A Laudable Initiative for Interfaith Dialogue
By Dr. Mohiuddin Waseem
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
I salute the visionary leadership of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia for organizing a conference for Muslim scholars from June 4 to 6 2008 to stress the need for an interfaith dialogue. It is the hope of the organizers that the meeting will reach an agreement on a global Islamic charter on the dialogue with Christians and Jews.
In his opening remarks the King elaborated on the purpose of the conference with the remark, “We need to counter challenges of rigidity, ignorance, narrow-mindedness and to make the world accommodate the concepts and the prospects of the kind message of Islam without enmity or antagonism”. At a time when right wing religious extremists in both the Western and the Islamic world are fueling the concept of “Clash of Civilizations” those advocating dialogue for peaceful coexistence of cultures deserve our appreciation.
During the last five decades the Roman Catholic Church has been in the forefront advocating interfaith dialogues with the explicit understanding that the new realities of our present interdependent world requires that the Christian world “maintain good fellowship among the nations …if possible to live for their part in peace with all men so that they may truly be sons (obedient) of the Father (God) who is in heaven [Nostra Aetate (In our time) by Pope Paul VI, October 28th 1965]”.
Nostra Aetate also expressed regard and esteem for Muslims and exonerated all Jews except those few in Jesus’ time who hatched a conspiracy against him. Understanding that though in the course of centuries, many quarrels have arisen between Christians and Muslims, the synod urged all to forget the past and work together for social justice and moral welfare, as well as for peace and freedom.
More recently, Pope Benedict pleaded to the followers of Abrahamic faiths in similar terms saying, “Judaism, Christianity and Islam believe in the one God, Creator of heaven and earth. It follows, therefore, that all three monotheistic religions are called to cooperate with one another for the common good of humanity, serving the cause of justice and peace in the world” (March 16, 2006). It is important here to ponder on the term ‘justice’, which the church is so ardently putting forward for consideration. Because Pope Benedict himself has a background of philosophy before he was ordained in Catholic Church, it is important to understand the concept of justice from a philosopher’s perspective, and here I would like to quote Socrates’ point of view on this matter.
We find in Plato’s work “The Republic” Socrates questioning Cephalus, Polemarchus and others to elicit from them the true nature of justice. Cephalus suggested that justice means ‘telling the truth and paying one’s debts’. In anti-thesis Socrates points out that if you borrow a weapon from a friend who then goes mad and demands it back, you will feel it inappropriate and unjust to hand back the weapon. Thus according to Socrates this insight illustrates the need to produce a new definition of justice, which will include both the original contention and the contrary case. Therefore it is quite natural to assume that any sincere effort of an interfaith dialogue in today’s world has to pass through certain stages in which thesis will produce an antithesis and both will resolve in a synthesis; provided the participants in such dialogue are seekers of truth because we know from Jesus Christ that it is only the truth that sets anybody free (Holy Bible, John 3:21, 8:38).
But do we really need an interfaith dialogue in today’s world, the concept of which was never thought of before and for what reason? Why, like Catholic Church many Muslim and Jewish scholars of our times are advocating dialogue as a means to peaceful resolution of conflicts? To find the answer we need to look around the world we are living in and we will appreciate the fact that the collective conscience of humanity has evolved to a stage where many of the injustices of the past, both social and religious, are finding it difficult to appeal to the intellect of the world masses. Philosophers of science describe this phenomenon as “Paradigm shift,” a point when new information about a scientific subject or area forces scientists to give up old models and find new ones to describe how things now look. Likewise, when applied by theologians the concept of a paradigm shift acknowledges that our faiths can no longer be contained within old theories but rather new insight has to be incorporated. Therefore faced with the new reality of our interdependent world, which many of us would like to call a global village, the need of the hour is a Copernican revolution in theologian’s attitude towards other faiths. As we know the astronomical findings by Copernican (1473-1543 A.D) transformed the Ptolemaic map of the universe, so that people thereafter knew that the earth was not the center of the solar system anymore but rather it and the other planets were revolving around the sun.
