Common Ground - Islam and Buddhism

c o m m o n g r o u n d between i s l a m a n d b u d d h i s m
dhist ‘impersonal’ perspective is given in the following verses of
the Qur’ān:
And every man’s augury have We fastened to his own neck,
and We shall bring forth for him on the Day of Resurrection
a book which he will find wide open. [It will be said to
him] ‘Read your book, your own soul suffices as reckoner
against yourself this day’ (17:13–14).
Even if there are dozens of other verses in which God as Judge is
deemed to be the determinant of one’s fate in the Hereafter, this single
verse shows that the essential principle of accountability in the
Hereafter can be expressed in different ways. The theistically conceived
‘Judge’ can be seen, from a Buddhist point of view, as one
way of expressing the objectivity of the principle of cosmic recompense;
while karma can be conceived, from a Muslim point of view,
as one way of expressing the principle according to which the Judge
evaluates all deeds. 21 Moreover, as will be seen in the section on
compassion, in both traditions there is a principle which transcends
the cosmic chain of cause and effect, and this is divine mercy.
The affinity remains, therefore, on the level of principle, and
this can help reinforce the basic argument sketched out above, and
which we hope to flesh out in what follows: that there are enough resemblances
between the two faiths to enable Muslims to affirm that
Buddhists are guided by a true religion, one which is ‘like’ Islam in
the sense intended by the words of the following verse:
And if they believe in the like of that which ye believe, then
are they rightly guided … (2:137).
It should be noted that this verse comes immediately after one of
the most comprehensive descriptions of the scope of the prophetic
mission—several prophets being named specifically, and then all
prophets being referred to in general:
Say: We believe in God and that which is revealed unto us
and that which was revealed unto Abraham, and Ishmael,
and Isaac, and Jacob, and the tribes, and that which Moses
and Jesus received, and that which the prophets received
21. See the interesting comparison made by His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, of the
Buddhist view of karma as opposed to the Christian view of God as Judge, in his
The Good Heart: A Buddhist Perspective on the Teachings of Jesus (Somerville:
Wisdom Publications, 1996), p. 115ff.
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