In the Name
of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
On the
Occasion of the Eid al-Fitr al-Mubarak 1428 A.H. / October 13th 2007 C.E., and on
the One
Year Anniversary of the Open Letter of 38 Muslim Scholars to H.H. Pope Benedict
XVI,
An Open
Letter and Call from Muslim Religious Leaders to:
His
Holiness Pope Benedict XVI,
His
All-Holiness Bartholomew I, Patriarch of Constantinople, New Rome,
His
Beatitude Theodoros II, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria
and All Africa,
His
Beatitude Ignatius IV, Patriarch of Antioch
and All the East,
His
Beatitude Theophilos III, Patriarch of the Holy
City of Jerusalem,
His
Beatitude Alexy II, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia,
His
Beatitude Pavle, Patriarch of Belgrade and Serbia,
His
Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of Romania,
His
Beatitude Maxim, Patriarch of Bulgaria,
His
Beatitude Ilia II, Archbishop of Mtskheta-Tbilisi, Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia,
His
Beatitude Chrisostomos, Archbishop of Cyprus,
His
Beatitude Christodoulos, Archbishop of Athens and
All Greece,
His
Beatitude Sawa, Metropolitan of Warsaw and All Poland,
His
Beatitude Anastasios, Archbishop of Tirana, Duerres and All Albania,
His
Beatitude Christoforos, Metropolitan of the Czech and Slovak Republics,
His
Holiness Pope Shenouda III, Pope of Alexandria
and Patriarch of All Africa on the
Apostolic
Throne of St. Mark,
His
Beatitude Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians,
His
Beatitude Ignatius Zakka I, Patriarch of Antioch
and All the East, Supreme Head of the
Universal
Syrian Orthodox Church,
His
Holiness Mar Thoma Didymos I, Catholicos of the East on the Apostolic Throne of
St.
Thomas and
the Malankara Metropolitan,
His
Holiness Abune Paulos, Fifth Patriarch and Catholicos of Ethiopia, Echege of the See of
St. Tekle
Haymanot, Archbishop of Axium,
His
Beatitude Mar Dinkha IV, Patriarch of the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian
Church of
the East,
The Most
Rev. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury,
Rev. Mark
S. Hanson, Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church
in America,
and
President
of the Lutheran World Federation,
Rev. George
H. Freeman, General Secretary, World Methodist Council,
Rev. David
Coffey, President of the Baptist World Alliance,
Rev. Setri
Nyomi, General Secretary of the World Alliance
of Reformed Churches,
Rev. Dr.
Samuel Kobia, General Secretary, World Council of Churches,
And Leaders
of Christian Churches, everywhere….
1
In the Name
of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
A Common
Word between Us and You
(Summary
and Abridgement)
Muslims and
Christians together make up well over half of the world’s population.
Without
peace and justice between these two religious communities, there can be no
meaningful
peace in the world. The future of the world depends on peace between
Muslims and
Christians.
The basis
for this peace and understanding already exists. It is part of the very
foundational
principles of both faiths: love of the One God, and love of the neighbour.
These
principles are found over and over again in the sacred texts of Islam and
Christianity.
The Unity of God, the necessity of love for Him, and the necessity of love of
the
neighbour is thus the common ground between Islam and Christianity. The
following
are only a
few examples:
Of God’s
Unity, God says in the Holy Qur’an: Say: He is God, the One! / God, the Self-
Sufficient
Besought of all! (Al-Ikhlas, 112:1-2). Of the necessity of love for God, God
says in the
Holy Qur’an: So invoke the Name of thy Lord and devote thyself to Him with a
complete
devotion (Al-Muzzammil, 73:8). Of the necessity of love for the neighbour, the
Prophet
Muhammad . said: “None of you has faith until you love for your neighbour
what you
love for yourself.”
In the New
Testament, Jesus Christ . said: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord
is One. /
And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul,
with all
your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. / And
the
second,
like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no
other
commandment
greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31)
..I
In the Holy
Qur’an, God Most High enjoins Muslims to issue the following call to
Christians
(and Jews—the People of the Scripture):
Say: O
People of the Scripture! Come to a common word between us and
you: that
we shall worship none but God, and that we shall ascribe no
partner
unto Him, and that none of us shall take others for lords beside
God. And if
they turn away, then say: Bear witness that we are they who
have
surrendered (unto Him). (Aal ‘Imran 3:64)
The words:
we shall ascribe no partner unto Him relate to the Unity of God, and
the words:
worship none but God, relate to being totally devoted to God. Hence they all
relate to
the First and Greatest Commandment. According to one of the oldest and most
authoritative
commentaries on the Holy Qur’an the words: that none of us shall take
others for
lords beside God, mean ‘that none of us should obey the other in disobedience
2
to what God
has commanded’. This relates to the Second Commandment because justice
and freedom
of religion are a crucial part of love of the neighbour.
Thus in
obedience to the Holy Qur’an, we as Muslims invite Christians to come
together
with us on the basis of what is common to us, which is also what is most
essential
to our faith and practice: the Two Commandments of love.
..I
3
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the
Merciful,
And may
peace and blessings be upon the Prophet Muhammad
A COMMON
WORD BETWEEN US AND YOU
In the Name
of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful,
Call unto
the way of thy Lord with wisdom and fair exhortation, and contend with
them in the
fairest way. Lo! thy Lord is Best Aware of him who strayeth from His way,
and He is
Best Aware of those who go aright.
(The Holy
Qur’an, Al-Nahl, 16:125)
(I) LOVE OF
GOD
LOVE OF GOD
IN ISLAM
The
Testimonies of Faith
The central
creed of Islam consists of the two testimonies of faith or Shahadahsi,
which state
that: There is no god but God, Muhammad is the messenger of God. These
Two
Testimonies are the sine qua non of Islam. He or she who testifies to them is a
Muslim; he
or she who denies them is not a Muslim. Moreover, the Prophet Muhammad
. said: The
best remembrance is: ‘There is no god but God’….ii
The Best
that All the Prophets have Said
Expanding on the best remembrance, the Prophet
Muhammad . also said: The
best that I
have said—myself, and the prophets that came before me—is: ‘There is no god
but God, He
Alone, He hath no associate, His is the sovereignty and His is the praise and
He hath
power over all things’iii. The phrases which follow the First Testimony of
faith
are all
from the Holy Qur’an; each describe a mode of love of God, and devotion to Him.
The words: He Alone, remind Muslims that their
heartsiv must be devoted to God
Alone,
since God says in the Holy Qur’an: God hath not assigned unto any man two
hearts
within his body (Al-Ahzab, 33:4). God is Absolute and therefore devotion to Him
must be
totally sincere.
The words: He hath no associate, remind
Muslims that they must love God
uniquely,
without rivals within their souls, since God says in the Holy Qur’an: Yet there
are men who
take rivals unto God: they love them as they should love God. But those of
faith are
more intense in their love for God …. (Al-Baqarah, 2:165). Indeed, [T]heir
flesh
and their
hearts soften unto the remembrance of God …. (Al-Zumar, 39:23).
4
The words: His is the sovereignty, remind Muslims
that their minds or their
understandings
must be totally devoted to God, for the sovereignty is precisely everything
in creation
or existence and everything that the mind can know. And all is in God’s Hand,
since God
says in the Holy Qur’an: Blessed is He in Whose Hand is the sovereignty, and,
He is Able
to do all things (Al-Mulk, 67:1).
The words: His is the praise remind Muslims
that they must be grateful to God
and trust
Him with all their sentiments and emotions. God says in the Holy Qur’an:
And if thou
wert to ask them: Who created the heavens and the earth, and
constrained
the sun and the moon (to their appointed work)? they would
say: God.
How then are they turned away ? / God maketh the provision
wide for
whom He will of His servants, and straiteneth it for whom (He
will). Lo!
