Common Ground - Islam and Buddhism

Preface
by Professor Mohammad Hashim Kamali
The Common Word initiative of one hundred and thirty-eight Muslim
religious leaders and academics, which advanced Muslim-Christian
dialogue along theological grounds and themes of common concern
to both religions, has borne fruit thanks to the earnest subsequent
efforts and organizational support of numerous distinguished personalities
on both sides. The Royal Aal Bayt Foundation for Islamic
Thought in Jordan took the initiative in September 2007 to formulate
a Muslim response to Pope Benedict XVI’s somewhat controversial
Regensberg lecture of the previous year. In the meantime, followup
encounters took place between the Pope and Muslim leaders.
Instead of engaging with the Pope from a defensive posture, the
Muslim leaders launched the Common Word initiative reflecting
the Qur’ānic invocation asking Muslims to call on the followers of
scripture to come to a word common between us and you... (3:64) as
a focus of their dialogue. The positive response from the Christian
side led to several encounters and international conferences which
opened new vistas of beneficial dialogue with their Muslim counterparts.
Muslim leaders are now proposing a second chapter to A
Common Word, this time between Islam and Buddhism: Common
Ground. The present book advances a seminal discourse exploring
Islam’s commonalities with the teachings of the Buddha. Like its
antecedent, which found common scriptural grounds between the
Bible and the Qur’ān, the present attempt underscores spiritual and
moral affinities between the Qur’ān, the Pali Canon, the Mahayana
scriptures and other Buddhist texts.
This book does not shy away from acknowledging the existence
of many fundamental differences, even unbridgeable gaps, separating
Islam and Buddhism — starting with the leading question,
whether Buddhism can be called a theistic religion, or even a religion
at all. Answers to such questions are given, and the author advances
an equally persuasive discourse on significant spiritual and
moral commonalities between Islam and Buddhism. It is an attempt
at understanding some of the central principles of Buddhism in the
light of Islamic spirituality that uncovers considerable common
ground between them. Buddhism is more of a network of spiritual
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