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بسم الله الرحمن الرحي |
bismi-llāhi ar-raḥmāni ar-raḥīmi
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In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful |
5:3 This day have those who reject faith given up all hope of defeating your religion: do not fear them instead fear Me. This day have I perfected your religion for you, completed My bounty bestowed upon you, and have chosen for you al-Islam as your religion.
Mike:
I will be writing more here tonight, but I wanted to share my latest posting on the blog of my organization to give you more of an idea of what we’re trying to do here.
http://e4gr.blogspot.com/2008/01/false-gospel-of-mindless-consumption-by.html
Christ’s peace,
Mike+
Mike:
Grace and Peace to you, Mohammed,
Thank you for your words. It has taken me awhile to consider how to respond. Even as I start this I am not sure.
So I will start by again saying thank you for your words. I am not sure what will become of this relationship, but I know that goodness will only come insofar as we are honest with one another. When two people are face-to-face, there is so much that is communicated through tone and posture that cannot be communicated online. Had I been saying the words I last wrote to your face, I would have been able to see before I had gotten very far the pain and anger they were bringing up in you … and we could have dealt with that as men and perhaps as friends.
As it was, I am grateful you chose to be honest with me about that anger and pain. I sometimes wonder what God has in mind for us in this relationship … but I feel that part of it lies in me experiencing your anger and pain as much as I can through this distant and imperfect medium.
In America, we have not had a war fought on our own land in nearly 150 years … and have not fought a foreign power on our own land for more than 225 years. We do not know what it is like. The only pain we feel from war is the pain of loss of those who do not come back from far away … or come back broken and maimed.
That pain is real … but it is not the pain of watching children die. It is not the pain of watching our homes burned. It is not the pain of watching those we love starve and die because there is no food, no medicine.
We do not know your pain. We do not know your anger. We … I … will probably never know it. And so the very least I can do is bear it in whatever form you choose to share it with me … or direct it at me. You are inviting me into your world, into your home. It is an invitation I do not take lightly. I recognize how rare it is. Your home is holy ground, and even as I walk on it in this online conversation, I want to take my shoes off and venture in with respect and honor.
I also have tried to invite you into my world, into my home. My hope has been that you could somehow see the goodness in the people who are doing such horrible things – the things I never see and that never get reported back here. As you love your people, so I love mine, and so I want you to see that there is good in them.
But I am beginning to learn that for me to think that should matter to you at this time in this place is foolish. Perhaps someday far from today we will get to a point where we can try to have that conversation again. But for now, I will push that point no longer. It would be disrespectful of me to try.
But I struggle with where to go from here. And here I need to continue to be as honest with you as you have been with me.
The first time I went to Africa, it was to spend six weeks in Ghana. I went with the typical American attitude … that as an American, I was there to help and give – without considering that I might have a tremendous amount to learn and to receive from the beauty and giftedness of the Ghanaian people. Humility is not a virtue we Americans have in abundance (quite an understatement). I spent the first half of my time there feeling guilty that I wasn’t “doing” enough … until I realized that the best I could do was to listen and carry what I had heard and seen back to my country in hopes that my heart and those with whom I shared it with would be changed. What I needed to do was be humble and listen and be changed.
That is some of what I feel here … but I am conflicted. I know that I am learning many difficult and painful things. I know that my prayers have become deeper and I struggle mightily with what God would have me do with the reality that is being revealed to me. I know the greatest gifts for me in our relationship are understanding and the love I have developed for you not just through this conversation but through daily holding you and your family in prayer.
I know what is valuable about this for me. What is the value for you? What can I offer you? What can I give? I have tried to offer some understanding of my people who kill your people only to realize I am walking down the wrong road in trying that.
So as I’ve wrestled with how to answer, I keep coming back to that question. What do YOU want from me? If it is in my power to give, I will do my best to do so. If my role in this relationship is much as it was in Ghana … to listen and receive and be changed and go to my countrymen and women and try to change them, then I will take that mission to heart.
But I want to hear from you, my brother in humanity. What do you want from me? And if that question only shows the further depth of my ignorance, I ask your forgiveness. It is the best I can offer right now.
Christ’s peace,
Mike+
Mohammed Ibn Laith:
Peace to you Michael. I need to pray and think and will answer within the week.
