The present-day Hindus in India are pluged into spiritual darkness because of idol worship and polytheism. Like any human being, every Hindu has spiritual thirst to know about God and his relation to him. But the Hindu society does not provide a congenial environment for worship of one God because of the age-old traditions of idol worship of "gods" and "goddesses." The religious customs and rituals of idol worship have influenced the way of life and thinking of all Hindus to the extent that even an educated Hindu in India has drifted away from the straight path of worshipping the one and only God, "Allah."

A religious festival in India has become only an occasion to eat and drink and for merrymaking without any real worship. In India, every major Hindu festival is almost always attended by fighting and communal riots. The religious aspect is replaced by power politics in all Hindu festivals. There is enormous waste of money and time. At present, the important Hindu festivals are monitored more by politicians than by temple priests. The spiritual aspect in these festivals is zero and there is no place for God and His worship.

The author belonged to such a Hindu society where there are many "gods" and "goddesses", one for wealth(Laxmi), one for education(Ganesh), one for physical culture and body building(Hanuman) and so forth. One can choose any "god" (idol) depending upon one's needs and interests. It looks as if one God is not sufficient to cater to the needs of all Hindus in India. That is the reason for many "gods" and many temple to another. The temples' priests make their living comfortable by exploiting and misleading the ordinary folk.

The straight path to Allah has been twisted and made crooked by the Hindus due to the age-old false concepts and traditions. These traditions have been established by a group of temple priests and other who are called Brahmins. They have successfully infused the scourge of the caste system in Indian society. They have discriminated and divided the people into forward castes of Brahmans and backward casted and the untouchables. People belonging to the Untouchable caste, who do menial jobs, are not supposed to enter any temple. They should stay away from temples and the places of worship.

We can imagine how much degraded is the Hindu society and religion which has discriminated against the human beings. Perhaps, there is no religion in the world which has adopted such an ignominious method of discrimination of God's creation.

Due to illiteracy and the discriminating caste system introduced by Brahmins, idol worship might have evolved. And in order to satisfy the spiritual thirst in knowing and worshipping the unseen God, the Hindus have fallen into the trap of idol worship and polytheism.

One of the stumbling blocks in understanding the Hindu religion, is the language of "Sanskrit" in which most of the scriptures have been written. The language of Sanskrit has been monopolised by Brahmins. It has not been within the common man's reach to learn due to which the Hindus have been kept away from knowing their own religion except handful of Brahmins.

The scripture written in Sanskrit has not found any place in Hindu homes. Besides India being a scular state, it does not pay any heed in promoting the religious needs of the people.

The people who know Sanskrit and the Hindu religion, seem to indulge in idol worship, although they all say very enthusiastically that they believe in one God, but in practice, they worship various stone idols in their daily life. What is the use of such theoretical knowledge of religion which has not taught them to worship one God to adopt a straight path to Him? The Holy Book of Hindus is the "Gita." There is no clear evidence that it has come down from God but all Hindus agree that it was written by a great sage by the name of Vyasa. Hence it was written by a man, however great he may be. It cannot be compared with the Holy Quran.

The contents of the Gita are more on abstract topics-- like the human soul and the way of meditation and to certain extent, deals with human character and daily life. But it is no match to the teachings of the Holy Quran and the Hadith which deals with every aspect of human life.

The Gita has become more a show piece on the bookshelves of a few Hindu homes. Nobody studies it because of its language and abstract contents, although there is a wave of its propagation to the common masses in India by certain dedicated individuals. The Hindu religion as such, has not reached the doors of every Hindu home, so how can we expect the people know their religion and its merits? We have only the knowledge of the Hindu religion which is seen and practised by Hindus in their daily life i.e. idol worship.

One of the major and important concepts in Hindu religion is that God comes down to earth in human form whenever there is a necessity and that a practicular human being is known as an incarnation of God.

In the light of the above concept, any man with certain divine qualities or those Prophets whom God has sent to convey a message to his people, are considered as God himself?~1(see below), or at least incarnation of God. Such persons are held in great esteem and are treated and worshipped as God. Right now there is one such person in India by the name "Sataya Saibaba" whom the Hindus are worshipping as God because he performs some "miracles".
The thinking of Hindus have become corrupt and unkowingly the are committing a great of Shirk associating human with God.
Because the author does not believe in the corrupt sinful practice of Shirk, he has served his spiritual leaning from Hindu religio.

The present-day Indian society lives in utter religious confusion of worshipping stone idols and has lost the straight path to God. Many educated Hindus have no faith in their own religion. They have no time to know about God. They are too busy with their worldly life, which they think is the end of everything. They do not have any concept of life after death or the Day of Judgement. They eat, drink and sleep and are satisfied, if they have enough money and comfortable life to lead. their education is purely job oriented without any grain spiritual content.

It has become a fashion to live more like animals among the rich Hindus. They have rejected God in their life.

Many Hindus with some understanding and wisdom know that Islam is the only true religion of the mankind, but they are not bold enough to accept it openly since they are caught up in the age-old tradition of worshipping idols and they do not want to come out of their irreligious environment because of the fear of the society.

They are not afraid of God and the Day of Judgement. They are more afraid of their friends and relatives and the society at large.

The crime rate and sinful ways of living have increased in Hindu society in India because of the lack of true religion. They are groping in dark and wandering from one temple to another in search of God who is with them more near to their blood vein but they have been missing Him all along their life.

Having gone through the mess of sinful life and idol worship or no worship, at all in his life, the author has accepted Islam at the age of 56.

Praise to Allah who has been kind to bring me to the correct and straight path. All this has happened because of the Holy book--Quran-- which answered all my doubts and strengthened my faith in Islam.

Many Hindu friends might argue that the author has done wrong which will be decided only by Allah on the Day of Judgement, who was wrong and who was right? And Allah will decide the fate of all those Hindus who did not pay any heed to His Message through the Holy Quran and His Messenger Prophet Muhammed(peace be upon him).

Dr. Mohammad Mustafa
(Former Dr. Mahendar Singh)


~1. This is a Christian notion and an un-Islamic one, which is Shirk--Editor

-------------------