Hello, friends! I will tell you a religious story and you have to guess the names of the main characters in this story. This is the story of a man who has a name with the last two letters being 'AM'.
This man had a wife whose name started with S. The husband and wife were exiled from their city and they travelled far towards the south. A relative of this man traveled with them whose name starts with L.
On their journey, a king from a faraway kingdom takes the woman with him. The last letter of the king's name is N. There are many other things in the story, but in short, the woman is freed and escapes from the king's captivity.
The man and woman then return. Can you fill in the blanks here? You can pause the video and think for a few seconds.
You might think it's an easy question this is the story of Ramayana in which the characters are Ram, Sita, Lakshman, and Ravan. But how would it feel if I say that these fill-in-the-blanks fit in another story. Where our characters are Abraham, Sarah, Lot, and Pharaoh.
This is the story of Prophet Abraham. A common prophet in Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. A while ago I made a video on Ramayana which was liked a lot by you.
If you haven't seen it, I'll put the link in the description below. You can go and watch it later. So, continuing with this religion series, in today's episode, let's talk about Prophet Abraham.
Now, some of you might have wondered what was the point of making videos on religions? That too in today's world. Friends, I believe that looking at today's world, I feel that it is necessary to make videos on religions.
Because religion has become something that is being exploited in terribly by politicians and media to spread fear among people. Using religion alone, hatred is being spread among people. And I think videos do a good job of countering it.
The more people from different religions learn about other religions the more will we be able to relate to each other. The more love and brotherhood will develop among people. So let's start today's story which is common in three religions.
Many people believe that Prophet Abraham was the first figure to preach monotheism. Monotheism means to believe in only one God. Its opposite is polytheism.
Polytheism means that you believe that there are many gods. Monotheists say that there is only one God. These three religions, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, are classified as Abrahamic religions.
And the word 'Abrahamic' is derived from Prophet Abraham. Many people believe that Prophet Abraham was the first prophet. Especially Jews believe this.
Many Christians also believe this. But on the other hand, some Christians say that it was not Abraham but Enoch who was the first prophet. Genesis chapter 5 verse 22 says that "Enoch walked with God for 300 years.
" Genesis is actually the first book of the Bible. Enoch is said to be a descendant of Adam. And Adam is believed to be the first human being by the believers of these three religions.
Muslims believe that Adam was the first Prophet. So, let's start our story with the story of Adam and Eve. You must have heard the names Adam and Eve somewhere.
Adam is also called Aadm. And it is believed that God created him from the soil. God gave him breath and he became a living being.
Throughout this video, I will use different words to refer to God, but they will mean the same entity because we are talking about monotheism. So, irrespective of the word, we're referring to the one God. In the 1500s, there was a very famous painter Michelangelo.
He made this historic painting which can be found in the Vatican City Museum today. He wants to show in this painting how God created Adam. After creating Adam, he was placed in the Garden of Eden.
There were two trees in the garden. The first tree was called the Tree of Life and the other was called the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. God told him to eat whatever he wanted but not to eat any fruit from the other tree.
That was the one condition. Then God thought that the man would feel very lonely there should be some helper with him. So after this, God made animals and birds from the soil.
But there was no suitable helper. Then God sent Adam to sleep and when he was sleeping, He took out a bone from his body and made a woman out of that bone. Adam named this woman Eve.
Eve is also called Ava which means life. One day, a snake came and tried to mislead Eve into eating forbidden fruit. The tree whose fruits were forbidden by God the snake said that eating those fruits would enlighten them.
That they will become like God. Tricked by the snake, Eve ate that fruit and fed it to her husband Adam. And when God came to know about this, He was angry.
In anger, He curses them. The snake was cursed that it will keep crawling on his stomach all its life and will eat dust all its life. The woman was cursed that she will have to give birth to children.
And while giving birth to children, she will have to endure intense labor pains. And Adam was cursed to having to work for his entire life. He will have to work hard to earn a living.
