Compare And Contrast Hinduism And Monotheismic Religion

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Religion can be representative of a person’s fundamental, spiritual beliefs whereby he or she follows a certain set of principles that allows him or her to worship a particular entity. Some individuals hold the belief that there is only one existent God, while others believe there are multiple Gods; thus leading to the ideas of a polytheistic and monotheistic religion. In present day, there are many religions that fall within the aforementioned categories, but two particularly interesting ones are Hinduism and Islam. These two religions encountered each other and flourished in the motherland, known as India. However, through the extreme differences in religious beliefs, major wars influenced by politics, and the development of architectural …show more content…

In the case of Hinduism and Islam, the major differences in both of their religious beliefs lead to the occurrence of many religious conflicts. In the middle ages, Islam expanded into the “Indian Peninsula”, and began to threaten the way of life of many Hindus. Muslims, the worshippers of Islam, believe in one God because their religion is monotheistic, and is based upon the teachings of Muhammad; who lived between the time periods of 570-632 BCE (Sullivan). On the other hand, Hinduism is believed to be a polytheistic religion whereby they have a set of diverse beliefs. These two religions are different in many aspects especially when it pertains to their respective practices, places of worship and their religious laws or principles. Nonetheless, these differences sparked violence, and created a strong tension between these two religions. This religious tension that coexisted among the Indian Hindus and Indian Muslims caused the creation of the Muslim League in the year 1906. The purpose of the Muslim League was to protect the civil rights of the Muslim Indians (Sullivan). However, despite many efforts to stop each other from gaining excess power over one another, it marked the beginning of many religious conflicts between these two …show more content…

One distinct structure that played a role in the Hindu and Muslim conflict was the famously known Taj Mahal. In respect to the Islamic tradition, there were verses from the Quran that were inscribed on the arched entrances, and other arched entrances of the mausoleum. Also, there was a moon with its points that pointed to the heavens in a U-shape, thus resembling a trident that represents the traditional symbol of the Hindu god Shiva. The Hindus’ architectural styles had great influence on the building and designing of the Taj Mahal, and as a result the ruler of the Munghal Empire in the year 1658, Aurangzeb, neglected this beautiful building. Aurangzeb had many militant policies whereby he destroyed the temples and shrines of the Hindus, and prohibited the construction and repair of old or new Hindu temples. He also ensured that in the year 1668 that the Hindu religious fairs became outlawed, and did everything in his power to discriminate against the Hindus in order to make their lives difficult. On December 7, 1992 the Hindus destroyed the Mosque of Babar because according to them the mosque was built on a sacred piece of land whereby the Hindu God Ram was born. However, the Muslims did not want to regain control of the mosque after its destruction because they feared that it would lead

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