by Samir Khalil Samir, S.J
There are so many
positive things in Evangelii gaudium, its urging Christians
and Muslims towards a relationship in love and truth, to work for peace, to
enrich each other, to welcome immigrants … But there are also some points
that provoke criticism: is the “compassionate and merciful” God of
the Muslims really the same as the Trinity? And are the Jesus and Mary in the
Koran the same as the Gospels? And is Christian fundamentalism the same as
Muslim fundamentalism? What is really urgent – as suggested by Francis – is
“a proper reading of the Koran,” which Muslims resist.
Beirut (
AsiaNews) – The Apostolic Exhortation “Evangelii gaudium” is often
presented as Pope Francis’ pastoral program, delivered a few months into his
pontificate. It reveals the open, friendly, positive and joyful soul of this
Pope in his attempt to spread the Christian message in today’s world.
Given my
experience, of constant contact with the Middle Eastern world, I was very
impressed by the section on inter-religious dialogue (nos. 250-254 ). But on
re-reading and analyzing these passages a few times, especially the part
devoted to Islam (nos . 252-253 ), I would like to highlight some important and
interesting points, while at the same time approach some more critical and
problematic aspects of the relationship with Islam.
In his Evangelii gaudium,
the Pope is very positive which is really beneficial in our globalized society.
- EXEGENCIES OF A GENUINE DIALOGUE
1 . Truth and
Love (No. 250)
The first
thing to be detected in n. 250 is what is being said about “an attitude of openness in
truth and in love ” that should characterize relations with
other religions . This is important for our global society in which we are in
frequent contact with members of different religions.
The Pope
underlines that the correct path for encounter and dialogue requires both
“love and truth”: there is no truth in the hardening of positions,
there is no love in ambiguous and vague communication. This is the correct,
balanced attitude, that is often lacking today.
2 .
Dialogue and Proclamation (No. 251 )
The same
theme is found in n. 251: “In this dialogue, ever friendly and sincere,
attention must always be paid to the essential bond between dialogue and
proclamation”.
Sometimes, in dialogue, when it comes to proclamation, it appears to
displeasure our partners, who immediately accuse us of proselytizing . Instead,
it has nothing to do with proselytism. It is about love: out of love , I will
proclaim the good news that frees me and gives me joy. And you too should offer
me the good that you have encountered in your faith. We must rid ourselves of
diatribes, of intellectual arguments and practices aimed at winning the other
over, rather witness to truth with one another.
Moreover,
the word “proclamation”, “good news”, is present in the
Bible, but also in the Koran. The word “good news” “euanghelos” in
the Bible, is found in Isaiah , Mark , Luke, etc … In the Koran we find the
verb “ bashshara
” = bring the good news (bishāra)
and its derivatives. It is often said that Muhammad was sent “bringing the
good news ” (mubashshiran)
. And it is Christ who, according to the Koran ( 61:6 ), says to the Israelites
: “I came to bring the good news (mubashshiran)
of a prophet who will come after me , whose name shall be Ahmad .” Muslims
interpret this “Ahmad ” as equivalent to Muhammad.
Now, the
action of bringing the good news is tabshīr
in Arabic, and it is the typical function of the Prophets. Muslims today use
this word to criticize Christians, accused of carrying out “tabshīr” in
the sense of proselytizing, thus distorting the meaning of the Koranic Arabic.
This verse 61:6 is always quoted by Muslims to confirm that Jesus himself
announced the coming of Muhammad. Proselytism should be criticized, because in
this way I try to win over the other person with tricks. But proclamation is
the proposal of the beautiful thing that freed me, and you, in your turn,
should proclaim your truth to me.
We are, each of us, convinced that we have “good news”
for humanity, which coincides with our faith. The Muslim, and the Muslim
community , has the obligation to propagate Islam by Da’wa, which means
“the call” to become a Muslim, so that every Muslim state has a
ministry of Da’wa.
Likewise, the Christian and the Christian community have an obligation to
proclaim the faith, to invite others to discover the gospel (the Good News)!
Understood correctly, it is an act of love of the other. This is why the Pope
invites us to proclaim the Gospel together with dialogue, in a gesture of love
and truth.
Instead, syncretism respects neither love nor truth. Thus in the following
sentence, boldly condemning syncretism, the Pope says: “A facile syncretism would
ultimately be a totalitarian gesture”.
3 . Welcoming immigrants Muslim (no. 253)
Even at
the end, no. 253, the pope has the courage to say : “We Christians should embrace
with affection and respect Muslim immigrants to our countries”.