And with this, Adam and Eve were thrown out of the Garden of Eden. And they spend the rest of their lives on Earth. It's a very interesting story.
It has been referred to many times in pop culture movies. One movie that I saw was called Knowing. It is a science fiction movie from 2009.
At the end of this movie, Adam and Eve were shown. But if we move ahead in our story, then after thousands of years, the population of humans increases on earth and God starts looking at humans. And seeing everything, God thinks that humans had become very evil.
They were becoming worse. God starts regreting creating humans. Who turned out so evil.
He decides to wipe out the whole earth. All the humans, animals, and birds, He wanted to end all. But in the meantime, there was a good person Noah.
Christians call him Noah and Muslims call him Nuh. So, in the eyes of God, Noah was a very good person. So, God decided to tell him His plans.
He told Noah that He was going to cause a great flood on earth. A great flood will come. Everything will be wiped out.
He told him to make a big boat. He told him to get on the boat, and to bring his wife, their three sons, and their wives. And apart from this, to bring a male and a female of each living organism, on his ark.
And obviously, he was asked to take sufficient food with them, for everyone to survive. So, God waited for Noah to make this boat (ark), and when it was completely built, there was a flood on the entire earth. It rained continuously for 40 days and 40 nights.
Everything on Earth was submerged under water for 150 days. But Noah's Ark was afloat on the water and the people on it were alive. Finally, the boat reached the mountain of Ararat.
It was the only dry land. With time, the water starts receding and all the people on this ark came out and got a new chance to live. I would like to refer to another science fiction film which had an indirect reference to Noah's Ark the film 2012.
At the end of this film, everything was submerged under water but some ships were built in which some people were able to survive. If you notice, many Hollywood films have parts of the story which are inspired by religious scriptures. Many of them are direct films like the film 'Noah' which is based on this story.
But in our story, Noah made an offering to God. He asks God to promise that He will never destroy life like that again. Now, the interesting thing is that there is a similar story in Hinduism.
The story of King Manu. A small fish asks for protection from King Manu. And when the King saved it, the fish kept growing.
According to the Puranas, this fish was actually Matsya, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu. This fish tells King Manu that a big flood was about to come, and everything will be destroyed. And tells him to make a boat to survive.
So King Manu built a huge boat which carried many living creatures, plants, and Saptarishis. And when the great flood came, they could survive because of the boat. And the Matsya awatar guided them safely to the Himalayas.
Now, another mind-blowing thing is that in the ancient civilization of Mesopotamia, there is a similar story written in the scriptures found there. The Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh. Here, a great sage Utnapishtim was warned about a great flood and he saved his relatives, living creatures, and food in a huge boat.
Not only that, in Greek mythology, due to the anger of God Zeus, a great flood comes. Deucalion was warned about this flood by his father Prometheus. Deucalion and his wife built a boat to escape the flood.
Moving on with the story, we come to Abram. There is a famous story of Abram when he broke the idols. This story is not mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, but it is mentioned in Midrash Genesis Rabbah chapter 38.
Midrash is basically a commentary on the Bible by a Jewish Rabbi. We will find this story in chapter 21, verses 51-70 of the Qur'an with some differences. The basic story is that it was the era when people used to worship idols.
Abram's father, Terah, was a man who made the idols. And worshipped them. One day, Abram's father went on a trip far away and left Abram in charge of his shop.
A man came to the shop to buy an idol. Abram asks him for his age. 50 years, said the man.
"50 years? ", said Abram. Abram said that a 50 years old man would be worshipping an idol which is not even older than 1 year.
Hearing this, the man was embarrassed and left the shop. On another occasion, when no other person was present, Abram picked up a stick and broke all the idols. And then he placed that stick in the hands of the biggest idol.
When people return, they were shocked. Some say that Abram must have done it because he always criticised worshipping idols. They asked Abram why he did it.
