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M. Habash: Address to Peace Summit 2023, Session IV-B
Written by Hon. Dr. Mohamad Habash, chairman of the Human Fraternity Center; associate professor at Abu Dhabi University
Wednesday, May 3, 2023
Address to Peace Summit 2023
May 2-5, 2023
A-salaam alaikum. In the name of Allah, the beneficial, the merciful. Praise be to Allah. I had the honor to be here on this stage maybe 30 years ago.
We are working together, and we are looking for more fraternity, more love, more peace in this world. As I have been told that these meetings [are being held to] explain our experience and to share our experience with other colleagues, maybe we can find a lot of mutual programs to support peace and love and mercy in this world.
I'm coming from a tragic situation in my country, in Syria, and it's so difficult to speak about love when we are living in a war, to speak about hope when we are in a hopeless situation.
Anyhow, maybe 30 years ago we visited the United States and met Father Moon in New York. At that time, he spoke about the relationship between religions, how we find that every religion believes that it alone has God, it alone has paradise. This kind of selfishness is a deep reason behind a lot of conflicts in this world. How can we struggle against the monopoly of salvation, against the monopoly of God, against the monopoly of the hereafter, against the monopoly of reality?
How can we work together as brothers, not as enemies in this world? We started 20 years ago in Damascus, in the Islamic Study Center. It was under the patronage of Sheikh Ahmed Kuftaro. He was a Grand Mufti of Syria, and he was a very famous person, a very famous leader. And he had an open mind to work with all religions. He was in San Francisco maybe 30 years ago to deliver his speech. After the war we moved to United Arab Emirates to continue and to establish the Human Fraternity Center. This kind of center has only one target: How can we build one family under God?
In Islam, as in other religions, you can find a conservative direction and a reform direction. In the conservative direction they believe there is only one way to God and that others are false. “We have to struggle against any kind of faith, but only our faith. There is only one way to God. There is only one reality.” Yes, I agree. This kind of understanding, maybe we are talking about 80 percent of Muslims. I can find the same percentage in other religions.
Twenty percent of our society accepts more than one way to God, more than one way to reality, more than one way to paradise. This modern understanding or this reform understanding—I can see there is 20 percent.
But the problem is with the third direction. It's less than 1 percent, but it's very dangerous. [Even though in] the conservative direction they believe there is only one way to God, they don't look for any violence against others. “Yes, this is a true way. You have to follow me, you have to be with me. But if you refuse, God will judge you. It's not my responsibility.”
But we can see a radical understanding in Islamic history, in Christian history, in Sikh history. You can find people who refuse others and who struggle against others and who force others to convert their faith.
I can see this is not the situation of the Islamic world. This is not the situation of the Christian world. All people believe that we have to be together, to live together, to work together and to look toward one future. Always when we look at the past, we will find a lot of differences. But when we look toward the future, we can find an enlightened way and we can unify our target and our future.
Because of that, we started a new initiative. We were in Taiwan last week for an initiative to connect with all religions and to find more in common between us. More in common between Islam and Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism; we can find more in common between us.
We have to understand if other people refuse your faith, that does not mean they are your enemy. “He refused your faith. He believed that there is only one way to God. Okay, this is his faith.” It's not the main reason for war.
But in the radical movement, it’s the main reason for war. Radical movements are those who believe that they have a responsibility to force you to convert the reality.
Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, was calling for Islam. But at the same time he said, “I came to confirm what came before.” Fourteen times in the Holy Quran you can find this word that means, “I came to continue what came before.” Not to cancel, not to destroy. I came to continue gospel in … the Torah, the Old Testament, New Testament. This is my responsibility to confirm, not to cancel.
During his life, Negos, the king of Abyssinia, received Muslims and protected them from the pressure against them. When Negos died, Prophet Muhammad said, “Your brother Negos died. Let us pray for his soul.” Some of the companions of Prophet Muhammad said, “How can we pray for this soul? This person belonged to another religion.”
God revealed a very clear verse: “There are among the people of scripture who believe God, believe the day of Judgment, and they are on the straight way, on the good way.”
Some of the companions of Prophet Muhammad asked again, “How can we pray for this soul? This person was receiving a different direction during prayer. He didn't receive Mecca, he was receiving Jerusalem.”
At this moment, God revealed to Prophet Muhammad this line. Let me recite it in Arabic, as we pray in the mosque. God revealed this line to say, “For God only the east and the west, wherever you turn your face, there is the face of God.”
“God is one, but his names are many. Reality is one, but its ways are many. Spirituality is one, but religions are many. Love is one, but hearts are many. Humanity is one, but humans are many.”
We have to call for religion among religions, not above all; a prophet among prophets, not above all; a nation among nations, not above all. Prophet Muhammad said the prophets before me are like someone who built a house completely except for one block, except for one tube. When people get a tour, they say, “What a beautiful house, what a beautiful palace – but this one tube?” But Prophet Muhammad said, “I'm not the whole building, I'm not the whole house. I am just one tube which my brothers, the prophets, helped to build.”
My dears, I believe I have no more time. But it's a good chance, inshallah, to thank you for your cooperation and to invite you to work with our fraternity center, Human Fraternity Center in United Arab Emirates and in Syria. Inshallah for the same target of UPF. I hope to find a lot to work together and to look for our future.
Thank you for all.
To go to the Peace Summit 2023 Schedule page, click here.