Here the Pope presents the consequence of his statements on “truth and
love”: we must welcome migrants and not close our borders to them as is
often the case in the West.
He himself
gave a concrete example of this attitude by going personally to Lampedusa, July
8, 2013, and delievering a speech that begins with the following words:
“Immigrants dying at sea, in boats which were vehicles of
hope and became vehicles of death. That is how the headlines put it. When I
first heard of this tragedy a few weeks ago, and realized that it happens all
too frequently, it has constantly come back to me like a painful thorn in my
heart. So I felt that I had to come here today, to pray and to offer a sign of
my closeness, but also to challenge our consciences lest this tragedy be
repeated. Please, let it not be repeated!”.[1]
4 .
The Muslim countries should welcome Christians (No. 253)
At the
same time in no. 253, the pope adds:
“I
ask and I humbly entreat those countries [ and here we consider Saudi Arabia ,
Iran, Afghanistan , …] to grant Christians freedom to worship and to practice
their faith, in light of the freedom which followers of Islam enjoy in Western
countries! “.
Here Pope
Francis has the courage to tell the richest countries in the world, Saudi
Arabia and some countries of the Arabian Gulf, to guarantee freedom of worship.
It must be said that he does not address freedom of conscience, or the freedom
to convert from one religion to another . But freedom of worship is important
in and of itself, given that two million Christians who live and work on the
Arabian Peninsula do not even have the right to have their own chapel!
It seems
to me that freedom of conscience is guaranteed in all the countries of the
West. Sooner or later we have to ask for freedom of conscience even in Muslim
nations: this is the condition for a true coexistence, respectful of the
individual, in truth and love.
B.
THE PURPOSE OF THE DIALOGUE
1 .
At the Service of Peace (No. 250)
The
purpose of dialogue is to ensure peace in the world: “Interreligious dialogue is a
necessary condition for peace in the world, and so it is a duty for Christians as
well as other religious communities” (No. 250) .
And a little further on the Pope adds: “We
can then join one another in taking up the duty of serving justice and peace,
which should become a basic principle of all our exchanges” (
No. 250) . Service is therefore a duty, and particularly the service of justice
and peace. And it is a duty for Christians and believers.
In my
opinion, the word “together” is very important: dialogue is not just
“I talk and you listen” and then “you talk and I listen”,
but the fact is that “together” we put ourselves at the service of
justice and of peace. This is the very practical and pastoral vision of the
current Pope.
Finally,
the coupling of the words “justice” and “peace” is
noteworthy, “We can
then join one another in taking up the duty of serving justice and peace, which
should become a basic principle of all our exchanges“.
You can
not ‘ achieve peace without justice. As long as someone senses an injustice,
there will not be peace. I think of the conflict between Palestinians and
Israelis. The former believe the fact that a large part of their land, where
they live and lived for centuries, has been taken from them, without fault on
their part, to be given to others who came from afar as an injustice. As long
as this injustice is not recognized and repaired, there will be no peace!
2 .
Accepting each other with our differences (n. 250, 252 and 253)
A
practical consequence of this dialogue is respect for the difference of others,
listening to others, having a friendly attitude towards others.
In No. 250
, he says : “In
this way we learn to accept others and their different ways of living, thinking
and speaking”. This acceptance of the other as different from me, is
crucial. It is “in which, by mutual listening, both parts can be purified
and enriched“.
Listening
and dialogue should not be used to attack the other, to humiliate, rather as a
possible function of purification and enrichment for me. Difference is seen
from a positive angle.
This theme
is taken up several times. For example, speaking of Muslims, he says some very
positive things : “it
is admirable to see how Muslims both young and old, men and women, make time
for daily prayer and faithfully take part in religious services”
(No. 252 ).
As
Christians, we should learn from them to devote time to prayer on a regular
basis. The Pope stresses the positivity of the Islamic witness in front of a
certain laxity of Western Christianity.
He also
praises Muslim religiosity, the dependence on God: “Many of them also have a deep
conviction that their life, in its entirety, is from God and for God”
(No. 252) . This attitude could correct the Western world today, tempted by
Prometheanism.
In No. 253
he recalls a condition for dialogue: to be “solidly and joyfully grounded in their own
identity, but so that they can also acknowledge the values of others,
appreciate the concerns underlying their demands and shed light on shared
beliefs“.
What the
Pope says of Islam is true, and is experienced by many Muslims . For example,
many of them take the value of prayer seriously. But I think that perhaps only
10% of Muslims embraces this fidelity to prayer. A few days ago I met a Muslim
family in Tripoli, Lebanon. This whole family – parents and two children –
respected the times of prayer. It was only out of respect for me that they did
not withdraw to pray. But their phone always rings at the right time to remind
them of the call to prayer.
