"... all is perishing, except the face of allah..."

Following up on this Zensunni idea.... I often think about the verse:

 all is perishing except the Face of Allah...." (28:88) as suggesting a kind of impermanence or anicca (a Buddhist term). The same could be said about the Islamic notion that from moment to moment creation does not have any permanence and so God is contantly creating and recreating existence. And so perhaps as Muslims we can accept Buddhism as an insightful analysis of reality (apart from the Face of Allah).

For a more detailed and substantial discussion of the correspondences between Islam and Buddhism, we can look to Reza Shah-Kazimi's Common Ground Between Islam and Buddhism (With an essay by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, Introduced by H. H. the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, H. R. H. Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad, Professor Mohammad Hashim Kamali)

Planet Grenada: buddhist sufi

Planet Grenada: buddha and buddhism in the quran? 

Planet Grenada: i ching and the tao of islam

buddha and buddhism in the quran?

With the release of the new Dune film I've been thinking a bit more about the connections between Islam and Buddhism. (For those who don't know,  in the Dune universe, many of the dominant religious movements are broadly "Budhislamic", and most of the characters are Zensunni.

For a while now, I've known that the Ahmadiyya specifically claim that the Buddha was a prophet, and they identify specific references to the Buddha and Buddhism in the Quran. And the Bahais also recognize both Muhammad (saaws) and Siddhartha Gautama as Manifestations of God. But recently I've found examples of more orthodox Islamic voices who make similar claims: 

From Muslim scholar’s discourse on Buddhism: aliterature on Buddha’s position by Ahmad Faizuddin Ramli, , Jaffary Awang , and Zaizul Ab Rahman:

In terms of philology, it is based on three verses in the Holy Quran, the first two verses refer Siddhartha as the prophet Dhu al-Kifl:

و ِۖ ۡ ِكف ِ ِر ا ٱل ي َن ۡ ب ِّم َن ٱل ص َٰ ُك ٨٥ [ األنبياء:85-85 ]

“And (mention) Ishmael, and Idris, and Dhu al-Kifl. All were of the steadfast.” (85) [Quran al-Anbiyā’ 21: 85]

و ِۖ ۡ ِكف ۡ ِر ا ٱل ۡألَۡخيَا ِّم َن ٱ َو ٤٨ [ ص:48-48ُ ]

“And make mention of Ishmael and Elisha and Dhu al-Kifl. All are of the chosen” (48) [Quran Ṣad 38: 48]

As a guide to all mankind, the Quran describes the Prophets, either directly or indirectly. There are 24,000 of prophets sent by Allah to all mankind, and only 25 of them were selected as an apostle, while five of them were selected as the ulul azmi – the higher ranking of apostle. Among the apostle is prophet Dhu al-Kifl as stated in two verses above. The history of prophets Dhu al-Kifl is not discussed in many Islamic narrations. With regards to the founder of Buddhism, Siddharta Gautama, Muslims scholar like Muhammad Hamidullah (1974) and Hamid Abdul Qadir (1957) stated that the Buddha was Prophet Dhu al-Kifl in the Qur'an. Justification for this was made based on the word kifli, which means 'someone from Kifli'. The word of kifl is Arabicized from the Kapila phrase, is the short name for Kapilavastu. Kapilavastu is the birthplace of the Buddha, hence it is named by Dhu al-Kifl (Berzin, 1994; Imtiyaz Yusuf, 2013; Obuse, 2010; Perry Schmidt-Leukel, 2010).

Instead the terms of kifl, the word of tīn was regarded by Muhammad Hamidullah and supported by Hamza Yusuf (2010), Reza Kazemi (2010), Imtiyaz Yusuf (2003), al-Qasimi (2002) as a Bodhi tree where the Siddhartha mediated and attained the enlightenment (nirvana). Thus, only Gautama Buddha is the only closest figure in the Quran with the fig (tīn) tree. Allah said in the Holy Quran:

 و ١ ٱلتِّي ِمي ۡألَ ِد ٱ بَلَ ۡ َذا ٱل َٰ ]

“I swear by the fig and the olive (1), And mount Sinai (2), And this city made secure (3)” [Quran al-Tīn 95: 1-3]

The four symbols in the surah at-Tīn are ironically symbolic to the Prophet. Muslim scholars have different views on the tīn (fig) while they agreed with other terms such as alZaytūn as a symbol of Jerusalem the birthplace of the Prophet Isa., Sinīn (Mount Thursina) as a symbol for the place of Moses a.s., and al-Balad al-Amīn is symbolized as the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Early Muslims Exegesis scholars in the like of Ibn Abi Hatim (811- 890 M) quotes the view of Qatadah that the tīn is the name of a hill in Damascus, the blessed hill in Sham and contained a tree, while Muhammad bin Ka’ab interpreted the tīn as the Companions of the Cave (Aṣḥabul Kahfi) as Al-Qurtubi. Ibn Abbas and Mujahid hold same view by regarding it as a fruit that is ate by people (Ibn Abi Hatim, 1997), later followed by al-Tabari (2001), Ibn Kathir (2000) and Abdul Razzaq (1999) quoted Ibn Abbas views, it is a mosque built by Noah on the Mount of Judi besides repeating the al-Qurtubi’s view.

