Day 22, Muslim Place of Worship.

I was upset with myself this morning. It was our turn to deal with the difficult text scriptures from the Quran. Women issues, Jews and Christians issues, war and violence as well, it was tough, it was rough. It was disastrous to me, and I have only myself to blame. 2:191-196, 4:34-36, 5:51-57 & 9:28-31 were the text given. It was not easy, not at all. Today, I vow to learn and dive deep into the meaning of these verses, not letting such experience ever happens again. insyaAllah.

After so long being absent from consistent formal religious classes, I had lost my tools. It did not come when I needed it. It was obvious that these tools had to be used. But I failed to even realized that once, I have acquired some of these tools if not all. Asbab al-Nuzul, Quran bil Quran, Quran bil Sunnah, Nasikh wa Mansukh, Urf, Muhkamat & Mutasyabihat, ‘Aam & Khaas, all these Tafsir tools, I failed to remember.

However, going for Jum’ah heals it all. Alhamdulillah. New mosque in Berlin, CT. The khatib was great. His reminder on Ramadan was enlightening. We brought all the Christians and Jews as well, to witness this blissful Friday prayers of ours. They appreciated it and were able to connect with their own rituals. Tomorrow it’s our turn to visit synagogues and churches. I hope everything will go smoothly insyaAllah. Amin.

Day 21, Difficult Text

Today, I love them. Everyone was just so sweet. Our bonds are absolutely getting stronger. Over breakfast, lunch, dinner, and throughout the whole class, there were so much interactions, sharing of traditions, histories, politics, cultures, wanting to learn from the other faiths as well from our own traditions.

Controversial religious scriptures and texts from the Hebrew and Christian’s bible were given and we had to somehow discuss its context then and today in small groups. I have learned an abundance of new things. Most of it are surprising and scary, not something that I would ever be able to agree. For example, on Moses command to kill all women and children during a particular battle. That is disturbing.

I raised my concern about my methodology approaching the Quran. We would refer to scholars first instead of we ourselves determine to interpret a verse. As for them, most of them do not do that. They interpret it however they see fit. No guidelines at all. It was definitely not easy for me even if it from their scriptures whom they considered as holy.

Well, that is one major difference between us. They seem fine with that. Oh, I have also learned that almost all of them are ignoring their text. The Jews does not believe in the Hereafter. It is surprising although it mentioned in their holy scripture. May Allah guide them and us all.

Day 20, Islam.

I am disappointed as I did not record today’s wonderful class. The Imam who was presenting Islam to both others was marvelous. He covered on Islam from Adam to Abraham to our Prophet pbuh and to the guided caliphs as well in such a time. I need to learn how to do that, conveying the messages of Islam, with hikmah and wisdom to the others.

In the evening, we have this ‘fishbowl’ session where each faith groups sits on the center and try to answer this question individually within three minutes: “What do I need to experience from the other two faiths in order to trust each other better?” I think that I would not be able to express myself in words. Therefore, I attempted to compose a kind of poem or a rap maybe, trying to make it rhyme. I guess that is one way to get the message across while removing the sense of seriousness of the content:

In the Name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

Here I am in B.A.P. trying to be truthful

To try and answer the question that we are all hopeful

The experience we need in order for us to be trustful

Remember the first evening, with soy sauce, salt and sugar

We were quick to say that at least one is different from the two other

Until we all listen, see, interact and look closer

We find all three similar and different uniquely with one another

The second evening we were group together not to play

But to share spiritual experiences in any way

We started to appreciate the others and that’s the way

Who knows enjoying sound of prayers too, may blown us away

To tap deep reservoir of spiritual power

That is the way to make the world brighter

So let us strive to find the answer

Together you and I, we can be the changer

Trust can be built by attending such courses

Learn to tolerate and put aside differences

Respecting each other, what our tradition teaches

In the end its God, whom we need to pleases.

Wallahualam. And God knows best.

Day 19, Christianity.

There are so much that I have learnt on Judaism and Christianity from this course. Their similarities and differences, their scriptures and its commentaries, the way they think about us and each other, their priorities, diverse orientations and others. Sometimes it may get shocking especially when they question every single thing in their religious text and even God’s authority. Phrases like “God doesn’t always win” surprised me at first, but after recalling the opening chapter of the Quran, it is no wonder they are among those who’have earned God’s anger and have gone astray’.

