Short answer
Yes. The Qur'an says there never was a people without a warner, so India's peoples had warners too. Each warner spoke his own people's language, and all of them brought one message: worship God (﷾) alone. But the Qur'an names no prophet sent to India. It does not make Krishna, Rama or the Buddha a prophet, and no one can say who India's warners were. What the Qur'an gives is a test. Whatever in India's scriptures agrees with that one message is true, and may echo a messenger's teaching. Whatever contradicts it did not come from a messenger. Many Hindus call their faith Sanatana Dharma, the eternal religion. The Qur'an also speaks of one religion, the same for every prophet and built into human nature. And it says the last messenger, Muhammad (ﷺ), was sent to all people, India included.
Full explanation
A warner to every people
The Qur'an answers in words that leave no people out. There never was a people without a warner, it says. God (﷾) sent a messenger among every people with one command: serve God (﷾), and shun the taghut. The taghut is whatever is worshipped besides Him (Yusuf Ali renders the word "Evil"). Every people has a guide, and when each people's messenger comes, the matter is judged between them with justice. Ibn Kathir, a Muslim Qur'an commentator of the fourteenth century, explains 35:24 this way. No nation of the children of Adam has passed without God (﷾) sending it warners, so none was left with an excuse. He sets 13:7 and 16:36 beside it. The Qur'an does not name India, just as it names neither China nor the Americas. But India, with its many peoples and languages, is among the peoples these verses cover. Other verses say no warner came to the Prophet's (ﷺ) own people before him. Early scholars explained that these speak of his own tribe, Quraysh, or of the people of the interval between Jesus and him. The replies below say more.
“Verily We have sent thee in truth, as a bearer of glad tidings, and as a warner: and there never was a people, without a warner having lived among them (in the past).”
“For We assuredly sent amongst every People a messenger, (with the Command), "Serve Allah, and eschew Evil": of the People were some whom Allah guided, and some on whom error became inevitably (established). So travel through the earth, and see what was the end of those who denied (the Truth).”
“And the Unbelievers say: "Why is not a sign sent down to him from his Lord?" But thou art truly a warner, and to every people a guide.”
“To every people (was sent) a messenger: when their messenger comes (before them), the matter will be judged between them with justice, and they will not be wronged.”
Explains the verse: no nation of the children of Adam has passed without God sending warners to it and removing every excuse. He sets beside it 13:7, "to every people a guide", and 16:36, "We assuredly sent amongst every People a messenger". He says there are many verses on this.
Explains the verse: God sent a messenger to every generation and every group of people. All of them called to the worship of God and forbade the worship of anything besides Him. The worship of others first arose among the children of Adam in the people of Noah. From then on God kept sending messengers with this call. Noah was the first messenger God sent to the people of the earth, and God sealed the messengers with Muhammad (ﷺ). His call reached mankind and jinn, east and west. He cites 21:25 with it.
“In order that thou mayest admonish a people, whose fathers had received no admonition, and who therefore remain heedless (of the Signs of Allah).”
Reports Qatada: the people meant are Quraysh, an unlettered nation to whom no warner came before Muhammad (ﷺ). He also reports Ibn Abbas and Muqatil: they are the people of the interval (fatra) between Jesus and Muhammad. A third view: God's proof stood against them through the warning of the earlier messengers, even though they had not seen a messenger.
One message, in each people's language
Each messenger taught in the language of his own people, to make the message clear to them. A warner sent to a people of India would have spoken its language, not Arabic. The message itself did not change. Every messenger was told that there is no god but Allah (﷾), so worship Him. Ibn Kathir explains that all of them called to the worship of God (﷾) alone. He adds that God (﷾) kept sending messengers with this call from the time the worship of others began, among the people of Noah. God (﷾) sealed them with Muhammad (ﷺ). The Prophet (ﷺ) said the prophets are brothers with one father and different mothers, and their religion is one.
“We sent not a messenger except (to teach) in the language of his (own) people, in order to make (things) clear to them. Now Allah leaves straying those whom He pleases and guides whom He pleases: and He is Exalted in power, full of Wisdom.”
“Not a messenger did We send before thee without this inspiration sent by Us to him: that there is no god but I; therefore worship and serve Me.”
Explains the verse: God sent a messenger to every generation and every group of people. All of them called to the worship of God and forbade the worship of anything besides Him. The worship of others first arose among the children of Adam in the people of Noah. From then on God kept sending messengers with this call. Noah was the first messenger God sent to the people of the earth, and God sealed the messengers with Muhammad (ﷺ). His call reached mankind and jinn, east and west. He cites 21:25 with it.
