Why I Was a Muslim But Now a Hindu

This is the inner voice of a truth-seeking Muslim. It is not my personal conversion story. I merely give them the crucial clarity and honest direction they need amidst noise and coercion.

The Question That Changed Me (Yaksha Prashna | यक्ष प्रश्न)

Why should I remain a Muslim when everything good in Islam is already in the Vedas, without the contradictions that the Zakir Naiks cannot explain?

Background

I was an ordinary but committed Muslim, sold on all the ideas and notions marketed by the Zakir Naiks and emphasised by Maulanas to prove that Islam is the only and best path to divinity.

As I probed deeper, I realised there is a better and more honest path: the Vedas.

The Good, the Contradictions and the Vedas

Explore the 7 arguments

• 1. Submit to God. Why surrender your brain?
• 2. Why make later accounts the final word?
• 3. If he could change his position, why can’t you?
• 4. One God. Why the compulsory addition?
• 5. “In the name of Dayanand”!
• 6. Why stop at hints when the Vedas are within reach?
• 7. Carry the courage of Ashfaqullah forward

1. Submit to God. Why surrender your brain?

I was told that Muslim means “one who submits to God”. Very few words convey a meaning equal to that of Muslim: humble, free of ego, trusting God to do what is needed.

Yet what I see in reality is that, instead of trusting God, Muslims are taught by preachers and Maulanas to impose God on others to get Heaven or face Hell. Zakir Naik says that unless you convert others, you will face the eternal fire of Hell.

Where is the humility in believing that God is incapable of awakening minds Himself and must depend on low-IQ Maulanas and stuttering parrots like Zakir Naik to spread His message?

This anti-humility, or arrogance, is why radical Islam has been a problem as far back in history as you look. What was so humble about what Bin Qasim did, or Ghazni, or Aurangzeb, or Maududi?

I realised later that “submits to God” means blindly surrendering the brain to those gutka-chewing, semi-literate Maulanas of Jamaat-e-Islami or Ahle Hadees who believe in 72 virgins waiting for them in Paradise.

Arya: the promise fulfilled

By contrast, there is a wonderful word in the Vedas that means humble, noble and rational, seeking the good of all without biases or hallucinations of virgins. It is Arya आर्य.

Arya means what we were sold as the meaning of Muslim. And much more. It means submitting to the infinite power that powers our minds: the power that inspires scientists, researchers, people devoted to helping others, and the great figures who seek Him in the laws of nature, their actions, thoughts and efforts.

It means submitting to social discipline and believing that:

• All living beings are one family.
• The entire earth is one home.
• We must seek the good of all, irrespective of region, religion, gender, race or colour.

Of course, it rightly means we also destroy those nefarious forces that kill in the name of blasphemy and apostasy, like Al Qaeda and ISIS, and their softer versions that are merely waiting for a chance.

In summary, ordinary Muslims who genuinely want to submit to God must choose the path of the Vedas and become Arya, or Hindu.

If all Muslims accepted this Arya concept of humility alone, the world would be a much lovelier place! Arrogance or rigidity, sometimes even in the face of compelling evidence, has ruined the world. If people accept humble submission to truth, logic, reason and facts, the evidence of God, that alone can guarantee peace and happiness for us all.

2. Why make later accounts the final word?

Hadiths, Tafseers and Seerats tell me certain things about the founder of Islam: that he was one of the most influential and dynamic figures in history, and that his transformation of a barbaric and characterless Arab society against all odds is an example for us all.

Their own accounts place the Quran’s collection after his death. The major Hadith collections came much later. Companions whose testimony we are asked to trust also fought one another. Why must their accounts become our final authority?

These later accounts make several claims:

• He was illiterate or less educated.
• They attribute unusual symptoms to him during revelations. Compare those accounts with medical descriptions of temporal lobe seizures. Why should a claim of revelation be exempt from medical scrutiny?
• He had many wives. One was merely nine when the marriage was consummated. Another was much older than him.

Why should we trust all this when it defies modern science and the best public-health and social practices? One can consider him a reformer for his time and place if these accounts are indeed true. But why should these unscientific claims, recorded after his death, be considered the final message of God for all time?

Principles beyond stories

By contrast, the Vedas are still retained as they are, despite being the oldest texts in the world. Not a change of intonation. And they contain no history. They offer:

• Foundational principles and wisdom that do not violate the laws of nature.
• A call to explore, discover and keep an open mind.
• A clear rejection of polygamy, child marriage and miracles as ignorance to be fought.

My pursuit of eternal wisdom beyond stories, independent of spurious traditions and consistent with science and reason, led me back to the original roots of human wisdom: the Veda Samhitas.

Hence, I started as a Muslim but am now a Hindu.

