The Essentials of Sikhism: An Insight into its Faith Tradition

What is Sikhism? Sikhism, or Sikhi, is an Indian monotheistic religion that started in the Punjab district of the Indian subcontinent around the end of the fifteenth century. We are going to discuss the faith tradition of Sikhism in this essay. Sikhism is a monotheist religion that originated in the Indian Subcontinent in the 1600s. Among the major religions in the world, it is one of the youngest. Currently, it is the world's 9th largest religion. Their beliefs come from their scripture called the Guru Granth Sahib. Some of their beliefs include meditating to their one creator, divine unity, and equality of all humankind, engaging in selfless service, striving for justice for the benefit and prosperity of all and honest conduct and livelihood while living a householder's life.

In India, 1973, Akali Dal, the Sikh political party, released the Anandpur Sahib Resolution. This was a demand to the Punjabis, the current party in charge, that called for self-government and radical devolution of power. The purpose of this demand was for Akali Dal to gain public support and integrate religion into politics. After being accepted, it was almost immediately forgotten about, until about the 1980s, where it resurfaced. The Akali Dal then joined forces with a man named Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale was a militant leader of an education Sikh group in India called Damdami Taksal. In 1982, they launched a movement called the Khalistan movement, which reinstated the Anandpur Sahib Resolution. Many people supported this movement because they believed this resolution solved many problems. Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, one of the main people who orchestrated the movement, was known as a symbol for violence, terrorism, and extremism. After having an arrest warrant placed on him, he took over a Sikh shrine until he was taken down by the government. Although he was known as a rebellious and violent individual, he was not always like this. He began his career as the head of a Sikh school, where he was respected. After working his way up to a military leader, he allowed power to go to his head and defamed the name of Sikhism.

The whole religion of Islam revolves around moderation. According to Dictionary.com, the definition of moderation is “the quality of being moderate; restraint; avoidance of extremes or excesses; temperance”. After reading the definition, if someone knows that Islam is all about moderation, then they know that Islam is also against extremism.

“Thus we have made you (Muslims) a wasat (moderate) nation that you be witnesses over mankind, and the Messenger a witness over you”. This ayah clarifies the stereotypes of extremism regarding Islam. Many believe that Islam is built on the foundation of extremism, because of a few people’s actions. Every religion has a very small amount of people that defame their religion by doing extreme and unorthodox actions, yet only Islam is called out for, which is one of the reasons Islamaphobia exists.

Something that is not known about extremism as Arnu Greun says, “The lack of identity associated with extremists is the result of self-destructive self-hatred that leads to feelings of revenge toward life itself, and a compulsion to kill one's own humanness.' What he is trying to say is that extremism is not some kind of tactic, like for example ISIS. ISIS pretends to be “true” Muslims, but they go out of their way to kill people. After they do that they try and blame it on us by putting online where everyone can see it. He believes that extremism is more like an illness that develops inside them. All the hate infects them and that causes them to be a destruction of life. Dr. Kathleen Taylor added to this by saying that she believes extremism is indeed an illness and it could be curable.

Another thing is that extremism did not just start now. Some say it goes far back to the times of Ancient Rome, maybe even before that. This is very interesting because it shows that humans really have not evolved. We are just as bad as those who came before us. This should ring a bell in our ears to stop this. People are going crazy and becoming more extreme than ever.

Sikhism teaches their people to believe in a God that lasts forever. He can never die, nor can he be seen. Also, he has nobody. With this being said they came to the conclusion that God does not have a gender. God is the creator of everything and is the one who can destroy anything and everything. He keeps everything running from the beginning, but he has no beginning or end. Everything thing that happens whether good, bad, or neutral goes through god. He is the one being worshiped in Sikhism and all humans are born good.

There are a lot of common religious beliefs between Sikhism and Islam. Similarly to Sikhism, in Islam, Muslims believe in one god that cannot be seen and is here forever. God is seen to be the creator of life and the one who can destroy it with the snap of a finger. Everything is in check by him and everything ultimately goes through him. People are his creation and worship him. This seemed very interesting as the two religions have something in common between them.

All religions preach their own message, with their own set of rules. They all have textbook followers and extremists who defame their image as a religion. All religions have people like this, but what most do not understand is that a religion is defined by its principles, not its followers. Sikhism is a monotheistic religion that promotes peace through love. It is a respectable religion that has many misconceptions and stereotypes that could easily be corrected with a simple understanding of what it means to be a true Sikhist.