Friends And Not Adversaries: A Catholic-Muslim Spiritual Journey
The West Coast Dialogue of Catholics and Muslims
As
Christians and Muslims, we are particularly aware of challenges and
opportunities afforded by the tragic events of September 11, 2001, because
of distinctive religious factors in the causes, the events themselves, and responses
to the events.[1] Our
American society that absorbed the tragic blows of September 11th is
pluralistic in every major way—religiously, racially, ethnically, and
culturally. We enjoy a religious pluralism guaranteed by the Constitution, in
that no religious group is legally superior to others and every group has
freedom to exercise their religious traditions within the limits of civil
society. Opportunities abound for religious groups to flourish and to interact
creatively and peacefully, but we are aware that this ideal has not been fully
realized at all times by every religious group and that this prescribed
religious pluralism has not been characteristic of every historical era. The
advancement of religious freedom is a long-term undertaking, and active
engagement of religious groups with one another that defines religious
pluralism as a political and social phenomenon does not occur easily.
Islam, as a distinct religious movement identified with the
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him),
2
arose in the seventh century of the Common Era, 600 years after the time of
Jesus. During Prophet Muhammad’s life, there were significant interactions
between him and his followers with Christians. The revelations, which Muslims
believe Prophet Muhammad received in the form of the Qur’ān, and the
traditions of what the Prophet said and did (
Hadīth), mention Christians in
numerous places. In every subsequent era over the next fourteen centuries,
Christians and Muslims have interacted as fellow citizens and foreigners,
rulers and subjects, allies and enemies, and friends and adversaries. There
have been times of confrontation and of peaceful coexistence and occasions of
cooperation and dialogue.
Both Islam and Christianity are global religions taking
diverse forms in the wide variety of cultures in which they appear. Thus,
Christians and Muslims encounter one another and live together in a variety of
cultural and political contexts. Our religions have been divided by
sectarianism; at the same time, we each value unity of doctrine and moral
practice. We each have known the debilitating effects of internecine wars and
violence. Throughout our history, valiant and generous rulers and politicians,
pious and brave saints, sincere teachers dedicated to the pursuit of God’s
message for all humanity, and many, many others among us have promoted
cooperation, dialogue and understanding between Christians and Muslims instead
of the negative alternatives which have so often characterized the history of
our relations.
This report is based on a dialogue between Catholics and
Muslims. It is important to take notice that this dialogue began well before September
11, 2001, and met for a series of four annual meetings. This
Catholic-Muslim dialogue is also one of three such regional dialogues
co-sponsored by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops USCCB); yet
these dialogues are but one example of Christians and Muslims joining in cooperation
and dialogue in the United States.
3
We live in troubled times. With terrorism, violence,
military interventions, the lingering effects of colonialism and the Cold War,
economic disparities, the erosion of human rights, hate crimes, and growing
misunderstanding in the world today, our dialogue and other concerted efforts
of Muslims and Christians offer resounding testimony to our common commitment
to peace and justice. Our dialogue provides a window of opportunity to develop
a better understanding of one another as individuals, as religious peoples, and
as companions on the journey that leads to God.
On
May 10, 1999, Msgr. Lawrence Baird and Fr. Rafael Luévano of the Catholic
Diocese of Orange (California) and Dr. John Borelli of the U. S. Conference of
Catholic Bishops, Washington, D.C., visited Dr. Muzammil Siddiqi, Director of
the Islamic Society of Orange County, and three of his associates, Mr. Syed M. Hasan, Dr. Ahmad H. Sakr, and Mr.
Haitham Ahmed Bundakji, at their Islamic center in Garden Grove.
The purpose of the visit was to discuss the possibility of establishing a
regional dialogue of Catholics and Muslims. At the time, Dr. Siddiqi was the
President of the Islamic Society of North America, with its main office in Indianapolis and
already a co-sponsor of a dialogue with the USSCB.4
For more than a decade, Msgr. Baird had served as the
ecumenical/interreligious officer of the Diocese of Orange, the post to which
Fr. Luévano had been named in 1999 by Bishop Tod D. Brown. At the time of this
meeting, Bishop Brown was chair-elect of the USCCB’s Bishops’ Committee for
Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs and preparing to serve a three-year term
as chairman. Msgr. Baird and Dr. Siddiqi had already worked together on
numerous projects in Orange County. Dr.
Siddiqi was known nationally for his role in Christian-Muslim relations and had
joined with Dr. Borelli on several occasions in the past fifteen years,
promoting interreligious dialogue between Christians and Muslims. Participants
in this exploratory conversation in Garden Grove in
1999 agreed to discern what interest there might be among Catholic and Muslim
leaders in the area for a regional dialogue and to propose to them an initial
meeting of such a dialogue in nine months’ time at The Center for Spiritual
Development, a Catholic retreat house in Orange, California.
5
A number of factors go into a successful Catholic-Muslim
regional dialogue. First, there must be enthusiastic Catholics and Muslims to
serve as hosts who already enjoy a relationship of trust and cooperation.
Second, there must be interest among those leaders of the region who have
responsibility for promoting Christian-Muslim relations. Third, there must be
sponsors who lend their support to the dialogue. That role in this dialogue was
served collectively by the Muslim leadership of the Los
Angeles and Orange County area
and the USCCB. Eventually there were two co-chairs for the Muslim side of the
dialogue: Dr. Siddiqi and Sayed Moustafa Al-Qazwini, imam at the Islamic Education Center of Orange County.6 For
the first two meetings, Archbishop Alexander Brunett of Seattle was
the Catholic co-chair. He was just completing the three-year term as chairman
of the USCCB’s Bishops’ Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs
and, before being named a bishop, served as a pastor in the Archdiocese of
Detroit where he had participated in Christian-Muslim relations for many years.
