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Peace, at the Core of Biblic and Coranic Revelation

Published on 2007-12-27 17:35:15

Sacred texts have, for all times, been subject to interpretations. Some have lead and lead still to murder, to violence and intolerance.

Thanks to Tania del Atrio, theologist in Intercultural and Interscriptural dialogue, we have sought to know really how the Bible and the Qurán share the notion of Peace.

We have thus re-discovered the similitude in both books around this theme, the prophets' words to respect, to accomplish as well as the directives of these different traditions.

 

If peacemakers were to make an inventory of peace initiatives amidst different cultures, it would have to embrace all the knowledge of universal scriptural and oral culture, the bases of our religions.

At the heights of ideals of justice, brotherhood, human and planetary solidarity, Peace, a human universal aspiration, is in fact the corner stone for the constructors of any future. This is why peace incentives are intrinsic to most sacred texts and oral traditions.

Thus, mankind has received in diverse locations, tongues and cultures, the Only and Plural Word inexhaustible along centuries, in cycles and successive generations: For each period is an appointment, underlines the Qurán, which defines itself as Wisdom in Arab (S.13, 37-38); therefore, heritage in diversity by God's will, of criteria of guidance, paths and spiritual laws defining life's codes, monitoring each human community. To each among you have we prescribed a Law and Open an Way, says the Koran. If Allah had so willed, He would have made you a single people, but (His plan is) to test you in what He hath given you: so strive as in a race in all virtues. The goal of you all is to Allah; it is He that will show you the truth of the matters in which ye dispute (S 5, 48 ; 11, 118 ; 16, 93-94 ; 42, 8).

It was We who revealed the Torah (to Moses): therein was guidance and light. And before this, was the Book of Moses as a guide and a mercy: and this Book confirms (it) in the Arabic language; to admonish the unjust, and as Glad Tidings to those who do right.
(cf. S 5, 44, 46, 48 ; 46, 12)

Divine light from which the scriptures emanate is the source of their unity and gives their distinction, with plural guidance and criteria. Divine light is a gift of God to humans to walk the path, in free adherence, on the roads of peace.
Reunited as a corpus – however often too narrow and reduced by men to dogmatic fences, these writings and many others constitute the sum of human kinds' sacred texts and spiritual heritage of Memory, the one of man in God.

Roads to peace, an ethic convergence

Man was placed by God as “Caliph on earth”, as the beautiful koranic saying (S2, 30), to cultivate, increase and preserve all seeds of life, in ordaining on earth the divine, and Peace. At the base of biblical and koranic alliances, peace is of all, the fruit of the observance of the Torah and the prophets, of the Evangel and the Qurán. And so the Qurán calls: O People of the Book! ye have no ground to stand upon unless ye stand fast by the Torah, the Gospel, and all the revelation that has come to you from your Lord. (S 5, 68), meaning the Koran. This verse, as an ultimate testament, is one of the last Surahs that the prophet Muhammad professed during the Hijrah, the Farewell Pilgrimage, a few months before his death.

These words touch us all, Jew, Christians and Moslems when confronted to the heart of being and reality, touch our missing links and our frauds with a secret idol that we carry, that paralyses us, contaminates us and sets barriers between us and the divine: to climb the path ascending towards the One who invites all men, woman of good will to follow « the Way of Peace »… the only path of life.

Wherewith Allah guideth all who seek His good pleasure to ways of peace and safety, and leadeth them out of darkness, by His will, unto the light, - guideth them to a Path that is straight.(S 5, 16)

It is the only occurrence in the Qurán with the saying « a Way that is straight » where the word 'Peace' appears more than fifty times. But we could not stress more on the fact that what is essential in Muhammad's predication is that he calls not only to the purification of ones' being, but also to letting go of false idols, illusory and mortifying, and essentially calls upon the peace of Allah, Source and End of all beings, of all life. ''Islam'' derives from, as the word Salâm of the three letter root ' slm', found in all Semitic languages, and is Peace.
At the end of any war, is not man's real quest the one of pacification, of this path of peace, for all men, from all nations, tongues, cultures and religions, the unique and universal path to ethnic convergence towards the « Home of Peace » dâru-s-salâm (koranic expression to design Paradise, the celestial garden where no other is heard, Only the saying, "Peace! Peace". (S 56, 26).

