Every copy of the Guru Granth Sahib opens with the same words, and every Sikh knows them by heart. They are called the Mul Mantra, the root formula, and everything in the scripture that follows is read in their light. A Muslim who hears them read slowly for the first time usually falls silent, because he has heard them before, in Arabic, in the sura he recites most often.
This article is written for Sikh readers first, and for anyone who wants to see how closely two scriptures that arose a thousand years and a thousand miles apart can agree. We quote the Granth first, in its own words, and the Quran beside it. We do not argue; we read. The Quran's own rule for such reading is that GOD "decreed for you the same religion decreed for Noah, and what we inspired to you, and what we decreed for Abraham, Moses, and Jesus: 'You shall uphold this one religion, and do not divide it.'" (42:13).
The Mul Mantra, word by word
In Gurmukhi the Mul Mantra runs: Ik Onkar, Sat Nam, Karta Purakh, Nirbhau, Nirvair, Akal Murat, Ajuni, Saibhang, Gur Prasad. A common English paraphrase, the one the popular presentations use, gives it as: "There exists but one God, who is called the True, the Creator, free from fear and hate, immortal, not begotten, self-existent, Great and Compassionate." The paraphrase is fair, but the Gurmukhi is better, because each word is a single attribute and can be set beside a single line of the Quran.
Ik Onkar: One Being, One GOD. The numeral ik, "one", stands at the head of the whole scripture. The Quran's touchstone sura, after the one word "Proclaim," begins at the same place: "He is the One and only GOD." (112:1).
Sat Nam: the True Name, or the Name that is Truth. The Quran: "To GOD belongs the most beautiful names; call upon Him therewith, and disregard those who distort His names." (7:180).
Karta Purakh: the Creator Being. "He is the One GOD; the Creator, the Initiator, the Designer. To Him belong the most beautiful names. Glorifying Him is everything in the heavens and the earth. He is the Almighty, Most Wise." (59:24).
Nirbhau, Nirvair: without fear, without enmity. The Quran describes GOD as "the Peace" and "the Most Faithful" in the same breath as "the Supreme" (59:23); a Being who has nothing to fear and no rival to hate.
Akal Murat: timeless form, the One beyond time. "GOD: there is no other god besides Him, the Living, the Eternal." (2:255). "He is the Alpha and the Omega. He is the Outermost and the Innermost. He is fully aware of all things." (57:3).
Ajuni: unborn, not subject to birth. Here the two scriptures touch most exactly. "Never did He beget. Nor was He begotten." (112:3).
Saibhang: self-existent, existing by Himself and from Himself. "The Absolute GOD." (112:2). The Quran gives the same attribute in a homely image: He "feeds but is not fed" (6:14).
Gur Prasad: known by grace. The Quran does not say that GOD is reached by cleverness; it says that GOD "guides to Himself only those who totally submit" (42:13), and that guidance is His gift.
Read the two columns together and the whole of Sura 112 is present in the Mul Mantra: One, Absolute, unborn and unbegetting, and, in the attributes Nirbhau and Nirvair and Akal, without equal. "None equals Him." (112:4).
The names in the Granth
The Guru Granth Sahib does not insist on one name for GOD. It calls Him Kartar, Creator; Sahib, Lord; Akal, the Eternal; Satnam, the True Name; Parvardigar, the Cherisher; Rahim, the Merciful; Karim, the Generous; and it uses Allah and Khuda alongside Waheguru. Several of these are Persian and Arabic words that a Muslim uses every day. The Gurus were not borrowing a god; they were saying, in the vocabulary of every community around them, that there is only one.
The Quran takes the same view of names: "Say, 'Call Him GOD, or call Him Most Gracious; whichever name you use, to Him belongs the best names.'" (17:110). A Sikh who says Waheguru and a Muslim who says Allah are not naming two beings. The Quran's demand is not about the word; it is about the exclusiveness of the worship: "that we shall not worship except GOD; that we never set up any idols besides Him, nor set up any human beings as lords beside GOD." (3:64). On that demand the Mul Mantra and Sura 112 are one text.