Religious
sentiment is stronger among Muslims than among Christians. And Bergoglio
emphasizes these positive aspects in Islam to correct omissions and
discrepancies among Christians.
C.
POINTS THAT REQUIRE CLARIFICATION
Let us now turn to the points that require clarification. In No. 252, the Pope
cites the famous Second Vatican Council text, Nostra Aetate, in stating that
Muslims, “profess
to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful
God, who will judge humanity on the last day[2] » .[198]
1 .
Muslims “together with us adore the One, merciful God” (No. 252)
I would
advise caution here. It is true Muslims worship one and merciful God. However,
this sentence suggests that the two conceptions of God are equal. Yet in
Christianity God is the Trinity in its essence, plurality united by love: He is
a bit more than just clemency and mercy. We have two quite different
conceptions of the Divine One. Muslims characterize God as inaccessible. The
Christian vision of the Oneness of the Trinity emphasizes that God is Love
which is communicated: Father-Son- Spirit , or Lover – Beloved – Love, as St.
Augustine suggested.
Moreover,
what does the mercy of the God of Islam mean? He has mercy for whom he wants
and not on those whom displease him. “Allah might admit to His mercy whom
He willed” (Koran 48:25). These expressions are, almost literally, in the
Old Testament (Exodus 33:19). But never arrive at saying that “God is
love” (1 John 4:16), like St John.
Mercy in
the case of Islam is that of the rich man who stoops over the poor and gives
him something. But the Christian God is the one who lowers Himself to the level
of the poor man in order to raise him up; He does not show his wealth to be
respected (or feared) by the poor : he gives Himself in order the poor should
live.
2 .
They “have retained some Christian teachings” (No. 252)
Another
sensitive point in the document is the assertion that “the sacred writings of Islam
have retained some Christian teachings” (n. 252).
This is
true in a sense, but it is somewhat ambiguous. It is true that Muslims retain
words or facts from the canonical gospels, such as the story of the
Annunciation which is found almost literally in chapters 3 (The Family of Imrān) and 19 (
Mariam ) .
But more
frequently the Koran is inspired by the pious tales of the apocryphal Gospels,
and do not draw from them the theological sense they contain, and do not give
these facts or words the meaning that they actually have, not out of malice,
but because they do not contain the overall vision of the Christian message .
3 .
The figure of Christ in the Gospel and the Koran (No. 252)
The Koran
refers to “Jesus and Mary [who] are the object of profound
veneration”. To tell the truth, Jesus is not an object of veneration in
the Muslim tradition. Instead, Mary is venerated, especially by Muslim women,
who willingly go to the places of pilgrimage.
The lack
of veneration for Jesus Christ is probably explained by the fact that, in the
Koran, Jesus is a great prophet, famous for his miracles on behalf of a poor and
sick humanity, but he is not the equal of Muhammad. Only mystics have a certain
devotion to him, as the sol-called “Spirit of God”.
In fact,
all that is said of Jesus in the Koran is the exact opposite of Christian
teachings. He is not the Son of God, but a prophet and that’s it . He is not
even the last of the prophets, because instead the “seal of the prophets
” is Muhammad (Koran 33:40 ). Christian revelation is only seen as a step
towards the ultimate revelation brought by Muhammad, ie Islam .
4 .
The Quran is opposed to all the fundamental Christian dogmas
All the
Christian dogmas are rejected by the Koran and Islam.
The figure
of Christ as the second person of the Trinity is condemned. In the Koran it
says explicitly to Christians: ” O People of the Scripture! Do not
exaggerate in your religion nor utter aught concerning Allah save the truth.
The Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, was only a messenger of Allah, and His word
which He conveyed unto Mary, and a spirit from Him. So believe in Allah and His
messengers, and say not “Three” – Cease! (it is) better for you! –
Allah is only One God. Far is it removed from His Transcendent Majesty that
“(Koran 4:171 ). These verses against the Trinity are very clear and
need no interpretation.
The Koran
denies the divinity of Christ: “O Jesus, Son of Mary, did you say to the
people, ‘Take me and my mother as deities besides Allah?'”(Koran 5:116 ).
And Jesus denies it!
Finally,
the Koran negates Redemption. It even says that Jesus Christ did not die on the
Cross , but it was a look-alike: ” And they did not kill him, nor did they
crucify him; but [another] was made to resemble him to them” (Koran 4:157
) . In this way God saved Jesus from the wickedness of the Jews. But then
Christ did not save the world!
