Religious Dialogue Globalization Experience on Islam

Justin Wiegand

I met up with Samal (name protected, we'll insert Smith here) at the community ballpark following her son’s little league baseball game. She communicated that she’d be returning to her home in a few minutes, so I drove ahead to meet her there. I traveled the near mile across town contemplating how I would start off our discussion on her religious world view, Islam. I was looking forward to hearing first hand her beliefs and views of this often controversial religion. Samal arrived right behind me and her son let me in. I sat down at a large dining room table right beside a wooden rack for Samal’s prayer veils. She sat down at the table and asked me where to start. I got out my notebook and simply asked for a broad overview of her beliefs and told her we’d go from there. That was about all that was needed to get the ball rolling as we entered a thought-provoking and revealing discussion of her Islam.

I was informed right off the bat that the ((Smith))s believe in both Judaism and Christianity. As a Christian I immediately wondered exactly what this universal “belief” in the major monotheistic religions meant. I already knew that they didn’t regard Jesus as God, as Christians do, so I prodded as to what this belief entailed. Simply stated, I was told that we all believe in the same God, so therefore, the ((Smith))s respect monotheistic religions regardless of specific beliefs, and certainly don’t openly condemn them. I know this is not the view of all Muslims. Some believe Christians and Jews serve God along with them¹². The ((Smith))s fit into the first category. while other Muslims believe they are in an adversarial relationship with Christians and Jews

Samal continued on with personal views of the religion. She stated that Muslims are to be kind to all of mankind, they are not to discriminate, and there should be no injury to any form of life unless in self-defense. I couldn’t help but think of the attacks on 9-11, but that subject would come up later. She added that they were to only kill an animal for food. She stressed respect towards all living things. Again, this didn’t seem to match up with what I was seeing and hearing all around the world, certainly not in the Middle East. However, Samal herself was a living example of a Muslim adhering to all that she had spoken of. She went on to say that there was to be no drinking of alcohol for a Muslim. I know a Muslim who drinks quite a bit, but then again, I know Christians who abuse the substance, contrary to their scripture³ and it’d be completely ignorant to not recognize that I am guilty of hypocrisy in my own life. Who isn’t to some extent? I wondered what the judgment would be for a Muslim who disobeyed such a commandment, and on a greater scale whether judgment would exist for the startlingly more significant acts such as killing a multitude of people. I would find out that their God, Allah, certainly judges such deeds, but is also very forgiving, but that was all to come.

Meanwhile, she continued on that Muslims were to highly respect the covenant of marriage. Predominant Muslim nations have a much higher success rate for marriages than we do in America. Her husband, Khairallah, coming over from the kitchen to join the dialogue, explained that a Muslim man could have up to four wives if he treated them equally in every way. He told me that this was close to impossible though and he and Samal shared a laugh together. Together they explained the marriage system of Islam which they followed (not adhered to by all Muslims). For them, there is no dating for marriage. Instead a wanting man asks for the woman he wants to marry and then the man, wife, and parents involved must all agree on the arrangement. They are then engaged and married. Based upon my own socially uncommon practices, I could relate when they explained that their family is often asked just how they get married with out dating. She flippantly regarded it as a matter of faith, which Muslims must possess. While no one on earth has surely seen their God, Allah, they believe completely in Him and trust Him to possess complete sovereignty.

    Samal and her husband continued to explain another important doctrine most all Muslims strictly follow. They don’t eat pork since the animal is believed to be unclean before God. This whole concept of cleanliness before God is important. Muslims are to pray five times per day facing Mecca. Before praying, one must first wash and be clean. Having clean hands is especially important. They pray in varying positions before Allah. The women, like Samal, cover themselves with clean veils as they pray.

