Muslim scholar’s discourse on Buddhism: a literature on Buddha’s position

¹ PhD Candidate, Centre for Akidah and Global Peace, Faculty of Islamic Studies, The National University of Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia and Lecturer at Department of Social Sciences, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Nilai University. Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia.
² Assoc. Professor at Centre for Akidah and Global Peace, Faculty of Islamic Studies, The National University of Malaysia and Senior Fellow at The Institute of Islam Hadhari, The National University of Malaysia, Selangor Malaysia.
³ Senior Lecturer at Centre for Akidah and Global Peace, Faculty of Islamic Studies, The National University of Malaysia, Selangor Malaysia.

^* Corresponding author: ahmadfaizuddin@outlook.com

Abstract

The coexistence of Islam and Buddhism relation took place in the middle of the 8th century. Although both religions originated from different sources, Muslims scholars were the first to study about Buddhism. Inspired by selected verses in the Quran, Muslims scholars recognized an element of similarity of Buddha’s teaching with Islamic teaching. This paper examines the views of Muslim scholars on Buddha’s position in the Islamic tradition in early and contemporarily literature. The method of this study is qualitative by emphasizing on contain analysis using three research design: philological, historical, and theological. Among the early Muslim scholars discussed in this paper are al-Baladhuri (d. 892), al-Biruni (973-1048 AD), Ibn al-Nadim (995 AD), al-Shahrastani (1086-1153 AD), al-Ṭabarī (838-923 AD), al-Hamadhani (1247-1318 AD), and the contemporary Muslim scholars is Muhammad Hamidullah (1908-2002), Hamid Abdul Qadir (1957), Hamza Yusuf (1958 –), Shah Reza Kazemi (1960 –), and Imtiyaz Yusuf. The study suggests the position of Buddha as a prophet in the Islamic tradition are justified based on selected terms in the Quran like tīn, Dhu al-Kifl and ṣābi’īn. This paper concludes that there is a strong relation between Islam and Buddhism in early Islamic literature.