God in Islam and Hinduism: Common Ground and Differences

Muslims and Hindus have lived side by side in South Asia for more than a thousand years — as neighbours, poets, rulers, traders and friends. As early as the eleventh century, the Muslim scholar al-Biruni travelled in India, learned Sanskrit and wrote a careful, respectful study of Hindu thought. This article tries to follow his example: to describe Hindu beliefs about God the way Hindus themselves would, and then to explain where Islam agrees and where it differs.

Hinduism is many traditions

“Hinduism” is a modern umbrella word for a vast family of traditions, with sacred texts including the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita and the Puranas. There is no single Hindu view of God, but some major approaches stand out:

• Advaita Vedanta (associated with Shankara) teaches that only Brahman, the one infinite Reality, is ultimately real, and that the deepest self (atman) is not different from Brahman. The famous Sanskrit phrase tat tvam asi, literally “that you are” (Chandogya Upanishad 6.8.7), is often read this way.
• Vishishtadvaita (associated with Ramanuja) teaches that God is real and personal, and that souls and the world are real too — distinct from God, yet inseparable from Him, like a body from its soul.
• Dvaita (associated with Madhva) teaches that God and souls are eternally distinct.
• Devotional traditions centre on a supreme personal God: Vishnu or Krishna for Vaishnavas, Shiva for Shaivas, the Goddess (Devi) for Shaktas.

Many Hindus understand the many gods (devas) as forms, aspects or servants of one supreme reality. An often-quoted Rig Veda verse expresses the idea that the one Reality is called by many names by the wise (Rig Veda 1.164.46).

Real common ground

Muslims can recognise much that is familiar here. Both traditions speak of one ultimate reality behind everything. Both speak of God as beyond the world and yet intimately near — Hindu thought speaks of God as the inner guide within every being, and the Qur’an says:

وَلَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا ٱلْإِنسَٰنَ وَنَعْلَمُ مَا تُوَسْوِسُ بِهِۦ نَفْسُهُۥ ۖ وَنَحْنُ أَقْرَبُ إِلَيْهِ مِنْ حَبْلِ ٱلْوَرِيدِ ﴿١٦﴾

And We have already created man and know what his soul whispers to him, and We are closer to him than [his] jugular vein

Both traditions know the practice of calling on God by many beautiful names. Hindus repeat divine names in japa; Muslims do so in dhikr, the remembrance of God:

قُلِ ٱدْعُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ أَوِ ٱدْعُوا۟ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنَ ۖ أَيًّۭا مَّا تَدْعُوا۟ فَلَهُ ٱلْأَسْمَآءُ ٱلْحُسْنَىٰ ۚ وَلَا تَجْهَرْ بِصَلَاتِكَ وَلَا تُخَافِتْ بِهَا وَٱبْتَغِ بَيْنَ ذَٰلِكَ سَبِيلًۭا ﴿١١٠﴾

Say, "Call upon Allah or call upon the Most Merciful. Whichever [name] you call - to Him belong the best names." And do not recite [too] loudly in your prayer or [too] quietly but seek between that an [intermediate] way.

Both stress devotion (bhakti in Hindu terms), a moral order in the universe, and the truth that our actions have consequences. And the Qur’an teaches that God sent guidance to every people (Qur’an 35:24). Muslims therefore believe that India too received messengers — though since the Qur’an does not name them, Muslims do not claim that any particular figure of Hindu tradition was one.

Where Islam differs

The differences are real, and it is more respectful to state them clearly than to blur them.

The Creator and creation. In Islam, God created the universe and every soul; nothing in creation is part of God, and no human self is identical with Him. This is closer to Dvaita than to Advaita. The Qur’an puts it in one line:

فَاطِرُ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ ۚ جَعَلَ لَكُم مِّنْ أَنفُسِكُمْ أَزْوَٰجًۭا وَمِنَ ٱلْأَنْعَٰمِ أَزْوَٰجًۭا ۖ يَذْرَؤُكُمْ فِيهِ ۚ لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِۦ شَىْءٌۭ ۖ وَهُوَ ٱلسَّمِيعُ ٱلْبَصِيرُ ﴿١١﴾

[He is] Creator of the heavens and the earth. He has made for you from yourselves, mates, and among the cattle, mates; He multiplies you thereby. There is nothing like unto Him, and He is the Hearing, the Seeing.

Incarnation. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says that whenever righteousness declines, he comes into the world to restore it (Bhagavad Gita 4:7-8); many Hindus believe Vishnu has descended in several avatars. Islam teaches that God never takes on a created body. Instead, He sends human messengers — such as Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad ﷺ — who are servants of God, not God.

Images in worship. Many Hindus worship God through a sacred image (murti) and explain that the divine is present in it, or that it is a focus for the heart, rather than that the stone itself is God. Islam asks that worship be directed to God alone, without images, statues or intermediaries — the heart of what Muslims call tawhid, the oneness of God (see God Is One). Associating anything with God in worship is, in Islam, the gravest wrong.

Time and destiny. Many Hindu traditions see time as moving in vast repeating cycles, with souls passing through many lives. Islam teaches one created history, one life for each person and a final Day of Judgment — compared in Reincarnation or Resurrection?

Speaking respectfully

Disagreement does not require disrespect. The Qur’an explicitly forbids Muslims to insult what others worship:

وَلَا تَسُبُّوا۟ ٱلَّذِينَ يَدْعُونَ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ فَيَسُبُّوا۟ ٱللَّهَ عَدْوًۢا بِغَيْرِ عِلْمٍۢ ۗ كَذَٰلِكَ زَيَّنَّا لِكُلِّ أُمَّةٍ عَمَلَهُمْ ثُمَّ إِلَىٰ رَبِّهِم مَّرْجِعُهُمْ فَيُنَبِّئُهُم بِمَا كَانُوا۟ يَعْمَلُونَ ﴿١٠٨﴾

And do not insult those they invoke other than Allah, lest they insult Allah in enmity without knowledge. Thus We have made pleasing to every community their deeds. Then to their Lord is their return, and He will inform them about what they used to do.

Muslims invite Hindus, as they invite everyone, to consider the message of one God — but by explaining, not by mocking.

A closing thought

Many Hindus already sense that behind all names and forms there is one Reality, infinite and near. Islam’s message to them is an invitation: to know that One by His own revealed names, and to turn to Him directly, with nothing in between. To learn more about how Islam describes God, read Who Is Allah?