Abu Hurayra reports that the Prophet (ﷺ) said he is the closest of all people to Jesus son of Mary, in this world and the next; the prophets are brothers with one father and different mothers, and their religion is one.
Named and unnamed
The Qur'an names about twenty-five prophets. It says plainly that the list is not complete: God (﷾) told the Prophet (ﷺ) the stories of some messengers and not of others. It names no warner sent to India. So it makes no claim about who India's warners were or when they came. Naming one, Krishna, Rama or the Buddha included, would only be a guess. What the Qur'an does say is what every one of them taught: worship God (﷾) alone. The page on which prophets are named in the Qur'an lists those it does name.
“We did aforetime send messengers before thee: of them there are some whose story We have related to thee, and some whose story We have not related to thee. It was not (possible) for any messenger to bring a sign except by the leave of Allah: but when the Command of Allah issued, the matter was decided in truth and justice, and there perished, there and then those who stood on Falsehoods.”
“Of some messengers We have already told thee the story; of others We have not;- and to Moses Allah spoke direct;-”
“Not a messenger did We send before thee without this inspiration sent by Us to him: that there is no god but I; therefore worship and serve Me.”
The Qur'an as judge of earlier scripture
The Qur'an calls itself a guardian (muhaymin) over the scripture that came before it. Ibn Kathir explains the word as trustee, witness and judge over every earlier book. He reports the early scholar Ibn Jurayj: whatever in those books agrees with the Qur'an is true, and whatever differs from it is false. The same verse says God (﷾) gave each people a law and a way of its own. The laws differed; the message about God (﷾) did not. Muslims read the Bible's Torah and the New Testament Gospels in just this way. The Qur'an names the Torah (the scripture given to Moses) and the Injil (the Gospel Jesus preached) as revealed. The page on how a Muslim should read the Bible explains how. A Hindu may ask who made the Qur'an the judge. The test is only as good as the Qur'an's claim to come from God (﷾). So the Qur'an asks to be tested first. It challenges anyone in doubt to produce one chapter like it, or to bring a book from God (﷾) that guides better.
“To thee We sent the Scripture in truth, confirming the scripture that came before it, and guarding it in safety: so judge between them by what Allah hath revealed, and follow not their vain desires, diverging from the Truth that hath come to thee. To each among you have we prescribed a law and an open way. If Allah had so willed, He would have made you a single people, but (His plan is) to test you in what He hath given you: so strive as in a race in all virtues. The goal of you all is to Allah; it is He that will show you the truth of the matters in which ye dispute;”
Explains muhaymin ("guarding it in safety") from the early authorities. In one report from Ibn Abbas, the Qur'an is trustworthy over every book before it. In another it is a witness over them, and in a third a judge over them. He reports Ibn Jurayj: whatever in the earlier books agrees with the Qur'an is true, and whatever differs from it is false. Ibn Kathir says the word includes all these meanings. He adds that God made the Qur'an, the last of the books, trustee, witness and judge over them all. God undertook to guard it Himself (15:9).
“And if ye are in doubt as to what We have revealed from time to time to Our servant, then produce a Sura like thereunto; and call your witnesses or helpers (If there are any) besides Allah, if your (doubts) are true.”
“Say: "Then bring ye a Book from Allah, which is a better guide than either of them, that I may follow it! (do), if ye are truthful!"”
The test applied to India's scriptures
The Qur'an names no scripture of India, so it claims none of them as revealed. But its test can be used on any book. Whatever in India's scriptures agrees with the one message is true, and may echo what a messenger once taught. Whatever goes against it did not come from a messenger. The Kena Upanishad is part of the shruti, the highest level of Hindu scripture. It says of the One, whom the eye cannot see: "know that alone to be the Brahman, not this which people worship here." That comes close to the one message: what people worship here is not the One. In the Gita, Krishna speaks as the Lord, and says he is born age after age. He says he is unborn, yet is born by his own delusive power (maya), a power that creates illusion. Telang, the Hindu judge who translated the Gita in the nineteenth century, explains that the Lord is born in a body made of matter. The power is called delusive, Telang adds, because he is still really unborn. But real or only seeming, the birth is the Gita's own teaching. Krishna says he has passed through many births, as Arjuna has. The Qur'an says God (﷾) begets not and is not begotten, and none is like Him. So by the test, a teaching that the Lord is born did not come from a messenger of the One God (﷾).
