“Religion is a system of reward and punishment for human sinfulness.” Do you agree? Discuss this issue by comparing at least TWO religions.

Reward and punishment are usually the main theme of most religions all around the world. The idea that a divine creator rewards those who do good and punishes those who stray is one that runs deep in many religious philosophies. This ideology of a system of reward and punishment is an integral part of the concept of divine justice dealing with human sinfulness. One such system is the belief of the afterlife. Almost every world religions seem to exemplify all beautiful things and eternal bliss with heaven; and suffering, torture and destitute with hell. The notion that those who falter through life will be eternally condemn to the abyss of hell bothered me. However I suppressed this conception that God is merciful and just and He knows something that I do not know. With reference to John Rawls' theory of social justice, he attempted to make a relation that if someone is committing a crime within a period of finite life, that person will not be rationalize with an infinite punishment (132). It is also contradicts that God is fair and merciful. This essay will examine Buddhism and Islam which are two unique religions in proving meaningful answers to the fundamental questions about life in general and afterlife in particular.

Buddhism denies the existence of God, but its philosophy bases itself on the aspect of human morality as well as escaping from the suffering of this world. Without any intellectual explanation and scientific support, these philosophies rest upon the twin concepts of Karma and reincarnation – the idea that human beings are perpetually reborn into this world and their successive lives are shaped by their behavior in their previous one. Edward Hopkins argues that Buddhist scriptures did not explained about how the universe, the world and living things came about (154). According to Buddhist’s perception, it is not even necessary to think about these worldly things. The imperative nature of Buddhism is to suppress desires, revere Buddha and escape from suffering (nirvana). From my point of view, Buddhism suffers from a myopic view of the world by not considering how their existence came to be. As such, it deters its followers from even thinking such thoughts and thus pressing them into an imaginary earthly life.

On the other hand, Muslims beliefs on the afterlife are radically different from the Buddhist’s perspective. Islam believes that life is transient and is part of a bigger sphere of existence. Sayyid Mujtaba Musavi Lari contented that life in the hereafter is eternal and of greater importance (215). Islam states that there is only one birth and resurrection (Qur’an, 62:8). A person will be resurrected after death during Judgement day in accordance to all the things he has done and the moral works he has performed, he will either be rewarded in paradise or condemn to endless hell. In short, human beings have only one life in this world and then an eternal afterlife (Qur’an, 30:16). Allah says in the Qur’an that life in this world is merely temporary testing period for everyone. The rewards for this testing period is paradise or be punish in hell. Muslims also have faith in the day of judgement; where all humans will be segregated between their everlasting destination of paradise and hell. This day of judgement or Qiyamah will be known as the “last day”, where everything and anything will be destroyed when angel Israfil blows a horn and sending out a Blast of Truth. Pending for judgement day to come, the deceased souls will wait in their grave for resurrection to occur. The deceased are now in the world called the barzakh. They will be punished in accordance to their sin at the moment of death (Qur’an 6:27, 32:12) However, the departed will immediately begin to taste what is in store for them, for those bound for hell will suffer in their graves while those bound for heaven will be in peace until the last day. This is in accordance to Muslim burial rite that they should be buried almost immediately upon their death due to the fact that they wants the taste of heaven in their graves. The resurrection spoken in the Quran is physical and real (Qur’an 3:185).

Buddhism attempts to suppress all human desires to prevent human sinfulness is by its doctrine of nirvana. According to David Kalupahana, the “nirvana” that is promise to its believers is nothing less than a schizophrenic breaking of all connection with life by a melancholic mind that takes a dim view of the world (153). Buddhists should detach themselves from the worldly desires and ultimately pave for salvation which is seen as a reward in the Western Paradise. This contradicts the notion that God blessing is this world is to benefit human beings and so they would supplicate to him in return. In the Catholic Encyclopedia, Charles Frances Aiken describes this aspect of Buddhism in dealing with sin is “pessimism in which a man is denies of an afterlife that finds no happiness in this life”. Likewise, human sinfulness was not actually justify but was rather brought forward to the next life with the idea of reincarnation. This might result in human sinfulness being leniently handled and poetic justice unable to be carried out. Islam rejects rebirth because rebirth encourages moral laxness in dealing with human sinfulness. In Buddhism; rebirth means another chance of proving to oneself to become better but how long must this vicious cycle continues to deal with human sinfulness.

Buddhism’s doctrine of karma leaves no room for the notion of afterlife (heaven and hell) as perceived by the Islamic faith. To deals with human sinfulness, Buddhism implies explicitly that there is no punishment predicated on human beings but rather karmic law itself. Believing in the cycle of rebirth through karma rejects the concept of punishment and rewards in the afterlife. The concept of heaven and hell is rejected because there is no divine ruler meting out punishments or bestow rewards. They claimed that the concept of hell and heaven actually exists on earth itself through rebirth (Law 22). Perhaps the retribution, hardships and suffering they went through are seen as punishment for the sin they did in their previous lifetime. Instead karmic law will lead the spirit of the dead to reborn, in realms which are appropriate with their karmic accumulation in their previous life. Looking at this philosophy of Karma, Buddhism’s idea of human sinfulness was solely based on reaping the consequences of their action – be it positive or negative. The unquestionable law of karma and rebirth allows Buddhism to be justifiable as a moral agent of the reward and punishment. Possibly, Buddhist idea of rebirth is seen as another chance to work toward realization and atonement of human sinfulness in their past life, while Islam considers life to be a given chance to prove his worthiness to enter paradise. In the sociological sense, Buddhism provides a mean of social control of individuals’ deviant behaviour through moral manifestation and not through vindictive or retributive punishments as suggested in Islam. Personally, the idea of karma in dealing with sin is defective in the sense that it can rise to a magnitude of problem such as despair if faithfully believed in and contradicts to the moral struggle of someone. This feeling of despair might destroy the psychological mechanism and might cause someone to detach fully from his worldly connection. Islam solves the problem of despair with its concept of God.

