In this video Jagmeet Singh from Basics of Sikhi speaks to two young Muslim sisters where he articulately draws connections with beliefs in Islam and beliefs in Sikhi. By the end of the video we get the clear sense that these sisters have not only more knowledge and appreciation for Sikhi but also that they've been enriched with this interfaith exchange.
---------------------------------------------------------
Muslims believe that we have two lives, the life on earth, then the afterlife. Jagmeet explains how these two sisters, though 19 and 20 years old, are very blessed to have the devotion to walk the spiritual path. The first thing they say about Sikhi is that we believe in reincarnation so he takes them on a journey around that subject. He respectfully asks them what they believe first to understand where they are coming from.
This is their belief in the afterlife: Probably %98 of people do not have that longing. But, according to that belief you get only this one chance and either you do the almost impossible thing that the majority of people don't do and you live as a virtuous person. Good people have succeeded and they get to go to heaven, some bad people repent and they can be forgiven but there are some who do bad but don't repent and they go to hell. They don't get another chance.
"I wanted to understand all that so I could talk to you about reincarnation and what we believe." Then he goes to explain what we believe. There are 8.4 million incarnations before we get the chance to be human, so having a human life is like winning the lottery, "The purpose of our lives is to remember God and to merge back in with God." Similar to Islam we do this by remembering God, chanting God's name and doing good deeds.
The vast majority of people we can't say really engage in that godly work in their life, yet we can say that the vast majority are "good people", people are inherently good. What makes some walk the path? This is why it is difficult to believe that you get only one chance and if you don't make it (like most people) then you're done.
He expressed to them that once we have a connection with God, we've made our life successful. We've won the game of life and have died while alive. Then we don't fear death, the only thing we fear is losing the connection. Then one of the sisters said, "That's what we believe too." Then he responded by saying, "It's the same because it's the truth."
Then he explains that reincarnation is not an excuse to not do the work and say, "I can just do it next life, no big deal" rather we believe that we can incarnate into animals and could possibly spend countless generations to earn this human life again.
Then they ask some good questions, "So in your belief in reincarnation, at what point to do get to stop the cycle of birth and death."
In response he explains about how he feels about himself. Spiritual people have good karma that they can be interested in religious lifestyles and this is the result from good karma from a past life. He reflected that Muslims believe that your good actions follow you in the afterlife, and added that we believe that everything follows you. He introspected that he feels he must have a lot of bad karma as well, so much so that being "Mr. Nice Guy" won't cancel all of that out. By our own efforts we can not clear all of our karma. This is where grace comes in, we call it 'Kirpa' or 'GurPrasad'. That's the blessing of our Guru and the blessing of God.
"We believe in chasing the blessing from our Guru and blessing of God."
If you are connecting to Allah and living your life for God than God forgives it all. All the bad karma goes away. It is like a mountain of karma that we can't get rid of, it can be gone in a poof. So we can get there with the Kirpa.
"We, us three, must have done something halfway decent in a past life because we are here talking about God." To this the sisters emphatically agreed, "Yeah, yeah, yeah."
"We can't have this deep and beautiful discussion about God without it being a blessing from God."
Jagmeet goes on to discuss other fascinating topics in a very inclusive and respectful manner. Here are some highlight quotes from the discussion."
"If you come to the gurdwara wearing a hijab, as a visible Muslim, we'll serve you as our sisters."
"[Sikhi] Is not even really a religion to be honest. It's the transcend religion."
"The true religion is to chant the Name of God, merge back with God and do good deeds. If you're doing that, it is the highest religion."
"There should be a sense of urgency. Every breath we take should be connected to God to remember God with every morsel of our being."
"Our sisters are encouraged to be modest but we wouldn't blame them for our shortcoming if we look at a women with a wrong thought. The onus is on us to watch not just our actions but our thoughts as well."
"Imagine if a light bulb was covered with dirt so the light can not be seen. The only way to clean that is with the Name of God. Then when you know without a doubt that you are the light you also know that God is in everyone else as well."
"That's all we're trying to do, we're trying to get rid of our mind, our mentality, our thinking, and chase God, through our Guru who will get us through to God."
"The important thing about the Guru's was what they came to teach us. And that remains [in SGGS ji]"
"What's the difference between worshiping a stone [as Hindus might] and worshiping a book [SGGS ji]? They are both inanimate objects. What we would say is that our Guru is not inanimate, our Guru talks to us, our Guru is real, breathing and full of life and it is our leader."
"This whole process of life is the process of going back to God. Everybody is destined to return to Him. At the end we will all be with Him."
"The whole point of reincarnation is to get out of reincarnation so that we are forever alive. That is the after life."
"What we're doing here is to precious. Every minute counts, every breath counts. With every breath we should be remembering God. Wahiguru. So breath in Allah, let Allah be a part of your soul, your body, your being."
"When you become spiritual and you get into Islam or Sikhi, I don't believe everything will become perfect in our lives. In fact things could get much worse because there's forces that want to bring you away from the good."
"If something good happens you say 'look at what Wahiguru Allah has done'. If something bad happens you don't say 'Ahhh, God hates me', if something bad happens you say, 'Ahhh, I need more God.' Only God can get us through this terrible thing. Anything good or bad, use it to keep you with God."
"I love talking to my Muslim brothers and sisters, because they love God. I just want them to know who we are."
"Muslims like ISIS, they're our enemies. But the true Muslims who pray to God, loves God, they're our brothers and we are gonna fight together against the oppressors."
"What we're talking about is not a belief system. It's that you believe in God and that's it. If you're praying and your getting ras, you're getting juice, the sweetness from it and you're connecting to God, than it's no longer a belief, it's and experience."
He finished his impassioned sharing, "That's it." and they responded, "This has been really enlightening." "I wish more people knew about each others faiths." "We're just people."
Then the video
"This conversation that we had is going to help people at home because they'll see that Muslims and Sikhs are cool people, we love each other. And we all have the same agenda: Remembering God. Love each other. Get rid of the nonsense." "You've really blessed us today, thank you my sisters."