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BUDDHISM: AN IDOLATROUS RELIGION
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The statues of Buddha right and below are
very important to Buddhists' pagan beliefs. This perverse religion
leads people to accept the incredible idea that these statues can
do them some good.
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 About
2500 years ago, Buddhism arose in northeast India and, in time, extended
its influence throughout Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Kampuchea,
China, Japan, Tibet, Mongolia, Manchuria, Korea, and Nepal. Today, it
has about 330 million followers.
Definitions of Buddhism have always varied, along with how Buddhists understand
life's meaning. For some, Buddhism is a religion; others regard it as
a sect or school of philosophy. But from its view of life and all its
practices, it is ultimately clear that the doctrine of Buddhism is idolatrous
and superstitious. Since Buddhism is an atheist religion that lacks any
belief in God, it also rejects the existence of angels, the eternal afterlife,
Hell, and the Day of Judgment.
Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, was born in the Indian city
of Kapilavastu and lived between 563 and 483 B.C. At this time, India's
dominant religion was Brahmanism, the religion of Aryan invaders. According
to the Aryans' rigid and unbreachable caste system, all of society was
divided into four groups, each of which in turn was divided into sub castes.
Brahman priests formed the very highest segment of society and they pitilessly
oppressed the people of lesser status.
Gautama was born the son of a wealthy prince by the name of Suddhodana,
in the noble Sakya family. After spending his youth in comfort and ease,
Gautama left the palace at the age of 29 and began a mystic search that
lasted until his death at the age of 80. During his lifetime, he established
certain principles that over the course of time, evolved into the doctrine
we now call Buddhism.
The word Buddha means "the awakened, or enlightened one," signifying
the spiritual heights that Siddhartha Gautama is supposed to have attained.
Those Buddhist teachings and texts that have come down to us do not date
from the period in which he lived, but were written down between 300 and
400 years after his death. In the following pages of this book, we will
examine these texts in detail and we will see that they contain false
beliefs, practices that go beyond all logic and present Buddha perversely
as an idol to be worshipped.
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The Yun-kang Caves in southern China date
from the 5th century. (Right)
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Left: An idol of Chenresig that Tibetan Buddhists
called the "Protector of Tibet." With eleven heads and several arms,
Chenresig has several names in Tibetan Buddhist tradition. But no
intelligent person could ever believe the nonsense that a statue
made of wood or stone could have any strength or power.
Right : The Potala Palace in the Lhasa River valley, containing
the tombs of former Dalai Lamas, is the largest building in Tibet.
Tibetan Buddhists today bow in front of this palace and show it
great reverence, indicating how they have deified their Dalai Lama.
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(Left) One of the giant statues Buddhists
built in Katmandu to express their perverse beliefs.
(Right) The Vat Ong Teu temple in Vientiane, Laos. This temple's
institute undertakes to spread Buddhism's perverse, mind-darkening
beliefs whose practice lead peoples into laziness and indolence.
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Those Who Associate Buddha with God
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" . . . Those who do not believe follow falsehood, whereas those
who believe follow the truth from their Lord."
(Qur'an 47:3)
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In its basic beliefs, philosophy and practices, this religion is idolatrous.
Buddhists hold Buddha in a heightened sense of love, deep respect and
fear, even accepting him as a god.
Although we have no documents from Buddha's time that suggest that he
urged his followers to worship him; the Brahmans-who were already worshipping
idols-quickly began to make statues of Siddhartha. And in time, those
who nurtured an excessive love towards Buddha came to worship these idols
and consider him a god.
However, all religions based on God's revelations adhere to a monotheistic
faith that recognizes Him as single and unique. In the Qur'an (22: 34),
God states, "Your God is One God, so submit to Him."
To deny the supremacy of God and worship the idols of an ordinary person,
as the Buddhists do, is described in the Qur'an as to "associate something
with God." In hundreds of places in the Qur'an, God reminds us that this
"association" is a very serious sin. For example:
God does not forgive anything being associated
with Him, but He forgives whoever He wills for anything other than that.
Anyone who associates something with God has committed a terrible crime.
(Qur'an, 4: 48)
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A Hindu woman in the Shravanbelagola region
of India, erroneously praying for help from the monolithic statue
of Gomateshwara.