In short,
the Koran and Muslims deny the essential dogmas of Christianity : the Trinity,
the Incarnation and Redemption. It should be added that this is their most
absolute right ! But you can not then say that “The sacred writings of Islam
retain part of Christian teachings“. You simply must speak of
the “Jesus of the Koran” which has nothing to do with the Jesus of
the Gospels[3].
The Koran
mentions Jesus because it aims to complete the revelation of Christ to exalt
Muhammad. Besides, seeing what Jesus and Mary do in the Koran, we notice that
it is no more than apply the prayers and fasting according to the Koran. Mary
is certainly the most beautiful figure among all those presented in the Koran:
she is the Virgin Mother, whom no man has ever touched . But she can not be the
Theotokos; instead she is a good Muslim[4] .
D.
MORE DELICATE POINTS
1 .
Ethics in Islam and IN Christianity (252)The
last sentence of this point states with regard to Muslims : “They also
acknowledge the need to respond to God with an ethical commitment and with
mercy towards those most in need”. This is true and compassion toward the
poor is a requirement of Islam.
There is,
in my opinion however, a double difference between the Muslim and Christian
ethics .
The first
is that the Muslim ethic is not always universal. It is often a question of
solidarity within the Islamic community, while according to Christian
tradition, solidarity is universal. We note , for example, when natural
disaster strikes a given region of the world, countries of Christian tradition
help regardless of the religious convictions of those who are in need of help,
while rich Muslim countries (those of the Arabian Peninsula , for example) do
not.
The second
is that Islam links ethics to legality. Those who do not fast during the month
of Ramadan are guilty of having committed a crime and go to jail (in many
countries). If you observe the fast, from dawn to dusk, you are perfect, even
if you eat from sunset until dawn the next day, more and better than usual,
” the best things to eat and plenty of it ” , as some Egyptian Muslim
friends told me. The Ramandan fast seems to loose all meaning if it becomes the
period in which Muslims eat more , and eat the most delicious things. The next
day, given that no-one has sept because they were up all night eating, no-one
works. However, from the formal point of view , all have fasted for several
hours. It is a legalistic ethics : if you do this, you are right. It is an
exterior ethics.
Instead
Christian fasting is something that aims to bring us closer to Christ’s
sacrifice, in solidarity with the poor and does not allow for a period during
the day or night when we can make up for the food we have not eaten.
As long as
believers observe Islamic law , everything is in order. The believer never
seeks to go beyond the law. Justice is required by law, but it is not exceeded.
This is also why there is no obligation to forgive in the Koran , whereas, in
the Gospel, Jesus asks us to forgive an infinite number of times (seventy times
seven ; cf. Mt 18 , 21-22) . In the Koran mercy never reaches the point of
being love.
The same
goes for polygamy: you can have up to four wives. If I want to have a fifth
wife, then all I have to do is repudiate one of those that I have already,
maybe the oldest , and take a younger bride . And thus because I only ever have
four wives at any one given time, everything is perfectly legal.
There is
also the opposite effect, for example for homosexuality. All religions
consider it a sin. But for Muslims, it is also a crime that should be punished
with death. In Christianity it is a sin but not a crime. The reason is obvious:
Islam is a religion, culture, social and political system, it is an integral
reality . And it clearly states as much in the Koran. The Gospel instead
clearly distinguishes the spiritual and ethical dimension of socio- cultural
and political life.
The same
applies to purity, as Christ clearly explains to the Pharisees : “What
goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their
mouth, that is what defiles them” (Mt 15 , 11) .
2 .
“The fundamentalists on both sides” (no. 250 and 253)
Finally,
there are two points that I would like to criticize: the first is where the
Pope groups together all fundamentalisms . In No. 250 he says : “An attitude of openness in
truth and in love must characterize the dialogue with the followers of
non-Christian religions, in spite of various obstacles and difficulties,
especially forms of fundamentalism on both sides“.
The other
is the conclusion of the section on relations with Islam that ends with this
sentence : “Faced
with disconcerting episodes of violent fundamentalism, our respect for true
followers of Islam should lead us to avoid hateful generalisations, for
authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form
of violence”(n. 253) .
Personally,
I would not put the two fundamentalisms on the same level : Christian
fundamentalists do not carry weapons; Islamic fundamentalism is criticized,
first of all by Muslims themselves precisely because this armed fundamentalism
seeks to replicate the Mohammedan model . In his life , Muhammad waged more
than 60 wars[5], and now if
Muhammad is the super model (as the Koran claims 33:21 ) , it is not surprising
that some Muslims also use their violence in imitation of the founder of Islam.
3 .
