Bareilly: Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi, president of All India Muslim Jamaat, has said that it is wrong to say that ‘Om’ and ‘Allah’ are the same.
The statement comes following Maulana Syed Arshad Madani’s, (the president of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind (Arshad faction) remarks on Sunday after he declared that ‘Om and Allah are similar’.
Following Arshad Madani’s address, some religious leaders who were present at the 34th general session of Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind reportedly exited the stage.
In a statement, Razvi said that Islam was a relatively new religion in India while Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism were much older.
“To equate Islam with Hinduism is factually and historically incorrect. Islam spread in India was Mughal rule spread and Sufis were mainly responsible for it. Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer, Khwaja Nazimuddin Chishti in Delhi, Masood Ghazi in Bahraich in Uttar Pradesh, Maulana Naqshbandi in Bangladesh helped in the spread of Islam,” he said.
The cleric further said that Allah and Om are two words with a different meanings.
“Om is made up of three letters that refer to Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh while Allah refers to an entity that is pious and pure and has no relative,” he explained.
In a video posted by news agency ANI, Arshad Madani can be seen stating, “I asked dharma guru when there was no one, neither Shri Ram, nor Brahma, then whom did they worship to? Some folks said they used to adore Om. Then I explained that there is just one Om or Allah, and they are both the same, and it is the only thing Manu used to worship. There was no Shiv, no Brahma, but only one Om, and Allah was worshipped. Om is known as Allah by us, Ishwar by you (Hindus), Khuda by Persian-speaking people, and God by English-speaking people.”
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