Something is wrong with our religions–Or its interpretation–Or our understanding–something is really screwed up somewhere. Islam is a big part of our world’s religion. But it says–“There is no God but Allah”! Is that a monopoly implying thereby that only a Muslim interpretation of God is supreme? But then we have Hindus sayings: your God is my God too, for God is same to all. We have people saying, my God tells me that. Is religion a soccer game, best scorer is the best sorcerer of Faith? I think anything that divides two people based on anything, declaring one as pure others as worthless must be rejected in toto. The religious divide makes accountability very hard. For everyone feels that one would be accountable not to other persons God, but to one own God. A Christian would not feel accountable to Allah, as long as he sees his God different and similarly a Muslim would not feel accountable to Brahma, for his God is different. There is no ready religiously understood secular principle of accountability. As long as accountability is maintained to different Gods, universal principles would not be found. We will continue to see massacres, fractured identity crisis and a tumultuous world. People are weirdly goaded in religious pursuits. This “fnk”  God hunt has given more problems than solutions. While we suffer killing each others, our Gods are sitting in heavens, enjoying the bliss. Some religion tells us to not to question, but to follow. Recently I had a very sweet lady come by my office and told me to read Koran and give up all other scriptures. I asked her the reason for such a suggestion. She said as we gave up our landlines for telephone calls and now use cell phones, similarly, we must give up old religions and embrace the new one and the newest religion is Islam. I told her that I will look into it. I might be very jealous of her that she is firmly established in her theory, thesis and theme of her practice. I, on the other hand, doubt, for I am friends with “Akbar of Rational.”  She might be very happy with her practice, but I am free!  I am so free that suffering anywhere is suffering to me. I am so free that I can easily step into someone else’s shoes and see what they see, for I have no walls around me, I am not a prisoner of any ideologies. I know that I will not be accountable to one God, which I might have had or will have, but I am accountable to all Gods and to all creation. The entire world is suffering and one who is accountable to all those suffering is the highest penance and is the highest service to anyone’s God. For a change let us render our accountability to people and not worry about ours or their Gods. We pray for peace– for peace of Paris victims’ families and peace even of those killers. Allama Iqbal had beautiful lines for such a “weapons of war”–he said, “Love.”

Yaqeen mohkam, amal peham,
mohabbat faateh-e-alam,
Jihad-e-zindagani mein
hain yeh mardon ki shamsheerain.

In man’s crusade of life these weapons has he: Conviction that his cause is just;
Resolution to strive till eternity; Compassion that embraces all humanity.