“That which speech does not illumine, but which illumines speech: know that alone to be the Brahman (the Supreme Being), not this which people worship here. That which cannot be thought by mind, but by which, they say, mind is able to think: know that alone to be the Brahman, not this which people worship here. That which is not seen by the eye, but by which the eye is able to see: know that alone to be the Brahman, not this which people worship here. That which cannot be heard by the ear, but by which the ear is able to hear: know that alone to be Brahman, not this which people worship here. That which none breathes with the breath, but by which breath is in-breathed: know that alone to be the Brahman, not this which people worship here.”
“Whensoever, O descendant of Bharata! piety languishes, and impiety is in the ascendant, I create myself. I am born age after age, for the protection of the good, for the destruction of evil-doers, and the establishment of piety.”
“Even though I am unborn and inexhaustible in (my) essence, even though I am lord of all beings, still I take up the control of my own nature, and am born by means of my delusive power.”
“Nature is what goes to the formation of the material form in which he is born; the ‘power’ includes knowledge, omnipotence, &c. It is delusive because he is still really ‘unborn.’”
“I have passed through many births, O Arguna! and you also. I know them all, but you, O terror of (your) foes! do not know them.”
“Say: He is Allah, the One and Only; Allah, the Eternal, Absolute; He begetteth not, nor is He begotten; And there is none like unto Him.”
The Hindu view: an eternal teaching, restored by the Lord
Hindus answer this question in their own terms. Swami Vivekananda, a Hindu monk, set out the Hindu view at the World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893. Hindus received their religion through revelation, the Vedas (the oldest Hindu scriptures), he said. But by the Vedas, he said, no books are meant. They are spiritual laws that were true before anyone found them, as the law of gravitation was. The rishis (seers) who found them are honoured as perfected beings. The Bhagavad Gita, part of the epic Mahabharata, tells how such a teaching is handed down, lost and restored. Krishna says he taught the everlasting teaching to the sun, who taught it to Manu. It came down by steps to royal sages, and was lost to the world by long lapse of time. Now he declares it again to Arjuna. Whenever piety declines, he says, he is born, age after age. Many Hindus call their faith Sanatana Dharma, the eternal religion, and say it has no founder and no beginning.
“The Hindus have received their religion through their revelation, the Vedas. They hold that the Vedas are without beginning and without end. It may sound ludicrous to this audience, how a book can be without beginning or end. But by the Vedas no books are meant. They mean the accumulated treasury of spiritual law discovered by different persons in different times. Just as the law of gravitation existed before its discovery, and would exist if all humanity forgot it, so with the laws that govern the spiritual world. The moral, ethical and spiritual relation between soul and souls and between individual spirits and the Father of all spirits were there before their discovery and would remain even if we forgot them. The discoverers of these laws are called Rishis, and we honor them as perfected beings, and I am glad to tell this audience that some of the very best of them were women.”
“This everlasting (system of) devotion I declared to the sun, the sun declared it to Manu, and Manu communicated it to Ikshvâku. Coming thus by steps, it became known to royal sages. But, O terror of (your) foes! that devotion was lost to the world by long (lapse of) time. That same primeval devotion I have declared to you to-day, seeing that you are my devotee and friend, for it is the highest mystery.”
“Whensoever, O descendant of Bharata! piety languishes, and impiety is in the ascendant, I create myself. I am born age after age, for the protection of the good, for the destruction of evil-doers, and the establishment of piety.”
The eternal religion
Sanatana Dharma means the eternal dharma: a law, duty or religion that holds for ever. The words are old. The Laws of Manu, an old Hindu law book of the smriti (remembered tradition), use them. A rule on truthful and kind speech ends: "that is the eternal law" (esha dharmah sanatanah). The Qur'an also speaks of one religion, a whole way of life (deen), that does not change. God (﷾) established for the believers the same religion He enjoined on Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus. Abraham was neither a Jew nor a Christian, but one who submitted to God (muslim, in the Arabic) and joined no gods with Him. That religion is the pattern on which God (﷾) made mankind, and every soul has testified that God (﷾) is its Lord. The Prophet (ﷺ) said every child is born on this pattern (fitra). A religion is eternal only if it is the same for every people at every time. That is the Qur'an's claim for the religion of the prophets.
“Let him say what is true, let him say what is pleasing, let him utter no disagreeable truth, and let him utter no agreeable falsehood; that is the eternal law.”
“The same religion has He established for you as that which He enjoined on Noah - the which We have sent by inspiration to thee - and that which We enjoined on Abraham, Moses, and Jesus: Namely, that ye should remain steadfast in religion, and make no divisions therein: to those who worship other things than Allah, hard is the (way) to which thou callest them. Allah chooses to Himself those whom He pleases, and guides to Himself those who turn (to Him).”