Violence in the Koran and the life of Muhammad (No. 253)
Finally,
the Pope mentions the violence in Islam. In No. 253 he writes : “True
Islam and the proper interpretation of the Koran oppose all violence”.
This
phrase is beautiful and expresses a very benevolent attitude on the Pope’s part
towards Islam. However, in my humble opinion, it expresses more a wish than a
reality. The fact that the majority of Muslims are opposed to violence, may
well be true. But to say that ” the true Islam is against any violence,”
does not seem true: there is violence in the Koran[6]. To say then that
“ for authentic
Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of
violence”” needs a lot of explaning.
It is
enough to cite Chapters 2, 9 of the Koran.
If Islam wants
to remain within this vision still linked to the time of Muhammad, then there
will always be violence. But if Islam – and there are quite a few mystics who
have done it – wants to find a deep spirituality, then violence is not
acceptable .
Islam is
at a crossroads : either religion is a way towards politics and towards a
politically organized society, or religion is an inspiration to live and love
more fully.
Those who
criticize Islam with regard to the violence are not making an unjust and odious
generalization: as evidenced by the present bloody and ongoing issues in the
Muslim world .
Here in
the East we understand very well that Islamic terrorism is religiously
motivated, with quotes, prayers and fatwas from imams who encourage violence .
The fact is that there is no central authority to counter this manipulation in
Islam. This means that every imam is considered a mufti, a national authority,
who can make judgments inspired by the Koran and even give orders to kill.
E.
CONCLUSION: A ” PROPER READING OF THE KORAN”
Finally,
the really important point is “a proper reading ” . In the
Muslim world , the most heated debate – indeed most forbidden – is precisely
about the interpretation of the holy book . Muslims believe that the Koran
descended upon Muhammad, complete, in the form we know . There is the concept
of inspiration of the sacred text, which leaves room for interpretation of the
human element present in the word of God
Let’s take
an example . At the time of Muhammad, with tribes that lived in the desert ,
the punishment for a thief was the cutting off of hands . What purpose did this
serve? To stop the thief from stealing again. So we must ask: how can we
preserve this purpose today, that the thief will no longer steal? Can we use
other methods instead of cutting off the hand ?
Today all
religions have this problem: how to re-interpret the sacred texts, which have
an eternal value, but goes back centuries or even millennia.
When
meeting Muslim friends, I always point out that today we must ask what
“purpose” (maqased),
the indications in the Koran had. The Muslim jurists and theologians say that
you should search for the “purposes of the law of God” (maqāsid al-sharī’a)
. This expression corresponds to what the Gospel calls “the spirit ”
of the text, as opposed to the “letter” . We must seek the intent of
the sacred text of Islam.
Several
Muslim scholars talk about the importance of discovering “the purpose
” of Koranic texts to adjust the Koranic text to the modern world . And
this, it seems to me , is very close to what the Holy Father meant to suggest
when he writes of ” a proper reading of the Koran .”
Samir Khalil Samir is a Jesuit priest of Egyptian descent who now teaches in Beirut
at St. Joseph University and is considered one of the world’s foremost
authorities on Islam. He has been a visiting professor at many universities,
including the University of Cairo, Georgetown University and the University of
Bethlehem (Palestine). He is the founder of CEDRAC, the Center of Arabic
Christian Documentation and Studies. He also directs the publication of the
collection of the Arabic Christian Heritage, and is the president of the
International Association for Christian Arabic Studies. He is the author of
twenty books and about five hundred scholarly articles concerning Islam and
Christianity.
[1] http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/francesco/homilies/2013/documents/papa-francesco_20130708_omelia-lampedusa_en.html
[2] Second Vatican
Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 16.
[3] For further
discussion of this see Samir Khalil SAMIR, “Christian and Muslims or how to live together with
different dogmas,” in: AsiaNews, April 1, 2008.
[4] See Michel DOUSSE,
Mary the Muslim. The importance and significance of the mother of the Messiah
in the Koran (ed. Arkeios, 2008).
[5] See the biography
of the Prophet of Islam, Kitāb
al-Maghāzī written by Al-Wāqidī 748-822), regarded as the oldest
writings on the life of Muhammad. The English translation (History of
Muhammad’s Campaigns) by Marsden Jones and Alfred von Kremer (Calcutta, 1856)
is available on the internet: https://archive.org/details/kitbalmaghz00kremgoog.
[6] Ref: Samir Khalil
SAMIR, Violence et
Non-violence dans le Coran et l’Islam, coll. «Cahiers de l’Orient
Chrétien» 4 (Beyrouth : CEDRAC, 2005), p. 64.
Copyright
© 2003 AsiaNews