Nanak defined, Musalman in beautiful and meaningful words rising above a vain discrimination between a Hindu and a Musalman.
Guru Nanak declared, “There is no Hindu and no Musalman”, whereupon he was called upon to explain what he meant. Here, he defined a Musalman as below:
“To be a Musalman is difficult; if one be really so, then one may be called a Musalman.
Let one first love the religion of Prophet and pirs and rub off his heart pride and and pelf as the file removeth rust. Let him accept the religion of his preceptors and dismiss anxiety regarding life or death; Let him heartily obey the will of God, worship the Creator and efface himself. When he is compassionate to all alike, says Nanak, he shall indeed bea Musal” man”. He told Mian Mitha, a Muslim darvesh: “Act according to the Quran and thy sacred books”.
One may agree with Estlin Carpenter who said: “The movement of Nanak, which culminated in the formation of a church nation, was fed from two sources, and attempted to establish a religion combining the higher elements of Hinduism and Islam alike”, (Theisim in Medieval India p. 489).
It is interesting to note that to explain his creed and philosophy, Nanak freely borrowed words from Hindu and Muslim phraseology alike. May be that these words had got common currency by that time or may be that they suited his synthesis better. He expressed himself in common imagery, homely metaphor and religious symbols drawn indifferently or thoughtfully from Hindu and Muslim beliefs.
His close association with Muslim fairs, saints and divines, his tours through Muslim countries like Afghanistan, Persia, Arabia, Iraq, Turkestan, Syria, Egypt, Sudan, etc., must have imprinted his liberal mind with Muslim ideology and phraseology which is a natural result of such an intercourse.
Some form of poetry e.g. Siharfi and Baramah as used by the Sikh Gurus and even incorporated in the holiest book of the Sikhs, are explicit examples of the tremendous Persian influence upon the Sikhs. In the Rag As a, Rag Tilang and other ragas, we find a queer and dexterous combination of Muslim and indigenous musical construction and execution.
Nanak’s staunch belief in, and his teaching of unity of Godhood; universal brotherhood of mankind; high value of the Divine Name; need of a guru; and a code of morality is a clear manifestation of his support to and for Islam. Guru Nanak, like Prophet Mohammad, was quite realistic in this respect. Prophet Mohammad’s religion was eclectic but real. Nanakism too is eclecticcumreal. To explain his viewpoint to his hearers belonging to various creeds, both Hindus and Muslims, with whom he had to debate or come in contact for religious preaching and discourses, Guru Nanak had to employ words, phrases, ideas and terminology very frequently from Islam and Hinduism both, just as was done by Prophet Mohammad from the Christians, Zorostrians and the pagans.
It is again an interesting phenomena to note that both the Prophets were essentially preachers than theologians. Both were not scholarly academicians, Prophet.
Mohammad is said to be an illiterate person yet the Quaran revealed to him can be called as one of the finest pieces of literature. It is the backbone of the Islamic cult since Kalam (rational theology) and tasawwuf (mystical knowledge) were added to this cult in later time. Nanak too did not get any standard schooling. Yet his works are nothing less than a miracle. Both emphasized, effectively the need and value of ethics, good actions, virtuous deeds, belief in one God and His bounty, prayer, devotion, charity, self-purification, faithfulness, and triumph of the righteousness, without condemning the realities, physical necessities and requirements of life in the world.
According to the Sikh Gurus, the Master can be served best by the cultivation of virtue and renunciation of evil. They advised, “In the world we should live to serve: then do we find a seat in his Court” (Sri Rag, 1). Again, “That heart is the paper, conduct the ink, good and bad are both recorded therewith. Man’s life is as his acts constrain him. As a man soweth, so shall he eat” (Rag Suhi). “Forsake vice and pursue virtue, abandon covetousness and slander. Forswear falsehood and thou shalt obtain the true print through the Gurv’s instruction (Rag Sorath).
In other words, Jman (faith) and amali saleh (good deeds), the two pointers in Islam appear to be the cardinal points in Sikhism too. Hence both became the religions of the masses—easy to understand, easy to accept and easy to practice.
