Common Ground - Islam and Buddhism

Preface by Professor Mohammad Hashim Kamali
to belief in a ‘Personal God’ with diverse traits, without whose grace
and mercy one cannot attain salvation, comes close on a metaphysical
plane to the Islamic conception of divinity. The practice of the
Nembutsu (veneration of the celestial Buddha) is predicated on the
power of the absolute Other, or Tariki (surrender of one’s self-will to
the Eternal other), which strikingly resembles the Islamic doctrine
of Tawakkul (reliance and trust in God).
Analogous rather than identical as these concepts may be, this
effort to find common ground in the essence of spirituality and devotion
between Islam and Buddhism is a substantial one, and could
well present a keenly persuasive basis of harmony between their
adherents.
The book also develops fresh insights into the teachings of the
Qur’ān and Sunna, suggesting that Buddhists may from the Islamic
viewpoint be regarded as followers of a revealed scripture and thus
considered as Ahl al-Kitāb. A theological recognition of this kind is
likely to enable the adherents of both religions to appreciate and mutually
respect the religious teachings of the other. An earnest attempt
is thus made to help Muslims to see Buddhism as a true religion or
Dīn, and Buddhists to see Islam as an authentic Dharma.
Muslim schools and jurists have differed on the understanding
of the Qur’ānic designation Ahl al-Kitāb. Whereas many have confined
the term to only the Jews and Christians, the Hanafī and Shāfi‘ī
schools maintain it comprises all who have followed a prophet and
a revealed scripture, which would include those who believed in the
psalms of David, and the scrolls (suhuf) of Abraham. Many have
extended this status to Zoroastrians and Sabaeans. Imam al-Shāfi‘ī
(d. 820 CE) is critical of those who denied the status of Ahl al-Kitāb
to Zoroastrians on the authority of an unequivocal ruling of caliph
‘Alī b. Abī Tālib (d. 661 CE) in their favour.
The proponents of this open interpretation of Ahl al-Kitāb have
relied on the Qur’ānic verse (87:19), which refers as sources of
guidance to the earliest books (al-suhuf al-ūlā), the Books of Abraham
and Moses; and then also (Q.26:196), which refers to the Books
of earlier peoples (zubur al-awwalīn), that concurred with much of
the Qur’ānic guidance. The word zubur (scriptures) also occurs in
(Q.35:25) immediately following a reference to the apostles of old
that came with clear signs and Scriptures (bi’l-bayyināt wa bi’zzubur).
Three other references to zubur in the Qur’ān (3:184; 16:44;
54:52) also sustain the understanding that zubur were Scriptures of
xix