God is Aware of all things. / And if thou wert to ask them: Who
causeth
water to come down from the sky, and therewith reviveth the earth
after its
death ? they verily would say: God. Say: Praise be to God! But
most of
them have no sense. (Al-‘Ankabut, 29:61-63)v
For all
these bounties and more, human beings must always be truly grateful:
God is He
Who created the heavens and the earth, and causeth water to
descend
from the sky, thereby producing fruits as food for you, and maketh
the ships
to be of service unto you, that they may run upon the sea at His
command,
and hath made of service unto you the rivers; / And maketh the
sun and the
moon, constant in their courses, to be of service unto you, and
hath made
of service unto you the night and the day./ And He giveth you of
all ye ask
of Him, and if ye would count the graces of God ye cannot
reckon
them. Lo! man is verily a wrong-doer, an ingrate. (Ibrahim, 14:3234)
vi
Indeed, the
Fatihah—which is the greatest chapter in the Holy Qur’anvii—starts with
praise to
God:
In the Name
of God, the Infinitely Good, the All-Merciful. /
Praise be
to God, the Lord of the worlds. /
The
Infinitely Good, the All-Merciful. /
Owner of
the Day of Judgement. /
Thee we
worship, and Thee we ask for help. /
Guide us
upon the straight path. /
The path of
those on whom is Thy Grace, not those who deserve anger nor
those who
are astray. (Al-Fatihah, 1:1-7)
The
Fatihah, recited at least seventeen times daily by Muslims in the canonical
prayers,
reminds us
of the praise and gratitude due to God for His Attributes of Infinite Goodness
and
All-Mercifulness, not merely for His Goodness and Mercy to us in this life but
ultimately,
on the Day of Judgementviii when it matters the most and when we hope to be
forgiven
for our sins. It thus ends with prayers for grace and guidance, so that we
might
attain—through
what begins with praise and gratitude— salvation and love, for God says
5
in the Holy
Qur’an: Lo! those who believe and do good works, the Infinitely Good will
appoint for
them love. (Maryam, 19:96)
The words: and He hath power over all things,
remind Muslims that they must be
mindful of
God’s Omnipotence and thus fear Godix. God says in the Holy Qur’an:
… [A]nd
fear God, and know that God is with the God-fearing. / Spend your
wealth for
the cause of God, and be not cast by your own hands to ruin; and
do good.
Lo! God loveth the virtuous. / …. (Al-Baqarah, 2:194-5)…
[A]nd fear
God, and know that God is severe in punishment. (Al-Baqarah,
2:196)
Through
fear of God, the actions, might and strength of Muslims should be totally
devoted to
God. God says in the Holy Qur’an:
…[A]nd know
that God is with those who fear Him. (Al-Tawbah, 9:36) ….
O ye who
believe! What aileth you that when it is said unto you: Go forth in
the way of
God, ye are bowed down to the ground with heaviness. Take ye
pleasure in
the life of the world rather than in the Hereafter ? The comfort of
the life of
the world is but little in the Hereafter. / If ye go not forth He will
afflict you
with a painful doom, and will choose instead of you a folk other
than you.
Ye cannot harm Him at all. God is Able to do all things. (Al-Tawbah,
9:38-39)
.
The words:
His is the sovereignty and His is the praise and He hath power over
all things,
when taken all together, remind Muslims that just as everything in creation
glorifies
God, everything that is in their souls must be devoted to God:
All that is
in the heavens and all that is in the earth glorifieth God; His is
the
sovereignty and His is the praise and He hath power over all things.
(Al-Taghabun,
64:1)
For indeed,
all that is in people’s souls is known, and accountable, to God:
He knoweth
all that is in the heavens and the earth, and He knoweth what
ye conceal
and what ye publish. And God is Aware of what is in the
breasts (of
men). (Al-Taghabun, 64:4)
As we can
see from all the passages quoted above, souls are depicted in the Holy
Qur’an as
having three main faculties: the mind or the intelligence, which is made for
comprehending
the truth; the will which is made for freedom of choice, and sentiment
which is
made for loving the good and the beautifulx. Put in another way, we could say
that man’s
soul knows through understanding the truth, through willing the good, and
through
virtuous emotions and feeling love for God. Continuing in the same chapter of
the Holy
Qur’an (as that quoted above), God orders people to fear Him as much as
possible,
and to listen (and thus to understand the truth); to obey (and thus to will the
good), and
to spend (and thus to exercise love and virtue), which, He says, is better for
6
our souls.
By engaging everything in our souls—the faculties of knowledge, will, and
love—we may
come to be purified and attain ultimate success:
So fear God
as best ye can, and listen, and obey, and spend; that is better
for your
souls. And those who are saved from the pettiness of their own
souls, such
are the successful. (Al-Taghabun, 64:16)
.
In summary
then, when the entire phrase He Alone, He hath no associate, His is
the
sovereignty and His is the praise and He hath power over all things is added to
the
testimony
of faith—There is no god but God—it reminds Muslims that their hearts, their
individual
souls and all the faculties and powers of their souls (or simply their entire
hearts and
souls) must be totally devoted and attached to God. Thus God says to the
Prophet
Muhammad .in the Holy Qur’an:
Say: Lo! my
worship and my sacrifice and my living and my dying are for
God, Lord
of the Worlds. / He hath no partner. This am I commanded, and
I am first
of those who surrender (unto Him). / Say: Shall I seek another
than God
for Lord, when He is Lord of all things? Each soul earneth only
on its own
account, nor doth any laden bear another’s load…. (Al-An’am,
6:162-164)
These
verses epitomize the Prophet Muhammad’s . complete and utter devotion
to God.
Thus in the Holy Qur’an God enjoins Muslims who truly love God to follow this
examplexi,
in order in turn to be lovedxii by God:
Say, (O
Muhammad, to mankind): If ye love God, follow me; God will love
you and
forgive you your sins. God is Forgiving, Merciful. (Aal ‘Imran,
3:31)
Love of God
in Islam is thus part of complete and total devotion to God; it is not a
mere
fleeting, partial emotion. As seen above, God commands in the Holy Qur’an: Say:
Lo! my
worship and my sacrifice and my living and my dying are for God, Lord of the
Worlds. /
He hath no partner. The call to be totally devoted and attached to God heart
and soul,
far from being a call for a mere emotion or for a mood, is in fact an
injunction
requiring
all-embracing, constant and active love of God. It demands a love in which the
innermost
spiritual heart and the whole of the soul—with its intelligence, will and
feeling—participate
through devotion.
.
None Comes
with Anything Better
We have
seen how the blessed phrase: There is no god but God, He Alone, He
hath no
associate, His is the sovereignty and His is the praise and He hath power over
all
things—which
is the best that all the prophets have said—makes explicit what is implicit
7
in the best
remembrance (There is no god but God) by showing what it requires and
entails, by
way of devotion. It remains to be said that this blessed formula is also in
itself
a sacred
invocation—a kind of extension of the First Testimony of faith (There is no god
but
God)—the ritual repetition of which can bring about, through God’s grace, some
of
the
devotional attitudes it demands, namely, loving and being devoted to God with
all
one’s
heart, all one’s soul, all one’s mind, all one’s will or strength, and all
one’s
sentiment.
Hence the Prophet Muhammad . commended this remembrance by saying:
He who
says: ‘There is no god but God, He Alone, He hath no associate,
His is the
sovereignty and His is the praise and He hath power over all
things’ one
hundred times in a day, it is for them equal to setting ten
slaves
free, and one hundred good deeds are written for them and one
hundred bad
deeds are effaced, and it is for them a protection from the
devil for
that day until the evening. And none offers anything better than
that, save
one who does more than that.xiii
In other
words, the blessed remembrance, There is no god but God, He Alone, He
hath no
associate, His is the sovereignty and His is the praise and He hath power over
all
things, not
only requires and implies that Muslims must be totally devoted to God and
love Him
with their whole hearts and their whole souls and all that is in them, but
provides a
way, like its beginning (the testimony of faith)—through its frequent
repetitionxiv—for
them to realize this love with everything they are.
God says in
one of the very first revelations in the Holy Qur’an: So invoke the
Name of thy
Lord and devote thyself to Him with a complete devotion (Al-Muzzammil,
73:8). .
LOVE OF GOD
AS THE FIRST AND GREATEST COMMANDMENT IN
THE BIBLE
The Shema
in the Book of Deuteronomy (6:4-5), a centrepiece of the Old
Testament
and of Jewish liturgy, says: Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is
one! / You
shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and
with all
your strength.xv
Likewise,
in the New Testament, when Jesus Christ, the Messiah ., is asked
about the
Greatest Commandment, he answers .:
But when
the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they
gathered
together. / Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question,
testing
Him, and saying, / “Teacher, which is the great commandment in
the law?” /
Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the LORD your God with
all your
heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ / This is the first
and
greatest commandment. / And the second is like it: ‘You shall love
your
neighbour as yourself.’ / On these two commandments hang all the
Law and the
Prophets.” (Matthew 22:34-40)
8
And also:
Then one of
the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together,
perceiving
that he had answered them well, asked him, “Which is the first
commandment
of all?” / Jesus answered him, “The first of all the
commandments
is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one.
/ And you
shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your
soul, with
all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first
commandment.
/ And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your
neighbour
as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than
these.”
(Mark 12:28-31)
The
commandment to love God fully is thus the First and Greatest
Commandment
of the Bible. Indeed, it is to be found in a number of other places
throughout
the Bible including: Deuteronomy 4:29, 10:12, 11:13 (also part of the Shema),
13:3,
26:16, 30:2, 30:6, 30:10; Joshua 22:5; Mark 12:32-33 and Luke 10:27-28.
