مطالعۂ ادیان کے اصول و اہداف، مسلم اور مغربی مناہج کا تقابلی جائزہ

Comparative Study of the Principles and Objectives of Muslim and Western Study of Religions

Abstract

Muslims from the very beginning of Islam have paid attention to the religious literature of other religions. The Holy Quran has discussed the other religions with a special focus on ahl i Kitab (the People of the Book) i.e., Jews and Christian, Shibah ahl i Kitab (the Dubious People of the Book) like Sabin (Sabeans) and Majus (Zoroastrians) and non-revealed religions like Muskrikin i Arab (the Arab Pagans). Hadith and Muslim scholarship have extensively authored about other religions. The objective of the Islamic study of other religions is to prove that Islam is the only revealed religion meant for human success in the here and salvation in the hereafter as well as to criticize false beliefs and practices of other religions. However, this study has mostly been done under the title of ilm al Klm (Muslim Dialectical Theology). The famous branch of study that emerged in Europe with the title of ‘Comparative Religions’ also deals with religions. However, the objective behind the study is entirely different from the Islamic study of religions. It is not to prove some religions true and others false but to read them with a social paradigm and to get knowledge about the beliefs, religious customs, morals and religious life of the followers. The research method of the article is qualitative and comparative, so the article aims at distinguishing between the concepts, objectives, principles and methods of Muslim Study of religions and Western Comparative Religion being two opposite branches of knowledge.