Gurbani is All-Pervading, Gurbani is the Divinity Itself, Bani is the Guru. The Word constantly calls us to re-join the ongoing cosmic hymn, the ongoing creation through God’s utterance of the Word. The Sabd is inside all of us. We are the Amritsar, tank of nectar in which our mun, our minds should be dyed, rather than in the fading colours of worldly fears, terrors, and obsessions.
This links to the idea that anyone, not knowing anything about any religion can still meet God. The illustration is given of Dhruv who knowing nothing called on God and God came to save him. “Call on God however you will, for God is That which hears the footfall of an ant” my grandfather taught me in words that continue to haunt.
If the cosmic hymn inheres in all of Nature, what we call Gurbani is that which has soaked through the veil of creator and creation for those seekers who chose to look.
Collected by the first Nanak, and passed on in collections, Pothis, with commentary and new hymns from Nanak to Nanak till the 5th Nanak, i.e. Guru Arjun, arranged it all in one large text, and so it changed from Pothi (collection) to Granth (big book).
A special script – Gurmukhi – was developed to contain the various sounds from a variety of Indo-European, Semitic and other language families. It contains the approximate number of distinct sounds the human is capable of making and recording in script form, I joke not.
To complete the Islam series of compare and contrast, there are two traditions, one that the Qu’ran (literally ‘reading’ or ‘recitation’) was collected by Abu Bakr and the other under the Uthman though most Muslims believe it was Uthman, the third caliph, 644-656 who collected it from date-leaves, bits of parchment, tablets of white stone, and the hearts of men. In either case, it was after Muhammed was dead and buried. A problem arose about the lack of symbols for short vowels so that variant readings existed at the time and continue, “As we punished the dividers who broke up the Qu’ran into parts.” (15.90-91)
While Gurbani is revealed by the direct inspiration of God, Islamic concept of God precludes communication between God and people. Hence, in heaven is the original text (“the mother of the book”, 43.3; “a concealed book,” 55.77; a “well-guarded tablet,” 85.22) which comes down through tanzil “sending down” bit by bit (25.34) through Spirit (26.193), holy spirit (16.104), and later/ or later identified as, Gabriel (2.91). The ideas are dictated to the illiterate Prophet who then proclaims it to the world (87, 6).
The Qu’ran admits that he forgot some revelations (87, 7) and that unbelievers cast it up as a reproach to the Prophet that God appears to be substituting one verse for another (16.103). Equally, he ‘abrogated’ some verses, meaning that they no longer were relevant. (What would such verses be doing in the alleged perfect text contained in heaven!) The most famous example as the Satanic Verses which gave rise to the title of Salman Rushdie’s infamous book. In these, the Qu’ran states that three heathen goddesses are exalted beings possessing influence with Allah (two verses in 53). Later, he said that these verses were false and were given to him by Satan. But how did Satan get into the original book preserved in heaven?! “That this is the honourable Qu’ran, written on the Preserved Tablet, let no one touch it but the purified.” (56.77-78). Hm Satan purified! “We [Allah] have made it an Arabic Qu’ran that you may understand and it is a transcript of the Archetypal Book kept by us.” (43. 1-3) So, Satan crept into heaven, polluted the Book kept by God(!), which was written in Arabic, so people could understand…God is an Arab? The message is meant for Arabs? Everyone should learn Arabic, the sacred language? Gurbani observes that God is beyond language, the Guru Granth uses many languages to explain its message. Gurbani is God Itself, God the Unstruck Melody, Anhad Nad, calling you to unity. There is no question of God being polluted by any evil spirit.
While the use of illustrations of Buddhist, Hindu and Islamic tales in Gurbani tallies with those traditions understanding of the stories, the Qu’ran confuses Haman (the minister of Ahasuerus) for the minister of Pharoah (28.38), 40.38 et passim), and identifies Miriam the sister of Moses, with Mary, the mother of Jesus (3.31 et seq.). He makes the fertility of Egypt depend on rainwaters – where it is almost never seen and never missed – rather than the Nile (12.49). Moreover, no Jew has ever believed that Ezra is the son of God in the same way as Christians think of Jesus (9.30).
