Let’s begin with greetings.
All religious greetings express the same wisdom; wishing you to be blessed,
soaked and drenched in peace, so we can talk and act peace. Amen!Peace, Shalom, Salaam, Satsriakaal, Namaste, Alaabho, Hamzor hama ashobed, and all other greetings are ways of acknowledging the stranger and seeking to build relationships. Its how all religions evolved in building the elusive kingdom of heaven, where no one has to live in fear of the other.
About Conversions
I honor your beliefs, and hope you honor my beliefs. It is dead wrong for you or I to believe that the other one is wrong, and that is sheer arrogance and goes against the key principle of religion, every religion; humility.
Every word I am writing below, will be in Bible and is in Quraan and sure will be there in all holy books. Eeach one of my statements below has origins in Quraan and my fellow Muslims can quote the verses. This is what most Muslims subscribe to, but may not have expressed in this fashion.
Religion is not mathematics or physics to be clearly wrong or right, it is rather a belief, a leap of faith that has no rhyme or reason, and as such neither you, nor I can be wrong. All are right in our own beliefs, there is no need for any one to be wrong. The evil surfaces when we erroneously and arrogantly believe that the other one is wrong, and we compound the error by pushing our beliefs onto the others. People should be free to believe as long as they are not robbing you, hurting you or being unjust to you. There should not be any compulsion to convert, what is the need?
Life is a celebration, and gratitude is the capstone.
Birth is a celebration, growing up is, graduation is, getting a job is, marriage is…. praying in church, mosque, synagogue, temples and altars is celebration of creator’s glory.
An atheist, pagan or native traditionalist appreciating the nature is celebration of the causer of the universe without giving a name, face or ascribing divinity to it.
An atheist, pagan or native traditionalist appreciating the nature is celebration of the causer of the universe without giving a name, face or ascribing divinity to it.
Father’s day, Mothers day, Anniversaries, Rakhi are all expressions of gratitude.
One should be grateful every moment and to everyone who has done whatever little to enhance other’s and one’s own life.
Life will remain incomplete without expressing gratitude… it is a powerful emotional release that gives you peace of mind, the other components are justice, repentance, forgiveness…
God does not want homogeneity
God does not want his creation to be exactly allike; he would have created if that was the case, he can do anything, after all he is the creator.
God created each one of us to be different intentionally, each one with his/her own thumb print, eye print, DNA… no two humans are alike…no two snowflakes are like… isn’t that God’s will?
God will not allow:
You may not like this, and most religious folks who are not “free” will not like this, but do think about it. Some of my Muslim friends may not see Islam in terms of freedom; it released slaves, women, egos and others from bondage…including my god v your god… and moving on to a common denominator God.
God will not allow the entire world to be Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Jew, Buddhist or the other. It’s tough to swallow, but if we get off the delusional world, we can see it.
Jesus, Muhammad, Krishna, Moses or Buddha will reach out to a segment of the population, but never the whole population. What we believe is simply belief, facts are otherwise.
A few Christians, Muslims and others live in the dream world that one day every one would be a Christian or Muslim. Indeed that is likely, if being Christian, Hindu, Muslim or a Jew means a good human being that treats every human being with respect and dignity, but if it means political Christianity, Islam, Judaism or Hinduism, it will not happen.
Because it goes against God’s will
I pray that God give us all the humility to respect each other and their opinions.
Mike Ghouse is committed to building a Cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. He is a professional speaker, thinker and a writer onpluralism, politics, civic affairs, Islam, India, Israel, peace and justice. Mike is a frequent guest on Sean Hannity show on Fox TV, and a commentator on national radio networks, he contributes weekly to the Texas Faith Column at Dallas Morning News and regularly at Huffington post, and several other periodicals across the world. The blog www.TheGhousediary.com is updated daily.