Guru Nanak

Guru Nanak  pronunciation  (Punjabi: ਗੁਰੂ ਨਾਨਕ; Hindi: गुरु नानक, Urdu: گرونانک, [ˈɡʊɾu ˈnɑnək] Gurū Nānak) (15 April 1469 – 22 September 1539) was the founder Prophet of Sikhism and the first of the ten Sikh Gurus. His birth is celebrated world-wide as Guru Nanak Gurpurab on Kartik Pooranmashi, the full-moon day in the month of Katak, October–November.

Guru Nanak has been called "one of the greatest religious innovators of all time", who was "an original spiritual thinker who expressed his thoughts and experiences via extraordinary poetry", that now forms the basis of Sikh scripture, Guru Granth Sahib. Devoting himself immensely to spiritual matters, Nanak is said to have been inspired by a "powerful spiritual experience that gave him a vision of the true nature of God". Stating that he had been taken to the "God's court" and bestowed with the gift of "Naam" (the Name or Word of God), Guru Nanak preached that human spiritual growth was achievable through contemplation and meditation and through a way of living that reflected the presence of the divine within all human beings, and insisted that external efforts such as fastings, pilgrimages and penances carried little spiritual importance.

Zakir Naik

Zakir Naik (born 18 October 1965 in Mumbai, India) is an Indian Islamic preacher, who has been called an "authority on comparative religion", "perhaps the most influential Salafi ideologue in India", and "the world's leading Salafi evangelist". He is the founder and president of the Islamic Research Foundation (IRF), and founder of the "comparative religion" Peace TV channel, through which he reaches a reported 100 million viewers. Unlike many Islamic preachers, his lectures are colloquial, given in English not Urdu or Arabic, and he wears a suit and tie rather than traditional garb.

Before becoming a public speaker, he trained as a medical doctor. He has published booklet versions of lectures on Islam and comparative religion. Although he has publicly disclaimed sectarianism in Islam, he is regarded by some as an exponent of the Salafi ideology, and, by some, as a radical Islamic televangelist propagating Wahhabism.

Biography

Zakir Naik was born in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. He attended Kishinchand Chellaram College and studied medicine at Topiwala National Medical College and Nair Hospital and later the University of Mumbai, where he obtained a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (MBBS).