Abram replied that the idols were actually fighting with each other. And that the biggest idol picked up the stick and broke all the smaller idols. Abram told the people to ask the biggest idol why he broke the others.
People called out his bluff. They said that the idols cannot fight with each other. Neither can they speak.
So, Abram's asked, "Why do you worship these idols when these statues cannot speak or do anything? You will not gain anything from it, nor will you suffer any loss from it. " Abram was ordered to go into a big fire.
And if Abram was right, the real God will save him. So Abram went into that fire and God saved him. Because of this story, idols are not worshipped in Judaism and Islam.
And some conservative Muslims, in fact, some conservative Hindus also say that because Hindus worship idols, Hindus are 'Kafirs' for Muslims. How true is this? If you look closely, Hindus don't worship idols.
They worship God through the idol. It's like you remember your father by looking at his photo. You remember your father through the photo and show him your love.
But it doesn't mean that you forget your actual father and start showing love only to this physical photo and start remembering the photo. Similarly, every Hindu knows that God is being worshipped through the idols. The physical idol is not being actually worshipped.
Acharya Prashanth gave a good answer to this when I spoke to him. "The idol has been a successful experiment. The idol has been a good means to reach the formless.
And when the idol is worshipped, it is never said that the idol is the true God. It is said that I will use this idol to reach the true God. I will use the idol to reach the formless.
" Even Christians do not consider this to be wrong. This is the reason why you will find Jesus and Mary's idols in many churches. Many passages are cited by them to prove this.
Chapter 20, verse 4 and 5 in Exodus of the Hebrew Bible, it is written that God has forbidden to make idols of any other thing. He has forbidden bowing down before idols. It should be noted that it is not God's idols it is forbidden to bow down before idols of other things.
Now, let's move 5 chapters ahead. Chapter 25, verse 17 to 22 says, God himself commands Prophet Moses to make a mercy seat of pure gold. To make idols of Cherub on both sides.
God says that he will speak to Moses from among these statues. This is not the only example. Another book, Hebrew Bible Ezekiel, chapter 41, verse 25.
Read the description of the Temple of Jerusalem. There were carvings of cherub and palm trees on the doors and walls. So it doesn't seem like God has a problem with us using his photos or making his idols.
As long as we use those things to worship God. Not to worship those idols or photos. Quran Surah 4 Ayat 48 is often quoted as the quote to show that Quran is against making idols.
Here too we see that "Do not associate partners with God. That is, don't worship anyone other than God. This sentiment is seen in Chapter 31 Ayat 13 of the Qur'an Worship only God.
So to say that all Muslims consider all non-Muslims to be Kafirs is a wrong notion. The people who want to spread hatred are the ones who spread such misinformation. The meaning of the word 'Islam' is Submission before God.
Submitting before God. And the meaning of the word 'Muslim' is the one who submits before God. That is why from the perspective of a liberal Muslim any person who believes in any religion is a Muslim.
Because in his religion, whatever name he has given to God he is worshipping the God and submitting to him. This is not my personal opinion, this is how it is. Even at that time, there were many other religions in Arabia.
If you see chapter 2, verse 62 of the Qur'an it says that Jews, Christians, and Sabians were counted among the believers. These were the people who believed in God. It mentions fighting only those people who believe an idol to be God.
Around 600 AD, there was a tribe called the Quraysh tribe. They lived in the region of Saudi Arabia. They believed that their central god was Hubal.
Which was actually an idol made of stone and whose right hand was broken. Quraysh tribe replaced its right hand with a golden hand. With a hand made of gold.
Now this idol was actually broken by Prophet Muhammad in 630 AD. Don't confuse mythological stories and actual history. What I just told you is actual, proven history.
And the stories before that were mythological and biblical stories. If we talk about ancient Egyptians, they worshipped the jackal gods. Like Anubis and Wepwawet.
And apart from stone idols, another type of idol worship has been mentioned in the Quran. To idolize something. Like in chapter 18, verse 32 to verse 46, a warning has been given.
