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Chapter 2. Understanding
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CHAPTER TWO Understanding I have read in the Kitāb al-masālik that the Buddhists form two parties: that which affirms that the Buddha was an apostle, and another which affirms that Buddha is the Creator who has manifested himself in this form. —Mutahhar b. Tahir Maqdisi, Kitāb al-bad’ wa t-tārı̄kh Adam, Noah and Abraham; there are also five others endowed with an evil nature in the family of demons and snake: Moses, Jesus, the WhiteClad One, Muhammad and the Mahdi—the eighth—who will belong to the darkness. The seventh will clearly be born in the city of Baghdad in the land of Mecca, where the mighty, ferocious idol of the barbarian, the demonic incarnation, lives in the world. —Kālacakratantra A t the end of the eighth century a messenger from northwest India arrived in Baghdad and requested an audience with Caliph Harun al-Rashid. Since he believed that it would be valuable to display his magnanimity and magnificence to this poor vassal from the frontiers of the Islamic Empire the Caliph agreed. Yet when the man was finally brought before him in the glorious palace in the center of Baghdad, the Caliph was shocked to hear the message that this minion was sent to convey: ‘‘I have been told that you have no proof of the truth of your religion but the sword. If you are sure of the veracity of your faith, send some scholar from your place to discuss religious matters with a pandit of mine.’’ The Caliph was so enraged that he almost had the messenger put to death on the spot; however, he was also intrigued by the audacity of this Understanding 57 overture and thus decided to send one of his religious scholars to debate this pandit. Unfortunately, the debate did not go well. The pandit drew upon the deep tradition of Buddhist debate and logic in order to systematically attack the Muslim scholar’s claims of the existence of a single, allpowerful God. When the pandit asked his penultimate question—‘‘If your God is all-powerful, can He create an entity like Himself?’’—the Islamic scholar was so befuddled he could only respond that he did not know the answer. The local ruler of Sind, who had arranged the debate, thus announced the Buddhist scholar the winner and sent the mullah back to the Caliph with the following message: ‘‘I had heard from my elders, and now that I have seen with my own eyes, I am sure that you have no proof of the truth of your faith.’’ At this turn of events the Caliph was incensed and he summoned together all of his leading scholars in order to address this Buddhist challenge . None, however, could come up with an adequate response until at last a young boy stood up and said, ‘‘O Prince of Believers, this objection is baseless; God is He who has been created by nobody. If God creates an entity like Himself, that entity will be in all cases God’s creation. Then, again, that there can be an entity exactly like God is an insult to God and God will not countenance His own disparagement. This question is like such questions as: Can God be ignorant? Can He die? Can He eat? Can He drink? Can He sleep? Evidently He cannot do any of these things as they are all derogatory to his dignity.’’ Everyone was pleased with this answer and Harun al-Rashid wanted to send the boy to India in order to defend Islam and defeat the Buddhists in debate. But the other scholars at the court objected by saying he was too young, and although he could possibly answer this question, what about other ones? Harun al-Rashid was swayed by this argument and thus he sent an older famous scholar in order to defeat the Buddhists in a new debate. By one account this scholar readily won the debate and the local ruler of Sind converted to Islam. Another account claims that the Buddhist pandit sent out a spy to see whether this Islamic scholar was a theologian, or else a scholar familiar with rationalism. When his informant told him that the mullah was indeed familiar with rational logic the pandit was afraid that he might lose the debate. In desperation he therefore paid someone to poison the Islamic scholar and he died before ever reaching northwest India. Both of these stories...