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Issue 61 |
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Gurbani Gurbani is All-Pervading, Gurbani is the Divinity Itself,
Bani is the Guru. The Word constantly calls us to re-join the ongoing
cosmic hymn, the ongoing creation through God’s utterance of the Word.
The Sabd is inside all of us. We are the Amritsar, tank of nectar in
which our mun, our minds should be dyed, rather than in the fading
colours of worldly fears, terrors, and obsessions. This links to the idea that anyone, not knowing anything
about any religion can still meet God. The illustration is given of
Dhruv who knowing nothing called on God and God came to save him.
“Call on God however you will, for God is That which hears the
footfall of an ant” my grandfather taught me in words that continue to
haunt. If the cosmic hymn inheres in all of Nature, what we call
Gurbani is that which has soaked through the veil of creator and
creation for those seekers who chose to look. Collected by the first Nanak, and passed on in collections,
Pothis, with commentary and new hymns from Nanak to Nanak till the 5th
Nanak, i.e. Guru Arjun, arranged it all in one large text, and so it
changed from Pothi (collection) to Granth (big book). A special script – Gurmukhi - was developed to contain the
various sounds from a variety of Indo-European, Semitic and other
language families. It contains the approximate number of distinct sounds
the human is capable of making and recording in script form, I joke not. To complete the Islam series of compare and contrast, there
are two traditions, one that the Qu’ran (literally ‘reading’ or
‘recitation’) was collected by Abu Bakr and the other under the
Uthman though most Muslims believe it was Uthman, the third caliph,
644-656 who collected it from date-leaves, bits of parchment, tablets of
white stone, and the hearts of men. In either case, it was after
Muhammed was dead and buried. A problem arose about the lack of symbols
for short vowels so that variant readings existed at the time and
continue, “As we punished the dividers who broke up the Qu’ran into
parts.” (15.90-91) While Gurbani is revealed by the direct inspiration of God,
Islamic concept of God precludes communication between God and people.
Hence, in heaven is the original text (“the mother of the book”,
43.3; “a concealed book,” 55.77; a “well-guarded tablet,” 85.22)
which comes down through tanzil “sending down” bit by bit (25.34)
through Spirit (26.193), holy spirit (16.104), and later/ or later
identified as, Gabriel (2.91). The ideas are dictated to the illiterate
Prophet who then proclaims it to the world (87, 6). The Qu’ran admits that he forgot some revelations (87, 7)
and that unbelievers cast it up as a reproach to the Prophet that God
appears to be substituting one verse for another (16.103). Equally, he
‘abrogated’ some verses, meaning that they no longer were relevant.
(What would such verses be doing in the alleged perfect text contained
in heaven!) The most famous example as the Satanic Verses which gave
rise to the title of Salman Rushdie’s infamous book. In these, the
Qu’ran states that three heathen goddesses are exalted beings
possessing influence with Allah (two verses in 53). Later, he said that
these verses were false and were given to him by Satan. But how did
Satan get into the original book preserved in heaven?! “That this is
the honourable Qu’ran, written on the Preserved Tablet, let no one
touch it but the purified.” (56.77-78). Hm Satan purified! “We
[Allah] have made it an Arabic Qu’ran that you may understand and it
is a transcript of the Archetypal Book kept by us.” (43. 1-3) So,
Satan crept into heaven, polluted the Book kept by God(!), which was
written in Arabic, so people could understand…God is an Arab? The
message is meant for Arabs? Everyone should learn Arabic, the sacred
language? Gurbani observes that God is beyond language, the Guru Granth
uses many languages to explain its message. Gurbani is God Itself, God
the Unstruck Melody, Anhad Nad, calling you to unity. There is no
question of God being polluted by any evil spirit. While the use of illustrations of Buddhist, Hindu and Islamic
tales in Gurbani tallies with those traditions understanding of the
stories, the Qu’ran confuses Haman (the minister of Ahasuerus) for the
minister of Pharoah (28.38), 40.38 et passim), and identifies Miriam the
sister of Moses, with Mary, the mother of Jesus (3.31 et seq.). He makes
the fertility of Egypt depend on rainwaters – where it is almost never
seen and never missed – rather than the Nile (12.49). Moreover, no Jew
has ever believed that Ezra is the son of God in the same way as
Christians think of Jesus (9.30). Suratut-Taubah states the fearsome, “Make war upon the
