
(Qur’ān, al-Nisa’, 4:54)
We bestowed upon the House of Abraham (of old) the Scripture and Wisdom, and We bestowed on them a mighty kingdom.
That State or Kingdom did not appear in history, however, until the Israelite people were led by Moses, i.e., Nabī Mūsa (عليه السالم), miraculously so, out of bondage in Egypt, to take control over, and establish residence in, the Holy Land, which Allah had ordained for them. Only then did Allah Most High address David, i.e., Nabī Daūd ( عليه السالم), with these words:
يَـٰدَاوُۥدُ إِنَّا جَعَلْنَـٰكَ خَلِيفَةًۭ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ فَٱحْكُم بَيْنَ ٱلنَّاسِ بِٱلْحَقِّ وَلَا تَتَّبِعِ ٱلْهَوَىٰ فَيُضِلَّكَ عَن سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِ ۚ إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ يَضِلُّونَ عَن سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِ لَهُمْ عَذَابٌۭ شَدِيدٌۢ بِمَا نَسُوا۟ يَوْمَ ٱلْحِسَابِ
(Qur’ān, Sād, 38:26)
“O David, We made you a ruler in the land, so judge between the people (while establishing your rule or governance) with Truth, and do not follow your own agenda, lest it diverts you from the way of Allah, i.e., the way ordained by Allah for the conduct of State. Those who stray from Allah’s way will have a painful punishment, for having ignored the Day of Accounts.”
In order for Nabī Daūd (عليه السالم) to function successfully as King or Head of State while establishing his rule or governance on the basis of Truth, Allah Most High strengthened his State and bestowed on him that which would equip him to succeed:
وَشَدَدْنَا مُلْكَهُۥ وَءَاتَيْنَـٰهُ ٱلْحِكْمَةَ وَفَصْلَ ٱلْخِطَابِ
(Qur’ān, Sād, 38:20)
And We strengthened his Kingdom (or State) and bestowed upon him wisdom and sagacity in judgment.
The Qur’ān further warned that regardless of the conception of a State, or the rules for the conduct of State, once it deviates from Truth, it will perish:
جُندٌۭ مَّا هُنَالِكَ مَهْزُومٌۭ مِّنَ ٱلْأَحْزَابِ
(Qur’ān, Sād, 38:11)
[But] there it is: all human beings, however [strongly] leagued together, are bound to suffer defeat [whenever they refuse to accept the Truth].
While it is true that religious thought is anchored in the acceptance of absolute Truth, and that different religions have differing conceptions of what is absolute Truth, no one can possibly deny that ‘Peace’ and ‘Justice’ must be recognized to be located in the very substance of Truth.
But there can be no peace without justice, and so, justice must be recognized as the primary criterion with which to recognize and to assess the credentials of any claimant to Truth. Is there peace and justice today in Palestine, or in Kashmir?
Secular political thought differs significantly from religious thought when expressed in politics. There is nothing absolute in secular political thought. Everything is relative to changes taking place in human society; secular political thought changes in form as the wind blows in different directions. When the wind blows in the direction of decolonization and the embrace of national freedom and a national identity, secular political thought beats the drums of nationalism with gusto. When the wind blows in a direction of incorporating all of mankind in one global society, secular political thought eventually learns to dance to this new Samba, and to then accommodate itself to globalization – to the eventual demise of national identity.
Our Islamic eschatological view is that history is moving in the direction of embracing a Holy State in Jerusalem at the end of history. While Russia’s leadership remains largely secular, there can be no denying the fact that post-Soviet Russia is slowly returning to its spiritual heart, and it seems only a matter of time before Orthodox Christianity begins to play an ever-greater role in the affairs of the State. Indeed, Russia’s secular government dramatically over-ruled the Orthodox Russian Church in giving approval for the recent construction of Europe’s largest Masjid in Moscow. We are confident that Orthodox Christian Russia will eventually recognize this direction of the movement of history.
Pax Britannica, Pax Americana, and Pax Judaica – Three World Orders of ever-increasing oppression
It is only those who eat their Biryani, and then go back home to sleep, who will fail to realize a mysterious historical process at work which has already delivered to the world a Pax Britannica, and then a Pax Americana, and is now poised to conclude the process with a Pax Judaica. A world-order will then emerge in which Israel would seek to replace the United States of America as the ruling State in the world, and in which Judaism would be in control of the conduct of State in Israel.
Hindu India has already recognized this; but so many of us are yet to recognize it.
They would, of course, be world-orders characterized by relentless oppression!
Kindly note, as we conclude, that it is in this context that we have analysed the present effort being pursued in India for religion to establish a measure of control over the State. India believes that success of such an effort would legitimize the claim to Truth of Hinduism. Indeed, the strategic alliance already established between Modi’s India and the State of Israel must be understood as the logical result of a convergence of both Hindu and Jewish religious thought, which seeks to establish not only the dominance of religion over the State, but also, and ominously so, political, economic, and military dominion over the regions of the world in which they are both located. It is an alliance of oppressors!
I thank you.