The first two religions shown to us are so diverse from one extreme end to the other makes me wonder how Islam will be portrayed tomorrow. But one most important thing I have learnt today is the different approach made to understand Trinity. The invited Prof for today explained that the concept of Trinity was misunderstood by many Christians. The term ‘Father’, ‘Son’ and ‘Spirit’ are actually a kind of symbolism referring to God’s characteristic such as His holiness, love, dignity, and honor. It is not ‘three in one’ concept nor is it three different entities altogether. It is one God with that three different names mentioned in their revelation with the purpose to ease those who lives in that era understand Him better, within their own context and culture. But too bad this is not the case with majority of the Christians we know.

Alhamdulillah, at the end of the day, we should be grateful to Him for giving us Islam. Appreciate by observing His commands. Sometimes I feel ashamed, comparing myself with them who put in much more efforts to communicate and strive to place God in the center of their lives. Oh Allah, give me the strength to do better than them.

Day 18, Judaism.

Today was indeed a very long day. Breakfast was great but we had to get our own lunch. At first, everyone was still kind of holding back. Muslims, Jews and Christians in the class were still breaking the ice slowly. We tried to organize in getting dinner together and carpool to a restaurant. Apparently, this ignited the spark and started the ball rolling.

It is always good to talk over food. An informal setting that erases away any awkwardness and tension. Things got better when at least all 21 of us we break into a team of three, one from each faith. In the team we had to share our experience of the Divine. Spiritual experience in our life in whichever way we want to describe.

My newly met Christian friend starts by sharing her spiritual experience while she went for a healing session and felt as if she was covered in black, feeling that positive divine presence in her. Our Jew teammate shared her spiritual experience while visiting the Wailing Wall while another Muslim shared his spiritual feeling when visiting the Kaabah and during his near-death experience at sea.

I had a hard time recalling any specific spiritual experience occurred in my life. Hence, I decided to define spirituality as something that we go through every day. It may or may not occur on a daily basis but spiritual experience are closely related to our daily routines, such as our prayers, success, challenges, people around us. At any point of time, we may feel a sense of peace, tranquility and solace, that spiritual feeling which most of the times are mysterious. I shared how reciting the Holy Quran or listen to poems that reminds me to God may shed my tears unexpectedly.

To me, this exercise can be considered as the first thing that has really built the bond between the three Abrahamic faiths. Spontaneously, we did not go into the details of our individual religious text to define spirituality, but we shared our common spiritual experience that we had in our own personal lives. This has moved us closer to one another, putting aside our differences and focusing on our common area that is to “tap deep reservoir of spiritual power” as the Prof puts it.

Day 17, Building Abrahamic Partnership.

Tonight, we had dinner with Christians and Jews as well as other Muslims. This marks the beginning of our new adventure. It is seven days of extensive course with at least 20 other participants whose aim is to understand one another.

Tonight’s session was quite interesting. Prof. Yehezkel Landau started the class by giving us a container of pepper, salt and a bottle of a kind of soy sauce. We will then pass it around and introduce ourselves and purpose here, then group those three items earlier, anyway we sees it suit, as a representative of our three faiths, Islam, Judaism and Christianity. We had interesting views from all the participants. But the one I like the most was from David, a Jew, saying that this brilliant exercise highlights that although the container of pepper and salt is similar, but they taste differently. On the other hand, soy sauce may have different container, but it taste somewhat salty like salt, that’s how he sees our three religions are too. I have learnt something new about the Jews just from tonight’s session. They too have time for prayers after the sunset, a similar time with our Marghrib.

Tomorrow, we will have one long day. A 12 hours course from 9am to 9pm. I believe there is so much to learn from everyone. I hope that this will strengthen my faith with Allah s.w.t. Amin.

Day 16, Washington DC.

From Connecticut, to Boston, New York and now Washington, it seems that Allah made it easy for us. Every single time, there will be someone who is willing to assist us one way or another, or at least even if we are on our own, our journeys are usually smooth Alhamdulillah. The hospitality here is just too wonderful. I have never had one in Singapore, not that I can remember at least.

On our way to DC, we stop by Baltimore in Maryland to check out Islamicbooks.com store. I am a crazy fan of good books, but unfortunately not a good reader. My philosophy has always been the fact that I am far behind in terms of writing and critical thinking, it is simply because I do not read that much. One of the main reason, I thought, I had no access to these great books when I was young! Playing games was my only favorite past time. Although games had contributed in giving me all these skills and strategies that I had developed thus far, missing other essential skills from reading is such a waste.

Therefore, since my first year in Egypt, I have been buying books and a lot of it too, to keep and at least have an access to these wonderful knowledge, with the hope that one day I will be able to make time to finish reading it all up. On top of that, my family too will be able to enjoy the sea of knowledge embedded in those books. I am glad my wife has the same interest. Now she can help me building up our very own mini library at home insyaAllah.