“Abraham was not a Jew nor yet a Christian; but he was true in Faith, and bowed his will to Allah's (Which is Islam), and he joined not gods with Allah.”
“So set thou thy face steadily and truly to the Faith: (establish) Allah's handiwork according to the pattern on which He has made mankind: no change (let there be) in the work (wrought) by Allah: that is the standard Religion: but most among mankind understand not.”
“When thy Lord drew forth from the Children of Adam - from their loins - their descendants, and made them testify concerning themselves, (saying): "Am I not your Lord (who cherishes and sustains you)?"- They said: "Yea! We do testify!" (This), lest ye should say on the Day of Judgment: "Of this we were never mindful": Or lest ye should say: "Our fathers before us may have taken false gods, but we are (their) descendants after them: wilt Thou then destroy us because of the deeds of men who were futile?"”
Abu Hurayra reports that the Prophet (ﷺ) said every child is born upon the fitra (the natural disposition God gave mankind), and it is his parents who make him a Jew, a Christian or a Magian, just as an animal is born whole. Abu Hurayra then recited Qur'an 30:30.
Lost, and given again for the last time
The Gita says an everlasting teaching was lost to the world by long lapse of time and had to be declared again. That loss is far older than Islam. The Islamic account tells the same kind of story about every people. Ibn Kathir explains that God (﷾) kept sending messengers from the time the worship of others began. The difference lies in how the teaching returns. In the Gita the Lord is born; in the Qur'an God sends a man with His message. Each earlier messenger was sent to his own people, and the Prophet (ﷺ) said he was sent to all mankind. The Qur'an tells him to say, "O men! I am sent unto you all". It calls him the Seal of the Prophets, the last of them, and says God (﷾) will guard the message He sent down. So God (﷾) sent a warner to India's peoples, as to every people, and the last messenger was sent to India too. The pages on whether Islam is only for Arabs and whether Muhammad (ﷺ) was a messenger of God (﷾) take this further.
“This everlasting (system of) devotion I declared to the sun, the sun declared it to Manu, and Manu communicated it to Ikshvâku. Coming thus by steps, it became known to royal sages. But, O terror of (your) foes! that devotion was lost to the world by long (lapse of) time. That same primeval devotion I have declared to you to-day, seeing that you are my devotee and friend, for it is the highest mystery.”
Explains the verse: God sent a messenger to every generation and every group of people. All of them called to the worship of God and forbade the worship of anything besides Him. The worship of others first arose among the children of Adam in the people of Noah. From then on God kept sending messengers with this call. Noah was the first messenger God sent to the people of the earth, and God sealed the messengers with Muhammad (ﷺ). His call reached mankind and jinn, east and west. He cites 21:25 with it.
Jabir ibn Abdullah reports that the Prophet (ﷺ) named five things given to him that no prophet before him was given. The last of them: every earlier prophet was sent to his own nation only, but he was sent to all mankind.
“Say: "O men! I am sent unto you all, as the Messenger of Allah, to Whom belongeth the dominion of the heavens and the earth: there is no god but He: it is He That giveth both life and death. So believe in Allah and His Messenger, the Unlettered Prophet, who believeth in Allah and His words: follow him that (so) ye may be guided."”
“Muhammad is not the father of any of your men, but (he is) the Messenger of Allah, and the Seal of the Prophets: and Allah has full knowledge of all things.”
“We have, without doubt, sent down the Message; and We will assuredly guard it (from corruption).”
The replies, answered
Bhagavad Gita 4:7-8 — chapter 4, verses 7-8
“Whensoever, O descendant of Bharata! piety languishes, and impiety is in the ascendant, I create myself. I am born age after age, for the protection of the good, for the destruction of evil-doers, and the establishment of piety.”
Cited for
If every people had a warner, India's must have been one of its great figures, such as Krishna, Rama or the Buddha. But Krishna is the Lord himself, born age after age. To call him a prophet makes God a mere messenger, and Hindus reject it.
The response
The Qur'an names no warner sent to India. It says God (﷾) told the stories of some messengers and not of others, so no one can say who India's warners were. A Muslim who names Krishna, Rama or the Buddha is only guessing. The Gita points the same way. Krishna does not speak as a messenger bringing God's (﷾) word. He speaks as the Lord, born age after age. He tells Arjuna to sacrifice to him, reverence him and come to him as his sole refuge. The Qur'an says that no man given scripture and prophethood would tell people to worship him rather than God (﷾). So Islam does not call Krishna a prophet, and this objection does not touch it.