Kabir: remembered in trouble, forgotten in ease
The Granth preserves hundreds of verses of Kabir, the weaver-poet of Benares who is claimed by Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims alike. One of his best-known couplets, in the form it is sung across North India, runs: Dukh mein sumiran sab kare, sukh mein kare na koi. Jo sukh mein sumiran kare, to dukh kahe hoi. "Everyone remembers God during trouble, no one remembers Him during peace and happiness. The one who remembers Him during peace and happiness, why should he have trouble?"
The Quran makes the same observation about human nature, almost line for line: "When the human being is afflicted, he implores his Lord, sincerely devoted to Him. But as soon as He blesses him, he forgets his previous imploring, sets up idols to rank with GOD and to divert others from His path." (39:8). And it draws the same conclusion Kabir draws: that the remedy is remembrance in ease, not only in need.
The Quran even describes the half-belief Kabir chides. Of the pagans of Mecca it says: "If you asked them who created them, they would say, 'GOD.' Why then did they deviate?" (43:87). They believed in one Creator and still bowed to others. Kabir and the Quran agree that believing in GOD and remembering GOD are two different things, and that only the second is religion.
What the Granth refuses, and why it matters
Two refusals run through the Sikh scripture and through the Quran together. The first is the image. The Granth's GOD is Akal Murat, a form beyond time that no hand can carve; the Sikh place of worship has no idol. The Quran: "No visions can encompass Him, but He encompasses all visions. He is the Compassionate, the Cognizant." (6:103). "There is nothing that equals Him. He is the Hearer, the Seer." (42:11).
The second is the incarnation. Ajuni, unborn, rules out the idea that the Creator enters a womb and is born as a man. The Quran says the same of every claim that GOD became a son or had one: "GOD has never begotten a son. Nor was there ever any other god besides Him. Otherwise, each god would have declared independence with his creations, and they would have competed with each other for dominance. GOD be glorified; far above their claims." (23:91).
A Sikh will ask, reasonably, what the Quran then says about Guru Nanak himself. It names him neither as prophet nor as anything else, and the project says the same: it does not pronounce on him, and it does not belittle him. The Quran is explicit that the messengers it names are not the whole list: "Messengers we have told you about, and messengers we never told you about." (4:164). "We have sent messengers before you - some of them we mentioned to you, and some we did not mention to you." (40:78). What the project can say with confidence is this: the message of the Mul Mantra is the message every messenger carried, "We have sent a messenger to every community, saying, 'You shall worship GOD, and avoid idolatry.'" (16:36), and a teacher who taught the people of the Punjab that GOD is One, unborn and without image was teaching what the Quran teaches. The Quran also forbids the project from ever speaking with contempt of what another community holds sacred: "Do not curse the idols they set up beside GOD, lest they blaspheme and curse GOD, out of ignorance." (6:108). Toward a scripture that itself sets up no idols, the instruction is easier still to keep.
The Gathas: common ground at the level of attributes
The Zoroastrians of Persia and India are the one community in this article whom the Quran names. In its list of those GOD will judge on the Last Day it says: "Those who believe, those who are Jewish, the converts, the Christians, the Zoroastrians, and the idol worshipers, GOD is the One who will judge among them on the Day of Resurrection. GOD witnesses all things." (22:17). Zoroaster is not named in the Quran, and the project does not name him a prophet or deny it; the rule of 4:164 applies.
What can be said rests on the oldest layer of the Avesta, the Gathas, the hymns attributed to Zoroaster himself. Their name for GOD is Ahura Mazda, "the Wise Lord": Ahura, Lord; Mazda, Wise. The Gathas call the Wise Lord the Creator (Yasna 31:7, 31:11, 44:7, 50:11, 51:7), the Most Mighty (Yasna 33:11, 45:6), the Beneficent (Yasna 33:11, 48:3) and the Bountiful, Spenta (Yasna 43, 44:2, 45:5, 46:9, 48:3). The Quran's roll of names answers each: "He is the One GOD; there is no other god besides Him. Knower of all secrets and declarations. He is the Most Gracious, Most Merciful." (59:22). "He is the One GOD; there is no other god besides Him. The King, the Most Sacred, the Peace, the Most Faithful, the Supreme, the Almighty, the Most Powerful, the Most Dignified. GOD be glorified; far above having partners." (59:23).