Islam provides the motivation to overcome psychological barrier in the moral struggle with its system of rewards and punishment (Heaven and Hell) which does not remain confined within the limits of exactly programmed accuracy like karma but is balanced in favour of rewards for the good. According to Keith Ward, there is no logical explanation of a creator in Buddhism thus ignoring man’s emotional nature and religious consciousness in dealing with human natural pattern (100). I understand that the intention of karma is good however in a moral struggle; man craves for a source of unfailing hope and comfort through forgiveness, repentance and atonement. The concept of a merciful, just and compassionate God who is full of grace and with a system of rewards and punishment as suggested in the Islamic faith balanced in favour of good instead of just retributive justice (Quinn et al. 562). Islam deals with finite human sinfulness or goodness with an infinite nature of the punishment or reward respectively. Being infinite, Islam envisages a resurrection of the soul at a time of final judgement. On Judgement day, Allah will raise everyone and determine individual destiny (Qur’an 3:185). A person’s everlasting destination will depend solely on a balance of good and bad deeds. On the last day, a person will either be granted permission into paradise or condemned to hell. With this, Islam deals with human sinfulness with Hell as a place of purification and is transient. In contrast to Buddhism, the Islamic faith provides vivid descriptions of both heaven and hell. Paradise is explained as a place of physical and spiritual pleasure with lofty mansions, delicious foods and drinks and virgin companions (Rustomji 150). The level of hell depends of the degree of offenses, and suffering in hell is both physical and spiritual (Qur’an 15:43-44) Paradise will be eternal. Once meriting it, there can be no question of being ejected. As to whether hell is eternal for the unbelievers, there two possibilities (1) a great majority of Muslims affirm that god may pardon every sin and every crime except disbelief in god (Qur’an 4:48-116) (2) others believe that even the punishment of disbelief may one day terminate by the grace of god (Qur’an 11:107). Muslims do not believe the idea of vicarious atonement on the day of judgement. They believe that each person is responsible for his or her own actions and that no-one else can atone for them. This idea is very similar to Buddhism’s karmic law of that we are responsible for own happiness and misery, “the architect of our fate”. However, someone could pray to God for his mercy and forgiveness on behalf of another person. Prophet Muhammad and some others (etc innocent babies who have passed away) are given the special privilege to intercede on behalf of their parents on the day of Judgement. So with God’s graceful permission, they may have a specially bestowed privilege of pleading on behalf of others and begging for god’s forgiveness on the day of Judgement. This is known as intercession (shafa’t) (Lari 199).

Despite all the significant differences between Buddhism and Islam in dealing with human sinfulness, both share the same belief that the afterlife exist, with Buddhists believing in Nirvana and Muslims believing in heaven. Islam related to god who created everything in the universe - heaven and hell as reward and punishment, condemned reincarnation and resurrection on Judgement day. On the other hand, Buddhism propagating the doctrine of karma and rebirth justify its ideology in dealing with human sinfulness. Islam induced morality based on fear of punishment but Buddhism based on instilling morality through consequences probability in dealing with human sinfulness. Both Islam and Buddhism have indeed shown contrasting ideas on how human sinfulness is being handled and assimilated into their respective principles of beliefs.

References

1.Aiken, Charles Francis. "Buddhism." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 3. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 18 Sept. 2009 .
2.Blocker, H. Gene and Smith, Elizabeth H. John Rawls' theory of social justice : an introduction. Athens: Ohio University Press, c1980.
3.Fakhry, Majid. An interpretation of the Qur’an: English translation of the meanings: a bilingual edition. New York: New York University Press, 2004.
4.Hopkins, Edward W. The religion of India. Boston, London, Ginn & Company, 1895.
5.Kalupahana, David J. Karma and rebirth: foundations of the Buddha's moral philosophy. Dehiwala, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Cultural Centre, 2006.
6.Lari, Mujtaba Musavi, Sayyid. Resurrection judgement and the Hereafter: lessons on Islamic doctrine. Iran: Islamic Education Center, 1992.
7.Law, Bimala C. Heaven and hell in Buddhist perspective. [Varanasi]: Bhartiya Pub. House, 1973.
8.Quinn, Philip L. and Taliaferro, Charles. A companion to the philosophy of religion. Oxford, UK; Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1997
9.Rustomji, Nerina. The garden and the fire: heaven and hell in Islamic culture. New York: Columbia University Press, 2009.
10.Sherman, Barrie and Judkins, Phillip. Glimpses of heaven, visions of hell: virtual reality and its implications. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1992.
11.Ward, Keith Is Religion Dangerous? Oxford: Lion, 2006.