However, in
various places throughout the Bible, it occurs in slightly different
forms and
versions. For instance, in Matthew 22:37 (You shall love the LORD your God
with all
your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind), the Greek word for
“heart” is
kardia, the word for “soul” is psyche, and the word for “mind” is dianoia. In
the version
from Mark 12:30 (And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart,
with all
your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength) the word “strength”
is
added to
the aforementioned three, translating the Greek word ischus.
The words
of the lawyer in Luke 10:27 (which are confirmed by Jesus Christ .
in Luke
10:28) contain the same four terms as Mark 12:30. The words of the scribe in
Mark 12:32
(which are approved of by Jesus Christ . in Mark 12:34) contain the three
terms
kardia (“heart”), dianoia (“mind”), and ischus (“strength”).
In the Shema of Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (Hear, O
Israel: The LORD our God, the
LORD is
one! / You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your
soul, and
with all your strength). In Hebrew the word for “heart” is lev, the word for
“soul” is
nefesh, and the word for “strength” is me’od.
In Joshua
22:5, the Israelites are commanded by Joshua . to love God and be
devoted to
Him as follows:
“But take careful heed to do the commandment
and the law which Moses
the servant
of the LORD commanded you, to love the LORD your God, to
walk in all
His ways, to keep His commandments, to hold fast to Him, and
to serve
Him with all your heart and with all your soul.” (Joshua 22:5)
What all
these versions thus have in common—despite the language differences
between the
Hebrew Old Testament, the original words of Jesus Christ . in Aramaic,
and the
actual transmitted Greek of the New Testament—is the command to love God
fully with
one’s heart and soul and to be fully devoted to Him. This is the First and
Greatest
Commandment for human beings. .
9
In the
light of what we have seen to be necessarily implied and evoked by the
Prophet
Muhammad’s . blessed saying: ‘The best that I have said—myself, and the
prophets
that came before me—is: ‘There is no god but God, He Alone, He hath no
associate,
His is the sovereignty and His is the praise and He hath power over all things’
xvi, we can
now perhaps understand the words ‘The best that I have said—myself, and the
prophets
that came before me’ as equating the blessed formula ‘There is no god but God,
He Alone,
He hath no associate, His is the sovereignty and His is the praise and He hath
power over
all things’ precisely with the ‘First and Greatest Commandment’ to love God,
with all
one’s heart and soul, as found in various places in the Bible. That is to say,
in
other
words, that the Prophet Muhammad . was perhaps, through inspiration, restating
and
alluding to the Bible’s First Commandment. God knows best, but certainly we
have
seen their
effective similarity in meaning. Moreover, we also do know (as can be seen in
the
endnotes), that both formulas have another remarkable parallel: the way they
arise in
a number of
slightly differing versions and forms in different contexts, all of which,
nevertheless,
emphasize the primacy of total love and devotion to God xvii .
..I
10
(II) LOVE
OF THE NEIGHBOUR
LOVE OF THE
NEIGHBOUR IN ISLAM
There are
numerous injunctions in Islam about the necessity and paramount
importance
of love for—and mercy towards—the neighbour. Love of the neighbour is an
essential
and integral part of faith in God and love of God because in Islam without love
of the
neighbour there is no true faith in God and no righteousness. The Prophet
Muhammad .
said: “None of you has faith until you love for your brother what you love
for
yourself.”xviiiAnd: “None of you has faith until you love for your neighbour
what you
love for
yourself.”xix
However,
empathy and sympathy for the neighbour—and even formal prayers—
are not
enough. They must be accompanied by generosity and self-sacrifice. God says in
the Holy
Qur’an:
It is not
righteousness that ye turn your facesxx to the East and the West;
but
righteous is he who believeth in God and the Last Day and the angels
and the
Scripture and the prophets; and giveth wealth, for love of Him, to
kinsfolk
and to orphans and the needy and the wayfarer and to those who
ask, and to
set slaves free; and observeth proper worship and payeth the
poor-due.
And those who keep their treaty when they make one, and the
patient in
tribulation and adversity and time of stress. Such are they who
are
sincere. Such are the pious. (Al-Baqarah 2:177)
And also:
Ye will not
attain unto righteousness until ye expend of that which ye love.
And
whatsoever ye expend, God is Aware thereof. (Aal ‘Imran, 3:92)
Without
giving the neighbour what we ourselves love, we do not truly love God
or the
neighbour. .
LOVE OF THE
NEIGHBOUR IN THE BIBLE
We have
already cited the words of the Messiah, Jesus Christ ., about the
paramount
importance, second only to the love of God, of the love of the neighbour:
This is the
first and greatest commandment. / And the second is like it:
‘You shall
love your neighbour as yourself.’ / On these two
commandments
hang all the Law and the Prophets. (Matthew 22:38-40)
And:
11
And the
second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’
There is no
other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:31)
It remains
only to be noted that this commandment is also to be found in the Old
Testament:
You shall
not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke
your
neighbour, and not bear sin because of him. / You shall not take
vengeance,
nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but
you shall
love your neighbour as yourself: I am the LORD. (Leviticus
19:17-18)
Thus the
Second Commandment, like the First Commandment, demands
generosity
and self-sacrifice, and On these two commandments hang all the Law and the
Prophets. .
12
(III) COME
TO A COMMON WORD BETWEEN US AND YOU
A Common
Word
Whilst
Islam and Christianity are obviously different religions—and whilst there
is no
minimising some of their formal differences—it is clear that the Two Greatest
Commandments
are an area of common ground and a link between the Qur’an, the Torah
and the New
Testament. What prefaces the Two Commandments in the Torah and the
New
Testament, and what they arise out of, is the Unity of God—that there is only
one
God. For
the Shema in the Torah, starts: (Deuteronomy 6:4) Hear, O Israel: The LORD
our God,
the LORD is one! Likewise, Jesus .said: (Mark 12:29) “The first of all the
commandments
is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one”. Likewise,
God says in
the Holy Qur’an: Say: He, God, is One. / God, the Self-Sufficient Besought of
all.
(Al-Ikhlas, 112:1-2). Thus the Unity of God, love of Him, and love of the
neighbour
form a
common ground upon which Islam and Christianity (and Judaism) are founded.
This could
not be otherwise since Jesus .said: (Matthew 22:40)“On these two
commandments
hang all the Law and the Prophets.” Moreover, God confirms in the
Holy Qur’an
that the Prophet Muhammad .brought nothing fundamentally or essentially
new: Naught
is said to thee (Muhammad) but what already was said to the messengers
before thee
(Fussilat 41:43). And: Say (Muhammad): I am no new thing among the
messengers
(of God), nor know I what will be done with me or with you. I do but follow
that which
is Revealed to me, and I am but a plain warner (Al-Ahqaf, 46:9). Thus also
God in the
Holy Qur’an confirms that the same eternal truths of the Unity of God, of the
necessity
for total love and devotion to God (and thus shunning false gods), and of the
necessity
for love of fellow human beings (and thus justice), underlie all true religion:
And verily
We have raised in every nation a messenger, (proclaiming):
Worship God
and shun false gods. Then some of them (there were) whom
God guided,
and some of them (there were) upon whom error had just
hold. Do
but travel in the land and see the nature of the consequence for
the
deniers! (Al-Nahl, 16:36)
We verily
sent Our messengers with clear proofs, and revealed with them
the
Scripture and the Balance, that mankind may stand forth in justice….
(Al-Hadid,
57:25)
..I
Come to a
Common Word!
In the Holy
Qur’an, God Most High tells Muslims to issue the following call to
Christians
(and Jews—the People of the Scripture):
Say: O
People of the Scripture! Come to a common word between us and
you: that
we shall worship none but God, and that we shall ascribe no
partner
unto Him, and that none of us shall take others for lords beside
13
God. And if
they turn away, then say: Bear witness that we are they who
have
surrendered (unto Him). (Aal ‘Imran 3:64)
Clearly,
the blessed words: we shall ascribe no partner unto Him relate to the
Unity of
God. Clearly also, worshipping none but God, relates to being totally devoted
to
God and
hence to the First and Greatest Commandment. According to one of the oldest
and most
authoritative commentaries (tafsir) on the Holy Qur’an—the Jami’ Al-Bayan fi
Ta’wil
Al-Qur’an of Abu Ja’far Muhammad bin Jarir Al-Tabari (d. 310 A.H. / 923
C.E.)—that
none of us shall take others for lords beside God, means ‘that none of us
should obey
in disobedience to what God has commanded, nor glorify them by
prostrating
to them in the same way as they prostrate to God’. In other words, that
Muslims,
Christians and Jews should be free to each follow what God commanded them,
and not
have ‘to prostrate before kings and the like’xxi; for God says elsewhere in the
Holy
Qur’an: Let there be no compulsion in religion…. (Al-Baqarah, 2:256). This
clearly
relates to
the Second Commandment and to love of the neighbour of which justicexxii and
freedom of
religion are a crucial part. God says in the Holy Qur’an:
God
forbiddeth you not those who warred not against you on account of
religion
and drove you not out from your homes, that ye should show them
kindness
and deal justly with them. Lo! God loveth the just dealers. (Al-
Mumtahinah,
60:8)
..I
We thus as
Muslims invite Christians to remember Jesus’s . words in the
Gospel
(Mark 12:29-31):
… the LORD
our God, the LORD is one. / And you shall love the LORD
your God
with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and
with all
your strength.’ This is the first commandment. / And the second,
like it, is
this: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no
other
commandment greater than these.
