Sikhs must not be confused with muslims, it is difficult for people from the west to distinguish between different ethnic groups of people from the east. Due to recent events and to the great dismay of Sikhs all over the world they have been mistaken for muslims with tragic consequences, two Sikhs have been shot dead in the USA and many many more harassed. This is due to images of muslims wearing beards and turbans. The reality is that 95% of all men with turbans and beards are Sikhs. While it is true that some Muslims wear turbans, the majority of people in the world wearing a turban are Sikhs. Sikh males, and some females, wear a turban to keep their long, uncut hair neat. Muslims, even those who wear turbans cut their hair. While orthodox Muslim males wear a particular style of trimmed beard, an adult Sikh male's beard is full and uncut. In addition, Sikhs do not profess the Muslim religion.
Guru Nanak Dev Ji said "I am no Hindu, I am no Mussulman." By this Guru Sahib was not belittling these faiths, but saying that in the eyes of God all are the same.
One commonly encounters the insistent claim that Sikhism owes much to Islam and specifically to the Sufi tradition. Some have carried this theory to the point of claiming that Sikhism can be treated as an example of conscious syncretism, one which deliberately tried to blend Hindu and Muslim ideals. This claim can be dismissed, it is true there are parallels of Guru Nanak Dev Ji’s teaching and Sufism but that can be traced to Bhaghti sources. Guru Nanak Dev Ji certainly chose Muslim terminology in a few shabads, but only because the shabads were addressed to a Muslim audience.
Guru Nanak Dev Ji viewed both Hindu traditions and Islam in a typical Sant manner. In there conventional form, both offered systems of belief and practices which largely relied on external authorities and outward responses. As such both were to be condemned. Only those who perceived the inner reality of truth could achieve deliverance and this end could be attained regardless of whether one was a Hindu or Muslim. Those who follow this inner path are the true believers as opposed to the false believers who continue to put trust in ritual and pilgrimage, Barhamins and Mullas.
Guru Ji used this true false theme in many shabads, one being in a shalok from Var Manjh :
Make mercy your mosque and devotion your prayer mat, righteousness your Qur’an.
Meekness your circumcising, goodness your fasting, for thus the true Muslim expresses his faith.
Make good works your Ka’bah, take truth as your pir, compassion your creed and your prayer.
Let service to God be the beads which you tell and God will exalt you to glory.
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This is classic Guru Nanak Dev Ji’s approach, typical both in terms of its insistent interior emphasis and its striking use of imagery.
Sikhs do not believe in a last prophet. There have been many men of God who have put people on the path of the Almighty and there will be many more. Who are we to put a stop on the Almighty’s will? If He wishes he will send down as many prophets as he likes.
Sikhs do not believe in a judgement day when all dead people will rise and be judged. We are judged every single day, every single second of every minute of every hour and meted out judgement as appropriate. If a person dies and is buried in the ground his decomposed body will release it's material into the earth. That material may get into the food chain and be consumed by another person. On this ‘judgement day’ who will rise from the dead to be judged? The first person or the second person and how can the first person rise if he is now part of the second person?
First Mehl:
The clay of the Muslim's grave becomes clay for the potter's wheel.
Pots and bricks are fashioned from it, and it cries out as it burns.
The poor clay burns, burns and weeps, as the fiery coal fall upon it.
O Nanak, the Creator created the creation; the Creator Lord alone knows. ||2|| Guru Nanak Dev Ji
What Sikhism teaches and what other faiths teach are separate paths. The aim of most other faiths is to reach heaven and avoid hell with devils and Shaitans to way lay you and put you off your path. ‘They’ are the only people who will reach heaven and non else. Some promise hourries, fairy maidens to satisfy your every whim with wine to drink, golden palaces to reside in and servants at your beck and call, even though most of these things are forbidden on Earth. Sikhism neither wants nor needs any of these enticements. All Sikhs want is to merge with the one True Lord from whence we have come, as a drop of water merges with the ocean. Merging with the almighty liberates one from the circle of life and death and salvation is achieved by the grace of Waheguru.
As for Christianity, Sikhs do not believe that the Almighty sent down his son who will take all your sins upon himself only if you believe in him. You are the perpetrator of your sins and only you will have to answer for them. Of course if you submit to the will of God and ask for forgiveness then God as your true father will forgive all your misdemeanours. There is no one person or faith that has a monopoly on salvation. |