Sikhism Compare And Contrast

On August 5, 2012 at 10:25 am, a deadly shooting killed six Sikhs because they were mistaken for Muslims. The reason was because the shooter, Wade Michael Page, wanted revenge against the Muslims for the attack earlier in 2012 and thought that Muslims and Sikhs were part of the same religion; by there are actually multiple differences between Sikhs and Muslims. The three main differences in Sikhs and Muslims are the religion, the language and the apparel. Even though both Islam and Sikhism believe that there is only one God, Sikhs have many different religious beliefs compared to Islam. For example, Muslims worship God by doing five prayers a day, at dawn, noon, mid-afternoon, sunset, and night. Sikhs only pray three times a day, morning, evening, and bedtime. According to the British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC, Islam and Sikhism have two different holy books. Islam worships the Qur'an which contained the ideas and messages that god had sent
to his messenger, Muhammad. Sikhism worships the Guru Granth Sahib Ji which was founded by Guru Nanak Dev Ji and contains his teachings and the teachings of the other nine gurus who followed him. There are not only differences in their religion but also their language. The language of Sikhs and Muslims may sound similar but there is a significant difference in the two.
For example, Punjabi, the language of the Sikhs, is an Indo-Aryan language first created in the early 600 BC. The Arabic language was made in the beginning of the 7th century CE, the Islamic Conquests wanted to spread the language of Arabic out of the Arabian Peninsula. So they traveled to the Middle East and North Africa, west into the Iberian Peninsula and all the way east to China to teach their language and as time went by, Arabic became the prominent language of these regions. Right after language, another thing that is different between Sikhism and Islam is their homeland. Sikhs are mainly found all across the world, including Pakistan, but the nation they come from is India. Muslims are too found around the world, including India, but the country which they come from is Pakistan. The biggest difference that every person can notice between Sikhs and Muslims is their
attire. There is a significant difference between the clothing of Sikhs and Muslims. In the Islamic culture, women either wear a Hijab which covers their whole body with the acceptance of their face. Some women, though, prefer wearing a Niqab which also covers their whole body except for the eyes. Sikh women wear punjabi suits which are traditional dresses for normal wear but for special traditional events or parties, they wear saris or frock suits; unlike the Muslim women, they are not required to cover their head at all times, only at church. Islamic men wear a Thwab which is a long shirt which covers the whole body and they wear a Ghutra to cover their head. Over the Thwab, they wear a type of long cardigan called a Bisht. Sikh men are known to wear a turban on their head to respect and honor God everywhere. They also wear an outfit known as a kurta pajama which looks a lot like the Thwab. Even though this clothing is very different, to someone who does not know a lot about Islam and Sikhism, there is no significant difference. There are many differences between Muslims and Sikhs but the top three differences are religion, language, and apparel. In religion, both cultures have different prayers, prayer times, and different holy books. Muslims and Sikhs also have different languages and different home nations. To people who do not know much about Sikhs and Muslims, the clothing of each culture may look similar or even the same. Even though humans are separated into different cultures and religions, people need to always remember that humans are humans and that we should never stereotype someone because of their religion. As Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji once said, “Before becoming a Sikh, a Muslim, a Hindu or a Christian, let’s become human first.”