Mohammed Ibn Laith:
Of course you love your people – how not? To love truly is to love those whom you love despite their faults and to strive lovingly to remove those faults and replace them with good.
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3:30 يوم تجد كل نفس ماعملت من خير محضرا وماعملت من سوء تود لو ان بينها وبينه امدا بعيدا ويحذركم الله نفسه والله رؤوف بالعباد |
Yawma tajidu kullu nafsin ma AAamilat min khayrin muhdaran wama AAamilat min soo-in tawaddu law anna baynaha wabaynahu amadan baAAeedan wayuhaththirukumu Allahu nafsahu waAllahu raoofun bialAAibadi |
On the Day [of Judgement] when each soul will find itself confronted with all that it has done of good and all that it has done of evil [each soul} will yearn that there could be an enormous space of distance between it and that evil. God bids you beware of Him. And God is Full of Pity for His slaves. |
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3:31 قل ان كنتم تحبون الله فاتبعوني يحببكم الله ويغفر لكم ذنوبكم والله غفور رحي |
Qul in kuntum tuhibboona Allaha faittabiAAoonee yuhbibkumu Allahu wayaghfir lakum thunoobakum waAllahu ghafoorun raheemun |
Say (O Prophet), "If you love God, follow me; God will love you and grant you the protection of forgiveness. He will save you from trailing behind [in humanity] and in the community of nations. And God is Forgiving, Merciful.” |
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3:159 فبما رحمة من الله لنت لهم ولو كنت فظا غليظ القلب لانفضوا من حولك فاعف عنهم واستغفر لهم وشاورهم في الامر فاذا عزمت فتوكل على الله ان الله |
Fabima rahmatin mina Allahi linta lahum walaw kunta faththan ghaleetha alqalbi lainfaddoo min hawlika faoAAfu AAanhum waistaghfir lahum washawirhum fee al-amri fa-itha AAazamta fatawakkal AAala Allahi inna Allaha yuhibbu almutawakkileena |
Thus it is by God’s mercy that you treated them gently. Had you been rough, hard-hearted, [in how you treated them] they would certainly have parted from you. So forgive them and ask protection for them, consult them in (important) matters. Once you have decided, put your trust in God. [For] Surely God loves those who trust in Him. |
Peace to you Michael I am answering you more fully elsewhere and will mail you when I have finished. It is very late or perhaps very early here.
The centrality of Love in Prophet Jesus’ (PBUH) message is wholly admirable, who can doubt that it comes from God? It grieves me that many of the Ummah have forgotten the centrality of Love in Islam. Perhaps we should discuss the practical manifestations of love?
As agreed between the two of us and my good friend and the brother of my heart Dubhaltach this part of our conversation is now opened in preparation for bringing our dialogue forward.
Mike:
Peace to you, Mohammed.
I have waited for an email from you containing your fuller response while I considered your words … and finally decided to respond to what you have already posted.
The centrality of Love in each of our holy scriptures is our common ground. It is what draws me to you and I believe it is what draws you to me. That is also to say that it is God, from whom all love springs, who draws us to each other.
Let me comment briefly on each of the passages from Holy Qur’an that you quoted:
On the Day [of Judgement] when each soul will find itself confronted with all that it has done of good and all that it has done of evil [each soul} will yearn that there could be an enormous space of distance between it and that evil. God bids you beware of Him. And God is Full of Pity for His slaves.
There cannot be love without judgment. As Christians, we believe Jesus’ very presence with us on earth is evidence that the love of God who loved us first in creation has not left us but remains with us. But Jesus’ message of love was also a message of judgment. That we would be judged by (as you phrased it) the practical manifestations of love. Jesus speaks of us being judged by how we love – by how we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and those in prison.
And yet the greatest judgment is love itself. I believe the Holy Qur’an is true when it speaks about that Day of Judgment where we are each confronted with good and evil we have done and wish there could be an enormous space of distance between us and that evil. On that day, standing in the presence of God, the presence of that infinite love, how could we not wish to distance ourselves from that evil? Not out of fear of punishment but out of the great pain we will feel from seeing how we fell short of God’s loving will for our lives. God will be full of pity for us on that day, because the pain we will feel at our own evil will be its own judgment on us.
We all will experience that pain. It will be the day when our ignorance is stripped away and we will see our lives for what they really have been. And there will be wailing. And there will be begging for mercy and forgiveness. And God will lovingly provide. But it will not be easy.
