To my Muslim viewers: Greetings, and I hope you come to this place to learn. Thank you for reading what we have to say.
1. Why adopt Shinto if Muhammad claims to supersede all religions?
Shinto was never, even in its earliest forms a monotheistic belief. It is a polytheistic religion from the earliest sources, which were compiled as soon as writing was introduced.
The lowest common denominator of kami in Shinto has been five, the Kotoamatsukami. These are the five born into existence at the beginning.
A polytheistic religion is morally more consistent with how we see the world. Rather than one kind and merciful God, we have hundreds of thousands of gods all with their own alignments, desires and moral sensibilities and they all compete in this for influence, power and more. There are good and evil, of course, but the nuances of polytheism reflect a nuanced world. One where it’s shades of gray, not black and white.
By our logic, Islam is for Arabs primarily, just as Shinto was a faith for the Japanese.
2. Why do you worship many gods when one God should be enough?
The plurality of Shinto has a core difference in what it does for people. It enables an all-inclusive definition of what constitutes a god. You don’t want the nearby volcano to erupt? You pacify it with offerings, it has a kami for that. You’re a teacher who wants a productive school year and guardianship for you and your students? Tenjin-sama is the kami you see. Your town or village may even have patron that serves as a local form of pride.
This contrasts with the rigorous nature of Islam where tawhid hinders having that kind of intense personal connection.
Our diversity of worship is a critical feature and strength.
3. Kami are just jinn.
Incorrect. This is actually provable with Hadith:
That once he was in the company of the Prophet (pbuh) carrying a water pot for his ablution and for cleaning his private parts. While he was following him carrying it (i.e. the pot), the Prophet (pbuh) said, "Who is this?" He said, "I am Abu Huraira." The Prophet (pbuh) said, "Bring me stones in order to clean my private parts, and do not bring any bones or animal dung." Abu Huraira went on narrating: So I brought some stones, carrying them in the corner of my robe till I put them by his side and went away. When he finished, I walked with him and asked, "What about the bone and the animal dung?" He said, "They are of the food of Jinns. The delegate of Jinns of (the city of) Nasibin came to me--and how nice those Jinns were--and asked me for the remains of the human food. I invoked Allah for them that they would never pass by a bone or animal dung but find food on them." – Sahih al Bukhari 3860
We do not serve kami bones, dung or charcoal, as some versions of these sayings mention. Bones are death, so they are kegare (polluted, repugnant). Dung is feces, similarly disgusting. Charcoal is burnt and destroyed, it cannot show a kami respect as an offering.
Another example:
That is a word pertaining to truth which a jinn snatches away and then cackles into the ear of his friend … and then they mix in it more than one hundred lies. - Sahih Muslim, Book 39, Hadith 169
Kami are revered and do not play tricks on humans or lie. They are instruments of the land. Jinn are closer to the idea of bakemono or youkai – evil spirits that seek chaos and hardship for others.
4. Isn’t Shinto just idolatry (worship of statues)?
Shintai, the object that we offer to the kami as a “vessel” is not the kami itself, it’s rather a bewitched object that is used as an invitation for the kami to consecrate a space. It’s a holy object, but destroying it won’t harm a kami directly.
Idolatry, as the Abrahamic religions suggest, is direct worship of statues. We aren’t worshiping the image, rather the image or icon is simply there to bring the kami into our space. The kami cannot be harmed or injured by damaging it.
5. If Shinto has no revealed scripture, how can it be true?
Rather than revelation, we rely on traditions and the proof that traditions have persisted thousands of years, and shrines have been built and rebuilt in the same places for thousands of years, evolving with the times and ability of the people, is a show that our faith is true. Persistence is a show of truth.
To contrast, you would say proof that Islam was superior to the religion of Hubal and others in pre-Islamic Arabia is that it triumphed over time. Shinto has survived three religions encroaching it at once: Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism. Yet it is still the largest religion in Japan, and unlike Buddhism, it is not in statistical decline.
6. Why don’t you have a prophet like Muhammad?
Shinto developed organically across the thousands of settlements in Japan, yet following the same forms and worship, and most importantly the same culture underpinning it. Because of this, it is like many springs that flow into the same river. If one spring dries, we have others to draw from. Islam has a single, very large spring, analogous to a fire hose. If that hose breaks, where does your water go?
7. How can Shinto be moral without commandments like the Qur’an?
Shinto is a cultural religion. Japanese culture has Confucian and Daoist teachings underpinning it. We have rules and such, but we don’t need a book of laws or a rigid fiqh. The culture has preserved that for us. We have makoto no kokoro (sincerity of heart), oharae (purity), wa (harmony), gratitude, and respect, especially for elders and guests, to guide us. Unlike Islam, we are not building a nation. We already have one.
8. What about the afterlife—does Shinto even offer salvation?
There’s an English language song that comes to mind: “You come in this world, and you go out just the same.” You live and you die. We do not believe in rebirth the way that Buddhists do. Instead, we do indeed believe you have one life. Some of us follow the Confucian view that when you die, your family prays for you to become a kami. But historically, the dead are brought to Yomi-no-Kuni, our underworld. That’s not a bad thing though. Polytheistic underworlds are not anything like hell.
Unlike Christianity and Islam, we do not believe you are born in sin. You are born pure, and acquire pollution (kegare) and sin/crimes (tsumi) through life. The kami offer ways for you to purge yourself of these, but you must continually wash yourself of these. The consequence of being polluted is that you attract bad luck, and tsumi in particular leads to even more things.
But there’s no grand apocalypse in Shinto. We don’t believe in eschatology. We don’t need to. Life is more important than death.
9. Why are you opposed to the hijab?
In East Asia, the head is the holiest part of the body, as opposed to the feet. Removing your headgear indoors and not wearing it if it's occupational in nature is a sign of respect and deference. In shrines it determines respect and deference to the kami of the shrine. Indoors, it's respect for you guests. Hijabs are also a sign of the subjugation of women in Islamic society, as it separates women from men. Traditional Japanese clothing only varies subtly, for example kimonos are longer sleeved for women and usually are feminine colors.
10. Isn’t Shinto just Japanese nationalism disguised as religion?
It’d be really hard to hate Japan or Japanese culture and be Shinto, I’ll admit. But I’d argue the same is true for Islam. Arabic language, culture and art are so heavily tied to Islam it’d be impossible to be that way too.
As for the actual question, Kokka (State) Shinto was a political organization created… in 1867. Shinto is considerably older than that, and for thousands of years the country existed without Western fingers constantly into it. To argue that it makes up modern Shinto would be similar to arguing that Islam is just the Ottoman Empire. I think anyone can agree that’s absurd.
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