As Muslims,
we say to Christians that we are not against them and that Islam is
not against
them—so long as they do not wage war against Muslims on account of their
religion,
oppress them and drive them out of their homes, (in accordance with the verse
of the Holy
Qur’an [Al-Mumtahinah, 60:8] quoted above). Moreover, God says in the
Holy
Qur’an:
They are
not all alike. Of the People of the Scripture there is a staunch
community
who recite the revelations of God in the night season, falling
prostrate
(before Him). / They believe in God and the Last Day, and
enjoin
right conduct and forbid indecency, and vie one with another in
good works.
These are of the righteous. / And whatever good they do,
nothing
will be rejected of them. God is Aware of those who ward off (evil).
(Aal-‘Imran,
3:113-115)
14
Is
Christianity necessarily against Muslims? In the Gospel Jesus Christ . says:
He who is
not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me
scatters
abroad. (Matthew 12:30)
For he who
is not against us is on our side. (Mark 9:40)
… for he
who is not against us is on our side. (Luke 9:50)
According
to the Blessed Theophylact’sxxiii Explanation of the New Testament, these
statements
are not contradictions because the first statement (in the actual Greek text of
the New
Testament) refers to demons, whereas the second and third statements refer to
people who
recognised Jesus, but were not Christians. Muslims recognize Jesus Christ as
the
Messiah, not in the same way Christians do (but Christians themselves anyway have
never all
agreed with each other on Jesus Christ’s . nature), but in the following way:
…. the
Messiah Jesus son of Mary is a Messenger of God and His Word which he cast
unto Mary
and a Spirit from Him.... (Al-Nisa’, 4:171). We therefore invite Christians to
consider
Muslims not against and thus with them, in accordance with Jesus Christ’s .
words here.
Finally, as
Muslims, and in obedience to the Holy Qur’an, we ask Christians to
come
together with us on the common essentials of our two religions … that we shall
worship
none but God, and that we shall ascribe no partner unto Him, and that none of
us shall
take others for lords beside God … (Aal ‘Imran, 3:64).
Let this
common ground be the basis of all future interfaith dialogue between us,
for our
common ground is that on which hangs all the Law and the Prophets (Matthew
22:40). God
says in the Holy Qur’an:
Say (O
Muslims): We believe in God and that which is revealed unto us
and that
which was revealed unto Abraham, and Ishmael, and Isaac, and
Jacob, and
the tribes, and that which Moses and Jesus received, and that
which the
prophets received from their Lord. We make no distinction
between any
of them, and unto Him we have surrendered. / And if they
believe in
the like of that which ye believe, then are they rightly guided.
But if they
turn away, then are they in schism, and God will suffice thee
against
them. He is the Hearer, the Knower. (Al-Baqarah, 2:136-137)
Between Us
and You
Finding
common ground between Muslims and Christians is not simply a matter
for polite
ecumenical dialogue between selected religious leaders. Christianity and Islam
are the
largest and second largest religions in the world and in history. Christians
and
Muslims
reportedly make up over a third and over a fifth of humanity respectively.
Together
they make up more than 55% of the world’s population, making the relationship
between
these two religious communities the most important factor in contributing to
meaningful
peace around the world. If Muslims and Christians are not at peace, the world
cannot be
at peace. With the terrible weaponry of the modern world; with Muslims and
15
Christians
intertwined everywhere as never before, no side can unilaterally win a conflict
between
more than half of the world’s inhabitants. Thus our common future is at stake.
The very
survival of the world itself is perhaps at stake.
And to
those who nevertheless relish conflict and destruction for their own sake
or reckon
that ultimately they stand to gain through them, we say that our very eternal
souls are
all also at stake if we fail to sincerely make every effort to make peace and
come
together in harmony. God says in the Holy Qur’an: Lo! God enjoineth justice and
kindness,
and giving to kinsfolk, and forbiddeth lewdness and abomination and
wickedness.
He exhorteth you in order that ye may take heed (Al Nahl, 16:90). Jesus
Christ
.said: Blessed are the peacemakers ….(Matthew 5:9), and also: For what profit
is it to a
man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul? (Matthew 16:26).
So let our
differences not cause hatred and strife between us. Let us vie with each
other only
in righteousness and good works. Let us respect each other, be fair, just and
kind to
another and live in sincere peace, harmony and mutual goodwill. God says in the
Holy
Qur’an:
And unto
thee have We revealed the Scripture with the truth, confirming
whatever
Scripture was before it, and a watcher over it. So judge between
them by
that which God hath revealed, and follow not their desires away
from the
truth which hath come unto thee. For each We have appointed a
law and a
way. Had God willed He could have made you one community.
But that He
may try you by that which He hath given you (He hath made
you as ye
are). So vie one with another in good works. Unto God ye will
all return,
and He will then inform you of that wherein ye differ. (Al-
Ma’idah,
5:48)
Wal-Salaamu
‘Alaykum,
Pax
Vobiscum.
© 2007
C.E., 1428 A.H.,
The Royal
Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought, Jordan.
See:
www.acommonword.org or: www.acommonword.com
16
NOTES
i In
Arabic: La illaha illa Allah Muhammad rasul Allah. The two Shahadahs actually
both occur (albeit
separately)
as phrases in the Holy Qur’an (in Muhammad 47:19, and Al-Fath 48:29,
respectively).
ii Sunan
Al-Tirmidhi, Kitab Al-Da’awat, 462/5, no. 3383; Sunan Ibn Majah, 1249/2.
iii Sunan
Al-Tirmidhi, Kitab Al-Da’awat, Bab al-Du’a fi Yawm ‘Arafah, Hadith no. 3934.
It is
important to note that the additional phrases, He Alone, He hath no associate,
His is the
sovereignty
and His is the praise and He hath power over all things, all come from the Holy
Qur’an, in
exactly
those forms, albeit in different passages. He Alone—referring to God .—is found
at least six times
in the Holy
Qur’an (7:70; 14:40; 39:45; 40:12; 40:84 and 60:4). He hath no associate, is
found in exactly
that form
at least once (Al-An’am, 6:173). His is the sovereignty and His is the praise
and He hath power
over all
things, is found in exactly this form once in the Holy Qur’an (Al-Taghabun,
64:1), and parts of it
are found a
number of other times (for instance, the words, He hath power over all things,
are found at least
five times:
5:120; 11:4; 30:50; 42:9 and 57:2).
The Heart
In Islam
the (spiritual, not physical) heart is the organ of perception of spiritual and
metaphysical
knowledge.
Of one of the Prophet Muhammad’s . greatest visions God says in the Holy
Qur’an: The inner
heart lied
not (in seeing) what it saw. (al-Najm, 53:11) Indeed, elsewhere in the Holy
Qur’an, God says:
[F]or
indeed it is not the eyes that grow blind, but it is the hearts, which are
within the bosoms, that grow
blind.
(Al-Hajj, 22:46; see whole verse and also: 2:9-10; 2:74; 8:24; 26:88-89; 48:4;
83:14 et al.. There are
in fact
over a hundred mentions of the heart and its synonyms in the Holy Qur’an.)
Now there
are different understandings amongst Muslims as regards the direct Vision of
God (as
opposed to
spiritual realities as such) God, be it in this life or the next—God says in
the Holy Qur’an (of
the Day of
Judgement):
That day
will faces be resplendent, / Looking toward their Lord; (Al-Qiyamah, 75:22-23)
Yet God
also says in the Holy Qur’an:
Such is
God, your Lord. There is no God save Him, the Creator of all things, so worship
Him. And He
taketh care of all things. / Vision comprehendeth Him not, but He
comprehendeth
(all) vision. He is the Subtile, the Aware. / Proofs have come unto you
from your
Lord, so whoso seeth, it is for his own good, and whoso is blind is blind to
his
own hurt.
And I am not a keeper over you. (Al-An’am, 6:102-104)
Howbeit, it
is evident that the Muslim conception of the (spiritual) heart is not very
different from
the
Christian conception of the (spiritual) heart, as seen in Jesus’s . words in
the New Testament: Blessed
are the
pure in heart, for they shall see God. (Matthew 5:8); and Paul’s words: For now
we see in a mirror,
dimly, but
then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I am
known. (1 Corinthians
13:12)
v See also:
Luqman, 31:25.
vi See
also: Al-Nahl, 16:3-18.
vii Sahih
Bukhari, Kitab Tafsir Al-Qur’an, Bab ma Ja’a fi Fatihat Al-Kitab (Hadith no.1);
also: Sahih
Bukhari,
Kitab Fada’il Al-Qur’an, Bab Fadl Fatihat Al-Kitab, (Hadith no.9), no. 5006.
viii The
Prophet Muhammad .said:
God has one
hundred mercies. He has sent down one of them between genii and human
beings and
beasts and animals and because of it they feel with each other; and through it
they have
mercy on each other; and through it, the wild animal feels for its offspring.
