Prohibitions in Islam and Buddhism
by Rit NosotroComparative Essay
Compare how the teachings of Mohammad have been interpreted to deal with abortion, homosexuality, birth control, death penalty, dietary restrictions, and environmental protection with interpretations of the more ancient teachings of Buddha or Confucius.
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Summary:
Utterances from the mouths of men are sometimes considered to be the very word of God. An example of this is seen through the Muslim faith which is based on the teachings of a single man, Mohammad. Similar in utterance is the religion of Buddhism which is founded on the teachings of Buddha. The Bible records that "no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke, being moved by the Holy Spirit" (1 Peter 1:21). What is to say one man's utterance is any more valid than another's "voice of god"?
Might an examination of the content of a man's teaching give insight as to its origin, whether human or divine? How might Mohammad and Buddha actually view issues such as abortion, homosexuality, birth control, death penalty, dietary restrictions, and environmental protection? Although these teachers lived about 1000 years apart, these issues span the ages. It is valuable to understand how the interpretations of these teachings continue to impact nation across the globe.
Abortion
One of the largest issues faced in today’s society is whether or not abortion
is right. Mohammad’s Koran has been interpreted to shed some light on
this issue for Muslims. Unless abortion is absolutely necessary, meaning the
mother’s life is at risk, abortion is forbidden in Islam.1
The Koran states, “Say: Come, I will rehearse what God has already prohibited
you from. Join nothing as equal with Him; be good to your parents; kill not
your children on a plea of poverty: we provide sustenance for you and for them;
approach not shameful deeds, whether open or secret; take not life, which God
has made sacred, except by way of justice and law.” (Chapter 6, Verse
151). It can not be overlooked that there is still the option if there remains
no other choice in which abortion is permissible. This is something that can
be easily twisted to line up with an individual’s personal opinion in
today’s society.
From the teachings of Buddha a much similar message about abortion is found. In an interview with a Buddhist monk, Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche the interpretations of Buddha’s teachings regarding abortion are given. First of all according to Rinpoche, “abortion is killing”, a shared view with the Christian community who hold to the Bible’s command “You shall not murder.” (Exodus 20:13)5. According to Buddha from the time of conception a baby is alive and Buddha teaches that killing is an immeasurable crime.2 However, like Islam there are those that have interpreted Buddha’s teaching against abortion to come down to circumstances. If the reasons are good enough for having an abortion, like preventing overpopulation, or the protection of the mother’s life, then sometimes abortion is seen as the “only” option.
Homosexuality
Not surprisingly, homosexuality is considered “haram”3
in Islam according to the understanding of Mohammad’s teachings. A verse
from the Koran that supports this would be “…Do you commit lewdness
such as no people in creation (ever) committed before you? For you practice
your lusts on men in preference to women; you are indeed a people transgressing
beyond bounds” (Sura 7:80-81). Clearly homosexuality is given no place
in Islam.1 This does not mean
that there are not those “secular” Muslims who would not be satisfied
with that sort of answer and who would try to find some other interpretation
for Mohammad’s teachings. However, it seems that in the case of homosexuality
Mohammad got it right, like the Bible teaches, God created “man and women”
not “man and man”.
In Buddha’s teachings he comments that one should think about the consequences of their actions, think how they would feel if they were the other person, and to always think about how a behavior would be beneficial in reaching Nirvana.4 It is interesting that the issue of homosexuality would be where Mohammad and Buddha seem to have had a different mindset. However, Buddha left a lot of room for there to be different interpretations to his views on homosexuality by not really giving any strong opinions. He never really refers to homosexuality directly, let alone whether it is permissible. Basically, it can be understood that unless the act of homosexuality counters of the three teachings listed above it is not forbidden. The concept here is that if it makes you happy and no one gets hurt then it is fine. Sadly, there is usually a lot more harm in homosexuality than people realize or are willing to accept.