Yes our terrestrial liturgics lay on an single base, Shalom, word that appears again and again 235 times in the Bible and 96 times in the New Testament. The reality of Peace constitutes the main axis of Hebraic biblical thought, entirely so, tending towards an indefectible hope, which is enclosed in the magical benediction by the sons of Israel, passed on over the ages:


The LORD make His face shine on you,
And be gracious to you; The LORD lift up His countenance on you,
And give you peace.' Nb 6, 24-26)


A universal pact

Biblical literature of Wisdom and Hebraic teachings (Sira, Psalms, Talmud) consider peace as good by excellence and the prophets place them at the core of their message to the point that it is the central theme of messianic hope (Is 57, 19 ; 66, 12 ; Jr 33, 6 ; Ez 37, 26). The Messiah, called the Prince of Peace (Is 9, 6), will have peace triumph by justice and will restore creation in its integrity, bringing infinite peace (Is 9, 6 ; 32, 17, 18 ; Ps 72, 7).

Peace, in messianic times, will be the sign manifesting benediction from the Gods when a new man will emerge, born from universal reconciliation, from the realities of Alliance and promises in the light of the Unique one. Peace will be on a renewed land, along biblical and koranic prophecies, the One day the earth will be changed to a different earth, and so will be the heavens, says the Qurán (S 14, 48).

Words of judgments

The creation of new heavens, of a new land and of a new man announced by the Hebrew prophets coincide to the end of days with the Day of Judgment of nations, appointment assigned by God to men called to come back to Him, on the Day and our that only He knows (S 33, 63).

There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word that I spoke will condemn him at the last day, said Jesus coming to confirm and accomplish the Torah and the prophets, on the land of the sanctuary for IHVH (Jn 12, 48). Because it is always about one word, One and Multiple transmitted to men as a warning and an announcement, consigned to the Scriptures and designated by the Qurán under the generic term « the written ». …the Day that the Hour of Judgment is established,- that Day will the followers of Falsehood perish! And thou wilt see every nation bowing the knee: every nation will be called to its Record: This Day shall ye be recompensed for all that ye did! (S 45, 27, 28). And it is to the Qurán to evoke – terms unable to be translated- the hour of the universal appointment: when the Time will be sent to the prophets (S 4, 41), they will all emerge, Word in hand, facing their mother lands and respective communities, and in their turn called by the mirror of their reality. On the Day We shall raise from all Peoples a witness against them, from amongst themselves: and We shall bring thee as a witness against these (thy people): and We have sent down to thee the Book explaining all things, a Guide, a Mercy, and Glad Tidings to Muslims. (S 4, 41 ; 16, 89).

Moses will testify against his people, Muhammad will be a witness against the Ummah; Jesus which is attested in the Qurán as being above all prophets, will denounce not only what is missing in mother Christian born from his word, but mostly the people in the Book- Christians, Jew, Moslems- amongst those who have split into confessional rivalry and in bloody conflicts in the name of their respective Scriptures, transmuting the Word of peace and life into a weapon of war and death, betraying thus his message of unity and Love.

The Qurán itself notices that few people amongst the depositaries of the Revelation have been faithful to the sources of the Scriptures and to the essence of Abraham's message. Fratricide struggles in the name of Allah, refusing difference, or religious rivalry of egotistical and hegemonic essence, are rigorously proscribed by the Qurán: it promises for the ones who divide to be vanquished by their divisions and irremissibly qualify as crime murder in the name of Allah. They were ordained only to serve Allah, to be fervent to elevate their prayer and to give to the alms (S. 98, 5).

Nor did the People of the Book dissent therefrom except through envy of each other, after knowledge had come to them. (S. 3, 19).