And
God has
delayed ninety-nine mercies through which he will have mercy on his servants
17
on the Day
of Judgement. (Sahih Muslm, Kitab Al-Tawbah; 2109/4; no. 2752; see also
Sahih Bukhari,
Kitab Al-Riqaq, no. 6469).
ix Fear of
God is the Beginning of Wisdom
The Prophet
Muhammad . is reported to have said: The chief part of wisdom is fear of God—be
He exalted
(Musnad
al-Shahab, 100/1; Al-Dulaymi, Musnad Al-Firdaws, 270/2; Al-Tirmidhi, Nawadir
Al-Usul; 84/3;
Al-Bayhaqi,
Al-Dala’il and Al-Bayhaqi, Al-Shu’ab; Ibn Lal, Al-Makarim; Al-Ash’ari,
Al-Amthal, et al.)
This
evidently is similar to the Prophet Solomon . words in the Bible: The fear of
the LORD is the
beginning
of Wisdom …. (Proverbs 9:10); and: The fear of the LORD is the beginning of
knowledge.
(Proverbs
1:7)
x
The
Intelligence, the Will and Sentiment in the Holy Qur’an
Thus God in
the Holy Qur’an tells human being to believe in Him and call on Him (thereby
using the
intelligence)
with fear (which motivates the will) and with hope (and thus with sentiment):
Only those
believe in Our revelations who, when they are reminded of them, fall down
prostrate
and hymn the praise of their Lord, and they are not scornful, / Who forsake
their beds
to cry unto their Lord in fear and hope, and spend of that We have bestowed
on them. /
No soul knoweth what is kept hid for them of joy, as a reward for what they
used to do.
(Al-Sajdah, 32:15-17)
(O
mankind!) Call upon your Lord humbly and in secret. Lo! He loveth not
aggressors. /
Work not
confusion in the earth after the fair ordering (thereof), and call on Him in
fear
and hope.
Lo! the mercy of God is near unto the virtuous. (Al-A’raf, 7:55-56)
Likewise,
the Prophet Muhammad . himself is described in terms which manifest knowledge
(and hence
the intelligence), eliciting hope (and hence sentiment) and instilling fear
(and hence motivating
the will):
O Prophet!
Lo! We have sent thee as a witness and a bringer of good tidings and a
warner.
(Al-Ahzab, 33:45)
Lo! We have
sent thee (O Muhammad) as a witness and a bearer of good tidings and a
warner,
(Al-Fath, 48:8)
xi A Goodly
Example
The love
and total devotion of the Prophet Muhammad . to God is for Muslims the model
that
they seek
to imitate. God says in the Holy Qur’an:
Verily in
the messenger of God ye have a goodly example for him who hopeth for God
and the
Last Day, and remembereth God much. (Al-Ahzab, 33:21)
The
totality of this love excludes worldliness and egotism, and is itself beautiful
and loveable to
Muslims.
Love of God is itself loveable to Muslims. God says in the Holy Qur’an:
And know
that the messenger of God is among you. If he were to obey you in many
matters, ye
would surely fall into misfortune; but God hath made the faith loveable to you
and hath
beautified it in your hearts, and hath made disbelief and lewdness and
rebellion
hateful
unto you. Such are they who are the rightly guided. (Al-Hujurat, 49:7)
xii This
‘particular love’ is in addition to God’s universal Mercy which embraceth all
things (Al-A’raf,
7:156); but
God knows best.
xiii Sahih
Al-Bukhari, Kitab Bad’ al-Khalq, Bab Sifat Iblis wa Junudihi; Hadith no. 3329.
Other
Versions of the Blessed Saying
This
blessed saying of the Prophet Muhammad’s ., is found in dozens of hadith
(sayings of the
Prophet
Muhammad .) in differing contexts in slightly varying versions.
The one we
have quoted throughout in the text (There is no god but God, He alone. He hath
no
associate.
His is the sovereignty, and His is the praise, and He hath power over all
things) is in fact the shortest
version. It
is to be found in Sahih al-Bukhari: Kitab al-Adhan (no. 852); Kitab al-Tahajjud
(no. 1163); Kitab al
18
‘Umrah (no.
1825); Kitab Bad’ al-Khalq (no. 3329); Kitab al-Da‘awat (nos. 6404, 6458,
6477); Kitab al-Riqaq
(no. 6551);
Kitab al-I‘tisam bi’l-Kitab (no. 7378); in Sahih Muslim: Kitab al-Masajid (nos.
1366, 1368, 1370,
1371,
1380); Kitab al-Hajj (nos. 3009, 3343); Kitab al-Dhikr wa’l-Du‘a’ (nos. 7018,
7020, 7082, 7084); in
Sunan Abu
Dawud: Kitab al-Witr (nos. 1506, 1507, 1508); Kitab al-Jihad (no. 2772); Kitab
al-Kharaj (no.
2989);
Kitab al-Adab (nos. 5062, 5073, 5079); in Sunan al-Tirmidhi: Kitab al-Hajj (no.
965); Kitab al-Da‘awat
(nos. 3718,
3743, 3984); in Sunan al-Nasa’i: Kitab al-Sahw (nos. 1347, 1348, 1349, 1350,
1351); Kitab
Manasik
al-Hajj (nos. 2985, 2997); Kitab al-Iman wa’l-Nudhur (no. 3793); in Sunan Ibn
Majah: Kitab al-Adab
(no. 3930);
Kitab al-Du‘a’ (nos. 4000, 4011); and in Muwatta’ Malik: Kitab al-Qur’an (nos.
492, 494); Kitab
al-Hajj
(no. 831).
A longer
version including the words yuhyi wa yumit—(There is no god but God, He alone.
He hath
no
associate. His is the sovereignty, and His is the praise. He giveth life, and
He giveth death, and He hath
power over
all things.)—is to be found in Sunan Abu Dawud: Kitab al-Manasik (no. 1907); in
Sunan al-
Tirmidhi:
Kitab al-Salah (no. 300); Kitab al-Da‘awat (nos. 3804, 3811, 3877, 3901); and
in Sunan al-Nasa’i:
Kitab Manasik
al-Hajj (nos. 2974, 2987, 2998); Sunan Ibn Majah: Kitab al-Manasik (no. 3190).
Another
longer version including the words bi yadihi al-khayr—(There is no god but God,
He alone.
He hath no
associate. His is the sovereignty, and His is the praise. In His Hand is the
good, and He hath power
over all
things.)—is to be found in Sunan Ibn Majah: Kitab al-Adab (no. 3931); Kitab
al-Du‘a’ (no. 3994).
The longest
version, which includes the words yuhyi wa yumit wa Huwa Hayyun la yamut bi
yadihi al-
khayr—(There
is no god but God, He alone. He hath no associate. His is the sovereignty, and
His is the praise.
He giveth
life, and He giveth death. He is the Living, who dieth not. In His Hand is the
good, and He hath
power over
all things.)—is to be found in Sunan al-Tirmidhi: Kitab al-Da‘awat (no. 3756)
and in Sunan Ibn
Majah:
Kitab al-Tijarat (no. 2320), with the difference that this latter hadith reads:
bi yadihi al-khayr kuluhu
(in His
Hand is all good).
It is
important to note, however, that the Prophet Muhammad ., only described the
first (shortest)
version as:
the best that I have said—myself, and the prophets that came before me, and
only of that version did
the Prophet
. say: And none comes with anything better than that, save one who does more
than that.
(These
citations refer to the numbering system of The Sunna Project’s Encyclopaedia of
Hadith
(Jam‘
Jawami‘ al-Ahadith wa’l-Asanid), prepared in cooperation with the scholars of
al-Azhar, which
includes
Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Sunan Abu Dawud, Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Sunan
al-Nasa’i, Sunan
Ibn Majah,
and Muwatta’ Malik.)
Frequent
Remembrance of God in the Holy Qur’an
The Holy
Qur’an is full of injunctions to invoke or remember God frequently:
Remember
the name of thy Lord at morn and evening. (Al-Insan, 76:25)
So remember
God, standing, sitting and [lying] down on your sides (Al-Nisa, 4:103).
And do thou
(O Muhammad) remember thy Lord within thyself humbly and with awe,
below thy
breath, at morn and evening. And be not thou of the neglectful (Al-‘Araf,
7:205).
