The perfect world

The world is already perfect. For those who believe in God, it ought to be a maxim that the world is perfect. Otherwise we would be accusing God of imperfection, for did he not create the world? Did he not create the world perfectly? From perfection, only perfection can come. Understanding that we and our circumstances have been, is and ever will be perfect is the true teaching of religion and living in such a state of perfection is what spirituality is all about.

There is nothing stopping anyone from living happily except his own imaginary sense of lack. Worse, our mind becomes fragmented because of this sense of lack - when we try to fulfill this sense of lack by a variety of material ways. We and our circumstances are perfect - this is the teaching we must first come upon.

Education towards Universal Mind

So many religions are simply so many ways to God or to realizing the ultimate potential of man. Many think it would be wonderful if there was only one religion (let that religion be my religion!) for all mankind. But I think rather than strive for a single universal religion (maybe by smothering all who disagree) we should, through our educational system, seek to create Man with a universal mind - a mind which would accept and celebrate all the varieties of man's ingenuity. In other words, we should stress on a liberal education.

Thoughts

A bad thought not acted upon is an arrow that has not left the bow. You can always decide not to act and put the arrow back in the quiver. But if you act upon your thought, it is like an arrow that has left the bow. Now you can neither change its direction nor the speed. It is too late to do anything about it.

Again, if you act upon your thought, what is important is your motive. If your motive was noble, your actions will be a blessing upon you. But if your motive was selfish, your actions would return to haunt you. Therefore it is important that we have noble thoughts. It is said, let noble thoughts come to us from all sides.

Blackstone part of ritual of Islamic worship?

Muslims, obviously, do not think the black stone is a mere stone. Just as idol worshippers do not think their idols are mere stones.

Originally Posted by 'Abd-al Latif
You can't compare the black stone to idol worship. The worship of idols is directed towards the false dieties whereas the black stone is part of a ritual towards Allah and not towards the stone.Note the difference, the black stone is not worshipped like an idol wheres the idols are worsipped as gods.

You say, "the black stone is part of a ritual towards Allah." Is the ritual centering on the balck stone part of worship of Allah, at least during Hajj in Mecca?

Dr. Zakir Naik misleads on Hinduism.

Originally Posted by Troubled Soul
Dr Zakir Naik is brilliant at comparative religion but he is clearly IGNORANT when it comes to in depth Islam.

He misleads while talking about Hinduism. All he wants is to prove that the Vedas also say there is only one God. The Vedas teach of the oneness of all existence and record the manifold expressions of this vision in its verses.

Vedas speak of the oneness of existence, not that there is only one God.

...only thing I do not like or watch is when he [Dr. Zakir Naik] debates with other religions and embarasses them by showing them bits from their books.

That's true, he quotes only 'bits' from, say, the Vedas, and claims that the Vedas say there is only one God when the whole of the Vedas speak of the oneness of existence, not that there is only one God.

Not only one God, but also only one way of worship.

Islam not only says there is only one God, it also says there is only one way of worship. No wonder ideas like destroying others' places of worship crop up in the Muslim mind.