Peace Building in Istanbul
By Dr Amineh Hoti
Director
Centre for Dialogue and Action
Islamabad
With the attempted coup in Turkey last week and suicide bombs that killed so many people in Istanbul airport a few weeks earlier during Ramadan – an Islamic month of mercy and compassion towards others, especially the wayfarers and travelers – it is hard to imagine that this is the same Turkey I visited just a few weeks ago. As an optimist, I believe we must work hard towards improving our world and air more positive news – that of hope, of optimism, and less of despair and negativity. I hoped my journey to Istanbul for a peace-building conference would provide some reflections of hope and of bridge building.
There are many beautiful cities in the world, but none quite like Istanbul – the meeting point of many cultures, religions and different ways of life. As I arrive for three days in Istanbul (this was fifteen days before the bomb blasts at the Istanbul airport), I asked what the local dress was and why everyone in Istanbul wore European clothes? A Turk replied, “We are European”. Indeed, the Turks are a wonderful mix of people with an awareness of their layers of rich history – and Istanbul is famously the meeting point between the East and the West. And this this was the ideal setting for a conference on peace building and evaluation organized by the Alliance for Peace Building, Search for Common Ground and CDA collaborative learning. There are many participants from around the world – each one is a “peace builder” or peace trainer, meaning each one has worked in the area of constructive peace making for decades and, therefore, comes to this conference with profound experience. Each peace builder, through the course of the conference, was able to share his/her experience of the challenges and the successes of peace building. All agreed that peace was most important – it was no longer a matter for simple discussion but an absolute necessity. But they also agreed that it is harder to keep peace than wage war!
I had quickly made some very nice friends at the conference – there was Sumaye, the minister for women from Nigeria, Shamsyia a peace builder working in several African countries, and Myla and her aunt – both working on resolving conflict in the Philippines. In the evening, we visited the Blue Mosque – to pray and break fast. It was a stunning structure – a complete contrast to the austere Saudi style. The Blue Mosque had pretty stained glass windows and flowers – mainly tulips, the bright colors of blue and red; it was artistic and architecturally a piece of great beauty and serenity. We stopped to have a meal after the breaking of the fast at a café called “The Optimist”. This was a nice name and an important message for today. Just outside the Blue Mosque a long line of makeshift shops aligned the pavement with star lights shimmering brightly as the evening set. The shops reflected the tremendous talent of the Turkish people – they were brilliant at arts and crafts, scarf making, and the use of color and creativity – I was truly impressed. In contrast, The Grand Bazaar – one of the oldest indoor shopping centers in the world – had acquired a commercial, predatory nature: it was opportunistic preying on the bewildered tourist – “come, let me help you spend your money” the shop-keepers would call out in English from every corner.
After the second intense day of the conference, I had suggested to the group to witness a Sema and to get to know the philosophy of Rumi. Muhammad Jalaluddin Rumiwas born in the 13 th Century in troubled Afghanistan and subsequently immigrated to Turkey. He was a molvi (Islamic teacher) who taught in a madrassa - a center for education. Rumi’s philosophy is based on unlimited tolerance, positive reasoning, goodness, charity and awareness through love. “In tolerance and acceptance be like the ocean,” is one of his famous lines. In the Mevlevi tradition, Semāʿ represents a mystical journey of spiritual ascent through mind to the Perfect One – the Divine. In this journey, the seeker symbolically turns towards the truth, grows through love, abandons the ego, finds the truth and arrives at the Perfect. The seeker then returns from this spiritual journey, with greater maturity, to love and to be of service to the whole of creation without discrimination with regard to beliefs, races, classes and nations. In 2005, UNESCO proclaimed the The Mevlevi Sema Ceremony of Turkey as one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
Our organizers, Sarah and Ursala had booked the sessions in Hodjepasha – the building was made of ancient stone and the designs all around were of the hashtbahisht – the symbol of the universe: From God we come and to Him do we return, the hashtbahisht is also symbolic of constant movement in a circular direction – the sun, the moon, the earth in constant axis – there are no static points – everything is fluid and in constant motion. In the main hall there was an introduction to Rumi and his philosophy. Rumi says human beings are “the most honorable of all creation”. This, to me, meant that if we were made in the highest moral framework then we also had to work – to strive to give to humanity, to our society, to our world our very best – because it is honorable to work hard towards making this world a better place. Therefore, the Qur’anic verse that encourages humans to dedicate their time, their wealth and their efforts to righteousness and good deed, i.e., all the things that count in serving God. If humans strove to contribute in this highest way possible for humankind then they would be the answer to existence . Thus Rumi says, “You are not a drop in the ocean, you are the entire ocean in a drop!” Reflect upon this for a moment: YOU are the ocean in a drop – this would mean, if we searched hard enough, we could find the answers to life within ourselves – the key to compassion, empathy, even the higher values of love. So Rumi’s philosophy was that once an individual goes on the journey to self-purification that journey also leads the person to abandoning desires and negative feelings and action. It means letting go of one’s ego. The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) once said when returning from a war in self-defense in which the Quraish Arabs had attacked him that the smaller war (jehad: struggle) was over and that now the bigger jehad had begun, i.e., to work on improving the self in everyday life. This was the truest and biggest of all struggles: to improve one’s own self.