I next asked Samal to list her understanding of what one must do or believe to be a Muslim. The answers were easily definable and concise. Foremost, one must believe in one God, and only one God, Allah. This confession of one God and also acknowledging Muhammad as His messenger is called Shahada. Muslims are to pray five times a day. This is called Salat. Samal gave nod to the note that one of their older children admittedly does not. Again I wondered about judgment and the basis of salvation for a Muslim. We would come back to this, and for the time being my thoughts were interrupted with the next “Pillar of Islam.” They are to fast during the month Ramadan, abstaining from food and drink during daylight. This month is for meditation and reflection. The fasting is called Sawm. Their calendar consists of twelve months starting on the sighting of each new moon. They are to remember the poor and give 2.5% of their earnings every year to the needy. They call this Zkat. The final thing that a Muslim should strive to for is to take a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lifetime. This is essential if at all possible. Samal’s husband stated belief that one can take the pilgrimage, or Hajj as it is called in the Arabic, in the place of family members after one has gone for himself. The best choice though is to provide the money for the others to go themselves. These five beliefs: confession, prayer, fasting, alms, and pilgrimage are known as the “Five Pillars of Islam.”

Samal went to a bookcase and pulled off a large, ornate, and rather thick book. It was a true Qur'an in original Arabic. This is the only form in which the book is regarded as the exact word of God, absolute truth. She reverently opened it as we would open the back of a book and went over the beautiful lettering from right to left. “This,” she explained, “is alone the Word of God.” Her belief was that the book was written by Muhammad, even though he was illiterate, by the direct inspiration of God through the angel Gabriel. The majority of Muslims would disagree on the fact that Muhammad’s hand wrote the book, yet still hold that the Arabic Qur’an is the direct and perfect pure word of God.

Samal can read Arabic, but I asked what one who can not should do to learn about Islam. She pointed to a small paperback book, also titled Qur’an, at the end of the table and handed it to me. The book was an English translation of the Arabic and she stated that although it could not be deemed the exact word of God, it would adequately suffice for those who cannot understand Arabic. Yet it could not be regarded as infallible truth. She then added that many of the Old Testament stories and figures of Christianity and Judaism were in the Qur’an. Yet the New Testament certainly was not included as Christian’s see it. The Christian New Testament is regarded as the result of a corruption of scripture. Another important set of scripture is the Hadith. These are several collections of further works of Muhammad. Although the Hadith is not the direct word of Allah as the Qur’an is, Muslims regard it to be the authoritative interpretation of the Qur’an. Therefore it is very important to them and well studied. I followed up by asking why there is no writing to correspond with the New Testament illustration of Jesus and that led us into the topic of prophets.

Samal and Khairallah explained that God sends prophets to earth when the people need to be reminded of God’s Truth and need to be brought back from sinfulness. Many of the same prophets and figures of the Christian Old Testament and Judaic scriptures were regarded as such prophets by the Muslims. These prophets were thought to be pure before God and in communion with Him to bring His message to the people. Some of the most noted prophets are Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad, simply because they wrote books from their revelations and Muhammad for some more specific reasons. Not one of the many different prophets are above the others. Samal was sure to hammer this point home. She explained that Muhammad is held in high regard not because he is above any of the other prophets, but because he was the last to come, he was the “seal of the prophets.” Surely he was quite the revolutionary too. Islam came through his leading, and it’s easy to understand why Muslims hold him in such high esteem. Despite the belief that he was no different than any of the other prophets, it is undeniable that he is mentioned and spoken of more than any of the others because he was the one chosen to finally instigate and form the religion of Islam through the work of Allah.

Muhammad’s life was quite extraordinary. He was born in Mecca in A.D. 570. He was orphaned and grew up as a poor child mostly raised by a Bedouin uncle. He started working in commerce through caravan trade around Mecca and married a woman Abbedd Khadija. At the age of forty he received his first revelations, or Ayats, from Allah in A.D. 622 while in a cave. He was told to recite these revelations. For the next 23 years Muhammad received a flow of divine messages from God to proclaim the Unity of God and the Unity of Mankind. He was revealed that there is only one God and humans are to submit to Him. Ultimately, there will be a final judgment providing a place of bliss for those who have submitted and are seen as righteous by God and a place of torment for those who are seen as more evil than good by God. Khairallah explained this concept of judgment a little more for me. I had been waiting for this key. The judgment is based upon ones works. If one does more good than evil, Allah will send them to heaven, yet if the opposite is true one will go to hell. However, Allah is a very forgiving God and one good act can displace ten bad or evil acts in Mr. ((Smith))’s opinion. Furthermore, as a young child there is a time when one is not responsible for his/her sins, but there comes a point of realization when one becomes responsible for his/her inevitable sinfulness. At this point, one must submit to Allah and pray and fast for forgiveness.

