Religious Mysticism: Hinduism and Islam

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This book attempts to present the subject of religious mysticism to both the technical student and the lay reader at one and the same time. The latter will find no annoyance, however, in details which appear for the former's sake. Transliterations are for the most part, in the forms used by authorities quoted. The spellings, Mohammed, Moslem, Koran, and a few others are retained, where possible, in their most familiar forms. The dates enumerated are of the Christian era, unless otherwise indicated.

S.K. ADLAKHA was born in 1977 in Himachal Pradesh. He earned the Master of Religion Studies from University of Punjab, and the Diploma in theology from British Columbia. He studied at Agra University in India, and he has also taught at the Department of Buddhist Studies of Calcutta University in India, and in other Asian universities. A contributor to religious and scholarly magazines, he is the author of various books on religion.

Hindu gods and goddesses are everywhere in India, hidden within gorgeous temples and small wayside shrines, depicted in intricate stone carvings, looking out benevolently from advertisements, calendar prints, and film posters, and captured on market stalls and in shop windows in jewellery and small sculptures. They are woven into the fabric of life in Indian villages and cities, and are now also to be found in Hindu communities from the Caribbean to North America and the UK, from South Africa to Thailand. They are much loved by all. The many places in which they appear and the multitude of forms they take indicate the diversity and richness of Hindu culture.

But Hinduism extends beyond culture into other spheres- into the social structure and social life of Hindus, ethical issues, and the politics of equality and nationalism. Contemporary Hinduism and its traditional stories, teachings, and rituals affect so many aspects of the lives of Indians in and beyond the subcontinent that we begin to wonder how to define it.

This introduction to Hinduism takes us into a consideration of these issues. It begins by raising the question of how different starting points influence the way we perceive and understand Hinduism. How far do the motives and conclusions of devotees and scholars differ, for example? In the following chapters we talk about the importance to Hindus and Islam traditions contained in their scriptures, of their initial revelation and subsequent transmission from generation to generation by priests, gurus, and storytellers.

Islam is essentially the lengthened shadow of one man. Mohammed founded it and his spirit dominates it still. He is the fountainhead of all the main Islamic currents which have grooved and moistened the soil of many lands. His word and his life are a court of perpetual appeal on the part of his followers throughout the earth.

We have not chosen to examine herein either the faith or the record of its development. Mohammed alone engages us. Nor is the whole of his life our present concern, but only an aspect and portion which seems not yet to be understood in full measure. Mohammed the mystic is a greater figure than we had dreamed. It is the mystical in Mohammed which is herein exhibited. If it be a convincing exposition we find in it not only new light on the Prophet himself but hitherto unsuspected cause for the endurance and adaptation of both the founder and the faith.

In any proper historical survey of Islam the mystical current is seen to loom large. Its source, however, has not plainly appeared in the view. Greek and Persian and Buddhist waters have joined the stream and swelled it, but it arose first of all out of the deserts of Arabia, not mirage, but a bubbling spring, a Mohammedan origin, the experience of the Prophet himself. We must, therefore, revise in this significant detail the geography of Moslem religion and ethics. This essay attempts to furnish ground and evidence for the revision. It may not be too much to say that progressive Moslems themselves, as they reinterpret their Prophet to the world of tomorrow, may find new values in the mystical elements within him.