"Don't idolize your property or wealth. Don't worship your wealth. " In chapter 25, it has also been said that people often turn their desire, their ego into God.
And you will find the same warning in Hinduism. In Hinduism, even though we get to see different forms of God, we get to see different avatars of God, but in Bhagavad Gita chapter 10, it is mentioned that Lord Krishna is saying, but we get to see mention of monotheism in Rigveda, Mandal 1, Shlok 46. "The Rishi is called by many names Agni, Yam, Indra, Varun" Look at Chapter 32 of Yajurveda.
It is written that "He is Agni, Aditya, which is Sun, He is Vayu, Chandrama, Jal, There is no one like him. His name is great, He is in all beings. Before him there was nothing.
All people have been created by that God. " Similarly, if we talk about the other meaning, then in the texts of different religions whether it is Hinduism, Buddhism or Christianity, it is mentioned in the scriptures to never idolize your ego. To never worship your material desires or wealth.
So you can see how these things mentioned in different religions align with each other. How similar these religions are to each other fundamentally. But one thing is worth mentioning.
Even though in Islam, Christianity or Judaism the people of other religions are not kafirs but atheists are definitely kafirs. People who don't believe in any god are definitely called kafirs. Why am I saying this?
Because the word kafir means the same thing. Kufr means disbelief and kafir means one who disbelieves in God. A person who doesn't believe in God.
But does this mean that we should kill all the non-believers? There are only two ways people can say such things to you. First, psychopaths.
The terrorists who actually want to kill people. And second, people who spread WhatsApp propaganda who want to instil fear in people. What is actually written in religious scriptures?
Quran chapter 9 verse 5 says, Kill the Mushrik, meaning disbelievers, wherever you find them. You will find such lines in many religious scriptures. Hebrew Bible, Book 1: Samuel, Chapter 15 conveys the message of God to Saul.
"Now go attack the Amalekites, and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them. " In Christianity, Gospel of Mattew Chapter 10 Verses 34-36.
Jesus tells his disciples "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. " Bhagavad Gita Chapter 2 Shloka 31 to 38.
Lord Krishna tells Arjun, "Happy are the Kshatriyas, the warriors to whom such fighting opportunities come unsought, opening for them the doors of the heavenly planets. " Such calls for violence can be found in almost every religious scripture. If I start explaining all of it, it will be a long video.
But in short, all these lines of scriptures are very heavily contextual. If you read it out of context, you will feel that it is true that they are promoting violence. But if you read it in context, you will understand the context it is being discussed in.
For example, when Lord Krishna tells Arjun, he says that when the Mahabharata war was going on, when Prophet Muhammad tells his followers, it is being said in the context of the fight with Quraysh tribe. The same thing is applicable in the case of Samuel. And the line of Jesus here has a metaphorical meaning.
Actually, in any scripture, it is not said that one should go and start killing innocent people. It is another thing that the terrorists and orthodox people in every religion, deliberately misinterpret these religion scriptures. And present them in such a way that people are influenced to do violence.
People start to hate. In our country, we see such great Islamic scholars like Wahiduddin Khan who was awarded the Padma Vibhushan award by the Indian government in 2021. He says that Islam is the religion of peace and tolerance.
He conveys this message to people. And on the other hand, there are people like terrorist Osama Bin Laden who brainwash people by saying that Islam tells you to kill. Similarly, if you learn Hinduism from the right scholars, you will learn love and affection.
But if you listen to the evil people, they will misrepresent these verses of the Gita in a way that will force you to take up arms. "Nowhere is it written that religion demands violence. And you should be alerted of this that there is a centralized conspiracy unit that is plotting such conspiracies of using something that is not even written in the scriptures by writing it in Sanskrit and spreading it through WhatsApp and other sources.
" Now let's talk about the 4th story of Abram which I talked about at the beginning of the video. The same story which was quite similar to the Ramayana. But if you go into the details, it is not that similar.