Where it lands — The Qur'an names no prophet of India. The Krishna of the Gita, who asks to be worshipped, is not what the Qur'an calls a messenger.
Qur'an 10:47 — Surat Yunus (Jonas), verse 47
“To every people (was sent) a messenger: when their messenger comes (before them), the matter will be judged between them with justice, and they will not be wronged.”
Cited for
The Qur'an never mentions India. Its world was Arabia and its neighbours: Egypt, Rome, the Jews and the Christians. When it says "every people", it means the peoples it knew.
The response
The Qur'an does not name India, nor China, nor the peoples of the Americas. But it says plainly that it has not told the story of every messenger. So its account reaches beyond the peoples it names. Its words leave no one out: to every people a messenger was sent, and there never was a people without a warner. Ibn Kathir explains that no nation of the children of Adam passed without warners. India's peoples are children of Adam, whether India is named or not. And the Qur'an sends its own Prophet (ﷺ) to all mankind, to the peoples it never names as much as to those it does.
Where it lands — The Qur'an's claim is about every people, so it covers India without naming it.
Qur'an 36:6 — Surat Ya Sin (Yaseen), verse 6
“In order that thou mayest admonish a people, whose fathers had received no admonition, and who therefore remain heedless (of the Signs of Allah).”
Cited for
The Qur'an itself says the Prophet (ﷺ) was sent to a people whose fathers had received no warning. No warner had come to them before him. So 35:24 cannot mean that every people had a warner, and India may have had none.
The response
35:24 speaks of the past as a whole: at some time, a warner lived among every people. The verses on the Arabs speak of the Prophet's (ﷺ) own people. On 32:3, al-Qurtubi, a Qur'an commentator of the thirteenth century, reports Qatada, an early scholar: the people meant are Quraysh, the Prophet's (ﷺ) tribe. He also reports Ibn Abbas, a Companion of the Prophet (ﷺ), and Muqatil, an early Qur'an commentator. They say the people meant are those of the interval between Jesus and Muhammad (ﷺ). Al-Tabari was a Qur'an commentator of the ninth and tenth centuries. A grammarian he quotes explains 36:6 the same way: their fathers lived in an interval between messengers. Long before that interval, Ishmael raised the House at Mecca with Abraham, and the Qur'an calls him a messenger and a prophet. Ibn Abbas, his student Ikrima, and Qatada are also reported as reading 36:6 another way: to warn them as their fathers had been warned. Ibn Jurayj, an early scholar of Mecca, is reported as saying that 35:24 leaves out the Arabs. Even on his reading, the exception rests on verses about the Prophet's (ﷺ) own people, and those verses send him to warn them. No verse says anything like it of India.
Where it lands — The verses on the Arabs speak of the Prophet's (ﷺ) own people, not of every people. None of them says that India had no warner.
Qur'an 25:51 — Surat al-Furqan (The Criterion), verse 51
“Had it been Our Will, We could have sent a warner to every centre of population.”
Cited for
The Qur'an contradicts itself. Here it says God could have sent a warner to every town had He willed, which means He did not. Yet 35:24 says every people had one.
The response
The two verses speak of different things. 35:24 speaks of every people (umma) through history; 25:51 speaks of every town (qarya). One warner can serve a whole people and all its towns. Ibn Kathir explains the verse this way. God (﷾) could have sent a warner to every town. Instead He singled out Muhammad (ﷺ) to be sent to all the people of the earth, as 7:158 says. The earlier warners were each sent to their own people; the last was sent to them all.
Where it lands — Every people had a warner; not every town needed its own. There is no contradiction.
Qur'an 14:4 — Surat Ibrahim (Abraham), verse 4
“We sent not a messenger except (to teach) in the language of his (own) people, in order to make (things) clear to them. Now Allah leaves straying those whom He pleases and guides whom He pleases: and He is Exalted in power, full of Wisdom.”
Cited for
By the Qur'an's own rule, every messenger came to his own people in their own language. India had its own warners in its own tongues. An Arabic prophet with an Arabic book was sent to the Arabs, not to India.
The response
The earlier messengers were each sent to their own people, in their own language. The Prophet (ﷺ) said that this changed with him. Every prophet before him was sent to his own nation only, and he was sent to all mankind. The Qur'an tells him to say, "O men! I am sent unto you all". It calls him the Seal of the Prophets, so no later messenger will come to any people. The Qur'an came first in the language of the people among whom it was revealed, as 14:4 says. From them it has gone out to every people. Its meaning reaches other peoples in their own languages through translation and teaching. Most Muslims today are not Arabs, and India has one of the largest Muslim populations in the world.
