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Muslim respect for Christian scripture clarified by "A Common Word"
Ours is a time when Muslims feel under unprecedented economic,
political and military pressure from countries of largely Christian
heritage. In this atmosphere, when continued positive relations between
religious believers have become so vital, this important joint
declaration achieves two important objectives. Firstly, it allows
Christian leaders who may have been uncertain about modern Islam's
regard for Christian scriptures and beliefs to see that the consensual
position of mainstream Muslim orthodoxy is one of seriousness and
respect. Secondly, it develops a novel mode of collective Muslim
expression, which seeks to canvass and represent the views of the most
widely influential Muslim intellectual, juridical and spiritual
leaders. One can only hope that this initiative bears fruit, not only
among Muslim believers, but also among Christians, particularly in the
Catholic Church, and that it will herald a wider advance in Islamic
articulation in the media age.
PROF. ABDAL HAKIM WINTER is the Shaykh Zayed Lecturer in Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge's Divinity School and director of the Muslim Academic Trust, UK 
by Prof. Joseph Lumbard We often ask what people can do at a grassroots level to follow through on such initiatives as "A Common Word". But the first question must be, "What can we do in our daily lives to uphold the principles that inform such an initiative?" For the most important thing is not what we must do, but what we must intend and what we must be. As the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, has said, "There is in man a clump of flesh. When it is pure the entire body is pure; when it is corrupt the entire body is corrupt. Verily it is the heart." This initiative should be seen as a call to look first within our hearts and to seek to purify our hearts before we act outwardly. For only the like can come from the like; only a purified and virtuous heart can produce pure and virtuous deeds. At the end of the day, we must realize, not only conceptually but in the depths of our being, that Christianity, Islam and Judaism all have the purification of the heart as a common end. This initiative reminds us all of this and that we will not necessarily be called to account for having defended one religion or another, but for the degree to which we have purified our hearts. For as God says, the Day of Judgment only benefits "one who comes to God with a sound heart" (26:89). It is the leaders of the world's religions that must take the initiative and ask that this message be preached from the pulpit and the mimbar. When dialogue comes to be established on this foundation it will benefit us all, and only then can grassroots efforts take hold and benefit generation upon generation. DR. JOSEPH LUMBARD is Assistant Professor of Classical Islam at Brandeis University and editor of Islam, Fundamentalism, and the Betrayal of Tradition (World Wisdom, 2004)
by Aref Ali Nayed In an era of hateful, vengeful, and destructive discourses, every human community, religious or otherwise, is called upon, for the sake of God, and for the sake of our common humanity, to develop, articulate, and clearly proclaim alternative discourses; discourses that are loving, forgiving, and constructive. Discourses directly affect actions, and, are as a matter of fact, already an important category of actions. Discourses that are hateful, vengeful, and destructive, can only lead to actions of grotesque cruelty and mayhem. Discourses that are loving, forgiving, and constructive, can only lead to actions marked by compassionate gentleness and harmony. The deeper the creedal roots of a discourse, the more potency and efficacy it has in the arena of action. Hateful and destructive creedal discourse is catastrophically destructive to humanity. Loving and constructive creedal discourse is wholesome and nourishing. Read More... |