Some believe Buddha to be a divine prophet who had acquired the fundamentals of his religion through revelation. This theory seems to be acceptable for two reasons (although the faith underwent major alteration later):

1- Considering ancient Buddhist teachings: The work history attributes to Buddha is that of a prophet’s. The awakened Buddha, considered the awakening, insight and salvation of the people as his first priority. This salvation was only contingent upon acquiring ethic virtues and knowledge. In ancient Buddhism, there was no staying away from knowledge and using sorcery and magic and enslaving jinns and unordinary mortification. Buddha was against some of the Hindu lifestyles then, and in contrast to the dominant Hindu view at his time, such things didn’t lead to insight and enlightenment in his opinion, but actually did the opposite and backfired on the individual.

His standpoints on matters regarding the existence of God and the hereafter were all religious ones, not philosophical or gnostic. He kept silent regarding the truth and essence of certain matters like the spirit and soul, God, and creation and believed that philosophy wasn’t capable of unveiling the truth about them and that the intellect and rational argument in no way can accomplish what disclosure can. Some of the passages of the holy book of Buddhists leave no doubt for the reader that this religion was indeed a divine one backed by revelation, although it has undergone much alteration.

2- In the story of “Bluher and Yuzasif”, which was narrated as a hadith for the first time in the hadith book of Kamaluddin, Yuzasif is introduced as a divine prophet. There is evidence that Yuzasif is none other than Buddha himself.

What was said till now had to do with ancient Buddhism; as for contemporary Buddhism, it sees Buddha as a god that is worshipped. Buddhism today symbolizes belief in magic and sorcery, reincarnation, stays away from intellect and is full of vagueness and ambiguity. Surya Das, the founder and speaker for Western Buddhism says that Buddhism today is the religiosity of God in which man’s experience is a bridge to finding the truth.[i]

Source: shafaqna