3. If he could change his position, why can’t you?

I am told that the founder of Islam had the humility and honesty to reverse his own earlier positions at times. We find several occasions when he withdrew earlier advice and brought fresh insights. This is the mark of a great man.

He died at 63. Bukhari records him attributing his pain during his final illness to poison. The infighting after him eventually reached his own family: Husain’s severed head was brought before Ibn Ziyad in a tray.

Why accept what his warring followers froze in place? Had he lived longer, why would he not have offered fresh insights, revised earlier advice and benefited the world still further?

Why not take inspiration from his changes of stance and go further? Look forward. Accept truth with grace, even when it disproves a position you have long held.

This one trait of the founder of Islam can take us all miles ahead. It is a quality all Muslims must strongly develop: reject what is discovered to be untrue and embrace what is now known to be true.

This Satyameva Jayate सत्यमेव जयते is the foundation of Vedic Dharma, or Hinduism. The Vedas say:

इदम् अहम् अनृतात् सत्यम् उपैमि

Now I will reject what I have realised was false and embrace truth. And I will keep doing so until I reach eternal truth.

This is the spirit of science. This is the spirit of Hinduism. Hence, I am Hindu now. Every Muslim who wants to follow the true Islam of its founder, to keep changing one’s stance for the better, must embrace the Vedas.

4. One God. Why the compulsory addition?

The Quran’s core conception of God, or Tauheed, agrees so closely with the Vedas. Like them, it affirms that God is One, formless, ageless, perfect, unchanging, just and kind. Such a God alone deserves worship.

The second principle of Arya Samaj, summarised by Swami Dayanand from the Vedas, echoes this Quranic concept of God:

“God is existent, intelligent and blissful. He is formless, omniscient, just, merciful, unborn, endless, unchangeable, beginning-less, unequalled, the support of all, the master of all, omnipresent, immanent, un-aging, immortal, fearless, eternal and holy, and the maker of all. He alone is worthy of being worshiped.”

True Islam should stick to this Ishopanishad root. By forcibly including the founder in the Kalma, they dilute the core principle. Remembering him as someone who gave the Arab society of that era this principle is welcome. But insisting that he must always be included alongside God in the Kalma creates an unsolvable paradox in the claim of Oneness.

The Ishopanishad foundation resolves this paradox completely. Hence, it is clearly the perfect form of what the founder wanted to teach the illiterate Arabs of his time. The Vedas are the future. Hence, I am Hindu.

5. “In the name of Dayanand”!

Practically all chapters of the Quran open with “b-ismi-llāhi r-raḥmāni r-raḥīm”, invoking Allah as compassionate (Daya giver) and merciful (Anand giver). Was the Quran preparing its readers for Dayanand?

As if whoever wrote the Quran foresaw that someone named Dayanand would come and teach the true religion, the Vedas, in times to come. Maharshi Dayanand Saraswati, born in the 19th century, has been the greatest propagator of the Oneness of God rooted in the Vedas. He also wrote the first comprehensive analysis of the Quran in his marvellous book, Satyarth Prakash.

Indeed, Satyarth Prakash should be the true religious book for Muslims today!

6. Why stop at hints when the Vedas are within reach?

The Quran itself speaks of life, death and life again. Why stop there? Examine the Vedic account of rebirth instead of declaring the inquiry closed.

The Quran also speaks of soul, God and nature as immortal and undying, exactly as the Vedas teach and as modern science has discovered: nothing that exists can be destroyed.

It seems the founder had some hint of Vedic concepts. Maybe a distorted version of them was the faith there before Islam. The world suffered a great loss because geographical barriers prevented him from coming closer to Eastern philosophies during his short life.

But we do not have those barriers today. Clearly, the Vedas are what the Quran, stripped of miracles, stories, radical beliefs and contradictions, hints at. Hence, the Vedas, or Hinduism, must be the honest path for all truth-seeking Muslims.

7. Carry the courage of Ashfaqullah forward

I am inspired by the sacrifice of my role model Ashfaqullah Khan. He was the right hand of the legendary freedom fighter Ram Prasad Bismil, who was famed for conducting Shuddhi: the formal induction of Muslims into Hinduism.

Ashfaqullah’s friendship with the staunch Arya Samaji Bismil ran so deep that, even in distress, he called out “Ram-Ram” for his friend. It is an example for us all to follow. His dying wish was to take birth again to serve Bharat Mata, and he rejected foreign roots. Read more in Ram Prasad Bismil’s autobiography.

To further the legacy of such Muslim heroes, Shuddhi is the way forward for Muslims: be Hindu, be nationalists, be bhakts of Ram, be Vedic.

Developed from the foundational works of Maharshi Dayanand Saraswati and scholars in his intellectual tradition.

