* Professor Pandit Vaid Parkash is a Hindu scholar who released a book in 1998 claiming that Muhammad ﷺ is mentioned in the Vedas (sacred Hindu books). Some of his findings are remarkable and Muslims have promoted his work. By accepting his evidence as true, Muslims would also have to conclude that these are revealed scriptures if Muhammad ﷺ is prophesised in them.
References
1. Al-Mawsu’at al-Fiqhiya, Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs, Kuwait, vol.7 p.140
2. Muhammad bn Idris al-Shafi’i, al-Umm, vol.4, p. 173 (cited in Fiqh al-Aqaliyat al-Muslima p.29)
3. Ali bn Ahmad bn Said Ibn Hazm, Al-Muhalla bi al-Aataar, Dar al-Fikr, vol.9, pp.12,17,18, and 144
Basir: Possibly, yes.
Zahir: What evidence do you have? They don’t even have a Sacred Book.
Basir: The Qur’an says every nation has had a prophet (13:7; 35:24). The absence of a written Book does not mean the absence of prophecy or Divine guidance. They may not have had a Book because they were a pre-literate culture, carrying truth in heart and memory rather than on parchment.
It is said the Red Man’s Book was virgin nature itself — the forests, the rivers, the animals, the open sky. No one has known that Book more deeply than them.
Zahir: Then isn’t that a contradiction? On the one hand, you argue that a Divine Book distinguishes People of the Book from pagans, yet now you say those without a Book — like the Red Indians — could be considered People of the Book.
Basir: Not a contradiction at all. The Native Americans had no Book because they were a pre-literate culture, but they must have had prophets. The Quraysh, on the other hand, had neither prophet nor Book until the coming of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Before him, they were pagans in the truest sense, whereas the Red Indians and the Hindus of India were probably not. Wallahu A‘lam.
Notes
* In pre-literate cultures, known as oral cultures, you will find that the language spoken is actually more impressive and majestic, and the spiritual presence more real and palpable. Ananda Coomaraswamy’s in 1949 titled The Bugbear of Literacy makes these points with great clarity, showing that even the lower classes spoke elegantly and recite poetry. Plato famously warned about the dangers of literacy in Greece, arguing that it would weaken both memory and wisdom - even though many were saying the opposite. In an oral culture, the written word can be more of a hindrance than an aid — like crutches forced upon those already walking upright.
The Perennialist argue that the confrontation between the Red race and the white European settlers was nothing less than a meeting of opposites: one of the most noble and spiritually chivalrous peoples against one of the most depraved and materialistic civilisations imaginable — a clash in which innocence met avarice, and reverence for the Sacred met the hunger to possess and consume. The Perennialist author, Ananda Coomaraswamy remarked in astonishment that such an extraordinary people could have existed in the latter days.
References
1. Al-Mawsu’at al-Fiqhiya, Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs, Kuwait, vol.7 p.140
2. Muhammad bn Idris al-Shafi’i, al-Umm, vol.4, p. 173 (cited in Fiqh al-Aqaliyat al-Muslima p.29)
3. Ali bn Ahmad bn Said Ibn Hazm, Al-Muhalla bi al-Aataar, Dar al-Fikr, vol.9, pp.12,17,18, and 144
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