Say (O Prophet), “If you love God, follow me; God will love you and grant you the protection of forgiveness. He will save you from trailing behind [in humanity] and in the community of nations. And God is Forgiving, Merciful.”
Jesus says, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” And the commandments of Jesus are this – love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.
As human beings we love imperfectly. I know that only too well from my own life. And God is merciful and forgiving. But that does not mean there are not difficult and painful lessons to be learned from where we fall short. But through it all, God is merciful and forgiving.
Thus it is by God’s mercy that you treated them gently. Had you been rough, hard-hearted, [in how you treated them] they would certainly have parted from you. So forgive them and ask protection for them, consult them in (important) matters. Once you have decided, put your trust in God. [For] Surely God loves those who trust in Him.
I see a strong relationship between this passage and the two before. God’s loving will for us is for us to live lives of compassionate good (what Jesus called “keeping my commandments). But there is a great gap – not just the gap which we will wish to put between ourselves and the evil we have done on the day of judgment, but the gap between the potential for loving goodness we have in our lives and what we actually achieve. Some of that gap is willfully casting aside the opportunity to do good. Some of that gap is missing the opportunity to do good through our own ignorance. Some of that gap is willfully and knowingly doing evil. Whatever the cause, the gap of falling short will be the same and the pain we feel will be the same. And God’s mercy will be the same.
One of our greatest shortcomings as human beings is we cannot fully see that gap between our potential for loving goodness – the true call of God in our lives – and how we are actually living our lives. As I have said before, we as Americans have become so convinced of our own goodness that we refuse to acknowledge such a gap even exists. And when people try to point it out to us, it is painful and we resist mightily.
Of course, I love my people – just as, of course, you love your people. Part of the role God is using you to fulfill in my life is gently (and occasionally not so gently! But always lovingly.) showing me where I and we as a people are falling short of God’s will. That is painful. But I know it is a part of God working on me. I know it is a part of God loving and showing mercy to me.
So as you are doing to me, I have the responsibility to do for my people. To point out that gap to them – and to do that gently but firmly. Not being rough and hard-hearted (what we would call “judgmental”) is very hard. But I am saved by two things. The first is knowing that if I just scream at them it will do know good. The second is knowing that I fall short of good every bit as much as they do (if not more) and that I am every bit as much a prisoner of my evil actions as they are. At the same time I struggle daily with what of my actions are being gentle for good and practical reasons and what is just me shrinking back out of fear.
I wonder what role God has me playing in your life? In the lives of the people whom you touch? Perhaps that is yet to be revealed and perhaps we will never know.
But I still wonder.
You suggested we should discuss the practical manifestations of love. Let me start that conversation with a question for you:
Tell me stories of how you see people in your life manifesting love. How has that changed you? How has that made you follow God’s will more closely? How do those stories give you hope?
I believe the Holy Qur’an is true when it speaks about that Day of Judgment where we are each confronted with good and evil we have done and wish there could be an enormous space of distance between us and that evil.
Of course the Holy Qur’an is true it is God’s uncreated eternal word.
Peace to you Michael you asked me about the Hajj:
49.13: Truly the most worthy of you in God’s eyes is the most righteous of you. God is All-Knowing, All-Aware.
5:3 This day have those who reject faith given up all hope of defeating your religion: do not fear them instead fear Me! This day have I perfected your religion for you, completed My bounty bestowed upon you, and have chosen for you al-Islam as your religion.
There is a well-known Hadith. The Prophet (PBUH) said:
‘God does not judge according to your bodies and appearances but He scans your hearts and looks into your deeds.’
