Approaching the West — Page 103
A pproaching the West—103 and non-observance of those Hindu practices ceased to be considered as a sin for the Sikhs. All the inter-caste hierarchy, and related rights and obligations were effectively removed from the list of vices. Under the influence of Sikh Gurus, the norms of piety were shifted more towards the moral conduct of love and service to others than to the formal Hindu religious ceremonies. The Sikhs are monotheists, and their notion of sin depends upon what takes them away from God. Guru Granth Sahib sets a clear definition of sin, Those who turn away from the Holy Master are renegades and evil; bound to their desires, they ever suffer and avail not themselves of the chance to get away from the path of sin. (Guru Granth, 233) The Sikh Holy Scripture says, Sinners like stones are sunk; by the Master’s teaching will they be saved. (Guru Granth, 163) The root cause of evil is egoism–to get lost in selfish material gains, forgetting the real needs of the soul, the atman. When man is not focused on the commandments of God, and makes his own laws, and becomes self-centered, he is a sinner. He is called “manmukh”—the one who disobeys God’s hukum (command) as taught by the Gurus! Thus many Hindu sins were re-defined in Sikhism. In Isl ā m, the Shar ī ‘ah law is based on the guidance given in the Qur’ ā n, demonstrated by the Sunnah of the Prophet, and elaborated in the fiqh (legislative) rulings by the Muslim