… Remember
thy Lord much, and praise (Him) in the early hours of night and morning
(Aal
‘Imran, 3:41).
O ye who
believe! Remember God with much remembrance. / And glorify Him early and
late
(Al-Ahzab, 33:41-42).
(See also:
2:198-200; 2:203; 2:238-239; 3:190-191; 6:91; 7:55; 7:180; 8:45; 17:110;
22:27-41;
24:35-38; 26:227; 62:9-10; 87:1-17, et al.)
Similarly,
the Holy Qur’an is full of verses that emphasize the paramount importance of
the
Remembrance
of God (see: 2:151-7; 5:4; 6:118; 7:201; 8:2-4; 13:26-28; 14:24-27; 20:14;
20:33-34; 24:1;
29:45;
33:35; 35:10; 39:9; 50:37; 51:55-58; and 33:2; 39:22-23 and 73:8-9 as already
quoted, et al. ), and
the dire
consequences of not practising it (see: 2:114; 4:142; 7:179-180; 18:28;
18:100-101; 20:99-101;
20:124-127;
25:18; 25:29; 43:36; 53:29; 58:19; 63:9; 72:17 et al.; see also 107:4-6). Hence
God ultimately
says in the
Holy Qur’an:
Has not the
time arrived for the believers that their hearts in all humility should engage
in the
remembrance of God …. ? (Al-Hadid, 57:16);
….
[S]lacken not in remembrance of Me (Taha, 20:42),
and:
Remember your Lord whenever you forget (Al-Kahf, 18:24).
19
xv Herein
all Biblical Scripture is taken from the New King James Version. Copyright ©
1982 by Thomas
Nelson,
Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
xvi Sunan
Al-Tirmithi, Kitab Al-Da’wat, Bab al-Du’a fi Yawm ‘Arafah, Hadith no. 3934. Op.
cit..
In the Best
Stature
Christianity
and Islam have comparable conceptions of man being created in the best stature
and
from God’s
own breath. The Book of Genesis says:
(Genesis,
1:27) So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him;
male
and female
He created them.
And:
(Genesis,
2:7) And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed
into his
nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
And the
Prophet Muhammad . said: Verily God created Adam in His own image. (Sahih Al-
Bukhari,
Kitab Al-Isti’than, 1; Sahih Muslim, Kitab Al-Birr 115; Musnad Ibn Hanbal, 2:
244, 251, 315, 323
etc. et
al.)
And We
created you, then fashioned you, then told the angels: Fall ye prostrate before
Adam! And they fell
prostrate,
all save Iblis, who was not of those who make prostration. (Al-A’raf, 7:11)
By the fig
and the olive / By Mount Sinai, / And by this land made safe / Surely We
created man of the best
stature /
Then We reduced him to the lowest of the low, / Save those who believe and do
good works, and
theirs is a
reward unfailing. / So who henceforth will give the lie to the about the
judgment? / Is not God
the wisest
of all judges? (Al-Tin, 95:1-8)
God it is
Who appointed for you the earth for a dwelling-place and the sky for a canopy,
and fashioned you
and perfected
your shapes, and hath provided you with good things. Such is God, your Lord.
Then blessed
be God, the
Lord of the Worlds! (Al-Ghafir, 40:64)
Nay, but
those who do wrong follow their own lusts without knowledge. Who is able to
guide him whom
God hath
sent astray ? For such there are no helpers. / So set thy purpose (O Muhammad)
for religion as a
man by
nature upright - the nature (framed) of God, in which He hath created man.
There is no altering
(the laws
of) God’s creation. That is the right religion, but most men know not—/
(Al-Rum, 30:29-30)
And when I
have fashioned him and breathed into him of My Spirit, then fall down before
him prostrate,
(Sad,
38:72)
And when
thy Lord said unto the angels: Lo! I am about to place a viceroy in the earth,
they said: Wilt thou
place
therein one who will do harm therein and will shed blood, while we, we hymn Thy
praise and sanctify
Thee ? He
said: Surely I know that which ye know not. / And He taught Adam all the names,
then showed
them to the
angels, saying: Inform Me of the names of these, if ye are truthful ./ They
said: Be glorified! We
have no
knowledge saving that which Thou hast taught us. Lo! Thou, only Thou, art the
Knower, the Wise. /
He said: O
Adam! Inform them of their names, and when he had informed them of their names,
He said:
Did I not
tell you that I know the secret of the heavens and the earth ? And I know that
which ye disclose
and which
ye hide. / And when We said unto the angels: Prostrate yourselves before Adam,
they fell
prostrate,
all save Iblis. He demurred through pride, and so became a disbeliever… / And
We said: O
Adam! Dwell
thou and thy wife in the Garden, and eat ye freely (of the fruits) thereof
where ye will; but
come not
nigh this tree lest ye become wrong-doers. (Al-Baqarah, 2:30-35)
xviii Sahih
Al-Bukhari, Kitab al-Iman, Hadith no.13.
xix Sahih
Muslim , Kitab al-Iman, 67-1, Hadith no.45.
xx The
classical commentators on the Holy Qur’an (see: Tafsir Ibn Kathir, Tafsir
Al-Jalalayn) generally
agree that
this is a reference to (the last movements of) the Muslim prayer.
20
xxi Abu
Ja’far Muhammad Bin Jarir Al-Tabari, Jami’ al-Bayan fi Ta’wil al-Qur’an, (Dar
al-Kutub al‘
Ilmiyyah,
Beirut, Lebanon, 1st ed, 1992/1412,) tafsir of Aal-‘Imran, 3:64;Volume 3, pp. 299-302.
xxii
According to grammarians cited by Tabari (op cit.) the word ‘common’ (sawa’) in
‘a common word
between us’
also means ‘just’, ‘fair’ (adl).
xxiii The
Blessed Theophylact (1055-1108 C.E.) was the Orthodox Archbishop of Ochrid and
Bulgaria
(1090-1108
C.E.). His native language was the Greek of the New Testament. His Commentary
is currently
available
in English from Chrysostom Press.
21
Signatories
(in Alphabetical Order)
His Royal
Eminence Sultan Muhammadu Sa’ad Ababakar
The 20th
Sultan of Sokoto; Leader of the Muslims of Nigeria
H.E. Shaykh
Dr. Hussein Hasan Abakar
Imam of the
Muslims, Chad; President, Higher Council for Islamic Affairs, Chad
H.E. Prof.
Dr. Abdul-Salam Al-Abbadi
President
of Aal Al-Bayt University; Former Minister of Religious Affairs, Jordan
Prof. Dr.
Taha Abd Al-Rahman
President
of the Wisdom Circle for Thinkers and Researchers, Morocco;
Director of
Al-Umma Al-Wasat Magazine, International Union of Muslim Scholars
Imam Feisal
Abdul Rauf
Co-founder
and Chairman of the Board of the Cordoba Initiative; Founder of the ASMA
Society
(American Society for Muslim Advancement); Imam of Masjid Al-Farah, NY, NY,
USA
Sheikh
Muhammad Nur Abdullah
Vice
President of the Fiqh Council of North America, USA
Dr. Shaykh
Abd Al-Quddus Abu Salah
President
of the International League for Islamic Ethics; Editor of the Journal for
Islamic
Ethics, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
H.E. Prof.
Dr. Abd Al-Wahhab bin Ibrahim Abu Solaiman
Member of
the Committee of Senior Ulama, Saudi Arabia
Dr. Lateef
Oladimeji Adegbite
Acting
Secretary and Legal Adviser, Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs
H.E. Amb.
Prof. Dr. Akbar Ahmed
Ibn Khaldun
Chair of Islamic Studies, American University in Washington D.C., USA
H.E. Judge
Prince Bola Ajibola
Former
International High Court Judge; Former Minister of Justice of Nigeria; Former
Attorney-General
of Nigeria; Founder of the Crescent University and Founder of the
Islamic
Movement of Africa (IMA)
H.E. Prof.
Dr. Kamil Al-Ajlouni
Head of
National Centre for Diabetes; Founder of the Jordanian University of Science
and
Technology (JUST), Former Minister and Former Senator, Jordan
Shaykh Dr.
Mohammed Salim Al-‘Awa
Secretary
General of the International Union of Muslim Scholars; Head of the Egyptian
Association
for Culture and Dialogue
Mr. Nihad
Awad
National
Executive Director and Co-founder of the Council on American-Islamic
Relations
(CAIR), USA
H.E. Prof.
Dr. Al-Hadi Al-Bakkoush
Former
Prime Minister of Tunisia, Author
H.E. Shaykh
Al-Islam Dr. Allah-Shakur bin Hemmat Bashazada
Grand Mufti
of Azerbaijan and Head of the Muslim Administration of the Caucasus
H.E. Dr.
Issam El-Bashir
22
Secretary
General of the International Moderation Centre, Kuwait; Former Minister of
Religious
Affairs, Sudan
H.E. Prof.
