What does Islam say to a Buddhist who found his faith through meditation?

Islam respects a sincere inner search. From an Islamic point of view there is much to suggest that Buddha was a messenger of God whose teaching at its core matches that of the Holy Qur’an. Man comes from God, lives with Him and returns to Him.

Anyone who finds a new way of seeing his life through meditation, and breaks with parts of his former life for it, has taken a serious step. Islam knows such paths. Someone who becomes a Muslim also often lets go of old habits step by step and gives his life a new direction. Stillness, reflection and the remembrance of God have a firm place in Islam along the way.

The deeper question, however, is what Buddhism is at its core. Today many understand it as a teaching without God, while others worship many deities. Over the course of history Buddha has been given very different roles, and many of them do not fit the oldest testimonies.

An important testimony are the inscriptions of the emperor Ashoka, a faithful follower of Buddha, which he had placed on rocks and stupas throughout his empire. They present Buddha neither as a god nor as a denier of God. The ancient Buddhist scriptures, too, alongside much that is contradictory, contain clear statements that Buddha believed in God and in a life to come.

According to these scriptures Buddha taught that man comes from God, lives with God on earth and returns to Him. This is exactly what the Holy Qur’an teaches. Man returns to God, but spiritually he can only find his way to Him if he already lives with Him in this life. So from an Islamic point of view there is much to suggest that Buddha was one of the messengers God sent to all peoples.

For someone who has searched in meditation, this can be an invitation. The peace he longs for is described in the first verse above as the peace of the heart in the remembrance of God.