Common Ground - Islam and Buddhism

Introduction to Common Ground By H. R. H. Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad
And also:
Restrain thyself along with those who cry unto their Lord
at morn and evening, seeking His Countenance; and let not
thine eyes overlook them, desiring the pomp of the life of
the world; and obey not him whose heart We have made
heedless of Our remembrance, who followeth his own lust
and whose case hath been abandoned. (The Holy Qur’ān,
Al-Kahf, 18:28)
This explains why we do not simply propose a version of the Second
‘Golden’ Commandment (‘Love thy Neighbour’) — versions
of which are indeed to be found in the same texts of Islam and Buddhism
(just as they are to be found in the sacred texts of Judaism,
Christianity, Hinduism, Confucianism and Taoism amongst other
religions): without the First ‘Golden’ Commandment (‘Love thy
God’), the Second Commandment on its own inherently risks being
spiritually devoid of truth, and thus risks descending into a superficial
sentimentalism without true virtue and goodness; it risks being
a secular ethic taking its stance on moods which we can conjure up
to ourselves on occasion, requiring nothing from the soul, risking
nothing, changing nothing, deceiving all.
On the other hand, one of the greatest ironies of many religious
practitioners is that despite the fact that their religions call for mercy
and respect between people, they disparage others (and deny them that
mercy and respect) if those others do not undertake the same paths of
loving mercy as them. Thus love of their own religions makes them
less lovingly merciful to other people rather making them more merciful
to other people! This seems to me as a Muslim to be particularly
ironic, because in all four traditional Sunni Juridical Schools of Thought
(Madhahib), as well as in traditional Shi’a thought and Ibadhi thought
— that is to say, in all the traditional juridical schools of thought in Islam
as such) — a person’s choice of religion is not grounds for hostility
against them (if they are not first hostile to Muslims). Rather, Muslims
are required to behave with mercy and justice to all, believers and nonbelievers
alike. God says in the Holy Qur’ān:
Tell those who believe to forgive those who hope not for
the days of God; in order that He may requite folk what
they used to earn. / Whoso doeth right, it is for his soul,
and whoso doeth wrong, it is against it. And afterward unto
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