Answer
Wa `alaykum as-Salamu wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
1- Islam is a comprehensive, flexible and balanced religion. It can be applied everywhere and at all times.
2- Islam gives a due care for the body as well as the soul
3- Islam never contradicts any normal characteristics of humans.
In his response to your question, Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and an Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, states:
Your first duty as a Muslim is to know the truth, embrace it, practice it, and then you will recognize error as error.
Islam is the natural religion; it is the state of instinct (fitrah) everyone is born into. Recognition of God, and knowledge of good and bad is innate; it is the state we are born into.
All of the basic truths and practices of Islam appeal to reason and common sense. They have tangible benefits for society when properly understood and practiced. Look at the five pillars such as Prayer, Zakah, Fasting and Hajj. They entail spiritual as well as social benefits.
It is, for this reason, there is no shortage of Buddhists who have embraced Islam. Here is one of them: his name is Shaikh Hussain Ye, he is a scholar of Islam coming from a Buddhist background. You may refer your questions on comparison to him.
I am not an expert on Buddhism. However, it was born into a polytheistic milieu of caste system and idolatry and reacted to them; it preached against them. However, it also ended up practicing idolatry; Buddha who was an iconoclast, ended up being venerated as an idol; they made an idol of gold in his name worth millions of dollars.
In spite of these differences, there are certain commonalities between Buddhism and Islam. You may benefit from this presentation.
Allah Almighty knows best.