The holy Quran repeatedly condemns on following forefather's
religion blindly.
[The holy Quran 2:170] When they are
told, "Follow what GOD has revealed herein," they say, "We follow only what
we found our parents doing." What if their parents did not understand, and
were not guided?
[2:171] The example of such
disbelievers is that of parrots who repeat what they hear of sounds and
calls, without understanding. Deaf, dumb, and blind; they cannot understand.
[5:104] When they are told, "Come to
what GOD has revealed, and to the messenger," they say, "What we found our
parents doing is sufficient for us." What if their parents knew nothing, and
were not guided?
Just ponder the following scenarios:
1. A traditional Muslim born in a Muslim family and is very
obedient to his parents. His parents tell him that pray 5 times in a day in
a particular method, do Hajj, keep fasting during the month of Ramadan, keep
your beard long, wear turban and wear long white cloths etc. etc., you will
surely gain paradise. After getting those instructions from parents (as they
got same instructions from their parents or mullahs), the obedient son is
following his parents orders blindly hoping to get paradise!
2. Another man born in a traditional Hindu family and is very
obedient to his parents. His parents tell him that go to Hindu temples;
worship various statues of Shiv, Durga, Kali, Gonesh etc. to please them. By
your devote worshipping if they are pleased, you will get paradise. After
getting those instructions from his pious Hindu parents (as they got same
instructions from their parents or mullahs) the obedient son is following
his parents' orders blindly hoping to get eternal salvation or eternal
paradise!
3. Another man born in a traditional Christian catholic family
and is very obedient to his parents. His parents tell him that Jesus is the
begotten son of God and pray to him for eternal salvation. Jesus died in the
cross for remitting all sins of humankind. If Jesus is pleased with you, you
will surly get eternal paradise. If you want to get anything good from God,
you must go via Jesus as Jesus is the only son of God. After getting those
instructions from pious catholic parents (as they got same instructions from
their parents or mullahs) the obedient son is following his parents' orders
blindly hoping to get paradise!
4. Same happens to be true for other religions as well!
So, is there any difference among these traditional Muslim,
traditional Hindu and traditional Christian men? As we can see obviously
that there is no difference, as all these men are just following their
parents/mullahs' religions blindly without verification, without using their
God-given brains! In these ways, most of the humans basically are following
their forefathers' or mullahs' religions rather than God's religion!
So what is the solution to discover God-given religion? First
thing, one must understand that God's guidance is not a free-lunch. You have
to work hard then hopefully God will guide you. One of the best examples is
Prophet Abraham, who was born in an idol worshipping family. He thought a
lot as to who is his God, using rationality, reasons and logic and
continuously seeking help of God(Lord of the universe) to get true guidance
[The Quran 6.74-82]. Finally, God guided Him
as he deserved God's guidance for his devotion.
For example,
if you read the entire holy Quran carefully, you will discover, by God
willing, that the Quran is very much scientific, rational, logical and
justified. On the other hand, if you read the hadiths very carefully, you
will discover that the hadiths in most of the cases are unscientific,
irrational, and illogical and simply rubbish. So, it is quite a hard
working task to discover the truth. How can you expect that if you follow
some traditional things blindly, you will get paradise! How could you expect
that God's eternal paradise is so cheap?!
Dr.
Md. Anisur Rahman
http://www.progressive-muslim.org/