Bishop Carlos Sevilla, S.J., of the Diocese of Yakima, Washington, became
Catholic co-chair in 2002.
Most participants in a regional dialogue are from various
cities and towns around the region who are already engaged in Christian-Muslim
relations. On the Catholic side, these persons are usually diocesan staff with
responsibility to promote interreligious relations, and on the Muslim side
participants are invited from among those Muslim friends and partners of the
Catholic diocesan staff in various interreligious activities. Thus the fourth
factor is a core group of participants experienced in Christian-Muslim
relations. The West Coast Dialogue brought together such experienced persons,
Catholics and Muslims, from the environs of Orange County and Los
Angeles, San Diego, San
Jose, San Francisco, Sacramento, and
Seattle. Dr. Borelli also attended
from Washington, DC.
Finally, it is important to plan these dialogues as
conversation punctuated by religious practice. In the case of the West Coast
Dialogue, the Muslim and Catholic participants maintained their routines of
prayers. Also, the Catholics attended as prayerful but silent observers of the
evening (
Maghrib) prayers of the Muslims, and the Muslims likewise were
invited to follow the order of service for evening prayer (Vespers) which the
Catholics prayed on the first evening. By the second meeting, it became our
practice to visit an Islamic center on the second evening of our meeting for
prayers, dinner, and a program. Prayer is an essential element in the schedule
of an interreligious dialogue to sustain the intense conversation.
Eleven Muslims and eight Catholics attended the initial
meeting of our dialogue (February 1-2, 2000).
Introductions were very cordial allowing those who were already friends to
share something of their friendship with the others. After the participants
became acquainted or reacquainted, two papers were presented to stimulate
discussion. Dr. Ahmad Sakr of the Foundation for Islamic Knowledge offered his
perspective on the directions Catholic-Muslim relations could take and
indicated particular challenges and important themes for our common living. He
insisted that we must work on a product if we agree to continue to meet to
share our faith with one another. Dr. John Borelli reviewed developments in
Catholic-Muslim relations since the time of the Second Vatican Council
(1962-65) when the bishops of the Catholic Church urged all Christians to enter
into conversations with Muslims to overcome the past and to cooperate for peace
and the benefit of all. He noted especially the developments in Catholic-Muslim
relations during the pontificate of Pope John Paul II through his numerous
contacts in the world with Muslim leaders and the increased number of dialogues
and other activities with Muslims sponsored by the Catholic Church in Rome and
in the United States. Dr. Borelli noted
specifically the World Day of Prayer for Peace, hosted by Pope John Paul II in Assisi, Italy, in
October 1986, and the Interreligious Assembly, hosted by the Vatican’s
Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue in Rome, in October
1999, which was a preparatory event for the Jubilee Year 2000. He reported how
he and Dr. Siddiqi were among the participants in the interreligious assembly.
Many
of us who attended the first meeting recognized how we were already involved in
programs and committees but how very little of what we accomplish together
reaches even our Catholic and Muslim brothers and sisters who attend churches
and mosques regularly. We agreed that accurate introductory information is a
first step for overcoming false ideas and negative views of one another and for
breaking down barriers to understanding. We also acknowledged that few Muslims
and Christians understand how we each interpret our Scriptures and instruct the
faithful in their daily lives.
In the end, we decided to improve relations between
Catholics and Muslims by exploring together the spiritual bases for common and
positive action. We committed ourselves to a series of three meetings beginning
with a two-day meeting in February 2001 on the topic “surrender to
God/obedience to God.” Because our journey was going to be a dialogue, we could
only indicate where we would begin, but we could not predict where our
discussions would lead us or what exactly would result from our work. We knew
that we would prepare papers for meetings, but we did not know what final form
our work would take. We also could not anticipate all the positive developments
and the challenges too that would arise over the life of the dialogue, but we
trusted in God that this journey was the right thing for us to do. Our
spiritual journey together had begun.
For our second meeting
on February
12-14, 2001, we had asked for
papers that would both introduce surrender or obedience from Scripture and
demonstrate how we interpret our Scriptures. On the Muslim side, the first
paper was given by Imam Abuqadir Al-Amin on “active” or “conscious” surrender to
God. Islam is translated from the Qur’ān as “surrendering,” but it means
“yielding one’s will” or “submitting one’s will.” How we surrender to God is
expressed in our speech and action. There are five direct references in the
Qur’ān and 153 derivative references to surrender. Two examples are in
Qur’ān 3: 19 & 85: “The religion in the sight of God is submitting to
God” and “Whoever desires a religion other a submission to God, this religion
is not acceptable by God.” Ibrahim (Abraham) is given as the example of one who
submits to God (Qur’ān 2:131).
When one surrenders, one
accepts one’s duties of which there are two kinds: fundamental duties (
fard
ayn), those which it is sinful to neglect, and those duties that are
helpful and please God (
kifayan). To know the
fard ayn, Muslims
must exegete the Qur’ān using five traditional sources: the Qur’ān
itself, reports of the sayings and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad (
Hadīth),
consensus (
ijma’) of the community of scholars (
ulamā),
analogy or reasoning (
qiyās), and juridical reasoning (
ijtihād).
Reciting the Qur’ān is itself an act of surrendering, and divine presence
can be experienced in the recitation.
Two other Muslim
presenters supplemented these initial remarks. Dr. Aslam Abdullah described
the nature of the relationship between faith and surrender. Surrendering is the
total reliance on a higher power and becomes a way of living. Islam is
submission to God while belief (
imān) is acceptance of God in the
heart. Faith without surrender is empty; surrender without faith is
incomplete. Imam Sayed Mustafa Al-Qazwini, the other presenter, summarized his
remarks in these five points:
- Muslims
believe that all humans are born with a natural disposition to surrender to
God;
- Everything
in the universe surrenders completely to the will of God by following the laws of
nature;
- Free will
serves the intellect; if the truth follows one’s desires, then everything will
be corrupted;
- Even people
without faith can surrender; they can feel God; when one is ill, what is needed
is what the physician says and not what the ill person wants;
- Surrender
has four aspects: trusting and relying on God, acceptance of God’s message,
submission to the ordinances of God, and turning over one’s affairs to God.
