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Hinduism vs. Islam
Similarities
Bhakti movement
Saints and teachers
· Kabir (1440-1510, picture, article): Disciple of Ramananda, he believed
in formless God. He was the first to reconcile Hinduism and Islam.
· Dadu Dayal (1544-1603) A disciple of Kabir, he was a supporter of Hindu-
Muslim unity. His followers were known as Dadu Panthis.
Bridal Mysticism
The Lord, soul of all souls, is invoked for internal bliss and the craving for
the Lord is evinced in the soul-stirring poetry
Bhakti is a devotional movement in various South Asian religions especially
Hinduism, emphasizing the intense emotional attachment and love of a devotee
towards a personal god. Derived from the Sanskrit verbal root bhaj, originally
meaning "to share, to apportion", bhakti came to mean "love, sharing, worship,
devotion".
In South Asian Islam, the rudiments of bhakti appeared in works of Sufism,
particularly during the reign of Akbar (1556-1605), and in the veneration of a
pir, or charismatic Sufi figure.
Love of Radha/Krishna
In Bengal the fifteenth-sixteenth-century mystic Chaitanya stressed the
passionate yearning of a woman for her beloved
synthesis in the medieval period of Bhakti ideas with Sufi (mystical) elements
from Islam can be discovered in the writings of poet-saints such as Kabir,
devotees of a God whom they were unwilling and unable to delimit by sectarian
description
Further, in bhakti, erotic love (as seen in akam) in all its phases became a
metaphor for man's love for God, the lover.
God is not only love but beauty
Chaitanya also introduced the worship of God, the director of man's senses,
through the very activity of man's senses, which must be free from all egoism
and completely filled with the intense desire (preman) for the satisfaction of
the beloved (Krishna).
Differences
Hinduism Islam
-icons -no icons-different gods, temples built -mosques in an open
area
-cast system/priesthood -equality/no priesthood-art -art is not a major part
-less conservative -religion is also tied in with
legal system