If thy Lord had so willed, He could have made mankind one People: but they will not cease to differ. (S. 11, 118)

Those who disbelieve, among the People of the Book and among the Polytheists, were not going to depart (from their ways) until there should come to them Clear Evidence, - (…) Wherein are books right and straight. (S. 98, 1-3)

And they have been commanded no more than this: to worship Allah, offering Him sincere devotion, being true (in faith); to establish regular prayer; (…) that is the Religion Right and Straight. (S. 98, 5)

But (later generations) cut off their affair (of unity), one from another: (yet) will they all return to Us. (S. 21,93)

In a famous hadith (sentence), the prophet Muhammad himself confronted at the end of his days to movements of sedition, schism and fratricidal fights between Moslems looking for the emergence of false prophets, menacing the -Islamic- Ummah of a political and religious civil war. (He had to fight this, while around him were grave discords and struggles between his close ones for the power of his legacy), as so predicts the division of Islam '' 73 sect where only one will go to Paradise''. Before dying, the tradition goes to his last prophetic words to his followers in the mosque: “O people of the scripture! Come to a word common to you and us. By Allah, I associate nothing in worship with Him. I have allowed none and prohibited none other than the Qur'an.”
This refers amongst others, to the divisions between Jews and Christians and the Men of the Book, in the name of their respective scriptures, spoiled by the blood of their discords.

A new Alliance, the Alliance of Alliances

A reminder to the uncompromising accent of the Qurán after the book of Moses and the Evangel given to Jesus to confirm the Torah, And before this, was the Book of Moses as a guide and a mercy: and this Book confirms (it) in the Arabic tongue; to admonish the unjust, and as Glad Tidings to those who do right. (cf. S 46, 12) underlines the original existence of this Alliance.

"I am not an innovation among the messengers, reminds Muhammad, I follow but that which is revealed to me by inspiration; I am but a Warner open and clear." (S. 46, 9). Word long echoed of the Evangel: "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill " - Jesus already said in affirming- "For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.." (Mt 5, 17-19). In order for the foundations of peace to be consolidated, all justice and peace: do no create idols.

Unique in its' essence and in its' source, the message of the prophets announcing a kingdom of peace and justice where Jews, Christians and Moslems had the task to conduct in unity an alliance founding thus the triptych of Revelation, was shattered against the harsh conflicting realities of ''Abraham's'' wisdom. We well notice that the salvation promised by our Scriptures is evidently compromised, if not neutralized by our divisions; and it is on the edge of the abyss where is gathered three millenniums of unfaithfulness to the Promise, that we await the Word for judgment. Imprisoned in the ghettos of our dogmatic enclosure, the Verb Peace awaits its deliverance from our own focus to all breaths and creators of life. It is urgent to open the liturgics of the big chief, initiated by Jean Paul II, to humanity in its' single, multi-cultural and spiritual identities, ignored or disdained reciprocally. It is solely against death, possible today in a planetary suicide, that the Word in the Scriptures of this triptych is elevated, open to all alliances with the creative forces of life, if the call heard by the sons of Abraham is to be Awaken and Rise. Let us give space to the koranic utopia of a new people: O ye who believe! if any from among you turn back from his Faith, soon will Allah produce a people whom He will love as they will love Him,- lowly with the believers, mighty against the rejecters, (S 5, 54). A plural people founded on recognition of others and unity of Love, incarnated in justice and peace. Such is the Will of the One that awaits only its synchronicity with the awakening of the sons of Abraham, invited to a new Pact of reconciliation and alliance facing the forces of death.
The mutual rediscovery of our roots, around sources of our revisited Scriptures should enable us to put forth their dynamics of dialogue, carriers of hope, the one of the coming of a new man that will mark an end to a changed world, and the beginning of a new era, open to all breaths of spirit itself renewed by the power of the Verb.

Tania del Atrio
Excerpts of a conference (13 May 2003) at l’Institut Catholique de Paris, during the Programme "Peace -Makers" 

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