Zakir Naik – Classification of Religions

Zakir Naik
AI: Summary © The speaker discusses the definition of religion and how it can be difficult to understand the context of the word "slack." He uses a verse from the Quran to explain the meaning of religion and how it can be difficult to understand the context of the word "slack." He also discusses the major world realizeencing groups and their origins, including religion, religion, and nonVedic religion.
AI: Transcript ©
00:00:00 --> 00:00:00

Religion,

00:00:04 --> 00:00:06

according to the Oxford dictionary means

00:00:07 --> 00:00:07

a belief

00:00:08 --> 00:00:12

in a superhuman controlling power, a personal God

00:00:12 --> 00:00:15

or gods that deserve worship and obedience.

00:00:16 --> 00:00:17

So religion means

00:00:17 --> 00:00:18

belief in God.

00:00:20 --> 00:00:21

I start the talk

00:00:22 --> 00:00:22

by quoting

00:00:23 --> 00:00:24

a verse from the Quran

00:00:25 --> 00:00:27

from Surah Al Imran chapter number 3

00:00:29 --> 00:00:31

verse number 64 which says,

00:00:32 --> 00:00:33

so people love the

00:00:36 --> 00:00:37

book.

00:00:37 --> 00:00:39

Come to common terms

00:00:39 --> 00:00:41

as between us and you. Which is the

00:00:41 --> 00:00:43

first term Allah

00:00:44 --> 00:00:46

that we worship none but Allah.

00:00:47 --> 00:00:49

That we associate or partners with him.

00:00:53 --> 00:00:55

That we erect not among ourselves.

00:00:55 --> 00:00:58

Lord and peace other than Allah. Find our

00:00:58 --> 00:01:00

law. And then they turn back.

00:01:00 --> 00:01:03

Say you bear witness. Then a Muslim moon

00:01:03 --> 00:01:04

that we are Muslims

00:01:04 --> 00:01:06

bowing our will to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.

00:01:07 --> 00:01:09

This was of the glorious Quran according to

00:01:09 --> 00:01:12

me is the master key for doing dawah.

00:01:12 --> 00:01:12

It says,

00:01:16 --> 00:01:18

come to common terms as when

00:01:20 --> 00:01:21

we are speaking with non Muslims,

00:01:22 --> 00:01:24

the best is let us come to common

00:01:24 --> 00:01:25

terms

00:01:25 --> 00:01:26

with the other people.

00:01:27 --> 00:01:30

And amongst all the terms, the most important

00:01:30 --> 00:01:31

point

00:01:31 --> 00:01:33

is Allah

00:01:34 --> 00:01:36

that we worship none but one Allah.

00:01:38 --> 00:01:38

In order

00:01:39 --> 00:01:40

to understand

00:01:42 --> 00:01:45

the concept of God in any religion, the

00:01:45 --> 00:01:47

best is to try and understand

00:01:47 --> 00:01:48

what the scriptures

00:01:49 --> 00:01:51

of that religion has to speak about God.

00:01:52 --> 00:01:55

If you understand the concept of God by

00:01:55 --> 00:01:57

observing what the followers of religion are doing,

00:01:57 --> 00:02:00

it is not appropriate because many a times

00:02:00 --> 00:02:01

the followers themselves

00:02:02 --> 00:02:04

do not know what is mentioned in the

00:02:04 --> 00:02:06

authentic scriptures of those religion.

00:02:06 --> 00:02:07

So the best

00:02:08 --> 00:02:10

and the most appropriate method

00:02:11 --> 00:02:11

of understanding

00:02:12 --> 00:02:14

the concept of God in any region is

00:02:14 --> 00:02:15

to try and understand

00:02:15 --> 00:02:17

what the authentic scriptures

00:02:17 --> 00:02:20

of that religion have to speak about God.

00:02:20 --> 00:02:22

The major world religions

00:02:22 --> 00:02:25

can be broadly divided into semitic religions

00:02:26 --> 00:02:27

and non semitic religions.