Fr. Rafael Luévano spoke
from a Christian perspective touching on the doctrines of the Trinity and the
Incarnation, and certain Scriptural topics: the meaning of the term gospel and
the sources of the gospels, the Bible as a library of books, the Hebrew
Scriptures and the New Testament, and inspiration. Christian faith passes
through two lenses, the experience of God manifested as creating, revealing,
and moving all things to completion. Christians believe that the one God,
revealed as the Holy Trinity, was made manifest through the incarnation of God
in Jesus Christ. The Gospel or good news is the revelation of God, embodied in
the person of Jesus, who is both divine and human. Jesus preached this Gospel
and his followers continue to preach it to all and seek to live the message of
the Gospel in their daily lives.
Christians accept the
Hebrew Scriptures as an Old Testament—a collection of books of various genres
(creation narratives, historical and genealogical accounts, poetic expressions,
wisdom sayings, prayers, prophetic, apocalyptic and other writings) taking form
over the course of centuries. The New Testament was completed in much less time
with the letters of Paul being the first writings and the four gospels taking
shape after decades of Jesus’ followers preaching and giving testimony about
him. Catholic Christians believe that God acted upon the Biblical writers
giving them guidance as they composed the books of the Bible. For
Catholics, inspiration is not dictation; rather, God worked with and through
the Biblical writers’ own human experiences and abilities in the languages and
the cultural forms of their time. Christians believe that the message of God’s
grace was embodied in Jesus Christ who in his person is the Word of God—the
fullest expression of God’s revelation.
The Christians view the
Scriptures to have a literal meaning as well as deeper meanings. The
composition of each text cannot be separated from the communal experience in
which it was composed. Fr. Luévano felt it was important to delineate three
levels of interpretation: literal, analogical and the critical interpretation.
The first is the basic or actual meaning of the words in the text. Analogical
interpretation employs literary and other devices to expand the meaning of a
text. Critical interpretation involves various tools of exegesis and the
theological faith of the community in reaching an understanding of the meaning
and significance of the text to Christian life.
Fr. Luévano illustrated
the meaning of obedience by reading the passages in the Gospel of Matthew on
paying the temple tax and on the coin found in the mouth of the fish (17:24ff)
which emphasize obedience to law. More significantly, he cited passages in the
gospels describing Jesus’ agony in the garden before his arrest and
crucifixion. These passages show Jesus’ obedience to God, whom he addressed as
“Father,” by offering to God his life in the words: “Your will be done not
mine” (Matthew 26:36ff; Mark 14:32ff, Luke 22:39ff; and John 17). Fr. Luévano
further explained the Lord’s Prayer, “Your will be done” (Matthew 6: 9-15; Luke
11: 1-4), is the heart of Christian obedience and the Christian life. He
concluded by citing Paul’s testimony of Jesus’ obedience: “[Jesus] obediently
accepting even death, death on the cross” (Philippians 2:6-8).
By the end of the second
meeting we were grateful for the opportunities to learn more about one
another’s understanding of Scripture and how we use modes of interpretation.
The use passages from the Qur’ān and the New Testament offered us glimpses
both into how Scripture is interpreted and how we each understand the theme of
obedience or surrender to God. We felt that we needed to take a deeper look at
how Muslims and Catholics developed their understandings of surrender and
obedience from Scripture.
Also at this second
meeting, we spent one evening at the Islamic Society of Orange County as guests
of Dr. Siddiqi and his community. The Catholic participants were invited to
attend (
Maghrib) prayers. Then a meal was served in the dining room,
followed by a program in the assembly hall on the question of why Muslims and Catholics
enter into dialogue. Speaking at the evening program were Archbishop Brunett
and Dr. Siddiqi, whose presentations were followed by questions and discussion.
Both presentations were published in the
Origins, the weekly documentary
service of Catholic News Service.
7
We have experienced much
support for our efforts in this dialogue. Each year, on the day when our
dialogue was to begin, Bishop Tod D. Brown of the Diocese of Orange, asked those
who attended the morning Eucharist with him at the cathedral to remember the members
of the dialogue in their prayers. The Sisters of St. Joseph, who own and
operate the Center for Spiritual Development, where the dialogue met, prayed
for the success of our meetings while we were meeting. As the year 2001 was
drawing to a close, Pope John Paul II drew attention to how Muslims and
Christians share the particular spiritual disciplines of fasting and almsgiving
and noted how in that year the Christian season of Advent and the annual fast of
Ramadan nearly coincided. He called on Catholics to fast on the second Friday
of Advent (December
14, 2001)
which that year was the last Friday of Ramadan. He further asked that they offer
special prayers for peace and give the money saved from fasting to those in
need.8 On December 14, 2001, Dr. Borelli was in Orange to meet with Dr.
Siddiqi, Fr. Luévano, Imam Al-Qazwini, and Professor June O’Connor to plan the next
meeting scheduled for February 2002. On that day, as they planned the meeting,
they also fasted together from dawn to dusk and prayed for peace and for one
another.
The dialogue met for its
third meeting on February 5-7, 2002. In that first post-September 11
th
meeting of the dialogue, our relationship reached a deeper level of friendship
and mutual support. We felt a need to speak to one another about the effects of
those tragic events on our lives and on our religious communities and to speculate
about their present and future significance. We devoted our first afternoon and
evening to this conversation.
