An Islamic View Toward Interreligious Dialogue

1. An Islamic View Toward Interreligious Dialogue March 26, 2004 Fellowship of Faiths and Cultures

2. Presentation Outline • 1. Why we need dialogue? • 2. The Sources of Dialogue in Islam • Islam is a religion of tolerance • Islam sees diversity “necessary” • Recognition of Other Prophets and Books • Tawhid necessitates dialogue • Knowing is a process of Dialogue • Engagements with the members of the other religions • Jihad and terrorism • 3.Examples from the Islamic World

3. 1. Why we Need Dialogue • Economics and religion are the two main factors that have roused peoples to war. Why shouldn't we use such a powerful factor to bring about peace? • dialogue is the first step in establishing it is forgetting the past, ignoring polemical arguments, and giving precedence to common points, which far outnumber polemical ones. • More dramatically, acts of violence perpetrated in the name of religion challenge our awareness: How can such horror be justified? How can we understand it? How can we prevent it?

4. 2. The Sources of Dialogue in Islam • Islam is a religion of tolerance • Islam sees diversity “necessary” • Recognition of Other Prophets and Books • Tawhid necessitates dialogue • Knowing is a process of Dialogue • Engagements with the members of the other religions • Jihad and terrorism

5. Islam is a religion of tolerance • Islam is a word derived from the roots silm and selamet. It means to surrender, reach, and establish security and mutual safety and accord. • Completing the prayer, Muslims greet those on their right and left by saying salaam: "Remain safe and secure." With a wish for safety and security, peace and contentment, they return to the ordinary world once again. This is self-awareness process towards peace. • Giving salaam and wishing safety and security for others is considered one of the most beneficial acts in Islam. When asked which act in Islam is the most beneficial, the Prophet replied: "Feeding others and giving salaam to those you know and do not know."

6. Islam sees diversity “necessary” • “Had God so willed, He would have united them [human beings] in guidance, so do not be among the ignorant” • “If your Lord so willed, everyone on earth would have believed. Is it for you to compel people to be believers?” • “If God had willed, He would have made you one community but things are as they are to test you in what He has given you. So compete with each other in doing good.” • “If God did not enable some mean to keep back others, hermitages, synagogues, chapels and mosques where the name of God is often called upon, would have been demolished.” (Hajj, 40; 22/40).

7. Recognition of Other Prophets and Books • The last revelation taught them to recognize all the books of the prophets who had gone before. They had all the same purpose: to remind human beings of the presence of the Creator and the finiteness of life on earth. • “This is the Book; in it is sure guidance, without doubt, to those who fear God” (2:2). These pious ones then are identified as those: “Who believe in the Unseen, are steadfast in prayer and spend out of what We have provided for them; and who believe in the Revelation sent to you and sent before your time, and (in their hearts) have the reassurance of the Hereafter” (2:3‑4). • We have a Prophetic Tradition almost unanimously recorded in the Hadith literature that Jesus will return when the end of the world is near. We do not know whether he will actually reappear physically, but what we understand is that near the end of time, values like love, peace, brotherhood, forgiveness, altruism, mercy, and spiritual purification will have precedence, as they did during Jesus' ministry.

8. Tawhid necessitates dialogue • Tawhid is the principle on which the whole of Islamic teaching rests and is the axis and point of reference point of reference on which Muslims rely in dialogue. The intimate awareness of Tawhid forms the perception of the believer, who understands that plurality has been chosen by the One, that He is the God of all beings, and that He requires that each be respected. (As Yunus Emre says “We like the created because of the creator.” • Say: "O People of the Book! Come to common terms as between us and you: that we worship none but God; that we associate no partners with Him; that we take not, from among ourselves lords and patrons other than God." If then they turn back, say you: "Bear witness that we are Muslims (i.e., those who have surrendered to God's Will)." (3:64)

9. Knowing is a process of Dialogue • “O people, we have created you from a male and a female, we have divided you into nations and tribes so that you might know one another.” (49/13; Hujurat) • So knowing is a process to overcome a fear of difference. • People feel animosity to the ideas about which they do not have enough knowledge.

10. Engagements with the members of the other religions • Some Qur'anic verses level, according to some, certain degree of harsh criticisms against the People of the Book. However, such criticism is directed against wrong behavior, incorrect thought, resistance to truth, the creation of hostility, and undesirable characteristics. • When dealing with People of the Book who are not oppressors, we have no right to behave violently or to think about how to eliminate them. Such behavior is non‑Islamic, contrary to Islamic rules and principles, and even anti‑Islamic. • “God does not forbid you from establishing relations of generosity and just behavior with those who have not fought against you over your religion and who have not evicted you from you dwellings. God loves those who act fairly.” (60/8; Mumtahana, 8)

11. Jihad and terrorism • Jihad, in the first place is inner is Islam. Those who want to reform the world must first reform themselves. In order to bring others to the path of travelling to a better world, they must purify their inner worlds of hatred, rancour, and jealousy, and adorn their outer worlds with all kinds of virtues. • How unfortunate it is that Islam, which is based on this under­standing and spirit, is shown by some circles to be synonymous with terrorism. This is a great historical mistake, for wrapping a sys­tem based on safety and trust in a veil of terrorism shows that Islam's spirit remains unknown. • “If one person kills another unjustly, it is the same as if one has killed all of humanity; if one saves another it is the same as if one has saved all of humanity (5:32). • A prophetic hadith makes the following statements: "The Muslim is one from whose tongue and hand other Muslims are safe and sound.“ Bukhari, Sahih, "Iman," 4

12. 3.Examples from the Islamic World: Past • When the Prophet was dying and about to pass on to the next world, he stated: “I place in your trust the People of the Book, the Christians and Jews. • When ‘Umar was in the throes of death due to a dagger wound, he warned: “I place the minorities among us in your trust. Fear God regarding them and treat them justly.” • In Jerusalem, the commander and ruler Sultan Salah ad-Din Ayyubi went at night to the tent of Richard, the commander of the Crusader army, to cure his wounds – despite the fact that Richard’s forces had killed thousands of Muslims. • After defeating the enemy at Malazgirt, the Turkish commander Sultan Alp-Arslan hosted the military chiefs and ruler of the rival state in his tent. He then had them conveyed safely to their capital, Constantinople (now Istanbul), escorted by some of his officers.

13. 3.Examples from the Islamic World: Present • There are and several defenders of dialogue in the Islamic world. Since I know the Turkish experience well I want to bring an example from Turkey. • Fethullah Gülen: He is one of the Islamic scholars who dedicated himself to dialogue among and within religions. • During his visit to Pope in 1998, he suggested that he and the Pope make joint visits to such historically holy cities as Antioch, Ephesus, and Jerusalem, and hold conferences in various great cities of the world. He suggested that they could open a university or a faculty of theology in Urfa to teach Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, and that Jerusalem be open to visa‑less visits by Muslims, Christians, and Jews. • "Urfa: Considered the birth‑place of Abraham and where his own people threw him into a fire for daring to challenge their idolatry. It is also an ancient center of Middle Eastern civilizations.

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