Birth Control
Although it might be surprising to some that Mohammad actually would have any
thing to say about birth control some of his teachings have been interpreted
to deal with this issue. It is important to note that this issue has two opposing
views in Islam. There are those that say Islam allows birth control but then
there are those that say it does not.6
Both sides try to use the teachings of Mohammad to their advantage and it appears
that the side which supports birth control has a stronger argument. It is also
interesting to consider the fact that there have been writers throughout Islamic
history that have written about birth control, such as Al-Jahiz who wrote about
it in a book about the animal kingdom. Ibn Taimiya, a thirteenth century Hanbali
theologian supported the doctrine that said ‘no matter how you try to
prevent conception, if God has decide that a child will be conceived, scheming
human beings are powerless to thwart His designs.”6
Those that support birth control claim that even Mohammad’s career actions
justify birth control, in reference to a time when he told his men to practice
birth control with some women they had captured. However, those that claim it
is against Islam also refer to different teachings of Mohammad to support their
claim. It would seem that in this area it is hard to know what Mohammad actually
taught but as is often the case, “actions speak louder than words”.
Buddha gives each individual the freedom to make their own decisions throughout his teachings. He only claims to offer “advice” that can help an individual in reaching Nirvana. Since there is no killing involved in birth control, it being only a preventative measure there is really nothing Buddhists can oppose about it.7 From all of Buddha’s teachings there can be seen no reason why Buddhists should not practice both ancient and modern forms of birth control. This issue seems rather a small matter compared to the debate which surrounds it in the Muslim world.
Death Penalty
Due to the common perception of Muslims to be “terrorists” it would
be expected that the death penalty be something that they would support. According
to international debaters “Islam favors capital punishment’. However
true this may be it is interesting to see what Mohammad’s teachings’
actually say about the death penalty. From his teachings it is seen that killing
is allowed only when a court of law demands it which is stated in the Koran,
“Do not kill a Soul which Allah has made sacred except through due process
of law.”.8 Islamic law,
which comes from Mohammad’s own teachings, condones capital punishment.
However, today conservative Islamic states would like to change the view of
West on Muslims and would therefore like to get rid of capital punishment in
Islamic states. They have even used different religious arguments to support
their positions.9 It is interesting
to note that the Bible actually contains the first institution of capital punishment
(Genesis 9:5-6)13. Another interesting thing is that today some Islamic countries
are actually allowing there to be flexibility with some Islamic Laws. However,
at this time it seems that capital punishment is not one of those.
Peace and the preservation of life flow out from Buddha’s teachings. The
center of his teaching is the quest of moral and spiritual improvement. With
the right to life being the very first precept of the five precepts Buddha teaches
it is not surprising that the death penalty would be considered repugnant to
Buddhists. Taking life is seen as the worst possible thing a person could do,
no matter what the circumstances. Dhammapada provides some insight into the
attitudes of Buddhist towards life, “life is dear to every living being”.9
Punishment is something that should not be punitive but something that can provide
for there to be change in a person. There is nothing within Buddha’s teachings
that could support the thought of capital punishment which is the taking of
life, even for a crime.
Dietary Restrictions
With Islam comes certain dietary restrictions that were supposedly “revealed”
to Mohammad and have been included in his teachings for centuries. There are
two words that are important to understand when it comes to Islamic dietary
restrictions, one is “halaal” which means permissible, and the other
is “haraam” which means forbidden.11
There are a few things that Muslims consider the consumption of “haraam”
those are blood, pork, bacon, ham, mixing fish and dairy products, and alcohol.12
Despite the fact that these are forbidden it is interesting to hear about some
Muslims who chose to drink alcohol occasionally which even in the Bible is not
strictly forbidden, it says not to “become drunk on wine”13.
Mohammad created these dietary restrictions for Muslims to follow, so that they
could continue to be supposedly “higher” than non-believers.
Often it is mistakenly assumed that Buddha came and taught that all Buddhists should be vegetarians. This is not the case, in fact Buddha himself was not a vegetarian!14 Even today not all Buddhists are vegetarians. There are certain aspects to being a vegetarian that simply go along with Buddha’s teachings. For instance Buddha’s teachings emphasized not killing any living creature, since eating meat clearly involves some type of killing going on, Buddhists often avoid eating meat. Buddha did actually prohibit the eating of meat that was killed specifically to benefit the monks.14 The main reason that Buddhists are vegetarians today is because they have a desire to “cultivate compassion” which does not exist with killing. They feel that, “Eating meat encourages an industry that causes cruelty and death to millions of animals and a truly compassionate person would wish to mitigate all this suffering”.14 Over time many Buddhists have become uncomfortable with eating meat, so many do not which is why the belief that Buddhists are vegetarian is held by so many.
