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Previous reference: Part E: http://www.paklinks.com/gs/religion-and-scripture/580075-one-god-one-creed-part-1-the-sabians.html
**Who Were The Aryans?
**So far we have spoken of the cultural tradition of the Dravidians, the original inhabitants of India. Now we may dwell a while on the cultural peculiarities of the Aryans who later migrated to their territory.
Seriously divergent opinions exist as to where the original home of the Aryans was, and as to their racial traditions. We do not mean to elaborate on that aspect for the time being. Evidence supports the suggestion that they belonged to the Semitic group, and are the descendants of **Aram **of the same race. A sect of this race ruled Arabia during the time of Prophet Hud a.s. The Qur’an calls this sect Aad and Iramu. It may be confidently surmised that it was the successors of **Iramu **who came to be known by the name Aryan. The are called Aram in the Bible and **Airiana **in the ancient literature of Persians. But we do not want to probe deeper into this aspect at this juncture. We shall be content to examine only the religious belief of the Indo-Aryans.
The Indo-Aryans have to their credit a great many ancient scriptures. No other people are known to possess so much old religious literature as the Indo-Aryans do. So anyone can examine and evaluate their religious theories and practices in the light of these scrptures. Only, he should be prepared to study them objectively.
The most ancient writing of the Indo-Aryans are the four scriptural anthologies or Vedic Samhitas. They are **Rig, Yajur, Saama **and Atharva, writing in the very ancient Sanskrit tongue. The oldest among them is the Rig Veda. Western scholars reckon the time of the Rig Veda to be about 1500 B.C. But in the opinion of the Indian scholar Bala Gangadhara Tilak, the Rig Veda could date back at least to 3500 B.C. In any case no other extant Veda is so ancient.
Scholars who have conducted research on the language of the Veda have found that it bears resemblance to many other languages. The closest affinity is with the old language of the Iranians. Regarding the proximity between the Sanskrit language and the language of the Avesta, the Iranian scripture, Krishna Chaitanya writes in his History of Sanskrit Literature:
In (i.e., the Sanskrit language) is the closest to Avestic, the first Vedic language of the ancient Iranians. Entire verses of the Avesta can be translated word by word into Vedic Sanskrit with the mere application of phonetic rules; that is, just by altering the pronunciation a little in the manner permitted. Not only would they preserve the verse form, but the poetic beauty could be kept untarnished as well.
This affinity between the old Persian tongue and the Vedic language indicates that the Indo-Aryans and the Persians belonged originally to a single race. The term ‘Iran’ itself means ‘the land of Aryans’. In short, it is certain that the ancient Persian people formed a constituent part of the Aryans.
The Avesta is the first scripture of the Iranians. Zend Avesta is its interpretation. **Dasatir **too is a sacred book of theirs. These scriptures contain the teachings of Prophet of the Iranians named **Suradushtra **(Zarathustra or Zoroaster). Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, in his interpretation of the Quran, asserts with evidence that Goras, called ‘Cyrus’ by the Greeks, was a great man who accepted the religion of Zoroaster. That Dhul Qarnain, described by the Quran, was that very same person is being strongly maintained. Nebuchadnezzar (Bukhtu Nasar, 734-745 B.C.,), emperor of Babylon, ravanged Jerusalem, the religious centre and state capital of the Jews, and annihilated them. He took the few surviving Jews to Babylon and kept them as slaves. Prior to this, one of the Jewish prophets, Isaiah, had made a prophecy about the advent of a "Messiah" (the anointed). He had also conveyed the good tidings that such a Messiah would capture Babylon and save the Jews, and Isaiah and foretold, too, that his name would be Goras. Accordingly, Cyrus conqured Babylon, freed the Jews and returned them honourably to Jerusalem. He permitted them to renovate the temple destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and he ordered that everything robbbed from them be given back. For these reasons Jewish prophets have praised Cyrus the Persian emperor as a messiah.
The Arabs call Zoroastrians Majus (Magians). The Quran counts them among the people of Scriptures. Formerly they worshipped One God accepting some kind of bonfire for a qibla (facing direction). In the course of time, the fire itself became the object of worship, and a few creeds took shape around it. But the teaching of Zoroaster were themselves based entirely on monotheism, to which fact some lines of Zend Avesta bear testimony. God is described thus:
Having neither beginning nor end, neither foe nor equal, neither father nor mother, neither son nor daughter, no home and no abode, no body, hue or scent.