Where it lands — Each earlier warner was sent to one people. The last was sent to all, India included.
Qur'an 5:48 — Surat al-Ma'ida (The Table), verse 48
“To thee We sent the Scripture in truth, confirming the scripture that came before it, and guarding it in safety: so judge between them by what Allah hath revealed, and follow not their vain desires, diverging from the Truth that hath come to thee. To each among you have we prescribed a law and an open way. If Allah had so willed, He would have made you a single people, but (His plan is) to test you in what He hath given you: so strive as in a race in all virtues. The goal of you all is to Allah; it is He that will show you the truth of the matters in which ye dispute;”
Cited for
The Qur'an says it confirms the scripture that came before it. If God sent a warner to India, the Vedas are what he brought, so the Qur'an should confirm them. Either the rishis were prophets, and their Vedas should be followed, or they were not. If they were not, Muslims cannot credit them with the lines about one God. And who made the Qur'an the judge of the Vedas? That assumes what it has to prove.
The response
The same verse calls the Qur'an a guardian over the scripture before it. Ibn Kathir explains this as its trustee, witness and judge. In Ibn Jurayj's words, whatever in those books agrees with it is true, and whatever differs from it is false. That is a test, not a double standard. The Qur'an names no scripture of India, so it does not say that the Vedas came from a messenger. The Qur'an names the Torah and the Injil as revealed. Even so, Muslims judge the Bible's Torah and the New Testament Gospels by the Qur'an. A line that agrees with the one message is true, whoever first said it. It may echo a messenger's teaching, or the knowledge of God (﷾) placed in every person. Either way it points to the Qur'an's teaching, not away from it. Nor do the Hindu scriptures all point one way: the Kena Upanishad says the One is "not this which people worship here". A Hindu, too, must decide which lines to follow, and the Qur'an gives a rule for deciding. That rule is only as good as the Qur'an's claim to come from God (﷾). So the Qur'an asks to be tested first. It challenges anyone in doubt to produce one chapter like it. It tells those who reject it to bring a book from God (﷾) that is a better guide, and says the Prophet (ﷺ) would follow it. The pages on the Qur'an's challenge and on whether Muhammad (ﷺ) was a messenger of God (﷾) set out that evidence.
Where it lands — Agreement with the Qur'an shows that a line is true; it does not make a whole book revealed. The Qur'an judges every earlier book, and asks to be tested itself.
Rig Veda 1.164.46 — Mandala 1, Hymn 164, verse 46
“They call him Indra, Mitra, Varuṇa, Agni, and he is heavenly nobly-winged Garutmân. To what is One, sages give many a title: they call it Agni, Yama, Mâtariṣvan.”
Cited for
The earlier hymns of the Rig Veda praise many gods. The idea of one reality appears later, in hymns like this one and in the Upanishads. India moved from many gods toward one. The idea of a lost one-God teaching turns that history upside down.
The response
The Qur'an sets no date for India's warners and does not say that any surviving hymn came from them. People lived in India long before the oldest hymn was composed, and India has many peoples, each within the Qur'an's words. Ibn Kathir places the first worship of others among the people of Noah. He says God (﷾) kept sending messengers from then on. That account does not depend on the order in which one people's hymns were made. Nor is the claim a theory of Indian history. It is a statement of God's (﷾) justice: no people was left without warning, and none is punished before a messenger comes. And a turn toward the One in later texts is just what the Qur'an leads one to expect. People are made on a pattern that knows Him.
Where it lands — The claim is about messengers, not about the order of the hymns, so no dating of the Vedas can decide it.
Swami Vivekananda, Paper on Hinduism, World's Parliament of Religions, Chicago, 19 September 1893
“The Hindus have received their religion through their revelation, the Vedas. They hold that the Vedas are without beginning and without end. It may sound ludicrous to this audience, how a book can be without beginning or end. But by the Vedas no books are meant. They mean the accumulated treasury of spiritual law discovered by different persons in different times. Just as the law of gravitation existed before its discovery, and would exist if all humanity forgot it, so with the laws that govern the spiritual world. The moral, ethical and spiritual relation between soul and souls and between individual spirits and the Father of all spirits were there before their discovery and would remain even if we forgot them. The discoverers of these laws are called Rishis, and we honor them as perfected beings, and I am glad to tell this audience that some of the very best of them were women.”
Cited for
Hindu dharma is sanatana, eternal: its truths have no beginning and it has no founder. Islam was founded by Muhammad (ﷺ) in the seventh century. The eternal religion is the Hindus' own.