00:02:28 --> 00:02:31

The non semitic religions are further divided into

00:02:31 --> 00:02:33

Aryan religion and non Aryan religion.

00:02:34 --> 00:02:37

The Aryan religion are further divided into Vedic

00:02:37 --> 00:02:38

and non Vedic religion.

00:02:40 --> 00:02:41

The Semitic religions

00:02:42 --> 00:02:43

are those religions

00:02:43 --> 00:02:45

that are followed by the Semites.

00:02:45 --> 00:02:46

The descendants

00:02:46 --> 00:02:49

of Shem, the son of Noah who is

00:02:49 --> 00:02:50

also mentioned in the Bible

00:02:50 --> 00:02:52

in the book of Genesis chapter number 5

00:02:52 --> 00:02:53

to 11.

00:02:53 --> 00:02:56

So the Semitic religions are those religions that

00:02:56 --> 00:02:57

are followed by the Semites,

00:02:58 --> 00:03:00

followed by the Jews, the Arabs, the Assyrians

00:03:01 --> 00:03:02

who speak the language

00:03:02 --> 00:03:03

Hebrew, Arabic,

00:03:04 --> 00:03:06

Assyrian, Phoenician.

00:03:06 --> 00:03:09

The major among the semitic religions are Judaism,

00:03:10 --> 00:03:13

Christianity, and Islam. And all of these religions,

00:03:13 --> 00:03:14

they are prophetic religions.

00:03:15 --> 00:03:18

The non semitic religions are further divided into

00:03:18 --> 00:03:20

aryan religions and non aryan religion.

00:03:21 --> 00:03:23

The aryan religions are those religions that are

00:03:23 --> 00:03:25

followed by a powerful group of

00:03:26 --> 00:03:27

Indo European people

00:03:28 --> 00:03:29

that spread

00:03:31 --> 00:03:32

in Europe

00:03:32 --> 00:03:34

and North Indian.

00:03:36 --> 00:03:38

And the Aryan religion are further divided into

00:03:38 --> 00:03:40

Vedic religion and non Vedic religion.

00:03:40 --> 00:03:43

The Vedic religion has been given the misnomer

00:03:43 --> 00:03:44

of Hinduism

00:03:44 --> 00:03:45

or Brahminism.

00:03:46 --> 00:03:47

It should actually

00:03:47 --> 00:03:48

be Vedantist

00:03:48 --> 00:03:50

according to Swami Vivekananda.

00:03:51 --> 00:03:53

But the people call those who follow the

00:03:53 --> 00:03:54

Vedic religion

00:03:54 --> 00:03:55

as Hinduism

00:03:56 --> 00:03:59

or Brahminism, but the more appropriate name is

00:04:00 --> 00:04:00

Vedantist.

00:04:01 --> 00:04:04

The Aryan religions of non with the origins

00:04:05 --> 00:04:05

are Buddhism,

00:04:06 --> 00:04:06

Sikhism,

00:04:07 --> 00:04:09

Jainism, Parsiism, etcetera.

00:04:09 --> 00:04:12

The non aryan religions are divided into

00:04:13 --> 00:04:13

the

00:04:14 --> 00:04:15

where they originate from.

00:04:15 --> 00:04:19

For example, those that originated from China,

00:04:19 --> 00:04:20

that is Confucianism,

00:04:21 --> 00:04:21

Daoism,

00:04:22 --> 00:04:25

those that originated from Japan, Shintoism, etcetera.

00:04:25 --> 00:04:26

But most of these

00:04:27 --> 00:04:28

non other religion,

00:04:29 --> 00:04:30

they do not have a concept of God.

00:04:31 --> 00:04:33

That's the reason they're referred more to as

00:04:33 --> 00:04:34

ethical systems.

00:04:35 --> 00:04:37

So today in my talk, I'll be mainly

00:04:37 --> 00:04:40

discussing about Semitic religions and non Semitic religions

00:04:40 --> 00:04:41

of Aryan origin.

Share Page

Related Episodes