However, any tolerance towards other faiths has to originate within one’s own religious beliefs. Just like the Roman Catholic Church which exonerated today’s Jewry from charges of Christ’s crucifixion many modern Jewish scholars now regard Jesus as a revolutionary and do not use abusive language against him or his mother which is quite contrary to what the Rabbis of Jesus’ time preached. Similarly, Muslims of today have to search the Islamic literature and see what it really teaches about different religious communities. After all, we are commanded in the Holy Qur’an to “Help ye one another in righteousness and piety, but help ye not one another in sin and rancor (Holy Qur’an 5: 3)”. Is it not true that during its early formative years Islam commanded Muslims to invite Jews and Christians to settle on common terms the logical first step towards peaceful coexistence with other religions (Holy Qur’an 3: 64). However, 1400 years down the road our task is compounded by the fact that we do not only need an ethic of agreement but also an ethic for coping with disagreement for which I am convinced that slowly humanity is approaching that stage.
We know from the early history of Islam that Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) had a congenial interaction with the Christians of his time who included Waraqah bin Nawfal, a scholar of Mekkah; Bohira, a monk of Syria; and the Christians of Najran from Southern Arabia. We also know that during the early days of the Prophet’s ministry Abyssinian King, Negus, granted refuge and protection to those Muslims who faced persecution in Mekkah. It is not surprising to see that the Holy Qur’an speaks highly of Christians: “Nearest to the Muslims in love wilt thou find those who say ‘We are Christians’ Because amongst them are men devoted to learning and men who have renounced the world, and they are not arrogant (Holy Qur’an 5: 85)”. However, when confronted with theological issues which were non-compromising in nature certain Trinitarian Christians are criticized too for their religious beliefs related to Trinity (Holy Qur’an 5: 75-76).
Quite similarly careful reading of the Holy Qur’an with attention to the context in which certain verses were revealed makes it evident that it respects certain groups of Jews, and seems to think certain other groups of Jews not observing Judaism to perfection. For example it teaches Muslims to acknowledge all Hebrew prophets, including Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David and Solomon to name a few (may peace and blessings be upon all of them), teaching that they all were God’s rightly guided who should be respected and Muslims should not prefer one over the other because all have similar stature in the sight of God (Holy Qur’an 2:136). The personality of patriarch Abraham is so central to Islamic faith that the Holy Qur’an commanded Prophet Mohammad to “Follow the religion of Abraham, a man of pure faith, who was not of the polytheists (Holy Qur’an 16: 120-123)”. Not only that but Muslims are required that in every ritual prayer they should send peace and blessings to Prophet Abraham (PBUH) and his followers as they send peace and blessings to prophet Mohammad (PBUH) and his followers. It is interesting here to note that the Holy Qur’an exonerated Jews from charges of Jesus Christ’s death and crucifixion stating, “They killed him not, neither crucified him but the matter was made dubious.... for of a surety they killed him not...but God raised him up unto Himself (Holy Qur’an 4:157)”. I think that was one of the reasons that throughout centuries Jews lived in relative peace and harmony in the Muslim dominated areas. In fact early Islam was so inclusive to others that God Almighty in the Holy Qur’an declared, “Those who believe (in the Qur’an), and those who follow the Jewish (scripture), and the Christians and the Sabians; any who believe in God and the last day, and work righteousness shall have their reward with their Lord; and on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve (Holy Qur’an 2: 62)”. In another place, it is also said “Not all of them are alike; a party of the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians) stands for the right; they recite the verses of God during the hours of the night and prostrate themselves in adoration. They believe in God and the last day; they enjoin what is right, and forbid what is wrong; and they hasten (in emulation) in (all) good works; they are in the ranks of the righteous. Of the good works they do, nothing will be rejected of them; for God knoweth well those that do right (Holy Qur’an 3: 113-115)”. Yet in other places, we do find words of criticism towards certain Jews who were in religious confrontation with Prophet Mohammad’s preaching.
In conclusion, Islam does not apply “all or none” law to describe good or bad characters of a nation therefore Muslims should also refrain from generalization. The Holy Qur’an’s “picking” on certain groups of Jews and Christians is not something unique to Islam alone, as we know from religious literature that every new religion establishes its “correctness” by pointing out to the perceived wrongs in other established religions. Judaism, according to the Hebrew Bible, did the same to the pagan nations and even to their own fellow Jews whom they perceived deviated from God’s command, Christianity did the same to Jews citing Jesus’ criticism towards those Jews who were in confrontation with his preaching.