We realized how every
one of us experienced horror, shock, outrage, sorrow, fear and powerlessness. All
of us had promptly condemned the despicable acts of violence as antithetical to
religion; yet, our Muslim friends felt an extra measure of pain because these terrible
acts, which clearly violated their faith, were wrongly associated with Islam.
Many of us shared how we had at times fatigued responding to false accusations
and random placement of blame and how we knew the frustration when biases
interfered sometimes with our attempts to give meaning to facts. We admitted
how we had to confront our own prejudices as new challenges emerged in the
developments since September 11
th. Though feeling we were swimming
against a tide of ignorance, uncritical public opinion, hate and anger, at this
meeting we drew closer together as faithful Catholics and Muslims wanting to do
the right thing in those difficult weeks and months.
We also felt that it was
an important witness to the world for us to continue with our discussion as
planned. Four papers had been prepared in advance to further our discussion of
surrender and obedience. Dr. Siddiqi gave a brief theological reflection on the
concept of surrender in Islam. He noted that surrender to God is both natural
and is enhanced by the will and intellect. The first kind of surrender comes
from true self-knowledge and knowledge of the universe that leads to a natural
surrender to God. Muslims, like everyone, can become slaves of their desires
and thus can surrender to Satan. Qur’ān 2: 130-1 says that surrender is
the teaching of all the prophets, but surrender is more than accepting God’s
will.
The second kind is surrender
of the mind and will and is the superior form in Islam (see Qur’ān 2:256
which says: “There is no compulsion in religion”). One must have faith in what
God commands. Ibrahim (Abraham) surrendered to God’s command to sacrifice his
son Ismā`īl (Ishmael), and God then revealed to him that this was a
test of his faith. Muslims commemorate annually this act of surrender. For Muslims,
faith is a relationship of love and trust in God that entails surrender and
obedience to God’s guidance. Acceptance of God’s will is faith, not fatalism,
and requires action, uses intellect, and involves obedience and duty. This is
not unthinking obedience, which some may identify as a feature of “fundamentalism,”
but a proactive effort to understand and live God’s message.
Dr. Siddiqi then
ventured the position that all human beings are equal in the eyes of God who
gives to each the ability to respond to His guidance, but not all views about God
are equal. God could have created all people to follow one religion but allowed
a plurality of religions so that we strive to excel in a spirit of good will.
In the end, God will show us the truth. Muslims can recognize other religious authorities
but none that is in conflict with God’s guidance for that would lead to
disobedience. This position allows Muslims to accept religious pluralism and is
supported by various passages in the Qur’ān. God’s will is our deepest
will and thus free will allows us to choose that which we are naturally
inclined to choose. Dr. Siddiqi said that this is an existential side of the
understanding, but there are overall cosmic principles governing this.
This same year, Fr.
Rafael Luévano offered another presentation which was based on the parable of
the lost son (15:11-32) in the Gospel of
Luke. He also used this passage as a lesson in Biblical exegesis. In the story,
a younger son asks for his inheritance and leaves his father’s household. In a
foreign land he squanders all that he has and reaches such dire straits that he
feeds pigs to earn money. The pigs are eating better than he. The younger son resolves
to return to his father, to beg forgiveness, and to ask to be no more than a
hired man and not to be restored to the status of son. The father rushes to the
son when he sees him coming and receives him as a lost son. The older son
becomes angry when he learns how his father has forgiven everything of his
brother and has ordered a feast and celebration. The father then seeks to
reconcile the older son.
Fr.
Luévano drew attention to the interplay between the law of love and the
unwillingness of the one brother to accept the other and how that reluctance undermined
the latter’s own obedience to the father. Ultimately the younger brother
surrenders to God’s love and is forgiven everything. This is the message of Christianity.
The lost son is an example of authentic surrender to God, but it was noted that
the parable had many levels of meaning in the Jewish context of Jesus teaching.
For example, it was observed that Jesus tells the parable after it is reported
that he scandalized some by eating with sinners. The older son refused to go
into the feast because the younger son was unclean having lived sinful and
unclean life among foreigners and even to the point that he fed unclean
animals. The older son illustrates the struggle between compassion and
obedience. The younger son had a change of heart, a conversion, and the story
ends with the older son invited to make a change of heart.
A further reading
of the text accents issues of power, relationship, awareness and gratitude. God is the
source of our origin, our destiny and our companion along the way but honors
our freedom sometimes more than we do. People with the most power are those who
evoke respect through love and not those who have the most control. The younger
son lost his power in the world when he has lost his possessions, but he gained
a richer relationship when he surrendered to his father. The older son, to whom
the father says, “everything I have is yours,” is offered an opportunity for
new insights and the possibility of gratitude.
Imam
Qazwini followed with a second Muslim presentation on how trust in God and
surrender to God are revealed through one’s deeds. He noted that one can grow
in degrees of surrender to God until one reaches absolute trust in God which
is dedicating all one’s affairs to God. Something is good for us if it is good
for God. Sūrah 19 offers several insights about surrender: first,
trust in God; then take pleasure in the Divine Will accepting what God has
decreed for you; next, submit to God’s ordinances; and finally place absolute
trust in God dedicating all your affairs to God.
Dr. June O’Connor gave a
second Catholic presentation and spoke on the levels of obedience and the role
of discernment in knowing whether one is obeying God or not. Obedience in the
Catholic tradition is understood as listening to the voice of God as mediated
through the historical, cross-cultural, and contemporary church community.