Suratut-Taubah states the fearsome, “Make war upon the people unto whom the book has been delivered who…forbid not what Allah and His Apostle, i.e. Muhammed have forbidden, and who profess not the profession of the truth, until they pay tribute out of hand in a humble condition.” 2.189 states clearly, “Fight against them till there be no more dispute and the only worship be that of Allah.” On the other hand, there is the line oft-quoted by Muslims today, “Let there be no compulsion in religion” (5.257). Moreover, so far as Christians and Jews are concerned, “And dispute not with the People of the Book, except in the kindest way.” (29.45)
The idea as noted by scholars of the decline of eastern Christianity, etc. is that once you have conquered people, taken tribute from them, special taxes such as the jezia, where they pay to be excluded from military service, since only Muslims may bear arms, then apart from gentle disputation, these dhimmis will slowly convert themselves so as to be included in society. Guru Nanak makes mention of such conditions when noting that Hindus pretended to be Muslims but still carried on their own traditions in secret. In this context, the order to bear arms by Guru Hargobind was a challenge to this racist tradition of dhimmitude no less than the building of wells and Guru-ka-langar was a challenge to the racism of low-castes forbidden to draw water and dine with others.
From a literary perspective it appears that the Qu’ran is compiled at the same time as Arabic is being formalised as a language. This has led some people to argue that Islam only becomes solidified at a much later date than the Islamic historo-myths. Looking at its themes, many of the ideas appear borrowed from Jewish and Christian sects, such as the Samaritans. The direction of prayer was changed from Jerusalem to Mecca when Jews did not take to the religion. They were subsequently enslaved and the teaching about the Day of Resurrection not coming till each rock says, “O Muslim there is a Jew hiding behind me. Seize him and kill him” given by the Prophet. Applied to Gurmat, the same sorts of scholars – western orientalists – argue that the Sikh ideology only comes about with the Singh Sabha movement, till then it was part of a wider and more open bhakti Hinduism. Such views offend believers but also fail when they examine the internal evidence of, for instance, the Guru Granth Sahib Ji itself. They also show extreme bias in neglecting those written records which do exist, for instance, Tuzuk-I-Jehangir and more laughably, avoiding oral traditions, for instance, the Khande-da-Pahul ceremony is 99.9% the same in all jathebandis = groups. The fact that all these transmissions are repeating the same thing for the last 300 years means that something very close to it, is what actually happened 300 years ago. In other words, they ignore all the normal methods of historical research.
As Sikhs, we are advised, “Call not the Hindu or Muslim scriptures false.” This does not mean that they are true, for elsewhere we are told that they could not grasp the living God. Rather, it means that arguments about truth versus falseness go nowhere. In petty disputes we can waste our priceless life, or move beyond them, seeing the unity of the search for God, the unity of God’s love for you, yes you. Spend no time in denouncing others, rather live the truth yourself as well as you can.
Muslims regard the Qu’ran as the last word from God. Sikhs regard the Guru Granth Sahib Ji as a manifest form of the Uncreated and Unlimited Word which is God, which lives in and sustains the world. From the existing Qu’ran, from its advice not to pray for idol worshippers (9, 114-5), to its perspectives on the sexes, “Men are superior to women on account of the qualities which God has given one over the other…[if they argue] instruct them, do not sleep with them, beat them, but if they become obedient, do not hit them, for God is great.” (4, 38) one can see that it is a different sort of text, making different claims for itself.
Many variant texts or codices exist even today, though these are regarded by Muslims in the same way as alternative copies of the Granth – as the work of enemies. In the invasion of Darbar Sahib in 1984, the Sikh Reference Library was raided by Government of India agents, which has been admitted by the Defence Minister. The material has not been returned despite requests of SGPC which indicates to Sikhs that in fact no research on Guru Granth Sahib Ji after 1984 can be taken seriously. The best work on “The Compilation of the Guru Granth Sahib” was written by Professor Sahib Singh. It is available in English and it looks internally as what Gurbani says.
Dr Kanwar Ranvir Singh