Hinduism mainly stresses upon spiritualism. But Islam and Sikhism both strike the happiest mean between materialism and spiritualism enjoining the followers to keep due sense of proportion. Islam sounds strongly la rohbaniat ah fi’lIslam (i.e. there is no renunciation of the world in Islam). It enjoins upon its adherents to keep akhirah (end) constantly in view. Again, Prophet Mohammad exhorted, “The best of you is he who does not forgo this world for the next or forgo the next world for this. The best of you is he who takes from this and that”. Islam did not enjoin upon celibacy or seclusion as a recluse. Prophet Mohammad said. “Marriage is of my ways, he who goes against my ways is not from Me”. It is exactly that Nanak preached. He never advocated renunciation of the world but denounced only the evils of too much worldliness. After his travels, he himself settled at Kartarpur, with his family, leading a domestic life and tilling his fields during the last years of his life, since dignity of Labour was highly maintained in the creed of Guru Nanak, whose followers have, ever since, shirked no Labour. The Guru said, “They alone who eat the fruit of their own Labour and share it with others, recognize the right path”. Islam too enjoins upon mankind the dignity of Labour “la sayya lilinsan illa masha Allah (i.e. for man there is nothing but what he strives for). Islam is as unique as Sikhism, amongst religions in general, in its appreciation of man’s nature, — physical needs being recognized as good as the spiritual needs. This fact counted a lot for the continuous silent ascendancy of the followers of both these creeds.
According to both, Sikhism and Islam, the nature of life in this world disagreed with asceticism and torment of body. Nanak says, “The body is the place, the temple and the house of God. Into it He putteth His eternal Light”. Again he says: “So nourish the body that you may serve the Lord”. Prophet Mohammad goes to the extent of saying that he was required by God Himself not to go to the extent of torment in his active zeal and devotion to the mission. Again, the message says, “O children of Adam look to your adomment at every place of worship. Eat and drink but be not prodigals. Lo He loveth not the prodigal (431). The Quran dircts: “fa kullu bema, yuzakki kum howa halalum, tayyabun (i.e. Eat and drink that which is good and clean (V.4). Guru Nanak too enjoined: “hor khana khusi khuar jit khade tanpirie man mahin chale vikar” ie. Mohammad in their cosmic concepts. The Quranic belief of the Muslims was in seven firmaments and fourteen regions, but Nanak declared that there were innumerable earths and each with intelligent beings. The point is stated to have been elaborately discussed in the dialogue between PiriDastgir of Baghdad and Guru Nanak when the latter visited Baghdad during his itinerary to Mecca and Medina. Nanak believed that there was a universe and in each universe or galaxy there were innumerable planets or earths like ours with living beings in many of them and that the moral, political and spiritual evolution, of the living beings there, was progressing through a succession of prophets, saviour, saints and sages and that the goal of all of them was the same. According to Nanak, there were hundreds of thousands of nether and upper regions, and that at last man grows weary of searching for them. However, both the preceptors agree in the basic fundamentals here too that there are other worlds also beyond his universe of ours and the modern scientist is proving this fundamental truth. The food that impairs the body and creates complex passions in the mind should not be eaten”. In Sikhism, the world was notavale of tears but a valuable treasury. Prosperity, if not obtained by harm to anyone (charhdi kalaand sarbat da bhala) was a recommendable theme in it. The Sikh Gurus themselves are finest examples of materialism plus spiritualism. They encouraged trade and prosperity, adopted worldly insignia of “miri” along with “piri” and used plume (for crown). (Takht) (throne), heron, ornaments, games etc. etc. but cautioned strictly against degeneration: “hasandean” khelandean, pinandian, khuindian, vichhe howe mukti i.e. “Even while men laugh and play and dress and eat, salvation can be obtained”. Both Islam and Sikhism thus agree considerably in their positive and affirmative approach to life.
In Islam, the guide to be, after Mohammad, was to be the holy Quran. In Sikhism, the guide to. Be, after the Tenth ‘Nanak’ (i.e. Guru Gobind Singh), was to be holy Granth. There is, however, one difference between Nanak.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 21, 1987