Scripture and tradition are given priority attention and value as
resources for information, reflection, and decision. Scripture had been explained previously. The tradition of
the Church refers to the historical faith life of the community through the
ages and is accessed in many ways: a) through written documents (papal
writings and letters, theological and moral treatises, pastoral sermons and
other writings, conciliar documents and declarations, ecclesial laws, mystical
writings), but also through b) liturgical practices, c) creeds, d) sermons, e)
hymns, f) personal testimonies, and g) daily events which are received and
embraced by the believer as loci of God’s presence and activity. Thus, in
addition to encountering the “Word of God” in the Biblical writings, the
Catholic tradition teaches that the voice of God can be encountered through
participation in the sacraments, private and community prayer, other people,
one’s own distinctive experience, and nature (God’s creation).
The recent
Catechism
of the Catholic Church is one of many documents from the Catholic tradition.
A handbook and compendium of truth claims, values, and practices, it summarizes
much of what the Church has cultivated, taught, and witnessed through the centuries
in a variety of cultures and through various documents, prayers, creeds, and
other sources. According to the
Catechism, obedience in the Catholic
tradition has been understood according to context and the contexts for understanding
obedience are several.
The categories of
obedience and disobedience are central for understanding the human response to
God. Obedience to God’s command or God’s will is seen as a virtue and disobedience,
a sin. This view is proposed in the account in the Hebrew Scriptures of the sin
of Adam and Eve. They disobeyed God’s order and suffered the consequences of
being banished from the garden, having to labor for their food, suffering pain
in childbirth, facing death as an inevitable and irrevocable feature of human
life, and struggling in relating to one another. Thus, sin, or willfully chosen
defiance and refusal, enters the Christian account of human life precisely as
disobedience.
In the New Testament
letters, Paul contrasts the disobedience of Adam with the obedience of Jesus. Through
his life, death, and resurrection, Jesus is appreciated as one who reversed
human history, effected salvation, and made reunion with God possible. Jesus is
also highlighted as a model for Christians to follow in their own relation to
God in and through him. Surrender to God’s will is another way of describing
this. Jesus’ words on the night before he was killed suggest as much: “My
Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet, not as I will, but
as you will” (Matthew 26:39). This is a challenge for all Christians.
Obedience can also be expressed in
the form of a vow promised and lived out in community. Monks and nuns, sisters,
brothers, and some priests live lives of obedience, voluntary poverty or
simplicity of lifestyle, and celibacy in the context of community. For
Christian life and practice, publicly professed vows of obedience in religious
community or to a bishop in ordination, are an option, and often experienced as
a distinctive vocation or calling.
Obedience to
governmental authority is another context for considering obedience. The
Catechism
puts it this way: “The duty of obedience requires all to give due honor to
authority and to treat those who are charged to exercise it with respect, and,
insofar as they deserve it, with gratitude and good-will” (par. 1900). “Insofar
as it is deserved” is an important qualifier. The voice of God in the heart of
the human person must be listened to. An informed conscience sensitive to the
moment and movement of God manifested as the Holy Spirit must be fostered in
order to discern what is true from what is false, what is right from what is
wrong, what is just from what is unjust. In Christian life and practice, civic
participation and cooperation are expected, unless the governing authority
places itself and its laws above God and the laws of God. Thus, disobedience in
some settings can be a virtue and desirable moral response, and civil disobedience
is an option in some instances. Blind obedience is not a value.
Catholics must be alert
not only to the ways in which they might be tempted to participate in evil
intentionally and personally, but also the ways in which they might participate
in evil socially and structurally by observing, tolerating, or ignoring
systemic social and economic oppression. It is possible to sin by omission as
well as commission. Obedience to the will of God requires paying attention to
the opportunities and obligations embedded in the concrete circumstances of
one’s life, but exactly how to express these values in the concrete
circumstances of my life requires a process known as discernment.
After these
presentations and discussion, we returned to the Islamic Society of Orange
County in Garden
Grove
for an evening of prayer, eating and conversation, and a program. The
community’s new mosque had been completed, and we were able to attend
Maghrib
prayers in this lovely new setting. For our program in 2002, the
participants in the dialogue were first welcomed, and then Imam Tahir Anwar
recited the Sūrah 107. Imam Al-Qazwini, Dr. Siddiqi, Bishop Sevilla, and
Dr. Borelli spoke informally about the progress of this dialogue. Dr. Siddiqi
took special note that Pope John Paul II had invited Muslims to the World Day
of Prayers for Peace, which the pope had hosted in Assisi on January 24, 2002. Bishop Sevilla read
excerpts from the concluding public service at Assisi, including all those
parts read by Muslims. Dr. Borelli concluded the program by reviewing a few of
the emerging points of consensus from discussions of obedience to
God/submission to God.
By the end of our
meeting, we felt that we had uncovered deeper meanings of obedience and
surrender to God by using our spiritual resources. We had grown in respect for
how each of us uses our sources and principally Scripture, which Muslims
understand as God’s guidance and Christians, as God’s self-disclosure. We each
enter dialogue accepting one another equally as spiritual companions on the
journey to God although this does not mean that we value all views about God identically.
We each recognize, when reading Scripture, that linguistic tools and critical
methods of interpretation are necessary. We also recognize a certain tension
between individual and communal interpretations of Scripture. We each value
free will, as a gift of God, and surrender or obedience to God admits of many
levels of response to God. When Muslims speak of absolute trust in God and
dedicating all their affairs to God, they are approaching a Christian
understanding of absolute obedience to God in accepting God’s will.
Unfortunately, surrender and obedience have negative connotations in our
society, and it is a common task for us to explain this central act of faith in
God as the beginning of all that can be good in one’s life. For, we agree, that
God’s will and our deepest desire are not in conflict. We also agree that sin
exists and that we are in need of God’s grace. God reaches out to all of us and
calls us to a relationship, but when we remain arrogant and in isolation from
God, we sin. Our response to God is an act of faith, but we Catholics and
Muslims understand faith differently. While Muslims and Catholics perceive
faith as a relationship with God, Muslims primarily focus on accepting God’s
guidance as contained in the Qur’ān, and Catholics primarily focus on
accepting the person of Jesus as known in the Scriptures and through the life
of the Church.