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The word "associate," or shirk, means partnership. The Qur'an uses it
in the sense of associating His creatures with Him, as in treating any
thing, person, or any idea as equal to or higher than God. The idolater
reveres whatever image, relic, or object that he associates with God more
highly than he does God Himself, directing toward it all his love and
respect, interest and adoration. The Qur'an (15:96;17: 39; 51: 51) refers
to this perverse way of thinking as "setting up another god together with
God."
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Above: The Amida Buddha is one of the Buddhas
that symbolizes limitless light, according to the superstitious
Buddhist belief. This Buddha alone is enough to show how ignorant
a religion Buddhism is.
Left: A Japanese statue of the Buddhist deity called Avalokiteshvara.
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The Islamic religion is based on the belief in the oneness of God (tawhid).
God often repeats the phrase La ilahe illahu ("there is no other God but
He"), which is the first condition of faith. Therefore, the most basic
meaning of shirk is deviating from this truth into the mistaken idea that
there are other beings besides God who possess "power and might." In the
Qur'an, our Lord makes Himself known by describing His attributes and
tells us in many verses in the Qur'an that there is no other god but He.
In verse 59: 22-24, God reveals His sublime names in these words:
He is God-there is no god but Him. He is the Knower
of the Unseen and the Visible. He is the All-Merciful, the Most Merciful.
He
is God-there is no god but Him. He is the King, the Most Pure, the Perfect
Peace, the Trustworthy, the Safeguarder, the Almighty, the Compeller,
the Supremely Great. Glory be to God above all they associate with Him.
He is God-the Creator, the Maker, the Giver of
Form. To Him belong the Most Beautiful Names. Everything in the heavens
and earth glorifies Him. He is the Almighty, the All-Wise.
God manifests His attributes for human beings to perceive. For example,
He has endless mercy and manifests His attribute as the "Merciful" in
human beings. His qualities can be seen in those people, although they
do not enjoy these qualities as a result of their own efforts or merits.
By themselves, no other beings can possess or create the attributes of
God. To assert that they do have this ability is to "set up another god
together with God." Like Buddhists, they make the mistake of associating
His creatures with God, attributing some of His qualities to other, lesser
beings.
For example, God is All-Seeing and knows "what is even more concealed."
When someone acts in secret, with no one around, believing that no one
sees him, our Lord does see him and knows everything that he does. He
sees and knows every event that happens in the universe, down to its smallest
details, because He is the One God Who created them all. In the Qur'an
(6: 103), God affirms that, "Eyesight cannot perceive
Him, but He perceives eyesight. He is the All-Penetrating, the All-Aware."
Wherever a person is, it's absolutely true that God is with him. God
knows what you're thinking at this very moment, as you're reading these
words. God tells us that He sees us wherever we are:
You do not engage in any matter or recite any of
the Qur'an or do any action without Our witnessing you while you are occupied
with it. Not even the smallest speck eludes your Lord, either on earth
or in heaven. Nor is there anything smaller than that, or larger, which
is not in a Clear Book. (Qur'an, 10: 61)
It is He Who created the heavens and the earth
in six days, then established Himself firmly on the Throne. He knows what
goes into the earth and what comes out of it, what comes down from heaven
and what goes up into it. He is with you wherever you are-God sees what
you do. (Qur'an, 57: 4)
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(Right) Buddhist life is full of superstitious
rituals. During the New Year festival in Tibet, for example, Buddhists
hang on the branches of trees pieces of material with prayers written
on them and throw confetti into the air.
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This point reveals Buddhists' idolatrous understanding, as do many others.
Buddha's followers regard him as all-seeing and all-knowing. The proliferation
of statues of Buddha in countries where it is the dominant religion, and
the eyes of Buddha painted on every temple all bear witness to Buddhists'
deviant belief that Buddha sees them at every moment with his eyes made
of stone or wood, and hears them with his wooden ears. For this reason,
they fill their houses with his statues, in front of which they perform
acts of reverence.
