Well, if you are following a religion out of conviction, that’s all that is expected of you. The ultimate decision will be made by God. Here on earth, all that we can do is that we should follow a religion with conviction, not falsely. If we are not convinced of a thing, we shouldn’t accept it. If we are honestly convinced of the truth, then this is exactly what we are expected to do.
So that is right by our standards. If that is the definition of right, then we are following the right religion if we are honestly convinced that that religion is true. But that is all that can be said about decisions here on earth. It is only God who would decide. And here I must tell you that if you are following a religion honestly and truthfully, without any distortion in your own self, without being unjust to your fellow beings, and being in the right frame of mind, even if that religion has been cancelled by God and a new religion has been sent in its place, still the followers of those religions have been guaranteed heaven by the Holy Quran.
So right or wrong are also important, of course. But more important is the intention and the practice of the person who believes in any religion. If he is honest, he has no fears. If he practices what he believes, he has no fears. If he is good to mankind as such and is well disposed, he should have no fears. But such a people with such honest and well-balanced frame of mind, when he confronts truth from another region, then it is the test for such a person whether he was really honest or not. For instance, such a Christian as I have described, when he confronts the Holy Quran and the truth of the Holy Quran, then such a person should accept it because it’s definitely much more logical and more lighted.
Logically, compared with the Christian teachings, ordinary human beings should accept this teaching because it’s more rational. And if still he rejects, then you would know that that person was not all right, all straight within. He only thought that he was honest and straight, but when confronted with truth, he rejected it. So this is a criterion mentioned in the Holy Quran. The Holy Quran says that those of the Ahl-e-Kitab, those of the people of the book, who believed honestly and genuinely in whatever was given to them by their forefathers, and practiced that with all sincerity and were good of intentions and good of acts, they have no fears, they would not be punished by Allah.
So again, the Holy Quran tells us that when such people are told the message of the Holy Quran, then they accept it because they are in the right frame of mind. They cry with the impact of the Holy Quran and they melt within. And they accept the message and say, this is exactly according to our nature, this is what God should be. So as far as the claims are concerned, it is very difficult to establish one thing as truth and the other thing as falsehood, because then the dilemma would be that Hindus would say that we honestly and genuinely believe that this is truth, and we are satisfied.
And the Muslims would say, yes, we know this is the truth as we find ourselves in, and we are satisfied, and so the claim of the Christians would be the same. So what would be the different criteria? How would you differentiate between one claim and another? So to avoid that, the best golden rule is the one I have just told you, drawing my conclusion from the Holy Quran. Tell these people that as long as you are honest and truthful, you have no fears. But then an honest and truthful man can be detected by his behaviour to certain more apparent truths. For instance, here in the Christian society, you can take this attitude.
A person can say, I believe honestly and truthfully in Jesus Christ and his sonhood, and I believe that whatever is claimed about him as miracles and things, they are all true, and I can’t go to heaven and I can’t be delivered from suffering, but by believing in him, all these claims, you will say, all right, you may be honest, but if you have such an honesty within you, why there is a paradox in your attitude towards the worldly affairs?
In the worldly affairs, your scientists, your matter-of-fact men, do not accept any fact without investigation. Do not accept any claim without first thoroughly examining the merits of the case. If I tell you, I saw a horse turn into a dog, you would treat me like a mad person. Maybe you will lead me to an asylum somewhere.
But if your forefathers have told you that God married a woman and a son was born out of that union, you accept that without scrutiny. So that shows that you are not truly honest. There is a paradox in your life, in your behaviour. In one region, you are very strict and you are very rational. In the other region, you accept everything which is told to you without turning a hair. This attitude tells us that you are defeated, you are deceitful, or you are self-duped, you don’t know the reality. You can open up these things and help them understand their own position.