The response
The Qur'an does not present Islam as a new religion. It says God (﷾) established the same religion He enjoined on Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus. Abraham, it says, submitted to God (﷾) and joined no gods with Him. The Prophet (ﷺ) was the last of the prophets, not the first. What makes a religion eternal is not the age of its books. It is a message that is the same at every time and for every people. Vivekananda called the spiritual laws eternal because they were true before anyone found them. The first of those truths is that God (﷾) is one and He alone is to be worshipped. The Qur'an says it was taught to every people and placed in every soul. The Gita, too, calls its teaching primeval, yet says it was lost to the world and had to be declared again. A teaching as old as mankind can still need restoring.
Where it lands — Islam claims to be the oldest message, restored for the last time, not a new religion. Its one religion is eternal in the sense that matters: it never changes.
Qur'an 35:24 — Surat Fatir (The Originator), verse 24
“Verily We have sent thee in truth, as a bearer of glad tidings, and as a warner: and there never was a people, without a warner having lived among them (in the past).”
Cited for
Muslims say India once had a warner, whose teaching was later lost or mixed with the worship of other gods. That treats Hindus as people who forgot what Muslims remember. It is condescending. And Muslims say it only now, to win Hindus over.
The response
The Qur'an, revealed far from India, says there never was a people without a warner. That says God (﷾) cared for India's peoples as for every people; it does not say Hindus are lesser. Nor is it a new idea made for India. Ibn Kathir, writing in the fourteenth century, explains the verse as covering every nation of the children of Adam. Islam tells the same kind of story about the Prophet's (ﷺ) own people. Abraham was given the site of the House at Mecca and told to join nothing with God (﷾) in worship. He raised its foundations with Ishmael, whom the Qur'an calls a messenger and a prophet. Yet by the Prophet's (ﷺ) time 360 idols stood around it, and the Qur'an calls his people one "whose fathers had received no admonition". The Gita itself tells this kind of story about its own teaching. It calls the teaching everlasting, handed down from the sun to Manu and on to royal sages. Then it was lost to the world by long lapse of time, and declared again. To say that a teaching from God (﷾) can be given, lost and given again is no insult to India. The Gita says so itself.
Where it lands — The Qur'an honours India with a warner, as it honours every people, and tells the same kind of story of the Prophet's (ﷺ) own people. The Gita itself says an everlasting teaching was once lost and given again.
Bhagavad Gita 4:1-3 — chapter 4, verses 1-3
“This everlasting (system of) devotion I declared to the sun, the sun declared it to Manu, and Manu communicated it to Ikshvâku. Coming thus by steps, it became known to royal sages. But, O terror of (your) foes! that devotion was lost to the world by long (lapse of) time. That same primeval devotion I have declared to you to-day, seeing that you are my devotee and friend, for it is the highest mystery.”
Cited for
Muslims speak of a teaching India lost. But it was Muslim rulers who pulled down India's temples. Whatever India's warners left behind, Muslim conquerors did more than anyone to destroy it.
The response
Some Muslim rulers did pull down temples, and this page does not defend it. But the loss this page speaks of is far older than Islam. The Gita, composed centuries before Islam, says its teaching "was lost to the world by long (lapse of) time". Krishna then declares it again to Arjuna. Nor did India's scriptures perish under Muslim rule: the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Gita are read today. Akbar, the Mughal emperor of the sixteenth century, even had the Mahabharata and the Ramayana translated into Persian. The Qur'an's claim is about what God (﷾) did: He sent a warner to every people. It does not stand or fall on what any ruler did. The page on whether Islam was spread by the sword looks at the history, India included.
Where it lands — Rulers' deeds are judged by the Qur'an, not the Qur'an by rulers' deeds. The Gita itself says its teaching was lost long before Islam came.
Qur'an 7:172-173 — Surat al-A'raf (The Heights), verses 172-173
“When thy Lord drew forth from the Children of Adam - from their loins - their descendants, and made them testify concerning themselves, (saying): "Am I not your Lord (who cherishes and sustains you)?"- They said: "Yea! We do testify!" (This), lest ye should say on the Day of Judgment: "Of this we were never mindful": Or lest ye should say: "Our fathers before us may have taken false gods, but we are (their) descendants after them: wilt Thou then destroy us because of the deeds of men who were futile?"”
Cited for
Islam says every soul made a covenant with God before birth, which no one remembers. That is no better than karma from a past life that no one remembers, which Muslims reject.