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49:13 ياايها الناس انا خلقناكم من ذكر وانثى وجعلناكم شعوبا وقبائل لتعارفوا ان اكرمكم عند الله اتقاكم ان الله عليم خبير |
Ya ayyuha alnnasu inna khalaqnakum min thakarin waontha wajaAAalnakum shuAAooban waqaba-ila litaAAarafoo inna akramakum AAinda Allahi atqakum inna Allaha AAaleemun khabeerun |
O mankind! We created you from a single [pair] of a male and a female, and made you into the nations and tribes, that you may know each other [and] (not that you may despise one another). Truly the most worthy of you in God’s eyes is [he who is] the most righteous of you. God is All-Knowing, All-Aware. |
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5:3 حرمت عليكم الميتة والدم ولحم الخنزير ومااهل لغير الله به والمنخنقة والموقوذة والمتردية والنطيحة ومااكل السبع الا ماذكيتم وماذبح على النصب وان تستقسموا بالازلام ذلك فسق اليوم يئس الذين كفروا من دينكم فلا تخشوهم واخشون اليوم اكملت لكم دينكم واتممت عليكم نعمتي ورضيت لكم الاسلام دينا فمن اضطر في مخمصة غير متجانف لاثم فان الله غفور رحيم |
Hurrimat AAalaykumu almaytatu waalddamu walahmu alkhinzeeri wama ohilla lighayri Allahi bihi waalmunkhaniqatu waalmawqoothatu waalmutaraddiyatu waalnnateehatu wama akala alssabuAAu illa ma thakkaytum wama thubiha AAala alnnusubi waan tastaqsimoo bial-azlami thalikum fisqun alyawma ya-isa allatheena kafaroo min deenikum fala takhshawhum waikhshawni alyawma akmaltu lakum deenakum waatmamtu AAalaykum niAAmatee waradeetu lakumu al-islama deenan famani idturra fee makhmasatin ghayra mutajanifin li-ithmin fa-inna Allaha ghafoorun raheemun |
Forbidden to you are carrion and blood and the flesh of the pig, and that which has been dedicated to any other than God, and that killed by being strangled, and that which was beaten to death, and that which died by falling from a height, and that which was killed by goring from a beast with horns, and that which was devoured by wild beasts, unless you yourself have killed in due form, and that which was immolated unto idols. And it is forbidden that you swear upon the arrows of divination. Which is an abomination. This day have those who reject faith given up all hope of defeating your religion: do not fear them instead fear Me! This day have I perfected your religion for you, completed My bounty bestowed upon you, and have chosen for you al-Islam as your religion. But whoever is forced by [extreme hunger/starvation] hunger and not purposefully sinning. [Will Find that] God is All-Forgiving, All-Merciful. |
It is a pity that you cannot speak or read my language, it is difficult — even in Arabic, to describe what it feels like to stand before God in the Holiest place on all the worlds he creates and sustains. To know that you like all the millions who are there with you stand before him completely alone and to ask him to accept as his due that that you have done which is good and to ask of his Divine Mercy and Love to forgive that which you have done that is sinful.
To do this at least once is an obligation on all Muslims who are physically capable of it and have the means to do so. We come from all over the world and God does not make any distinction among us, he does not care whether we are male or female, Iraki or American, Pakistani or Chinese, Young or old, Rich or poor, he is interested only in whether we love Him and show our love by submitting to his Compassionate and Loving plan for us by . The rituals themselves are so well-known that I will not waste your time by describing them. We come from all over the world and we show that even though we are male and female of different tribes and nations that we desire to know one another as brothers and sisters all loved alike by God by wearing the very simple garments of the Prophet’s (PBUH) time.
The purpose of this is God reminding us of Prophet Ibrahim’s [he who you call Abraham] selfless sacrifice which is unparalleled in mankind’s history. The purpose is to write in our hearts the truth proclaimed by Mohammed the penultimate Prophet (PBUH) when he stood upon the plain of Arafat declaring the completion of his mission and as God’s messenger announced God’s proclamation:
5.3: This day have those who reject faith given up all hope of defeating your religion: do not fear them instead fear Me! This day have I perfected your religion for you, completed My bounty bestowed upon you, and have chosen for you al-Islam as your religion.
The purpose is to affirm: There Is No God But God And Mohammed is the Messenger of God.