Dr. Allamah Shaykh Abd Allah bin Mahfuz bin Bayyah
Professor,
King Abdul Aziz University, Saudi Arabia; Former Minister of Justice, Former
Minister of
Education and Former Minister of Religious Affairs, Mauritania; Vice
President
of the International Union of Muslim Scholars; Founder and President, Global
Center for
Renewal and Guidance
Dr. Mohamed
Bechari
President,
Federal Society for Muslims in France; General Secretary of the European
Islamic
Conference (EIC), France; Member of the International Fiqh Academy
Prof. Dr.
Ahmad Shawqi Benbin
Director of
the Hasaniyya Library, Morocco
Prof. Dr.
Allamah Shaykh Muhammad Sa‘id Ramadan Al-Buti
Dean, Dept.
of Religion, University of Damascus, Syria
Prof. Dr.
Mustafa Cagr.ci
Mufti of
Istanbul, Turkey
H.E. Shaykh
Prof. Dr. Mustafa Ceric
Grand Mufti
and Head of Ulema of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Professor
Ibrahim Chabbuh
Director
General of the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought, Jordan;
President
of the Association for the Safeguarding of the City of Qayrawan, Tunisia
H.E. Prof.
Dr. Mustafa Cherif
Muslim
Intellectual; Former Minister of Higher Education and Former Ambassador,
Algeria
Dr. Caner
Dagli
Assistant
Professor, Roanoke College, USA
Ayatollah
Prof. Dr. Seyyed Mostafa Mohaghegh Damad
Dean of
Department of Islamic Studies, The Academy of Sciences of Iran; Professor of
Law and
Islamic Philosophy, Tehran University; Fellow, The Iranian Academy of
Sciences,
Iran; Former Inspector General of Iran
Ayatollah
Seyyed Abu Al-Qasim Al-Deebaji
Imam Zayn
Al-Abideen Mosque, Kuwait
H.E. Prof.
Dr. Shakir Al-Fahham
Head of the
Arabic Language Academy, Damascus; Former Minister of Education, Syria
Shaykh
Seyyed Hani Fahs
Member of
Supreme Shia Committee, Lebanon; Founding Member of the Arab
Committee
for the Islamic-Christian Dialogue, and the Permanent Committee for the
Lebanese
Dialogue
H.E. Shaykh
Salim Falahat
Director
General of the Muslim Brotherhood, Jordan
Chief Abdul
Wahab Iyanda Folawiyo
Member,
Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs of Nigeria; Vice President, Jamaat Nasril
Islam
H.E. Shaykh
Ravil Gainutdin
Grand Mufti
of Russia
23
Justice
Ibrahim Kolapo Sulu Gambari
Justice of
Nigerian Court of Appeal; National Vice Chairman, Nigerian Football
Association
(NFA)
Prof. Dr.
Abd Al-Karim Gharaybeh
Historian
and Senator, Jordan
H.E. Prof.
Dr. Abdullah Yusuf Al-Ghoneim
Director of
the Kuwaiti Centre for Research and Studies on Kuwait; Former Minister of
Education,
Kuwait
H.E. Prof.
Dr. Bu Abd Allah bin al-Hajj Muhammad Al Ghulam Allah
Minister of
Religious Affairs, Algeria
Prof. Dr.
Alan Godlas
Co-Chair,
Islamic Studies, University of Georgia, USA; Editor-in-chief, Sufi News and
Sufism
World Report; Director, Sufis Without Borders
H.E. Shaykh
Nezdad Grabus
Grand Mufti
of Slovenia
H.E. Shaykh
Dr. Al-Habib Ahmad bin Abd Al-Aziz Al-Haddad
Chief Mufti
of Dubai, UAE
Shaykh
Al-Habib Ali Mashhour bin Muhammad bin Salim bin Hafeeth
Imam of the
Tarim Mosque and Head of Fatwa Council, Tarim, Yemen
Shaykh
Al-Habib Umar bin Muhammad bin Salim bin Hafeeth
Dean, Dar
Al-Mustafa, Tarim, Yemen
Professor
Dr. Farouq Hamadah
Professor
of the Sciences of Tradition, Mohammad V University, Morocco
Shaykh
Hamza Yusuf Hanson
Founder and
Director, Zaytuna Institute, CA, USA
H.E. Shaykh
Dr. Ahmad Badr Al-Din Hassoun
Grand Mufti
of the Republic of Syria
H.E.
Shaykh. Sayyed Ali bin Abd Al-Rahman Al-Hashimi
Advisor to
the President for Judiciary and Religious Affairs, UAE
Prof. Dr.
Hasan Hanafi
Muslim
Intellectual, Department of Philosophy, Cairo University
Shaykh
Kabir Helminski
Shaykh of
the Mevlevi Tariqah; Co-Director of the Book Foundation, USA
H.E. Shaykh
Sa‘id Hijjawi
Chief
Scholar, The Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought; Former Grand
Mufti
of Jordan
H.E. Prof.
Dr. Shaykh Ahmad Hlayyel
Chief
Islamic Justice of Jordan; Imam of the Hashemite Court; Former Minister of
Religious
Affairs
H.E. Amb.
Dr. Murad Hofmann
Author and
Muslim Intellectual, Germany
H.E. Dr.
Anwar Ibrahim
Former
Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia; Honorary President of AccountAbility
H.E. Shaykh
Dr. Izz Al-Din Ibrahim
Advisor for
Cultural Affairs, Prime Ministry, UAE
24
H.E. Prof.
Dr. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu
Secretary-General,
Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC)
H.E. Prof.
Dr. Omar Jah
Secretary
of the Muslim Scholars Council, Gambia; Professor of Islamic Civilization and
Thought,
University of Gambia
H.E. Prof.
Dr. Abbas Al-Jarari
Advisor to
HM the King, Morocco
Shaykh
Al-Habib Ali Zain Al-Abidin Al-Jifri
Founder and
Director, Taba Institute, United Arab Emirates
H.E. Shaykh
Prof. Dr. Ali Jum‘a
Grand Mufti
of the Republic of Egypt
Prof. Dr.
Yahya Mahmud bin Junayd
Secretary
General, King Faisal Centre for Research and Islamic Studies, Saudi Arabia
Dr. Ibrahim
Kalin
Director,
SETA Foundation, Ankara, Turkey; Asst. Prof. Georgetown University, USA
H.E. Amb.
Aref Kamal
Muslim
Intellectual, Pakistan
Professor
Dr. ‘Abla Mohammed Kahlawi
Dean of
Islamic and Arabic Studies, Al-Azhar University (Women’s College), Egypt
Prof. Dr.
Said Hibatullah Kamilev
Director,
Moscow Institute of Islamic Civilisation, Russian Federation
Prof. Dr.
Hafiz Yusuf Z. Kavakci
Resident
Scholar, Islamic Association of North Texas, Founder & Instructor of IANT
Qur’anic
Academy; Founding Dean of Suffa Islamic Seminary, Dallas, Texas, USA
Shaykh Dr.
Nuh Ha Mim Keller
Shaykh in
the Shadhili Order, USA
Prof. Dr.
Mohammad Hashim Kamali
Dean and
Professor, International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC),
International
Islamic University, Malaysia
Shaykh Amr
Khaled
Islamic
Missionary, Preacher and Broadcaster, Egypt; Founder and Chairman, Right
Start
Foundation International
Prof. Dr.
Abd Al-Karim Khalifah
President
of the Jordanian Arabic Language Academy; Former President of Jordan
University
H.E. Shaykh
Ahmad Al-Khalili
Grand Mufti
of the Sultanate of Oman
Seyyed
Jawad Al-Khoei
Secretary-General,
Al-Khoei International Foundation
Shaykh Dr.
Ahmad Kubaisi
Founder of
the ‘Ulema Organization, Iraq
Mr. M. Ali
Lakhani
Founder and
Editor of Sacred Web: A Journal of Tradition and Modernity, Canada
Dr. Joseph
Lumbard
Assistant
Professor, Brandeis University, USA
25
H.E. Shaykh
Mahmood A. Madani
Secretary
General, Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind; Member of Parliament, India
H.E. Prof.
Dr. Abdel-Kabeer Al-Alawi Al-Madghari
Director
General of Bayt Mal Al-Quds Agency (Al-Quds Fund); Former Minister of
Religious
Affairs, Morocco
H.E. Imam
Sayyed Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi
Former
Prime Minister of Sudan; Head of Ansar Movement, Sudan
H.E. Prof.
Dr. Rusmir Mahmutcehajic
Professor,
Sarajevo University; President of the International Forum Bosnia; Former
Vice
President of the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Allamah
Shaykh Sayyed Muhammad bin Muhammad Al-Mansour
High
Authority (Marja’) of Zeidi Muslims, Yemen
Prof. Dr.