The response
The verse gives the covenant's purpose. It was taken so that no one could say on the Day of Judgment, "Of this we were never mindful". Nor could anyone blame his fathers for the false gods he followed. No one is punished on its account alone. God (﷾), the Qur'an says, punishes no one until He has sent a messenger, and no bearer of burdens bears another's burden. What remains of the covenant in each person is not a memory of an event but a knowledge of God (﷾). It is the natural pattern on which, the Prophet (ﷺ) said, every child is born. That is why people in every land, India included, have reached toward one God (﷾). In Islam no one is charged with anything done before his birth.
Where it lands — The covenant is the knowledge of God (﷾) placed in every soul, not a forgotten crime. No one is punished before a messenger has come.
Perspectives
The eternal teaching and the Lord's descents
The Vedas are without beginning and without end. They are not books, but spiritual laws that were true before anyone found them, as the law of gravitation was. The rishis who found them are honoured as perfected beings. The teaching comes down from teacher to teacher. When it is lost to the world and piety declines, the Lord himself is born to restore it, age after age. This is Sanatana Dharma, the eternal religion, with no founder and no beginning, and it needs no messenger from outside.
Vivekananda told the World's Parliament of Religions in 1893 that Hindus hold the Vedas to have no beginning and no end. He said the Vedas are not books. They are a treasury of spiritual laws, found by different people at different times.
Rebuttal
Grant that the first truths are older than any book. Islam says God (﷾) sent them to a messenger among each people (21:25, 35:24), and placed the knowledge of Him in every soul (30:30). So a line is true when it agrees with that one message, not because it is old. By that test, a Lord who is born did not come from a messenger (112:3).
He said the discoverers of these laws are called rishis, and that Hindus honour them as perfected beings.
Rebuttal
Islam honours God's (﷾) messengers above all other people. But the Qur'an names no messenger sent to India, so it does not say whether any rishi was one. Islam judges every teacher by what he taught: that God (﷾) alone is to be worshipped (21:25).
In the Gita, Krishna says the everlasting teaching came down by steps and was lost to the world by long lapse of time. He declared it again to Arjuna.
Rebuttal
Grant that the Gita itself says its teaching was once lost. Islam tells the same kind of story about every people. The difference is how it returns. In the Gita the Lord is born. In the Qur'an God begets not, nor is He begotten. He sends a man with His message.
Krishna says that though he is unborn, he is born by means of his own delusive power (maya) whenever piety languishes, age after age. Telang explains that he is still really unborn.
Rebuttal
Grant Telang's note that the Lord is still really unborn. Real or seeming, the Gita still has him pass through many births, as Arjuna has (4.5). The Qur'an says God (﷾) is not begotten, and nothing whatever is like Him (112:3, 42:11). A birth like Arjuna's is a creature's birth, whether it is real or only shown.
A teaching that is eternal, and that the Lord himself restores, needs no messenger from outside India.
Rebuttal
Islam does not say a messenger from outside was needed in the past. The Qur'an says a warner lived among every people (35:24), and that covers India's peoples. The Gita itself says the teaching was lost. In the Qur'an God restores it by sending a man, never by being born (112:3). The last messenger, Muhammad (ﷺ), was sent to all mankind (7:158).
The Islamic perspective
God (﷾) sent a warner to every people, India's among them. Each spoke in his people's language, and all had one message: worship God (﷾) alone. The Qur'an names none of India's warners, so Islam names none. Whatever in India's scriptures agrees with that message is true. Whatever goes against it did not come from a messenger. The Qur'an is the judge. Every prophet had one religion, the pattern on which God (﷾) made mankind. God (﷾) brings it back by sending messengers, never by being born. The last of them, Muhammad (ﷺ), was sent to every people.
The Qur'an says there never was a people without a warner. God (﷾) sent a messenger to every people.
Ibn Kathir explains that no nation of the children of Adam passed without warners from God (﷾). So none was left with an excuse.
Every messenger taught in the language of his own people. And every one was told: there is no god but Allah (﷾), so worship Him.
The Qur'an says it has not told the story of every messenger, and it names none sent to India.
The Qur'an is the judge of earlier scripture. What agrees with it is true, and what differs from it is false.
In the Gita, Krishna says he is born age after age. The Qur'an says God (﷾) begets not and is not begotten.
The Qur'an says no man given scripture and prophethood would tell people to worship him rather than God (﷾). In the Gita, Krishna asks Arjuna to sacrifice to him and reverence him.
The Qur'an says the same religion was given to Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus. And the Prophet (ﷺ) said the prophets' religion is one.
That religion is the natural pattern on which God (﷾) made mankind, and every child is born on it.
Every earlier prophet was sent to his own people. The last, Muhammad (ﷺ), was sent to all mankind, and he is the Seal of the Prophets, the last of them.