In our final working session that
year, we considered several possible themes to explore as the next step for
reaching a consensus that might serve as a useful instrument in promoting
Christian-Muslim relations. We noted several paired themes: repentance and
forgiveness, peace and war, patient endurance and struggle, conversion and
transformation, and faith in God and dependence. Other themes were worked into
the discussion: justice, love, the missionary impulse. We settled on three
themes that Pope John Paul II had connected in his message for first of January
of that year (2002), a day that is now commemorated as a World Day of Peace: no
peace without justice, no justice without forgiveness.
Dr. Siddiqi, Imam
Al-Qazwini, and Bishop Sevilla convened the fourth meeting of our dialogue on February 25, 2003. Two papers and been prepared on each of the topics–peace, justice and
forgiveness. Imam Saadiq Saafir and Dr. Joseph Sanchez-Núñez spoke on justice,
Dr. Abdullah Aslam and Fr. Alexei Smith gave presentations on peace, and Imam
Al-Qazwini and Bishop Sevilla addressed the topic of forgiveness.
Fr. Alexei took a
twentieth century approach to the theme of peace in the Catholic tradition. He
began by citing Pope Paul VI’s famous plea in 1965 during his visit to the
United Nations: “war, never again war.” He noted that Pope John Paul II also
visited the United Nations thirty years later in 1995 to give an address in
which he pleaded, “never be afraid of one another.” But, it was Pope John XXIII
before them in 1963 who was the first to make a strong plea for peace from the
Catholic tradition in his encyclical “Peace on Earth” (
Pacem in Terris),
addressed to all Catholics during the depths of the cold war. For his message
for the 2003 World Day of Peace, Pope John Paul II honored the encyclical on
its 40
th anniversary. Fr. Alexei mentioned the four pillars of peace
identified in
Pacem in Terris: truth, justice, love and freedom. He then
reviewed the list of human rights which John XXIII asserted were based on the
church’s vision of the dignity of the human person: the basic rights to
existence, the right to develop moral and cultural values, the right to benefit
from society, freedom of worship and economic rights.
Dr. Abdullah began
by asking rhetorically why God would give any community a different message
about peace. The concept of peace is similar among religions because the source
of that message is the one God; yet, peace remains on the illusory horizon of
human life. From the divine perspective, peace is an obligation on humanity to
give back to the Creator, that is, the restoring of divinity to the Divine.
There are many barriers to peace because of our different cultures, religions,
languages, and even visions of God, but we are obligated to make our deepest,
inner convictions of mind and heart about God prevail over these barriers so
that we can return to God what belongs to God. Parallel to Fr. Alexei’s
presentation, Dr. Abdullah observed that the Qur’ān also declares that
every human being is entitled to a dignified existence and certain rights—to
life, to thought, to religious practice, to labor, to family, and without these
there is no human dignity. He also cited some examples in the life of the
Prophet which insured these rights for those living in covenant with the Muslim
community and the development of a tradition to resort to war only when it
becomes impossible to live in peace. He observed that this ideal to insure
justice and live in peace has not been the case in every Muslim society, nor has
it been true of other societies with similar ideals of justice and peace. Peace
is not something that can be imposed but requires a conversion of heart to live
according to the Divine Will. Without peace, justice comes at a heavy price.
Imam Saafir led
off with a reference to Qur’ān 10:47 that to every people God has given a
message of justice. Justice then belongs to God for it is God who explains
justice and expects righteous behavior. Qur’ān 12:40 makes this point: Sovereignty belongs to God, and humanity serves God by being righteous and
implementing justice and not by pretending to make or to abrogate divine law.
Thus the most honored of humanity are the most righteous, those who are
God-fearing or God-conscious. To be God-conscious means to obey God’s law, to
be mindful always of God, and to be thankful to God. Humanity was created and
divided into nations and tribes, according to Qur’ān 49:13, so that we may
know one another and not despise one another.
Dr. Sanchez-Núñez
in his presentation on justice cited numerous Scriptural passages in the Hebrew
Scriptures and in the New Testament. Justice is the central concept for all
human relationships according to the Hebrew Scriptures. It is not simply an
ideal but arises in human relationships. Justice applies in the variety of
human relationships according to God’s actions in history reflecting his
justice, mercy and compassion. Turning to the New Testament, Dr. Sanchez-Núñez observed
that Jesus underscored the element of service in justice and illustrated this
in the passage where Jesus returns to his home at Nazareth, enters the
synagogue on the Sabbath, and is asked to read aloud from the Book of the Prophet
Isaiah: the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach
good news to the poor; he has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and
recovering of sight to the blind, to set liberty to those who are oppressed…”
(Luke 4:16-21). Jesus closes the book and says, “Today this Scripture has been
fulfilled in your hearing.” Dr. Sanchez-Núñez concluded his presentation with
reflections on the social teachings of the Catholic Church, especially in the
twentieth century.
In his
presentation on forgiveness, Imam Al-Qazwini emphasized that it is God who
ultimately forgives and that God’s forgiveness is greater than any human
forgiveness: “Say, O My servants who have transgressed against themselves,
despair not of the mercy of God; verily, God forgives all sins; verily, He is
the Forgiving, the Merciful” (Qur’ān 39:53). Human forgiveness is one of
the levels of faith; it is a giving back to God what the Creator has given us.
The Prophet set a good example forgiving others and seeking God’s forgiveness
many times a day. Thus, just as God forgives us, so we should seek God’s
forgiveness and forgive others. When we seek forgiveness, we should first
repent of our sins expressing regret what sins we have committed. Then we
should make a firm commitment not to sin again. We should discharge any
obligations we have against those whom we have offended, and we should fulfill
any obligations which we have ignored. We should make a fresh start and turn
away from sinning as result of this experience and make ourselves obedient to
God’s will.