In this, they are acting contrary to intelligence and committing a grave
sin. In the Qur'an (7: 195), God tells us that people who associate others
with God are greatly deceived; and that whatever things they have made
into gos have no power over anything: "Do they have
legs they can walk with? Do they have hands they can grasp with? Do they
have eyes they can see with? Do they have ears they can hear with?" Never
forget, "idolatry" does not mean only the worship of material idols. Anyone
who honors another person for his possessions, thinking that they belong
to him and derive from some power of his own, deifies that person, not
realizing that these transient objects are a test that God has posed for
him. As God warns in the Qur'an (2: 165):
Among the people are those who take other
than God as equals [to Him], loving them as they should love God. But
those who believe have greater love for God. If only you could see those
who do wrong at the time when they see the punishment, and that truly
all strength belongs to God, and that God is severe in punishment.
Buddha was a powerless servant whom God created and tested in this world;
he had no ability or will of his own to influence people. It was by God's
will that he spoke, and he lived the life that God gave him, according
to the fate that God had determined. Abraham's (peace be upon him) prayer
in the Qur'an (26: 78-82) expresses most clearly the helplessness of human
beings before God's absolute might:
He Who created me and guides me;
He Who gives me food and gives me drink; and when I am ill, it is He Who
heals me; He Who will cause my death, then give me life; He Who I sincerely
hope will forgive my mistakes on the Day of Reckoning.
Buddha lived the fate that God had ordained for him, and when
his time came, he died. It must not be forgotten that apart from God's
will, no one can have faith; it is God Who guides human beings. Unless
God wills it, no one can guide another to the right path. Again, it is
God Who guides people toward truth and beauty. Invitations and communications
influence the human heart only insofar as God wills it. Indeed, He is
the only absolute power that must be magnified, adored and entreated for
help. As God announced this truth in the Qur'an (22: 74):
"They do not measure God according to His true power. God is All-Strong,
Almighty."
The Qur'an gives a number of examples of people who worship idols. As
just one example, the polytheist people of Abraham carved representations
of their gods, worshipped them, and listened to their calls. In the Qur'an
(21: 52-53), our Lord relates: "When he [Abraham]
said to his father and his people, 'What are these statues you are clinging
to?' they said, 'We found our fathers worshipping them.' "
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There are 300 different figures of Buddha
in the Wat Saket Monastery in Laos. Buddhists cannot measure God
according to His true power and openly deify Buddha. They disregard
God, Creator of heaven and earth, and prefer to pray to a human
being with no power to help even himself, hoping to receive some
benefit from his statues.
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As these verses show, human beings have adopted this kind of worship
as an inheritance that their ancestors have passed down to them. Thus
idol worship, no matter how illogical, can be a kind of social activity
remembered from childhood and not regarded as strange, even in the most
modern societies.
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The New Year Festival in Nechung monastery
in Tibet is celebrated with superstitious, irrational ceremonies.
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In the Qur'an (27: 24-25), God says that the people of Sheba (Saba')
were idolaters, just like the people of Abraham:
I found both her [the Queen of Sheba] and her people
prostrating to the sun instead of God. Satan has made their actions seem
good to them and debarred them from the Way so they are not guided and
do not prostrate to God, Who brings out what is hidden in the heavens
and the earth, and knows what you conceal and what you divulge.
These verses draw our attention to another important point: that Satan
has made idolatrous religions seem valid and meaningful to people, to
bar them from God's Way. Satan knows, for example, that the sun is not
a god to be worshipped; but a creation of God like all the rest of the
universe. In other words, every idolatrous religion that opposes God's
revelation is actually based on the revelations of Satan, who does this
so that men and women will not prostrate themselves before God.
Another example of idolatry that God gives In the Qur'an concerns the
Children of Israel. While they were escaping Pharaoh and his people with
Moses (peace be upon him), they met a people that worshipped idols and
they wanted Moses to make them a similar idol. In the Qur'an (7: 138-139),
God tells about this:
We conveyed the tribe of Israel across the sea,
and they came upon some people who were devoting themselves to some idols
that they had. They said, "Moses, give us a god just as these people have
gods." He said, "You are indeed an ignorant people. What these people
are doing is destined for destruction. What they are doing is purposeless."
