Zakir Naik – Classification of the World’s Major Religions

			The world's major religions can be broadly classified and divided into Semitic religions and the non
Semitic religions.
		

			The Semitic religions are those religions which are followed by the Semites.
		

			Who are the Semites, the Semites are the descendants of Shem.
		

			And it's mentioned in the Bible.
		

			In the Old Testament, in the book of Genesis, chapter number five to 11 Shem is mentioned there. And
he is the son of Prophet know Ali salam, peace be upon him. So Semitic religions are those religions
which are followed by the Semites, the descendants of Shem. The Jews, the Arabs, the Assyrians, the
Phoenicians, who speak the language Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic, Phoenicians, etc. The major among the
Semitic religions are Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
		

			The non Semitic religions can be further divided into Aryan religions and the non Aryan religions.
		

			The Aryan religions are those religions, which are followed by the audience. A powerful group of
indo European speaking people originated from Iran and northern India in the first half of the
second millennium, that's 2000 to 1500 BC.
		

			The Aryan religions can be further divided into Vedic religion and the non Vedic religions. The
Vedic religion is that religion in which the people follow the Vedas, and
		

			it's today called as a misnomer, as Hinduism or brahmanism.
		

			But the right word should be a bit honest.
		

			The non theistic religions are those are religions. We do not follow the Vedas, like Sikhism,
Jainism, etc. and Zoroastrianism also happens to be an Aryan religion, which is not associated with
Hinduism.
		

			The non Aryan religions they are divided depending upon the origin, for example, those that
originated from China, like Confucianism
		

			like ours and those that originated from Japan,
		

			like shintoism, etc. But most of these non Aryan religions, they do not have a concept of God and
they are more often referred to as ethical systems.
		

			That is the reason as far as my talk today is concerned, the concept of God in world's major
religions. I will be discussing about orange religions and Semitic religions.