It is just a coincidence that there were so many similarities. In this story, God told Abram to leave his home and go in search of a place that God is going to show him. Abram, his wife Sarai, and his nephew Lot, leave their home.
It was by chance that Abram, was very similar to Ram, Sarai to Sita and Lot to Lakshman. They go to many places and finally, take turn towards Egypt to escape a famine. When they were about to enter Egypt, Abram tells his wife, "I know how beautiful you are.
When the Egyptians see you, they will see that you are my wife and they might kill me. While keeping you alive. But if we say that you are not my wife, but my sister, then they will treat me well and my life will be saved.
" The kings of Egypt at that time were known as Pharaohs. The Pharaoh's officials saw Sarai, praise her and take her to their palace. Because Abram said that he was her brother, Abram gets good treatment and Abram was given many sheep, cattle, donkeys, servants, and camels.
But suddenly, Pharaoh's house was hit by a lot of serious diseases. So, Pharaoh suddenly calls Abram and asks, "What have you done to me? Why didn't you tell me that she was your wife?
Why did you say that she was your sister? I had made her my wife. But now, take your wife and go back.
" So, on Pharaoh's orders, Abram and his wife and whatever they had, were sent out of Egypt. After this, Abram went to Negev and Bethel. and the shepherds of Abram and Lot start fighting with each other.
So, Abram and Lot went their separate ways. At this point, Abram lived on the land of Canaan. Abram and Sarai did not have a child.
Sarai gave Abram her slave woman Hagar and a child was born, and he was named Ishmael. God makes an agreement with Abram that he would be the father of many nations. Because of this God renamed Abram and names him Abraham.
This is the reason why I was calling Abraham as Abram. Because it was only after this story that Abram was named Abraham and Sarai was named Sarah. God promised Abraham all the land of Canaan.
And what is the description of Canaan exactly? These are the places that range from the valley of Egypt to the Euphrates River. That is the present-day Israel, West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, and Syria and Lebanon's southern areas.
They were all part of this land. All of this is considered to be a part of this land. What is the connection with actual history?
When the Zionist movement started in Israel, the Zionists said that the land promised by God was for the Jews. So when Jews were prosecuted in Europe for centuries, they moved here in 1900 after that. Moving forward in the story, God promised Sarah that He will give her a son.
And then Isaac is born. By this time, the child Ishmael did not have a good attitude. So Sarah told Abraham to send him away.
Abraham hesitates whether or not to send his son away. But when he asks God, God told him to send Ishmael away. The slave woman Hagar went with her son Ishmael to the desert.
God arranged water for them and promised Hagar that one day her son will make a great nation. Jews and Christians believe that they are the descendants of Isaac. And Muslims believe that they are the descendants of Ishmael.
This is the point of the story from which these Abrahamic religions separate from each other. Jews believe that Isaac had a son named Jacob. Who was later renamed Israel.
And that Israel was actually the ancestor of 12 tribes of Israel. That's why today all the Jews believe that they are actually the descendants of Isaac's son Jacob. On the other hand, in Christianity, Jesus is the most important prophet.
Christians believe that Jesus is actually the descendant of Isaac. And because they believe in Jesus, they consider themselves a spiritual descendant of Isaac. Third, Muslims believe that Abraham and Ishmael together built the Kaaba in Mecca.
which is the most sacred site of Islam. That's why Muslims trace back their spiritual lineage to Ishmael. So these were some interesting stories about these three Abrahamic religions.
You can comment below whether you liked them or not. If you liked them, what other religious videos would you like to see? There are many stories to tell.
The story of Prophet Joseph, the story of Moses, the Ten Commandments, and the conquest of Canaan by Joshua. And then fast-forwarding to the storied of Prophet Jesus and Prophet Muhammad. And apart from this, there are other religions like Buddhism, Jainism, and Zoroastrianism.
On which religion would you want the next video to be? Tell me in the comments. You can enjoy this video of Ramayan by clicking here.
Thank you very much!