The letting go of one’s ego and transformation of the self leads to a higher plane – where, for the believer at least, their world view is shaped not by selfish greed and human desires but by the higher values of God – the Creator, the Cherisher, the Good and Pure. So that the human looks at his or her world through the vision of God – and everything and every action becomes an act of worship – in Turkey even the tulip flower is a deep symbol of God – the shape is in the name of Allah in Arabic. Below are just a few examples:
Every morning, the conference began with a few moments of reflection for the day. On the last day of the conference, I led the reflection/prayer for the group of peace builders. Here were people from all faiths and non – there were Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, Jews and secular people who were trying to work towards a better world shaped by peace building. I began with Bismillah ar Rahman ar Rahim and explained these beautiful names of God – which translate as – Rehman: compassionate, synonymous with: empathy, tolerance and love, and Rahim: merciful synonymous with humanity, tolerance, forgiveness. What powerful names and what relevant meanings – if many of us in the world today would focus on embodying these, perhaps we would be a more successful human society. I said this day is a Friday and a special holy day for Muslims, tomorrow would be Sabbath and the day after Sunday for Christians – God wanted us to celebrate each day through the eyes of our fellow faith believers so to make each day special for us in that we would acquire empathic and diverse perspectives on life.
Last night we had witnessed the Sema – I had seen some of the people in the group yawn whilst one lady based in Washington DC told me it was slow choreography compared to ballet which she had practiced as a child– I explained that the Sema is a deep expression of worship – quite contrary to this fast consumerist world – it is calming, it is internal, it is finding the inner self. I asked the group to imagine the tulip – the symbol of Turkey- imagine if we were tulips how special would that be – giving to the world with open arms like the petals or even reaching out to the creator in complete submission of the self like the outer layers of the tulip. But more than a mere tulip, Rumi had declared humanity as God’s “best creation”. If that was so, the Sema symbolized receiving from God and giving to humanity. Indeed, outside in the corridor before you enter the Sema one poster had said: “From God, we receive, to humanity we give”. It was a beautiful saying I stressed at the reflection morning and this is what peace builders did - they received from God and served humanity with their time, experience and knowledge. Indeed, there is a famous saying in one of the books of God: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” Matthew 5:9 ( New International Version ). For the literalists, I am going to spell out that God in all His revealed books does not address humankind literally – He talks in metaphors and therefore, the phrase “children of God” would be the people who strive in His way as encouraged in the Qur’an and namaz/salat: siratul mustaqim: the path of those whom God has favored and chosen – the straight path. Again and again Islam, as all the other religions, emphasizes peace building and peace keeping and discourages corruption, mayhem and bloodshed (Qur’an 2:30). The head of the board of directors of Alliance for Peace Building, Bob Berg, who is a profound person with a good sense of leadership and business came up to me and said, “I was thinking to myself she should be ordained.”
My short three-day journey to Istanbul ended with a visit to the office of the Director General of the Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA) a branch of the OIC, based in Istanbul. The Centre was based in an Ottoman Palace and one of the wings had been converted into a library. Dr Halit Eren, the DG of the IRCICA, showed me around his Centre’s precious library collections – here were some 80,000 books in 140 languages. His most special pieces were a collect on Al Quds and Haremeyn. The books were based on old pictures of the three holy sites for Muslims – Makka, Madina in Saudi Arabia and Masjid al Aqsa in al-Quds, Jerusalem. The pictures reflected how simple the buildings were and how, particularly in Makka and Madina, modernity and wealth had transformed the holy sites into buildings of modernity and grandeur – the old sites of some of the Caliphas and the relatives of the Prophet had been razed by the Saudis to the ground. This was a tragedy for Islamic heritage – of course, the sites would not become places of worship, it would simply reflect the context in which the Prophet (PBUH) and his family lived to us – we would reflect and it would inspire us towards simplicity – the very thrust of Islam. Yet ironically, the Saudi effort to raze the old structures (which marked and showed simplicity) and their construction of high hotels, lavish clock towers and gold-plated bathrooms would not fit easily with the Islamic moral compass of egalitarianism and respect – after all, the Prophet Himself came to challenge the Arab hierarchy and tribal static structures that some have reverted to today.
Dr Halit showed me some of the Arabic calligraphy that had been sent from all over the world as the IRCICA had an annual competition on the best works. This was a great method to encourage Arabic calligraphy and keep up the spirit of the written word in a fast modern age of the social media. There were some stunning and very artistic pieces. One would be proud of these works and the work that the Centre was doing. In the light of all the bad news in the media on Islam, there was, on the other hand, so much hope and potential here. I asked if people in Pakistan were aware of the IRCICA’s significant work. Dr Halit replied that people in the Muslim world generally were not aware – I wished there would be a road show of these great works and that people would become aware of this rich heritage. Dr Halit ended the meeting with reciting a note for Pakistan. He said he had many friends in Pakistan and had visited a number of times. He softly sang in a whisper: “Jeevay, jeevay, jeevay Pakistan. Pakistan, Pakistan, jeevay Pakistan. Thu mayree jaan hain, thu mera iman hai. Pakistan, Pakistan, jeevay, Pakistan!”
Thu mayree jaan hain, thu mera iman hai. Pakistan, Pakistan, jeevay, Pakistan!”
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