Environmental Protection
The final issue to compare Mohammad’s teachings with Buddha’s teachings
is that of environmental protection. How important is the world and what is
in it to Mohammad? Well, take for example the number of times that the word
“earth” appears in the Koran, no less than 485 times. This should
give some indication to its importance. Mohammad once said that “For charity
shown to each creature w a wet heart, there is a reward”.15
His teachings show that he believed in taking care of the earth and the creatures
in it. The importance of avoiding air contamination is seen through the fact
that air is considered to be property of Allah.15
Something Mohammad encouraged his followers not to do was to keep disorder out
of the world which supposedly comes with pollution and other contaminates. God
created Adam to take care of the earth in the Bible (Genesis 1:26)16
and Mohammad taught that individuals had a responsibility to take care of the
earth that they were in.
There is nothing surprising about the fact that Buddhism puts a lot of focus on nature and the protection of the environment. All of Buddha’s major monasteries where he taught were always gardens or woods.17 Buddha taught that animals should be loved and cared for. He also believed that people were not supposed to harm grass or trees but see them as a home. He had a rather worshipful view of nature and saw it as a sort of “god”, something the Bible clearly teaches against (Exodus 20:3).18 Buddha preached the “leading of a contented life with few desires”17 and he would not have been a supporter of all the industries that have sprung up over the ages. If Buddha were alive today he would be on the front lines with Greenpeace fighting against environmental waste and other such issues.
Commentary:
Some might find it that two very different men, from very different times, could
have teachings with so many similarities. However, there were differences between
them regarding things to do with the death penalty and homosexuality. One thing
that they share is that people are still following their teachings. In this
day and age it is easy for their “teachings” to be twisted so that
they fit an individual’s personal agenda. An important thing to remember
is that Mohammad and Buddha were simply men, who had ideas, spoke them out,
and gained followers. It shows that people are out there looking for the “truth”
and often they are finding the words of men which will not satisfy a void that
only the Truth of God’s Word can fill!
Quick Quiz:
Endnotes
up1The Revival On-Line: Issue
1, Voice of the Muslim Youth, "Islam for the 21st Century Dude!"
www.therevival.com
up2 http://www.kagyu.org/buddhism/int/intqa.html
up4 “Homosexuality and
Sexual Misconduct”
http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywod/5738/guw-010.htm
up5 “You shall not murder”
(Exodus 20:13)
The Christian Growth Study Bible, New International Version ®
Copyright © 1997 by The Zondervan Corporation
All Rights Reserved.
up6 http://www.bharatvani.org/books/demogislam/part4.html
up7 What Buddhists Believe
Marriage, Birth Control and Death
http://www.tipitaka.net/ebooks/pageload.php?book=0004&page=12
up8 “Islam and the Death
Penalty” by William Schabas
http://pewforum.org/deathpenalty/resources/reader/15.php3
up9 http://members.magnet.at/ai.dornbrin/re-dp.htm#buddha
up10 “Do not get drunk
on wine, which leads to debaucher. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.”
Ephesians 5:18
The Christian Growth Study Bible, New International Version ®
Copyright © 1997 by The Zondervan Corporation
All Rights Reserved.
up11 Wisdom Behind Dietary
Restrictions in Islam
http://discover.islamway.com/articles.php?article_id=39&lang-1
up12 http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/English_Literature/religion/islam.htm
up13 “And for your
lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from
every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an account for the life
of his fellow man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be
shed; for in the image of God has God made man.” (Genesis 9:5-6)
The Christian Growth Study Bible, New International Version ®
Copyright © 1997 by The Zondervan Corporation
All Rights Reserved.
up14 Buddhism and Vegetarianism
http://www.urbanharma.org/udharma3/vegi.html
up15 “Islam and the
Environment” by Gar Smith
http://www.earthisland.org/eijournal/new_articles.cfm?articleID=578&journalID=64
up16 “Then God said,
“Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over
the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the
earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” (Genesis
1:26)
The Christian Growth Study Bible, New International Version ®
Copyright © 1997 by The Zondervan Corporation
All Rights Reserved.
up17 “Environmental
Protection” by Ven. Sheng-yen
http://www.sinc.sunysb.edu/Clubs/buddhism/dailylife/environment.html
up18 “You shall have
no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:3)
The Christian Growth Study Bible, New International Version ®
Copyright © 1997 by The Zondervan Corporation
All Rights Reserved.
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