That whether we are young or old, male or female, poor or rich, Arab or European or Asian or American, that we are one community and that God’s plan for us is clear. Again and again in words so plain that none can mistake them except out of wilfulness what God has told us, all of us, what it is he wants of us:
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3:104 ولتكن منكم امة يدعون الى الخير ويامرون بالمعروف وينهون عن المنكر واولئك هم المفلحون |
Waltakun minkum ommatun yadAAoona ila alkhayri waya/muroona bialmaAAroofi wayanhawna AAani almunkari waola-ika humu almuflihoona |
Let there be a community among you who invite you to goodness, command you to obey the Law, and prohibit you from committing evil. These people will have eternal happiness. |
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7:199 خذ العفو وامر بالعرف واعرض عن الجاهلين |
Khuthi alAAafwa wa/mur bialAAurfi waaAArid AAani aljahileena |
Hold to forgiveness; command what is right; But turn away from the ignorant. |
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9:71 والمؤمنون والمؤمنات بعضهم اولياء بعض يامرون بالمعروف وينهون عن المنكر ويقيمون الصلاة ويؤتون الزكاة ويطيعون الله ورسوله اولئك سيرحمهم الله ان الله عزيز حكيم |
Waalmu/minoona waalmu/minatu baAAduhum awliyao baAAdin ya/muroona bialmaAAroofi wayanhawna AAani almunkari wayuqeemoona alssalata wayu/toona alzzakata wayuteeAAoona Allaha warasoolahu ola-ika sayarhamuhumu Allahu inna Allaha AAazeezun hakeemun |
And the believers, men and women, are the protectors and friends one of another; they command the doing of right and forbid the doing of evil, and they establish worship, and they donate the alms [Zakkat], and they obey God and His messenger. For these, God will have mercy. God is Almighty, All Wise. |
I do not understand your question my brother. I see and hear it everywhere. I saw it when the children at the orphanage when my younger brother was staying there hold one of their number because the memories had become too strong and she was overwhelmed. I see it in the women who risk their lives to get water and food to the most desperate. I see the start of it in the child of the streets who comes back to my brothers in my unit for more food the next day that we deliver food. That is the the start of love — starting to trust and to believe that we do not see them as just a piece of meat. I see it in the child of the streets addicted to tiryak or to khishkhash and heroin or to glue who choose to trust my group’s mentor in this work that their life will bearable if they come with us to one of my aunt’s children’s camps, we tell them it will be hard to be locked up while their body cleanses itself of this filth but that one of us will be locked up with them and that they will not suffer alone and that afterwards they will be free. And when they trust us and come with us, that is a lot of courage and it also is the start of love. I see it in the child of the streets who comes to trust one us enough to dare to tell us in which deserted building or abandoned piece of ground they sleep. Does that sound a small thing? It is a very big thing – they have put their lives in our hands. I see it in the people who collect money for school books in Touz Khormatou. Or in the streets of Mosul during Eid. I see it in the Red Crescent volunteers and the Red Crescent Staff. I have seen it in in the foreigners who raise their voices. I see it in the schoolmaster who continues to teach despite many death threats, and in his pupils. I see it in the people who built and who run this new orphanage and in the foreigners who helped raise that money. I find the contrast between people like that and your country’s puppet “government” in the green zone instructive. They themselves admit that despite having more money than Saddam that they care for slightly more than 400 orphans in a country where they themselves admit there are 5 million orphans. I see it in the societies for uplifting women, the societies that teach women to read and write, the societies that teach women what they need to know of law when they begin to trade, the societies that train women journalists, the societies that help the huge number of women and children in desperate need.
I see it every day in the Mosque. I hear it every day in the calls to prayer. I see it on my younger brother’s face smiling at me when he has taken it upon himself to rise early and shake me awake for morning prayer. I see it in my sister’s fellow students who escort her to and from al-Mustansiriyah and who rallied around us at our times of grief. Does escorting someone to University sound a small thing? It is a very big thing. It takes a lot of work and more than a little risk to discover the least dangerous route every day.
I see it in the students in al-Anbar who spend their summers as volunteers helping the victims of the war being waged by the invaders to subjugate my people. They do not see those victims as “collateral damage” they see them as what they are, their brothers and sisters who are in need, so they open their good hearts, and yes, they risk their lives.
I see it every day in my neighbours who live ordinary decent lives and strive to live their lives as good Muslims against impossible difficulties of not enough food, no water, no money for fuel to cook with or warm their houses, who strive to live ordinary decent lives and who succeed with God’s help. That is the greater Jihad.
I see it in those who raise their voices and preach against the divisions that the invader tries to foster among us that that may more easily rule us. That too is the greater Jihad. I see it too in those who raise their voices and in those who raise their hands against the tyranny being imposed upon us by the invaders. That is the lesser Jihad.
I have seen and lived with the signs of God’s love all my life my brother I cannot know how that has changed me as I have never been without it.
comment text edited by dubhaltach