This is common ground at the level of attributes: Creator, Most Mighty, Beneficent, Bountiful, Wise, Lord. It is real, and it is enough to begin a conversation. It is not the same as the Mul Mantra's line-by-line match with Sura 112, and we do not pretend it is. The Gathas are difficult poetry in an archaic language, their translations differ widely, and the notes behind this series record the verse references without the Avestan text; the project has not yet set the hymns themselves, in a named translation, beside the Quran. Until it does, the Gathic witness is an honest sketch, not a finished comparison.
A Zoroastrian reader may notice that we have not quoted the Dasatir, a Persian text that circulates in popular presentations with a striking list of divine attributes ("He is One. Nothing resembles Him… He has no father or mother, wife or son… He is nearer to you than your own self"). The list reads almost like Sura 112 with 6:103 and 50:16 added. But the Dasatir was first published in 1818 and is widely regarded by scholars as a late composition of the Mughal era, not an ancient Zoroastrian scripture. The project therefore sets it aside and rests on the Gathas, which are weaker as a match but sound as a source. A sound attribute is worth more than a striking forgery.
What to show first
To a Sikh listener, read the Mul Mantra in Gurmukhi first, pausing on Ajuni and Saibhang, and then read Sura 112 in full without comment; the listener will hear the match before you name it. Then show the Persian and Arabic names of GOD that the Granth itself uses, and read 17:110, so that it is clear the project asks no one to rename GOD. Then Kabir beside 39:8, because Kabir belongs to everyone in the room. Only after that, if the question arises, speak of messengers and 4:164, and say plainly that the Quran does not name Guru Nanak and the project does not pronounce on him. To a Zoroastrian listener, begin with 22:17, because it names them, then the attributes of the Gathas beside 59:22–24, and say honestly that the comparison is still at the level of attributes.
Where the evidence is strong, and where it is not
Strong: the Mul Mantra beside Sura 112. Ajuni (unborn) and Saibhang (self-existent) are in the Gurmukhi, and Ik (One) stands first; the match with 112:1–3 is on the words themselves, not on a reading. Strong also: the Persian and Arabic names of GOD in the Granth (Rahim, Karim, Allah, Khuda, Parvardigar, Sahib), which genuinely occur there; and the Kabir couplet beside 39:8, which is a plain thematic parallel. The pairings we have offered for Sat Nam, Karta Purakh, Akal Murat and *Nirbhau*/*Nirvair* with 7:180, 59:24, 2:255, 57:3 and 59:23 are our own arrangement of attributes that both scriptures plainly contain; a reader is free to pair them differently.
Moderate: the Gathas. The epithets are genuine, but the project has verified them only as references, not as quoted Avestan text in a named translation, and the common ground is at the level of attributes only. We say so, and we do not grade it higher.
Deliberately not relied upon: the Dasatir, for the reason given; the claim, sometimes made in popular presentations, that Sikhism is "an offshoot of Hinduism" or that Guru Nanak was "influenced by the Muslims", both of which Sikhs contest and neither of which the texts require; and any count of "ninety-nine names" of GOD, which rests on Hadith, while the Quran speaks of "the most beautiful names" without giving a number. We also do not claim that the Quran names Guru Nanak or Zoroaster; it does not, and 4:164 is the honest position. "You shall not accept any information, unless you verify it for yourself." (17:36).
The One of the Mul Mantra is the One of Sura 112; the next article, No likeness of Him, turns from the name of GOD to the image of GOD, from the Yajurveda to Exodus to the Quran, and the series ends at the Final Testament's own proof, "Over it is nineteen." (74:30).
Sources
- Sri Guru Granth Sahib: the Mul Mantra (Japji, opening), quoted in Gurmukhi transliteration with the common English paraphrase used in the popular presentations; the names of GOD as they occur in the Granth.
- Kabir, doha "Dukh mein sumiran sab kare", in the form current in the Sant tradition and the Granth, with the English rendering given in the popular presentations.
- The Gathas (Yasna 31, 33, 43, 44, 45, 46, 48, 50, 51), by reference only; the Dasatir (1818) named and set aside.
- Quran: The Final Testament, Authorized English Version, translated by Rashad Khalifa.
- One Message, Many Witnesses, the project's master document (strand 1, rows 1.18–1.21; section 13, gaps for the Gathas).
- Popular presentations consulted: Zakir Naik and IRF lectures on the concept of GOD in Sikhism and Zoroastrianism; Ahmed Deedat on the names of GOD.