The Ultimate Fate of Man in Buddhism and the Position of Islam towards It
Keywords:
Buddha, Nirvana, Islam, fate, final destination.Abstract
The Buddha’s view of the life is pessimistic as he considers it entirely a chain of suffering through births, deaths, diseases and old age. His teachings focus on liberating from this suffering into an eternal ultimate abode called Nirvana, tantamount to Jannah in Islam. What is this beyond the Jannah and Jahannam representing the final destination of man requiring a total self-destruction in order to reach at? Is it the same as the ultimate fate of man in Islam? Otherwise, how there can be two different fate for a man? The article attempts to answer these questions in the light of Quran and Sunnah. The writer presented the idea of Nirvana, its belief, its people, and the way to it followed by Islamic perspective on the matter based on descriptive, analytical and critical methods. The writer found that Islam doesn’t know the Nirvana including its name and essence, because it is ambiguous between existence and nonexistence. It’s neither a thing nor nothing, material nor spiritual, contrary to its Islamic counterpart. Considering the life as a mere suffering and getting rid of it through extreme ascetism is also incompatible with Islam, as it allows enjoying the life and building the earth in order to maintain the system of individual and social life. Finally claiming the prescience about the origin and fate of man through a personal mental effort can never be safe from erring.
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