Bishop Sevilla
began his presentation by noting that the major elements in the Catholic
understanding of forgiveness and reconciliation were already given in Imam
Al-Qazwini’s presentation. First, it is God who forgives and we are called to
seek God’s forgiveness and expected to forgive others. Then, when we have
sinned, we should be sorry or contrite, confess our sin to God, resolve not to
sin again, and make amends for our sins. The imam, Bishop Sevilla said,
connected forgiveness to faith, but we Catholics see a more specific connection
between forgiveness and conversion to God. The good news of Jesus was that we
are forgiven, and if we truly understand this and accept it, then we are
transformed. Knowing that we sin, is an acknowledgement of good and evil. Sin
is a result of our free will, a concept that is also shared with Islam. In the
Catholic tradition, turning people away from evil and towards the good is a
communal event, and we have made this reconciliation with God one another a sacrament
of the church. We understand God’s incarnation in Jesus Christ and the
assumption of human nature, his ministry, passion, death and resurrection as
the victory of God over sin and death. God remains with the community of Jesus’
followers through the power of the Holy Spirit which enables us to forgive and
be righteous. Only then can we know what justice is, and only then can we know
God.
The group
concluded the day marveling at the number of similar ideas and teachings
regarding peace, justice, and forgives although our two different perspectives
remain distinct. Our understanding of these three themes was enriched even by
our brief comparative studies. In our discussion, we also recognized that evil pertains
not just to the private sins in our lives but also to structures of human
society. We agreed that as faithful Christians and Muslims we are expected to
do more than simply make our personal lives right with God; we must also work
to restore justice where it has been lost and reconstruct the social bonds
between groups that have lost the relationships of justice. It is not enough to
transform ourselves; we need to transform society.
After a full day
of discussions on Wednesday, February 26, the group visited the Islamic
Education Center in Costa Mesa where Imam Qazwini and his community hosted the
dialogue for
Maghrib prayer, an evening program of speakers, and dinner.
Mrs. Saideh Khan moderated the program. She first introduced another member of
the community, Ms. Julia El-Haq, who recited the opening sūrah of the
Qur’ān (
Al-Fātihah) and then offered a translation. Ms. El-Haq
then read a translation of a Qur’ānic version of the Annunciation (3:42-51), a passage extolling the virtues of Mary, the mother of Jesus. After this, Imam
Al-Qazwini welcomed everyone to this community, many of whose founding members
were exiles from Iraq and the regime of Saddam Hussein. He spoke about the
significance of contemporary developments as preparations were being made for
the invasion of Iraq by British and American forces. While his community was
supportive of those efforts, they were also deeply concerned about the citizens
of Iraq who would have to endure the difficulties of war.
Dr. Siddiqi was
then introduced and spoke of the importance of both intrafaith relations, for
example between Sunnis, like himself, and Shi’is, most of the Muslims in
attendance that night, and of interfaith relations, such as this dialogue
between Catholics and Muslims that has met for four years. He reminded everyone
that dialogue is not compromise but a sharing of teachings and traditions, and
expressed his gratitude for the programs of the Catholic Church cooperating
with Muslims.
Bishop Sevilla was
introduced and thanked everyone on behalf of the Catholic participants. He then
read the recent statement (February 26, 2003) of Bishop Wilton Gregory,
President of the USCCB, in which serious moral concerns for the movement
towards war in Iraq and the reluctance of Catholic leadership to support a
military intervention at that time were presented.
Professor June
O’Connor, then, gave the major address of the evening on how each of us may
work for peace. In her address, she named and described the ten practices for
“just peacemaking” taken from a book with that title edited by Glenn Stassen. These
ten practices are:
- support nonviolent direct
action;
- take independent initiatives to
reduced threats;
- use cooperative
conflict-resolution strategies;
- acknowledge responsibility for
conflict and injustice and seek repentance and
forgiveness;
- advance democracy, human
rights, and religious liberty;
- foster just and sustainable
economic development;
- strengthen the United Nations
and International Efforts for Cooperation and Human Rights;
- reduce offensive weapons and
weapons trade; and
- encourage grassroots
peacemaking groups and voluntary associations.
The following
morning, we reconvened and prepared a list of points of consensus on peace,
justice and forgiveness. We were able to express our agreement in five points
which we made public in a news release after the meeting:
- We, Catholics and Muslims, believe that God is the source
of peace and justice, and thus we fundamentally agree on the nature of
peace and justice and the essential need of all to work for peace and
justice.
- Our rich teachings and traditions of peace and justice
serve as a resource and inspiration for all; however, our immediate and
present actions to work together are often wanting. The need to work
together for peace and justice is a pressing demand in these troubled
times.
- We believe that it is God who forgives and that as
Catholics and Muslims we are called by God to offer forgiveness.
Forgiveness is an important step to moving beyond our past history if we
are to preserve human dignity, to effect justice, and to work for peace.
- We may disagree on certain points of doctrine, even as we
respect the others’ rights to a fundamental integrity of their teachings
and affirm all their human and religious rights. With love and in the
pursuit of truth, we will offer our criticisms of one another when we
believe there is a violation of integrity of faith in God. We must avoid
demonizing one another and misrepresenting the one another’s teachings and
traditions.
- When we meet in dialogue and discuss matters of peace,
justice, and forgiveness, while being faithful to our traditions, we have
experienced a profound and moving connection on the deepest level of our
faith, which must take effect in our lives.