The story of Muhammad’s life and purpose from God continued. He started preaching of his revelations. His family became the first believers and more followed, slowly at first. As the movement gained numbers, the existing “institutionalized religion” of Mecca reacted violently to the new religion’s threat to take their followers, their source of revenue and power. Muhammad had to flee to Yathrib to escape assassination. This city became known as Medina. Here the religion really took root and grew. Relations soon went south with the neighboring Jews. After a possible attempt to poison Muhammad failed, and the act was blamed upon a Jew. At this point, Muslims, who had previously been praying toward Jerusalem, began praying towards Mecca. Muhammad’s followers continued to grow until finally he turned back toward his home of Mecca and returned with a huge cavalry of followers. They entered Mecca and purged the city of all idolatry, yet displayed Allah’s mercy and supreme sovereignty by sparing all the people not directly involved with the idolatry. They restored the sacred site, Kabah, and all of Arabia soon turned to Muhammad believing that this take over could only happen by the power of God. The religion was now firmly established.

I finally asked how this unified group of people came to the point at which they exist today. Certainly there is a lot of violence within the predominately Muslim nations and throughout the Middle East. Many westerners don’t know what to think of the religion that apparently took the lives of so many of its people on 9/11. Sometimes the word “violence” seems to be the most general description for this religion. What happened? Are Muslims really here to rid the earth of those opposing Allah? Is that what submission, the meaning of Muslim, really brings? So far, I had heard a very different message.

First of all, one must look at the history of the religion right after Muhammad’s death. He died unsuspectedly and left the people he had just united confused and unprepared. He had not given them any direction for a successor, or caliph. Two figures arose to take his place. The first, Abu Bakr, was his father-in-law. He uprooted the emotional desire of the people to worship Muhammad after his death and soon the majority of the people came to him for leadership. This following became known as the Sunni. The remaining minority went with Ali, a son-in-law of Muhammad. They claimed he had the prophetic knowledge and obvious lineage of Muhammad. This group became known as the Shi’a. This division brought unrest which soon led to fighting and deaths in the leadership of both parties. The Sunni trusted only in Muhammad’s teaching, as he was regarded to be the last true prophet. The successors of Muhammad were regarded simply as leaders. Shi’ites on the other hand, held to a belief that there was a designation of succession from the predecessor, known as ‘ilm.’ The successor was given ‘nass,’ the supernatural spiritual knowledge for leadership and was therefore infallible. Consequently the Shi’a adhered not only to the teachings given by Allah through Muhammad, but also the teachings of the following leaders, or ‘Imam,’ citing their infallible ‘nass.’ Sunnis continued to only follow Muhammad’s teachings and disregarded any present infallible ‘nass.’ Thereby the two officially split and violence has followed ever since. Shi’ites have had many groups and subgroups, or factions, which followed after different Imams. Each now believes that their respective Imam’s teaching is infallible. When conflicts arise each group runs back to their different picture of “truth” given by an Imam, instead of running back to the original teaching of Muhammad. This creates inevitable violence within the religion.

Islam is a religion that normally consumes the society it is a part of. Politics and different religious views create fighting and establish different groups into power. However, this fighting is not only internal. The concept of Jihad becomes important to understand. Some regard this as the “sixth pillar” of Islam. Literally the term means “struggle.” This struggle is partitioned into a “greater jihad,” the inner struggle of each person to submit to Allah and a “lesser jihad,” the outward struggle to defend the Islamic community. This is what “allows” Islam to be such a violent religion. According to Corduan, Physical warfare is regarded as legitimate in defense against aggression, in order to protect an oppressed Muslim minority, or to reclaim what was once Islamic territory. One can clearly see the opportunity for fighting that this notion allows. The Qur’an forbids anyone’s conversion by force. But that is never the point of a “lesser jihad.” It is simply to defend, protect, or reclaim what Muslims see as theirs. Extremists, like those who attacked on 9/11, extend that to mean that one must defend against anyone not submitting to Allah, hence the attacks on the United States. However, Samal quickly explained how much corruption one must have to get to that point. Such irrational violence through a “lesser jihad” can only reveal that the terrorists’ “greater jihad” was either not properly worked out, or they were deceived. In order to look past the gross acts of terrorism, one must remember that the “greater jihad” for many Muslims brings about much different actions.