Furthermore, the Zend Avesta contains a prediction about a prophet to come. He is styled ‘Soeshyant’. Some Muslim scholars claim this as prediction about the last Prophet *, the name being the Persian equivalent of an attribute of his, Rahmatun lil’ Alameen (blessing for the worlds). A more obvious prophecy appear in Chapter 14 of Dasatir, another sacred book of the **Parsi **(people in Iran). It may be summarised thus:
*At a time when the Persian will have ethically and morally deteriorated, a person would be born in ‘Arabias’, whose followers conquer the ‘Parsis’, winning over all the celebrated men of Parsi land. In the shrine established there (in Arabia by Ibrahim i.e., Abraham) idols would be shattered. People would offer prayers facing that shrine. They would conquer Persian cities like Madian, Tus, Balq and adjoining places. The wise would join them.
*In the ligh of the fact stated above, the meaning of a piece of advice given by the Prophet of Islam clarifies itself: “Do unto the MAgians as you treat the people of Scriptures”, said the Prophet. The Prophet ordered thus because the Magians were indeed the people of a Scripture. It was during the time of Caliph Omar that he Muslims conquered Persia. At that time the Caliph convened a meeting of the learned men to discuss the way the Magians were to be treated. When the question was presented before the enlightened meeting, Ali Ibn Abi Talib declared: “The Magians are people of a Book”. To be sure, then they ought to be treated in a becoming manner.
Now we have had a glance of the cultural heritage of the Iranians, a group among the Aryans. Formerly they were the followers of a particular Prophet. We shall now proceed to consider the religious culture of anther group, the Indo-Aryans, in next thread.
References:
1- History of Sanskrit Literature, by Krishna Chaitanya (S.P.S. Publications), P-58.
2- The Encyclopaedia, Vol.2, P.471, (a S.P.C.S. Publications).
3- Tarjumanal Quran, Vol.1, P.414.
4- Dhul Qurnain means ‘the two-honored’. The statue of Cyrus excavated from a place named Pasargada in Persia had two horns, (Tarjumanal Quran Vol.2, PP.400-401). Prophet Daniel in a vision beheld a ram standing on the bank of the river Ulai. It had two horns, and it was charging westward and southward. Daniel saw also a he-goat who came close to the ram, enraged, and struck the ram and broke his two horns. When Prophet Daniel was standing astonished and unable to comprehend the meaning of this vision, the angel Gabriel (Jibreel) a.s. appeard and explained it thus: the two-horned ram is the King of Media and Persia, and the he-goat is the King of Greece. (See the Bible, the Book of Daniel.) Dhul Qurnain, clearly, is the King of Media and Persia. Daniel was given all honours at his palace. The great empire that Cyrus founded was later vanquished by Greek kings. This must have been the meaning of Prophet Daniel’s visison.
5- See, in the Bible, Isaiah (44:28) and 45:1-9). Regarding Goras (Cyrus) it says thus: “(The Lord) says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfil all my purpose’; saying of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be built’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid’. Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus…'I will go before you and level the mountains, I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut asunder the bars of iron, I wll give you the treasures of darkness and the hoards in secret places. That you may know that it is I, the Lord God of Israel, who call you by your name”. This prophecy hints that Cyrus would conquer the Babylonian empire easily. Prophet Isaiah’s time was 160 years prior to Cyrus. (Tarjumanal Quran Vol.2 P.403).
6- Ibid See Isaiah (45:1)
7- The Quran Chapter 22 Verse 17 reads: “Surely Allah will decide between the Muslims, the Jews, the Sabians, the Christians, the Magians and the Polytheists on the day of Resurrection.” The word ‘Polytheists’ refers to idolaters, and the other five groups are those who have accpted one prophet or another, and also a divine book. The Magians, the followers of Zoraster, have been included by the Qur’an among the followers of true prophets.
8- Mohammad in World Scriptures, a scholarly book by Abdul Haq Vidyarthi, argue that Prophet Muhammad :saw2: had been aforementioned in earlier religious books by name of by attributes, and he catalogues such predictions. The sentence of Zend Avesta as quoted there reads: Juzz aghaz va anjaam va nabaaz va dushman va yaar va padar va maadr va zaan va farzand jaay va soye va tan va aasa va namoona va raanak va buvaast.
9- See P.47, Mohammad in World Scriptures. It is also quoted in the ‘Rahmat-e-Alam’, special (1962) of Da’wat, the Urdu organ of 'Jamat-e-Islami, published from Delhi.
10- Muntaqal Akhbar is a book on Hadith written by the Arab scholar Abdussalam Ibn Taimiyya (590-652 Hijra Era, 1193-1254 A.D.), The Prophet’s saying is quoted there, in Chapter ‘Jizya’ as reported by Imam Shafi r.a.
11- See P.57, Nailul Auttar, an interpretatory book on Muntaqal Akhtar’ written by Allama Shaukkani, Vol.6.