Members of the West Coast Dialogue of Catholics and
Muslims have prepared this report in the firm hope that others will read it and
emulate what we have accomplished. We make it available for Christians and
Muslims to discuss our points of consensus. They may agree or disagree on
various points, but more significant to us in these times is for Christians and
Muslims to take this discussion of spirituality deeper than we have plumbed and
to build consensus further than we have reached. We pray too that others will
find joy, affirmation and growth which we have experienced in our dialogues
when we shared a little of our spiritual riches, prayed for one another and for
the world each in and our own and in one another’s presence, became friends,
co-workers and companions on the journey to God, and took time to articulate a consensus
and to understand better our differences.
December 23, 2003
The West Coast Dialogue of
Catholics and Muslims, after a planning meeting in May 1999, began meeting in February
2000, at the beginning of the new millennium and the celebration of the great
jubilee year for Christians. The dialogue met another three times in February
2001, 2002, and 2003. Those who attended 2003 meeting discussed the possibility
of a preparation of a report on the agreed upon four meetings. On December 17, 2003, Dr. Siddiqi, Bishop Sevilla, Dr. Abdullah, Professor O’Connor, Ms.
Sherrel Johnson, and Dr. Borelli met and prepared this report.
Those who have participated as
members of this dialogue, whether for one meeting or all four, are listed
below.
Dr. Aslam Abdullah,
The Minaret, Los Angeles, CA
Dr. Karim T. Abdullah, Seattle, WA
Imam Abuqadir Al-Amin, San Francisco Muslim Community, San
Francisco, CA
Mr. Salam al-Marayati, Muslim Public Affairs Council, Los
Angeles, CA
Imam Moustafa Al-Qazwini, Islamic Education Center of Orange
County, CA
Imam Tahir Anwar, South Bay
Islamic Association, San Jose, CA
Dr. John Borelli, USCCB, Washington, DC
Archbishop Alexander J. Brunett, Archdiocese of Seattle, WA
Imam Sabir El-Amin, Bilal Islamic Center, Los Angeles, CA
Ms. Mary V. Cass, Focolare Community, Los Angeles, CA
Sr. Joyce Cox, BVM, Archdiocese
of Seattle, WA
Mr. Kalim Farooki, Corona, CA
Mr. Iftekhar A. Hai, United
Muslims of America, South San Francisco, CA
Ms. Sherrel A. Johnson, Council
on American-Islamic Relations, Anaheim, CA
Fr. John J. Keane, SA, Diocese of
Sacramento, CA
Mrs. Saida Khan, Costa Mesa, CA
Msgr. James C. Kidder, Diocese of Sacramento, CA
Dr. Kimquy Kieu, Seattle, WA
Brian Linard, Focolare Community, Los Angeles, CA
Fr. Rafael Luévano, Diocese of Orange, CA
Fr. Elias Mallon, SA, Franciscan Friars of the Atonement, New
York, NY
Msgr. Dennis L. Mikulanis, Diocese of San Diego, CA
Dr. June O’Connor, University of California—Riverside, CA
Fr. Bruce Orsborn, Diocese of San Diego, CA
Imam Enrique Rasheed, Elk Grove, CA
Fr. Gerry O’Rourke, Archdiocese of San Francisco, CA
The Rev. Jose A. Rubio, Diocese of San Jose, CA
Imam Saadiq Saafir, Pasadena, CA
Dr. Ahmad H. Sakr, Walnut, CA
Jerrel Abdul Salam, Paramount, CA
Ms. Fatima Saleh, West Covina, CA
Dr. Joseph Sanchez-Núñez, Ladera Ranch, CA
Bishop Carlos A. Sevilla, S.J.,
Diocese of Yakima, WA
Mr. Naim Shah, Los Angeles, CA
Dr. Abdussattar U. Shaikh,
Al-Waha Foundation, San Diego, CA
Dr. Muzammil H. Siddiqi, Islamic Society of Orange County, CA
Fr. Alexei Smith, Archdiocese of Los Angeles, CA
[1]The
Christian participants in this dialogue were Catholics; the Muslim participants
were both Sunnis and Shi’is. They generally spoke to one another as Christians
and Muslims, but sometimes the Catholics would identify an interpretation,
teaching or practice more precisely as Catholic.
[2]
This is the general prayer Muslims make when they mention or listen to the name
of a Prophet of God, and it is their way of showing respect for these noble
souls. Likewise, there is a similar prayer especially for the Prophet Muhammad.
Writing in English, some Muslims place (pbuh) after the name of the Prophet,
and they request the readers to make this general prayer in their heart
whenever the name of any prophet of God is mentioned. This formula will not be
repeated in this text.
[3]
The three regional dialogues are: the Midwest Dialogue of Catholics and
Muslims, meeting since 1996 and co-sponsored by Islamic Society of North
America and the USCCB; the Mid-Atlantic Dialogue of Catholics and Muslims,
meeting since 1998 and co-sponsored by Islamic Circle of North America and the
USCCB; and the West Coast Dialogue of Catholics and Muslims described in this
report.
[4]
The Midwest Dialogue of Catholics and Muslims has met annually from 1996 to
2003 in Indianapolis. In December 2003, members of that dialogue completed a
lengthy resource as a result of their proceedings:
Revelation: Christian and
Muslim Perspectives.
[5]
All three regional dialogues
meet as retreats, with time set aside for prayer and sessions focusing on
religious topics.
[6]
So that wider notice would be taken of the dialogue in the Muslim community, it
was decided to ask Imam Al-Qazwini, a Shi’ite, to serve as a Muslim co-chair
with Dr. Siddiqi.
[7] “What
Dialogue Means for Catholics and Muslims,” by Archbishop Alexander Brunett, and
“How an Islamic Leader Views Dialogue, by Muzammil Siddiqi,
Origins.
Catholic News Service Documentary Service, 30/41 (March 29, 2001): 660-663.
[8]
At this same time, Pope John Paul II also announced that he would invite
religious leaders again to Assisi on January 24, 2002, for prayers for peace.