people unto whom the book has been delivered who…forbid not what Allah
and His Apostle, i.e. Muhammed have forbidden, and who profess not the
profession of the truth, until they pay tribute out of hand in a humble
condition.” 2.189 states clearly, “Fight against them till there be
no more dispute and the only worship be that of Allah.” On the other
hand, there is the line oft-quoted by Muslims today, “Let there be no
compulsion in religion” (5.257). Moreover, so far as Christians and
Jews are concerned, “And dispute not with the People of the Book,
except in the kindest way.” (29.45) The idea as noted by scholars of the decline of eastern
Christianity, etc. is that once you have conquered people, taken tribute
from them, special taxes such as the jezia, where they pay to be
excluded from military service, since only Muslims may bear arms, then
apart from gentle disputation, these dhimmis will slowly convert
themselves so as to be included in society. Guru Nanak makes mention of
such conditions when noting that Hindus pretended to be Muslims but
still carried on their own traditions in secret. In this context, the
order to bear arms by Guru Hargobind was a challenge to this racist
tradition of dhimmitude no less than the building of wells and
Guru-ka-langar was a challenge to the racism of low-castes forbidden to
draw water and dine with others. From a literary perspective it appears that the Qu’ran is
compiled at the same time as Arabic is being formalised as a language.
This has led some people to argue that Islam only becomes solidified at
a much later date than the Islamic historo-myths. Looking at its themes,
many of the ideas appear borrowed from Jewish and Christian sects, such
as the Samaritans. The direction of prayer was changed from Jerusalem to
Mecca when Jews did not take to the religion. They were subsequently
enslaved and the teaching about the Day of Resurrection not coming till
each rock says, “O Muslim there is a Jew hiding behind me. Seize him
and kill him” given by the Prophet. Applied to Gurmat, the same sorts
of scholars – western orientalists - argue that the Sikh ideology only
comes about with the Singh Sabha movement, till then it was part of a
wider and more open bhakti Hinduism. Such views offend believers but
also fail when they examine the internal evidence of, for instance, the
Guru Granth Sahib Ji itself. They also show extreme bias in neglecting
those written records which do exist, for instance, Tuzuk-I-Jehangir and
more laughably, avoiding oral traditions, for instance, the
Khande-da-Pahul ceremony is 99.9% the same in all jathebandis = groups.
The fact that all these transmissions are repeating the same thing for
the last 300 years means that something very close to it, is what
actually happened 300 years ago. In other words, they ignore all the
normal methods of historical research. As Sikhs, we are advised, “Call not the Hindu or Muslim
scriptures false.” This does not mean that they are true, for
elsewhere we are told that they could not grasp the living God. Rather,
it means that arguments about truth versus falseness go nowhere. In
petty disputes we can waste our priceless life, or move beyond them,
seeing the unity of the search for God, the unity of God’s love for
you, yes you. Spend no time in denouncing others, rather live the truth
yourself as well as you can. Muslims regard the Qu’ran as the last word from God. Sikhs
regard the Guru Granth Sahib Ji as a manifest form of the Uncreated and
Unlimited Word which is God, which lives in and sustains the world. From
the existing Qu’ran, from its advice not to pray for idol worshippers
(9, 114-5), to its perspectives on the sexes, “Men are superior to
women on account of the qualities which God has given one over the
other…[if they argue] instruct them, do not sleep with them, beat
them, but if they become obedient, do not hit them, for God is great.”
(4, 38) one can see that it is a different sort of text, making
different claims for itself. Many variant texts or codices exist even today, though these
are regarded by Muslims in the same way as alternative copies of the
Granth – as the work of enemies. In the invasion of Darbar Sahib in
1984, the Sikh Reference Library was raided by Government of India
agents, which has been admitted by the Defence Minister. The material
has not been returned despite requests of SGPC which indicates to Sikhs
that in fact no research on Guru Granth Sahib Ji after 1984 can be taken
seriously. The best work on “The Compilation of the Guru Granth
Sahib” was written by Professor Sahib Singh. It is available in
English and it looks internally as what Gurbani says.
Dr
Kanwar Ranvir Singh,
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