The ((Smith)) family displays unquestionable love to our community and respect to both Christians and Jews. Many American Muslims are just as perplexed about the actions of the terrorists and just as disgusted at the violence surrounding the religion as we are. Samal stated that she feels that Muslims who want to publicly defend the religion aren’t given the press they desire because it’s not what our culture wants to hear. I have truly learned that in spite of all the violence and hate, many Muslims want to improve humanity. They want to be seen as loving and respectful. In order for our American pluralistic society to grow and increase in Truth and life, we must be willing to converse, understand, and even learn from these people. Without doing so, we have a foggy view of Islam that likely would be just what Muhammad himself would have despised. The ((Smith))s stated with much certainty that the terrorists were close-minded to much of the Qur’an and the examples of Muhammad.

Muhammad indeed set an example that can be interpreted as a display of either peace and mercy or violence, and it is important to contextualize both of these acts to purify Muhammad’s example to a Muslim believer. When Muhammad returned to Mecca he had an army of 10,000 horsemen alongside him. He most certainly could have destroyed every last person in the city where some had desired to take his life not long before, yet he did not. Instead he spared all the people there and brought them to his belief in Allah. However, in a statement of strength, power, and judgment of Allah, he violently purged the city of all idols and the priests and direct followers of them. This was all done in the (Smith) of Allah, for there was no room for the false religion that these idols and the people subject to them displayed. Muslims firmly believe that there is no God but Allah. After looking at this example set by Muhammad, I finally could understand why people in the same religion could have such different views and behaviors. The return to Mecca was really the first example of a lesser jihad. Yet the first jihad was the greater jihad that Muhammad and his followers had worked out internally before this return. Muslims like the ((Smith))s look at the example Muhammad set as one foremost of love and mercy for people who deserved to die. Extremists look at the same thing as a justification to kill those not following Allah, all in the (Smith) of their God. Certainly this is a frightening interpretation and one that many Muslims, especially those around us here in America, keep in better context.

That alone is a very important reason to dialogue with Muslims here in America. Most of the five to seven million (out of 1.3 billion world wide) Muslims living here in our American society today do not see things the way the middle eastern Muslims do because they are outside of the political mess that has been created by so many different beliefs being imposed by force on one another. Each faction, of the Shi’ite Muslims specifically, believes their Imam was infallible as the word of God and therefore they trust they are to lead a jihad against all those believing differently. It would be false to not include the Sunni in the fighting also. The Iraq government for example was Sunni and very oppressive to the Shi’ites there. America has a unique and distinctly different group of Muslims who have not been directly exposed to these bipolar views and political oppression from whichever faction is in power. The argument can be made that Islam can not be a part of a democratic society because one can not submit to democracy. Yet I have come to greatly appreciate the Muslims here who have not been oppressed nor taught to oppress others based on a narrow band of “truth.” The hostility between the western world and Islam can only be resolved by looking at the people as individuals, not a religion. There are many here who submit to Allah and lead a moral and respectable life to the society around them, not one of violence and death. Yet, with the press focused on the factions that insist on killing one another in the (Smith) of the ‘truth’ given by Allah, we will inevitably grow more hostile and apart from the very loving Muslims right around us.

