Row over Muslim body chief's Om, Allah remark, religious leaders exit stage

Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind chief Maulana Arshad Madani on Sunday stoked a controversy when he claimed that "Om" and "Allah" were the same God worshipped by 'Manu', drawing objections from a prominent Jain monk who along with a group of other religious leaders stormed off the stage at an event of the Muslim body.

Speaking on the third and final day of the 34th general session of the Jamiat at the Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi, the Muslim cleric, who heads the Arshad Madani faction of the outfit, said he asked the "dharma gurus" as to who was worshipped when there was no Shri Ram, Brahma or Shiva.

"Some say Manu worshipped Shiva. Very few have pointed out that there was nothing in the world and Manu worshipped Om.

"I asked who is Om, many said 'it is just air, it has no form, it has no colour and it is everywhere, it made the sky and land'. I said this is what we call Allah, you call Ishwar, those speaking Persian call Khuda and those speaking English call God," Madani said.

"This means that Manu, that is Adam, used to worship one Om, that is one Allah," he said.

Manu is a term found in religious texts, referring to the first man or the progenitor of humanity.

Arshad Madani made the remarks while referring to the reported statement of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat that Hindus and Muslims of India share the same ancestry, and the contention from certain quarters that Muslims should make ghar wapsi -- return to the religion of their ancestors.

He said Islam is not a new religion for India and "'Allah' that is 'Om' sent 'Manu' or Adam here and told him to worship 'Allah' that is 'Om', and the prophets who came after this also gave the same message".

"The way the world has gone astray today, we too had gone astray. We had created 365 deities. We also used to worship them after waking up in the morning. We had strayed from the path shown by Manu," he said.

Allah sent the last prophet, Mohammad, in Arabia and he gave the same message to the Arab land which was given from India and this was not a new message -- one 'Om', one 'Allah' will be worshiped and no one else will be worshiped except him, Arshad Madani said.

"Today they tell us 'do ghar wapsi'. I say that those who say this are illiterate. They do not know the history of their country, the history of religions," the Jamiat chief said.

Arshad Madani's remarks were strongly disapproved by Jain monk Acharya Lokesh Muni who walked out of the session, accusing Madani of digressing from talking about unity to spinning a story about "Manu and Allah".

"We only agree with living in harmony, but all these stories regarding Om, Allah, and Manu are all baseless. He (Madani) completely spoiled the environment of the session," Muni said.

"The stories he narrated, I can narrate even bigger stories than that. I would even request him (Madani) to come for a discussion with me, or even I can come to meet him in Saharanpur," the monk said.

"It should be remembered that the first Jain Tirthankar was Rishabh, and his sons were Bharata and Bahubali, on whose name this country 'Bharat' was named. We don't agree with his (Madani's) statements," the Jain monk asserted, before leaving the stage along with a group of leaders of other religions.

Leaders of different faiths are often invited to the programmes and sessions of the Jamiat. Acharya Lokesh Muni has been part of several Jamiat-organised programmes in the past as well.

After leaving the stage, Muni told reporters, "We believe that good deeds create good fortune, bad deeds create bad fortune. We follow this philosophy."

He accused Madani of sowing divisions with his remarks.

The Vishva Hindu Parishad also hit out Madani.

The way Madani tried to assert 'his supremacy and that of Islam' with his comment in the presence of 'Hindu dharma gurus' at the event exposed his real 'mindset and character', Vishva Hindu Parishad national spokesperson Vinod Bansal said.

In his speech, Madani claimed, "The history of this country is that Allah sent Manu, that is Adam, his wife, whom we call 'Hawwa (Eve)'..., to this land. They are our ancestors, everyone's ancestors."

"Your forefathers were not Hindus. Your ancestors were Manu who used to worship one Allah, one Om. Just like the last prophet was born in Arabia, Allah, that is Om, sent the first prophet to this land. All races have come from here," Madani also claimed.

Mahmood Madani, who heads the other faction of Jamiat, reacting to some of the religious leaders storming off the stage said, "They are our guests and they have given their opinion and we will respect that too."

On Friday, Mahmood Madani triggered a row by claiming that India is the "birthplace of Islam" and the oldest religion of the country.

He had asserted that the country belongs to him as much as it does to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat.

Mahmood Madani had said it is wrong to suggest that Islam came from outside and claimed that the "first Prophet of Islam Adam descended here".