Comparative Religion vs Interfaith Dialogue

Assalamualaikum and a very good day to all. It's my pleasure to write this topic in english, so that our brothers & sisters from international community as well as the non-muslim can read it too.

Generally our people don't have interest in this field. In the context of our country Malaysia, discussing religion or someone's faith is considered sensitive and offensive. So, should I continue writing?hehe...Yes I should. But before I go futher into this subject, let me make some points clear.firstly, we live in a multi-racial country malaysia, consisiting of various tribes and races. Religions such as Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism are embraced by our Malaysian people. Malaysia in general, the issue of faith is not been discuss so publicly as it may cause insensitiveness or even bloody riot. You can be jailed under ISA (internal security act) if you caught igniting such issue.

God Almighty (Allah) has already commanded us, the muslim to have dialogue with the non muslim about faith. He says in Surah Al Imran chap 3: verse 64;

Say: "O People of the Book! come to common terms as between us and you: That we worship none but Allah. that we associate no partners with him; that we erect not, from among ourselves, Lords and patrons other than Allah." If then they turn back, say ye: "Bear witness that we (at least) are Muslims (bowing to Allah.s Will).

In this verse, such a beatiful term is used to address the Christian and the Jew. Allah asks us to have dialogue with them by the same platforms which are;

1. worship the same Lord or God
2. do not associate Him with something else
3. do not erect any lord from among creatures
   

Religion falls under two categories, semitic- religion (Islam,Christianity and Judaism) and non-semitic religion (hinduism,buddhism,sikhism). There are similarities among religions of the world. The aramaic religion which are based on the scripture also have similarities. such as the believe in Prophethood, the Unity Of God, etc (based on the Book)

In the Quran, Surah Al Imran Chap 112: 1 Allah says:
"Say He is Allah the One and Only"

In the Gospel of Mark chap 12: 28-29
"And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all?
And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord"

In the book of Isaiah, Ch.No. 46, V.No 9, it says…
‘I am Lord, and there is none else - I am God, and there is nothing like Me’




So, what makes us different with other people? why should we end up having different religion?
if we believe that there is only One God, why should we have come to different religion? A logical mind says that since there is only One God, there should be also one religion to unite all human being (not like today, various religion).

Some people ask the question " Do muslim worship different God as the Christian or vice versa?"
the answer is we, wether muslim or non-muslim we worship the same and the only God which is Allah SWT. but we are differ in concept and differ in point of view.

That's why interfaith dialogue is essential in order to know what are those points of view. The muslim (like me) want to know what does the Christian really believes, so does them . They also want to know what the muslim really believe in.When discussion is organised, a better understanding will prevail. And we will see where the truth really lies. At the same time, we muslim can remove misconceptions that the non-muslim have about Islam.

So I really hope that we open our eyes to this issue. I am looking forward for any discussion of faith. But bear in mind, that it should be a discussion, not to insult other's belief. In Islam, we cannot insult the believe of other religion. We must respect others as we would like to be respected.

Please leave some comments.