From this account, we see that the Children of Israel, acting in ignorance,
wanted a god they could see with their eyes, before which they could bow
down and perhaps perform elaborate ceremonies. This indicates they did
not conceive of, much less appreciate, God's might. Although Moses explained
the truth to them, as soon as he left them, they made themselves an idol-a
great perversion. In the Qur'an (7: 148-149), God tells us that immediately
after, regret overcame them:
After he left, Moses's people adopted a calf made
from their ornaments, a form which made a lowing sound. Did they not see
that it could not speak to them or guide them to any way? They adopted
it, and so they were wrongdoers.
When they took full stock of what they had done
and saw they had been misled, they said, "If our Lord does not have mercy
on us and forgive us, we will certainly be among the lost."
But to those who had made the calf into a god, God gave this answer (Qur'an,
7: 152):
As for those who adopted the Calf, anger from their Lord will
overtake them together with abasement in the life of this world. That
is how we repay the purveyors of falsehood. The above verses
show that if God wills, He can forgive or punish those who associate His
creatures with Him. Those who do so are actually fabricating falsehood,
since the evident truth is that there is only one God. To bow before these
invented gods is a terrible crime against God. As stated in the Qur'an
(4: 48), God may forgive those who commit every other sin and error, but
never one who associates His creatures with Him:
God does not forgive anything being associated
with Him but He forgives whoever He wills for anything other than that.
Anyone who associates something with God has committed a terrible crime.
There is No Deity Except God
The basis of Islam is the knowledge that God exists, and the understanding
that there is no god but Him. In the Qur'an, the divine source of Islam,
God tells us (2: 163) that this is the greatest foundation of religion:
"Your God is God Alone. There is no deity except
Him, the All-Merciful, the Most Merciful."
Indeed, there is only one Absolute Being, and everything else is
His creation. God made the universe we live in and, before He created
it, no material thing existed. Nothing, animate or inanimate, had been
brought into existence; there was nothing but a complete void. The moment
the universe was created, only then did time, space and matter come into
being, created by the Eternal God Who is not subject to any of them. In
one verse (2: 117) of the Qur'an, God speaks of Himself as the flawless
Creator of the universe:
[He is] The Originator of the heavens and earth. When He decides on something,
He just says to it, "Be!" and it is.
God creates everything that is happening at this moment, and every moment.
God constantly creates every rain drop that falls, every child who is
born, the photosynthesis occurring in leaves, the functions of living
bodies, the courses of the stars in their galaxies, every seed that sprouts,
all we know and everything we do not. Everything in the universe, great
and small, functions according to His command (Qur'an, 27: 64):
He Who originates creation and then regenerates
it and provides for you from out of heaven and earth. Is there another
god besides God? Say: "Bring your proof if you are being truthful."
From the cells of living things to the stars in the universe, all systems
exist in wonderful order and function perfectly. This amazing order, controlled
at every moment, continues in perfect harmony because our Lord embraces
all existing things with His eternal knowledge (Qur'an, 67: 3-4):
He created the seven heavens in layers. You will not find any flaw in
the creation of the All-Merciful. Look again-do you see any gaps? Then
look again and again. Your sight will return to you dazzled and exhausted!
To reject God as Creator and to attribute consciousness to any of the
objects He has created shows a great lack of intelligence. The wonderful
order in the universe and the flawless design in all living things show
us that one Creator created them all. In one verse (23: 91), God announced
that there is no other god besides Him, and that no other existing thing
in the universe possesses power, apart from Him:
God has no son, and there is no other god accompanying
Him, for then each god would have gone off with what He created, and one
of them would have been exalted above the other. Glory be to God above
what they describe.
God is everywhere and encompasses all things. He is the one true, absolute
Being, and all things obey His will. God is in every moment and in every
place. There is no place where He is not; no living thing exists that
is beyond His control. He is All-sufficient and free from all weakness
(Qur'an, 2: 255):
God, there is no god but Him, the
Living, the Self-Sustaining. He is not subject to drowsiness or sleep.
Everything in the heavens and the earth belongs to Him. Who can intercede
with Him except by His permission? He knows what is before them and what
is behind them but they cannot grasp any of His knowledge save what He
wills. His Footstool encompasses the heavens and the earth and their preservation
does not tire Him. He is the Most High, the Magnificent.
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