Bashshar Awwad Marouf
Former
Rector of the Islamic University, Iraq
H.E. Prof.
Dr. Ahmad Matloub
Former
Minister of Culture; Acting President of the Iraqi Academy of Sciences, Iraq
Prof. Dr.
Ingrid Mattson
Professor
of Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations and Director, Islamic
Chaplaincy Program,
Hartford Seminary; President of the Islamic Society of North
America
(ISNA), USA
Dr. Yousef
Meri
Special
Scholar-in-Residence, Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought, Jordan
Dr.
Jean-Louis Michon
Author;
Muslim Scholar; Architect; Former UNESCO expert, Switzerland
Shaykh Abu
Bakr Ahmad Al-Milibari
Secretary-General
of the Ahl Al-Sunna Association, India
Pehin Dato
Haj Suhaili bin Haj Mohiddin
Deputy
Grand Mufti, Brunei
Ayatollah
Sheikh Hussein Muayad
President
and Founder, Knowledge Forum, Baghdad, Iraq
Prof. Dr.
Izzedine Umar Musa
Professor
of Islamic History, King Sa‘ud University, Saudi Arabia
Prof. Dr.
Mohammad Farouk Al-Nabhan
Former
Director of Dar Al-Hadith Al-Hasaniya, Morocco
Prof. Dr.
Zaghloul El-Naggar
Professor,
King Abd Al-Aziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Head, Committee on
Scientific
Facts in the Glorious Qur’an, Supreme Council on Islamic Affairs, Egypt
Mr. Sohail
Nakhooda
Editor-in-Chief,
Islamica Magazine, Jordan
Prof. Dr.
Hisham Nashabeh
Chairman of
the Board of Higher Education; Dean of Education at Makassed
Association,
Lebanon
H.E.
Professor Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr
University
Professor of Islamic Studies, George Washington University, Washington D.C,
USA
26
Prof. Dr.
Aref Ali Nayed
Former
Professor at the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies (Rome);
Former
Professor at International Institute for Islamic Thought and Civilization
(ISTAC,
Malaysia);
Senior Advisor to the Cambridge Interfaith Program at the Faculty of
Divinity in
Cambridge, UK
H.E. Shaykh
Sevki Omarbasic
Grand Mufti
of Croatia
Dato Dr.
Abdul Hamid Othman
Advisor to
the H.E. the Prime Minister of Malaysia
Prof. Dr.
Ali Ozek
Head of the
Endowment for Islamic Scientific Studies, Istanbul, Turkey
Imam Yahya
Sergio Yahe Pallavicini
Vice
President of CO.RE.IS., Italy, Chairman of ISESCO Council for Education and
Culture in
the West, Advisor for Islamic Affairs of the Italian Minister of Interior.
H.E. Shaykh
Dr. Nuh Ali Salman Al-Qudah
Grand Mufti
of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
H.E. Shaykh
Dr. Ikrima Said Sabri
Former
Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and All of Palestine, Imam of the Blessed Al-Aqsa
Mosque, and
President of the Islamic Higher Council, Palestine
Ayatollah
Al-Faqih Seyyed Hussein Ismail Al-Sadr
Baghdad,
Iraq
Mr.
Muhammad Al-Sammak
Secretary-General
of the National Council for Islamic-Christian Dialogue;
Secretary-General
for the Islamic Spiritual Summit, Lebanon
Shaykh
Seyyed Hasan Al-Saqqaf
Director of
Dar Al-Imam Al-Nawawi, Jordan
Dr. Ayman
Fuad Sayyid
Historian
and Manuscript Expert, Former Secretary General of Dar al-Kutub Al-
Misriyya,
Cairo, Egypt
Prof. Dr.
Suleiman Abdallah Schleifer
Professor
Emeritus, The American University in Cairo
Dr. Seyyed
Reza Shah-Kazemi
Author and
Muslim Scholar, UK
Dr. Anas
Al-Shaikh-Ali
Chair,
Association of Muslim Social Scientists, UK; Chair, Forum Against Islamophobia
and Racism,
UK; Academic Advisor, IIIT, UK
Imam Zaid
Shakir
Lecturer and
Scholar-in-Residence, Zaytuna Institute, CA, USA
H.E. Prof.
Dr. Ali Abdullah Al-Shamlan
Director
General of the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS);
Former
Minister of Higher Education, Kuwait
Eng. Seyyed
Hasan Shariatmadari
Leader of
the Iranian National Republican Party (INR)
Dr.
Muhammad Alwani Al-Sharif
Head of the
European Academy of Islamic Culture and Sciences, Brussels, Belgium
27
H.E. Dr.
Mohammad Abd Al-Ghaffar Al-Sharif
Secretary-General
of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, Kuwait
Dr. Tayba
Hassan Al-Sharif
International
Protection Officer, The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees,
Darfur,
Sudan
Prof. Dr.
Muhammad bin Sharifa
Former
Rector of Wajda University; Morocco; Fellow of the Royal Moroccan Academy
Prof. Dr.
Muzammil H. Siddiqui / on behalf of the whole Fiqh Council of North
America
Islamic
Scholar and Theologian; Chairman of the Fiqh Council of North America, USA
Shaykh
Ahmad bin Sa’ud Al-Siyabi
Secretary
General of the Directorate of the Grand Mufti, Oman
Al-Haji
Yusuf Maitama Sule
Former
Nigerian Permanent Representative to the United Nations; Former Nigerian
Minister of
National Guidance
Prof. Dr.
Muhammad Abd Al-Rahim Sultan-al-Ulama
Deputy-Dean
of Scientific Research Affairs, United Arab Emirates University, UAE
Shaykh Dr.
Tariq Sweidan
Director-General
of the Risalah Satellite Channel
H.E. Shaykh
Ahmad Muhammad Muti’i Tamim
The Head of
the Religious Administration of Ukrainian Muslims, and Mufti of Ukraine
H.E. Shaykh
Izz Al-Din Al-Tamimi
Senator;
Former Chief Islamic Justice, Minister of Religious Affairs and Grand Mufti of
Jordan
H.E. Shaykh
Dr. Tayseer Rajab Al-Tamimi
Chief
Islamic Justice of Palestine; Head of The Palestinian Center for Religion and
Civilization
Dialogue
Prof. Dr.
H.R.H. Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal
Personal
Envoy and Special Advisor of H.M. King Abdullah II; Chairman of the Board of
the Royal
Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought, Jordan
Prof. Dr.
Ammar Al-Talibi
Former
Member of Parliament, Professor of Philosophy, University of Algeria
Ayatollah
Shaykh Muhammad Ali Taskhiri
Secretary
General of the World Assembly for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought
(WAPIST),
Iran
H.E. Prof.
Dr. Shaykh Ahmad Muhammad Al-Tayeb
President
of Al-Azhar University, Former Grand Mufti of Egypt
Prof. Dr.
Muddathir Abdel-Rahim Al-Tayib
Professor
of Political Science and Islamic Studies, International Institute of Islamic
Thought and
Civilization (ISTAC), Malaysia
H.E. Amb.
Prof. Dr. Abdel-Hadi Al-Tazi
Fellow of
the Royal Moroccan Academy
H.E. Shaykh
Naim Trnava
Grand Mufti
of Kosovo
H.E. Dr.
Abd Al-Aziz bin ‘Uthman Al-Tweijiri
28
Director-General
of the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(ISESCO)
H.E. Prof.
Dr. Nasaruddin Umar
Rector of
the Institute for Advanced Qur’anic Studies; Secretary General of the
Nahdhatul
Ulama Consultative Council; Lecturer at the State Islamic University Syarif
Hidayatullah,
Jakarta, Indonesia
Shaykh
Muhammad Hasan ‘Usayran
Jafari
Mufti of Sidon and Al-Zahrani, Lebanon
Allamah
Justice Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani
Vice
President, Darul Uloom Karachi, Pakistan
Prof. Dr.
Akhtarul Wasey
Director,
Zakir Husain Institute of Islamic Studies, Jamia Milla Islamiya University,
India
Shaykh Dr.
Abdal Hakim Murad Winter
Shaykh
Zayed Lecturer in Islamic Studies, Divinity School, University of Cambridge;
Director of
the Muslim Academic Trust, UK
Prof. Dr.
Mohammed El-Mokhtar Ould Bah
President,
Chinguitt Modern University, Mauritania
H.E. Shaykh
Muhammad Sodiq Mohammad Yusuf
Former
Grand Mufti of the Muslim Spiritual Administration of Central Asia, Uzbekistan;
Translator
and Commentator of the Holy Qur’an
Prof. Dr.
Shaykh Wahba Mustafa Al-Zuhayli
Dean,
Department of Islamic Jurisprudence, University of Damascus, Syria
H.E. Shaykh
Mu’ammar Zukoulic
Mufti of
Sanjak, Bosnia
(138)
29
