A Christian response to “A Common Word between Us and You.”

A Christian response to “A Common Word between Us and You.”[1]

“In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen”

It is important to recognise the purpose of this letter from Muslim scholars to the Leaders of theChristianChurches at the outset and to keep it in mind as we read the text.  It is an appeal for the recognition that in our sacred Scriptures we share a basis for conflict resolution and working for the peace of the world on profoundly ethical common ground.

This is not an attempt to find bridges for mutual understanding and general agreement on all doctrinal and theological issues.  Those Christian academics who have studied Islam recognise the ‘otherness’ of the Muslim assessment of the role of Muhammad as Prophet

and the ‘otherness’ of their assessment of the role of Jesus/ Issa.  There are also Muslim scholars who are aware of the Christian understanding of the roles of each of them.

In the past there have been certain statements in the Qur’an, which taken alone and out of context, seemed to create animpasse to serious consideration of the texts of the Torah and the Gospels by Muslims.  The doctrine of the ‘corruption of the Scriptures’(tahrif) resulted in a notional concept ofTawrah (Torah) and Ingil (Gospel) which bears only the vaguest relation to the Scriptures as they are read in the Jewish and Christian communities of Faith.  Christian and Muslim academics have investigated the charge and argue that there are texts within the Qur’an which not only justify but encourage dialogue and urge us to read and study the actual texts of the Abrahamic faiths together in a search for the basis of peaceful coexistence and mutual enrichment in the multicultural societies of the ‘global –village’ our world is becoming.[2]  It is vital because the idea of a war based on separate Christian and Muslim identities in a nuclear age is horrifying, while the threat to the environment of global-warming is another immediate danger which we can only tackle together.

The remarkable quality of this ‘open-letter’ is that it expresses the views of 138 Muslim scholars meeting together, (from the many, diverse cultures in which Islam is embedded), in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, to discuss issues of World Peace and the well-being of Humanity. In it they appeal to the authority ofthe actual texts of Jews and Christians, recognising them as revelation of the word of God/Allah, as they are read in the faith communities. They compare them with passages in the Qur’ran which support a similar ethical teaching about love of God and love of one’s neighbour.

We recognise the theological difference between the understanding of the unity of God for Trinitarian monotheists and that of Islamictawhid but it is not necessary to have total agreement on all issues before starting.  On the contrary, it includes respect for and acknowledgement of difference.  It requires patience in listening and sensitivity in expression, trying to understand the other sympathetically in order to reach the point of penitence for past abuses and a basis for reconciliation.  It is a process that advances by little, courageous steps; through tentative, polite recognition, to friendship, to social meeting, to working together practically in the community for the common good, to exploring each other’s faiths and reading each other’s Scriptures together, listening to explanations sensitively but not being ‘imprisoned’ by them.  Being confronted by difference can be a means of enriching our own faith and growing in spiritual maturity.   

In his response toA Common Word…Archbishop Rowan ‘Welcomed the letter as a clear reaffirmation of the potential for further development of existing dialogue and common action between Christians and Muslims and other faiths.’[3] In the light of this, the Oxford Diocesan Committee for Inter-faith Concerns encourages Christians to discuss the letter with their Muslims neighbours as a means for greater understanding. In particular it may help to explore in greater detail the concept of love for our neighbour, especially where our neighbour is of a different faith. Is love just a matter of response or does it imply an active approach to our neighbour? What does this entail? To what extent do we share a common ethical basis and to what extent do we differ? For example, how do we see our relationship to secular society?

It may also help to explore through dialogue our understanding of the nature of God’s revelation. How do we understand each other’s scriptures? How do we see the person of Jesus Christ? How do we see the role of the Prophet Muhammad? In studying our different scriptures together, we have an opportunity not only of understanding Islam better, we also have a chance of telling our Muslim neighbours about out own faith in Jesus Christ. Such an approach would be clearly in line with ODCIC’s vision of ‘firm friendship and faithful witness.’

Philip Ind and Hugh Boulter, February 2008