In Essence

• The honest path for Muslims is to embrace the Vedas as the roots of wisdom and the path ahead.
• Honour the founder’s greatness by rejecting what is false and unscientific and embracing what is true and reasonable. Make this a lifelong principle.
• The entire world is one pariwar, one family, irrespective of region, religion, gender or race. Imbibe वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम्: the whole world is my family.
• Reject the spurious claims of fanatics and unscientific minds. Be Vedic. Be Hindu, rooted in the Vedas.

The Question You Must Answer

If you accept truth as your master, why let an inherited label decide how far you may follow it?

What You Must Do: Embrace the Vedas. Live the Change.

Take the next step with the courage to learn, question and change. Read the Vedas. Study Satyarth Prakash. Compare the claims. Follow what stands up to reason.

1. Make truth your daily discipline. Reject what you discover to be false. Keep learning. Bring that honesty into your decisions, relationships and public life.
2. Choose Vedic Dharma with conviction. Embrace the freedom to inquire, the responsibility to act and the vision of the whole world as one family. Let that choice show in how you live.
3. Carry the invitation forward. Share the sources with truth-seeking Muslims and others. Challenge prejudices. Explain why the Vedas are the path ahead. Invite others to learn and lead alongside you.
4. Build with us. Connect with me through Rashtra Jyoti. Help people question honestly, recognise merit across religious identities and work together. Turn understanding into teaching, service and organised action.

This is Karma Yoga, the Vedic path to anand: humility in learning, courage in action, and stronger bonds between people.

Be Arya in thought. Be Vedic in action. Make your life the argument.

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Sources44 references

Explore the references used in this article. Open a source to inspect the reference.

1. Quran 3:85quran.com
2. Quran 2:128quran.com
3. Zakir Naik: Responsibility of Muslims in a Non-Muslim Societyzakirnaik.com
4. Jami at-Tirmidhi 1663sunnah.com
5. Yajurveda 36.18; original Sanskritvishvasa.github.io
6. Rigveda 9.63.5; original Sanskritsanskritdocuments.org
7. Atharvaveda 12.1, Prithvi Sukta; especially 12.1.12 and 12.1.45; original Sanskritvedicheritage.gov.in
8. Sunan Abi Dawud 4361sunnah.com
9. Sahih al-Bukhari 6922 | Apostatessunnah.com
10. Sahih al-Bukhari 4986 | Collection of the Quransunnah.com
11. Hadith reference: bukhari/aboutsunnah.com
12. Sahih al-Bukhari 7083sunnah.com
13. Quran 29:48quran.com
14. Sahih al-Bukhari 2sunnah.com
15. Mayo Clinic: temporal lobe seizure symptomsmayoclinic.org
16. Sahih al-Bukhari 5068sunnah.com
17. Sahih al-Bukhari 5134sunnah.com
18. Traditional account of the marriage to Khadijaislam.museum
19. Yajurveda 34.5; original Sanskritvishvasa.github.io
20. Atharvaveda 7.38.4; original Sanskritvedicheritage.gov.in
21. Atharvaveda 11.5.18; original Sanskrittransliteral.org
22. Sahih Muslim 977asunnah.com
23. Sahih Muslim 2363sunnah.com
24. Sahih al-Bukhari 4466sunnah.com
25. Sahih al-Bukhari 4428sunnah.com
26. Sahih al-Bukhari 3748sunnah.com
27. Mundaka Upanishad 3.1.6; original Sanskritsanskritdocuments.org
28. Yajurveda 1.5; original Sanskritvishvasa.github.io
29. Quran 112:1-4quran.com
30. Quran 42:11quran.com
31. Quran 57:3quran.com
32. Quran 4:40quran.com
33. Quran 1:5quran.com
34. Arya Samaj Foundation: the ten principlesaryasamaj.davchennai.org
35. Yajurveda 40.8; original Sanskritvishvasa.github.io
36. Sahih al-Bukhari 8sunnah.com
37. Quran 1:1quran.com
38. Arya Samaj: Maharshi Dayanand Saraswati, 1824-1883aryasamaj.com
39. Satyarth Prakash, chapter 14; PDF page 428aryasamaj.davchennai.org
40. Quran 2:28quran.com
41. Akashvani: Ashfaqulla Khan, revolutionary work and executionnewsonair.gov.in
42. Ram Prasad Bismil: autobiography, Ashfaq chaptergadyakosh.org
43. Syed Naseer Ahamed, Pandit Ramprasad Bismil - Ashfaqullah Khan (2017), printed page 22scribd.com
44. Arya Samaj Foundation: Satyarth Prakash editionsaryasamaj.davchennai.org

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कृण्वन्तो विश्वमार्यम् (Let’s make the world noble)

ॐ इदं न मम (This is not mine).