We aren’t going to be given the good news by the media. We’re going to have to become proactive and intentional in relating to the Muslims around us. If they’re willing to speak, we should be willing to listen. There’s a lot of differing views from Muslim’s and surely one can respect someone pursuing a greater jihad, that inner personal struggle to submit to God. Christians struggle with the same concept, as do Jews, of course with differing views as to our ability to do so on our own accord apart from Him. But if we can’t come to respect parts of Truth from these other world views, we will do nothing good. A smile versus a cold shoulder can make all the difference, yet a conversation can bring even so much more. If we’re all in search of Truth, can’t we discuss this with those on a different path and direction than we are? Ideally, if these relationships are approached with open minds, the Truth will manifest itself and false beliefs will be revealed. We should desire to learn from the differing views in our society, not just shun them with prejudice. Islam is a very fast growing (the fastest) and diverse religion and if we continue to look at all the adherents as the exact same, we’re putting our nation in a dangerous position to miss something good and important for everyone’s livelihood. If we offer support and kindness to the Muslims who live in respect and peace, no doubt they’ll continue therein. However, if we continue to look at Muslims as a group of killers and ignore them we’ll only encourage them to seek after their own factions which are doing just that.

Samal challenged me to look at Islam with an open mind. Truth will reveal itself to those who seek it with their whole heart. I believe that, and I believe Muhammad believed that. While killing continues around the world, and hostility continues between the western world and Islam, it’s good to be taken back to the fundamentals. Why do the ((Smith))s follow Islam? They have faith to believe that it is Truth. While it is ignorant to think that any of us fully understand Truth, it’s good to know that people are seeking after It. Samal stressed that she wanted to share with me because she’s not afraid to expose her religion. Likewise, we should hold this view in mind to inspire our society to dialogue more with those of different world views. If we want the Truth, we shouldn’t be afraid to expose what we’ve found. Discussing it will only draw us closer to Truth and further from deception. Yet, seeking and desiring Truth must be the defining motive behind our discussion. For the entire ((Smith)) family, they believe what they do because of a simple faith. Sure they have a heritage of Islam, their family has followed Islam for generations, yet they are willing to expose the faith in a hostile culture because they have the faith to believe it’s true.

Even though many of the factions within Islam contradict, the followers want to find and preserve Truth more than anything. Most believe they have It, yet their truth is different than the faction they’re fighting. Yet right here in America, the land of the free, we have many Muslims who are not fighting. At least not a physical war, many indeed are fighting for respect. This should not be the case. Samal’s views of Islam are no doubt somewhat liberated by this land. She is not forced to submit on much of anything. Yet she does submit to a higher power, Allah. That is fundamental. After listening to reports of all the violence and division within this Truth seeking religion, we returned to the fundamentals. Muslims are to submit to Allah alone.

Are the Shi’ites right, and what about each division? Are the Sunnis right? Do we need to fear the violence that has come from a sect of this religion? Are we in a position to judge those we do not even know? Would doing so somehow help America and the world? Absolutely not. After looking at all the very real problems the religion has we returned back to the basics.

“We just believe in Allah,” Samal said. She started listing off her beliefs and values. Muslims believe in angels and spirits. They believe in God-purposed prophets and the books written by them. They believe Allah is supreme and pre-determines life. They believe in judgment and life after death. They believe you can pray for those who have already passed from life on this earth. They strive to respect their elders and to never lie. They have traditions based upon doctrine of the Qur’an. Women are to be modest and cover their hair and bodies adequately. Muslims attend a service every Friday at a mosque when ever possible and listen to a sheik, a type of preacher. They don’t wear shoes in a mosque. They don’t believe in homosexuality.

Samal left these basics for a moment to say, “Muhammad prophesied of this time… when people would do evil in the (Smith) of Islam.” She mentioned a belief that if you do something wrong it is against your self, not the whole religion. Regardless, it is difficult to disassociate violence from a religion that, as a generalization, has done so much. Yet, after taking the time to sit and speak with someone so different than the fighting, hating extremists we so often hear defining the religion, I’m refreshed. I know there is hope for our nation to learn from the Muslims right here, the individuals. We can grow from them and I know they can learn from us. I just pray we can look past the cliché our selfish pride creates and be willing to expose Truth for Truth.

Sources

Pocket Guide to World Religions. Winfried Corduan. InterVarsity Press: Downers Groove. 2006

The Bible
The Qur’an. Translated by Abdullah Yusuf Ali ASIR: Istanbul. 2002

Samal and Khairallah (last name protected)

Prof. Ed Schupbach