Common Ground Between Islam and Buddhism Common Ground Between Islam and Buddhism By Reza Shah-Kazemi With an essay by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf Introduced by H. H. the Fourteenth Dalai Lama H. R. H. Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad Professor Mohammad Hashim Kamali First published in 2010 by Fons Vitae 49 Mockingbird Valley Drive Louisville, KY 40207 http://www.fonsvitae.com Email:
[email protected] © Copyright The Royal Aal-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought, Jordan 2010 Library of Congress Control Number: 2010925171 ISBN 978–1891785627 No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without prior permission of the publishers. All rights reserved. With gratitude to the Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation for the use of the fourteenth century Qur’ānic shamsiyya lotus image found in Splendours of Qur’ān Calligraphy and Illumination by Martin Lings. We also thank Justin Majzub for his artistic rendition of this beautiful motif. Printed in Canada iv Contents Foreword by H. H. the Fourteenth Dalai Lama vii Introduction by H. R. H. Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad ix Preface by Professor Mohammad Hashim Kamali xvii Acknowledgements xxii Common Ground Between Islam and Buddhism Part One — Setting the Scene 1 Beyond the Letter to the Spirit 1 A Glance at History 7 Qur’ānic Premises of Dialogue 12 The Buddha as Messenger 14 Revelation from on High or Within? 19 The Dalai Lama and the Dynamics of Dialogue 24 Part Two — Oneness: The Highest Common Denominator 29 Conceiving of the One 29 The Unborn 30 Buddhist Dialectics 33 Shūnya and Shahāda 40 Light of Transcendence