If observed, Muslims mufassirin differ in their views on the true meaning of the word tiin. Some interpret it as a fruit (Ibn Abbas and Mujahid), while some interpret it symbolical to some places (Qatadah & Muhammad bin Ka’ab). However, by using philological argument, Imtiyaz Yusuf (2017) suggests the precise interpretation is symbolical for a place in the Middle East. Using scientific argument, Imtiyaz Yusuf (2017) suggests the tīn (ficus religiose) refers to the Bodhi tree, due to the tree growing much in the Indian subcontinent and in Indo-China rather in the Middle east. Contrarily, the species of the Bodhi tree is from the ficus carica, not ficus religiose which only grows in the Middle East and West Asia. But the argument can be accepted since both are originated from the same family of Moraceae. Moreover, the Bodhi tree also known with seven names in Sanskrit tradition as Patala (Bignonia), Pundrika (Lotus), Sala (Shoria Rabusta), Saresha (Accaciassirisa), Udambra, Nyagrodha, and Asvatha (ficus religiousa). On the other hand, the Buddhist scholars define the Bodhi tree with different species like Dragon Flower tree, Champac tree, Dragon tree, Kesser Dragon tree, and Iron wood tree. In fact, not just in Buddhism, the species of ficus religiose is also considered as a sacred tree in the texts of Hindu and Jain, as in the Bhagavad Gita (Abdul Haq Vidyarthi & Abdul Ahad Dawud 2013). The claim to regard Buddha as a prophet, eventually recognized by contemporary Muslims mufassirin as one of the views (Al-Qasimi, 2002).

The Bodhi tree that related with Siddhartha’s history, on the other hand, was compared by H.O.K Rahmat (1984) with the story of Prophet Moses during receiving revelation. When Siddhartha was under the Bodhi tree, he decided not to move until he had the great truth and knowledge. For forty-nine days he meditated and eventually the 'light' came to him. While Moses was mentioned in the Qur'an (Ṭāha 20: 9-13): "And has come to you the story of Moses. When he saw the fire then said to his family: Wait! I have seen fire, may I bring you a flame from it, or I can guide you from it. When he came to him, he was summoned: O Moses! Behold, I am your Lord, open your two shoes, indeed you are now in the valley of Ṭuwa; and I have chosen you, then consider what is revealed”. So the ‘light’ for Siddhartha also can be symbolized as a ‘fire’ to Prophet Moses.

a question about religion and film

I just saw Anthony Hopkins in The Rite last weekend. It was a halfway decent movie with its high points but after The Exorcist it is difficult for any exorcism-themed supernatural thriller to impress or cover new ground. (Although, Drag Me To Hell wasn't bad and the Angel episode I've Got You Under My Skin had a nice twist.)

It occurs to me that (even apart from the super-obvious examples like The Ten Commandments or The Passion of The Christ) there are plenty of Hollywood movies which assume that Christianity is basically true (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Rapture, The Book of Eli, Left Behind). There are also a number of movies where Hinduism is true (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, The Love Guru) and movies where Buddhism or other Eastern philosophies are true (The Golden Child, Little Buddha, a number of martial arts films). But I was hard pressed to come up with a movie where Islam was true. Apart from The Message, the only one I could think of was The Jewel of the Nile (which is actually full of your typical Arab stereotypes, but the "Jewel" of the title is an Egyptian Sufi with real powers.) Are there any others?

man bites dog: buddhist fundamentalists and muslim prisoners of conscience

I totally missed this story when it happened but it seems worth noting as an example.

An expatriate Sri Lankan woman who wrote two books about her conversion from Buddhism to Islam has been arrested while on holiday in Sri Lanka, apparently for causing offence to Buddhists.

Sarah Malini Perera, who was born in Sri Lanka but has lived in Bahrain since 1985 and converted to Islam in 1999, was arrested last week under the country’s strict emergency laws, according to the police.

They declined to give precise details of the 38-year-old writer’s offence, but suggested that her books were deemed to have caused offence to ethnic Sinhalese Buddhists, who account for about 70 per cent of Sri Lanka’s 20 million people.

For the whole story, see: Author Sarah Malini Perera held ‘for offending Buddhists’ in Sri Lanka

The same piece mentions that the Sri Lankan government denied a visa to Muslim (yes Muslim) singer Akon because the video for his song Sexy Chick included images of video "vixens" dancing with a statue of the Buddha in the background. Part of the backlash included a crowd of over 200 angry rock-throwing Buddhists attacking the offices of Akon's concert promoters, damaging property and injuring a few individuals. You can find more details on that story here.

Both these stories, especially taken together, totally invert the usual narratives we are spoon-fed about religion and the tolerance/ sensitivity and peacefulness/ violence of Buddhism / Islam respectively. I'm a little surprised (but not really) that they didn't get more attention. A few more accounts like these and the dominant narrative would begin to crack. If members of a "good" religion like Buddhism can be pushed to violence when their sensitivities are threatened and if even Muslims can be victims of censorship and exclusion for acting on their conscience then who are the heroes and who are the villains?