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Moses and Muhammad | June 14, 2004

10th Israeli-Palestinian conference

The 10th Israeli-Palestinian conference organized by the Interfaith
Encounter Association and the Nablus Youth Federation and sponsored by the
European Union, took place under the title "Moses and Muhammad" between
27-29 May 2004, with some fifty people at the Guest House of Neve Shalom.

We started in the first evening to get to know each other. After the short
greetings and introduction of sponsoring organizations by the directors of
the IEA and NYF we went into small groups in which we introduced
ourselves. Beyond the biographical details we also started to relate to
the theme of the great teachers of humanity by each of us presenting his
or her own teachers. We talked about people who gave us inspiration or
guided us in a special way and about the way and content of that
inspiration and guidance. The pleasant conversation went deep into the
night, way beyond the time planned for it.

In the following morning started with the presentation of the Muslim
perspective by Mr. Abd el-Kader Sufan from Hawara, near Nablus. He started
by stressing that in Islam there is room and respect to all prophets and
messengers. A Muslim is considered heretic if he does not believe in those
listed in the Koran, including: Moses, Jesus, Salomon, Abraham, Jacob,
Isaac, David etc.)
Islam was sent through Muhammad to all human beings but nevertheless it
obliges to respect the other religions, especially those living in peace
with Muslims as well as to respect and preserve their holy sites.
In the divine books, especially the Torah and the Gospel, there are signs
for the coming of Prophet Muhammad. For example: the verse in Deuteronomy
33 that is interpreted in the following way: " The Lord came from Sinai
[=through Moses], and rose from Seir unto them [=through Jesus]; He shined
forth from mount Paran [=through Muhammad] " Or the verse from Habakkuk 3:
"God cometh from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah His
glory covereth the heavens, and the earth is full of His praise" that is
interpreted to be referring to Muhammad.
In Surat el-Bakara the Koran says we have to believe in God, all the
prophets and all the books and we should not discriminate between the
prophets. Mohammad said that indeed the prophets are different and their
mothers are different but their God is one and the same. Therefore Islam
calls for dialogue with the other religions.

As we always do, after each of the short presentations participants went
to their small groups for a joint conversation, reflection and exchange,
following from the presentation and other issues deriving from its
content.

The afternoon was dedicated to the Jewish perspective. Dr. Yehuda Stolov
started by saying that there is very little in the classical Jewish
sources about either Muhammad or Jesus. Maimonides praises them for making
the name of God known to so many people. Jesus is also mentioned in the
Talmud as a student of Rabbi Yehoshua Ben Prahya, one of the sages of the
Mishna, who went astray after some disagreement with his Rabbi. While the
Talmudic judgment on Jesus is negative it is interesting to se that he was
part of the highest Jewish elite and maybe this is the reason for the
harsh judgment.
The biggest Jewish teacher is Moses. Moses was the person who spoke with
God in the most open way possible for humans. The Jewish sages use the
metaphor of a mirror to explain the difference between the prophecies of
Moses and of other prophets. All prophets see in their visions reflections
from the divine but while other prophets see reflections through a unclean
mirror, Moses saw reflections that came through a clean mirror. Moses was
the person who could go up to Mount Sinai, stay there for forty days and
forty nights without eating, drinking or sleeping, bear the intensive
interaction with God and bring down the Torah to the whole nation.
Rabbi Kook explains the uniqueness of Moses' prophecy when he explains the
saying of the sages that a wise person is preferable than a prophet.
Usually prophets bring to us the big utopist visions while the wise people
teach us what is the small steps that we need to take next in order to
come closer to the fulfillment of the vision. And in that situation there
is preference to the actual guidance over the big but faraway vision and
it is usually forbidden to make an Halachic ruling on the basis of
prophecy. However: Moses' prophecy was unique in that sense too that he
was able to see at the same time the big vision and the tiny details that
are its components. Therefore he was the one that could bring the Torah.
How did Moses become such a great person? The sages offer many inputs to
the answer to this question, most of them are connected, in one way or
another, to caring for the other. It may start with Moses the Egyptian
prince who cares to go out of the palace to see how his poor brothers are
doing, then when he sees their oppression he doesn't hesitate to stand
against the oppressors and at the same time making himself instantly
change from a price to an escapee, as Pharaoh - who always suspected Moses
wasn't a "kosher" Egyptian - sent to chase him. Then he becomes a shepherd
who makes sure that his sheep never eat grass that belongs to someone
else. And when a young goat is lost to the herd - Moses goes to a great
deal of trouble in order to save it and bring it back. When he finally
finds it - God presents to him the burning bush and speaks to him for the
first time, giving him the mission to lead the nation of Israel to
freedom.
Finally: all these great qualities do not make him a special person that
was sent by God to this world with unusual traits. Moses is a regular
person that made special use of his potential and can be seen as an
example to what every one of us can become if we put enough of our efforts
in the right direction.

The next morning was dedicated to the Christian perspective, starting with
a short presentation by Sr. Karmela Farrugia: We Christians have the same
Pentateuch, Prophets and Writings as the Jewish people therefore our
sources on Moses are the same as those of the Jewish People. True, we also
have the Tradition of the Church especially through the Church Fathers in
how to understand these scriptures. However, a number of Christians today,
among them my religious congregation do our best also to learn how the
Jews themselves understand these Scriptures because the more complete the
picture is better. I looked for example at Ps. 77:20 "Thou didst lead thy
people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron", Ps. 103:7 " He made
known his ways to Moses", and Ps. 106:23 would destroy them had not Moses"
In these three texts G-d is the one in charge and Moses his agent.
Because of the short time we have I thought of dwelling rather on some
texts from the New Testament and see how they relate to Moses.
Mt.17: 3 On Mt. Thabor "And behold there appeared to them Moses and
Elijah, talking with him". Here we see that the 'him' refers to Jesus and
scripture tells us that Jesus is in company with Moses and Elijah. Later
on in the text in verse 5 "He was still speaking, when lo, a bright cloud
said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to
him". In Christian teaching the cloud is the Father. So here we see that
Jesus is the Son in the company of Moses and Elijah.
Mt.19: 7-9 "They said to him, 'Why then did Moses command one to give a
certificate of divorce, and to put her away?' He said to them, ' for your
hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the
beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife,
except for unchastity and marries another, commits adultery.
Here we see that in this text while Moses is acknowledged as the lawgiver,
the newness is that Jesus modifies Moses' teaching for he says: ' I say to
you whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity and marries another,
commits adultery.'
Lk. 16:29-31 "But Abraham said 'They have Moses and the p; let them hear
them'. And he said: 'No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from
the dead, they will repent'. He said to him, if they do not hear Moses and
the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from
the dead.'" Here we see that Jesus has such an esteem for Moses and the
Prophets that those who do not hear Moses and the prophets will neither be
convinced by someone who rises from the dead.
Lk.24: 27 "Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to
them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself."
Here I would note that while acknowledging Moses and the prophets certain
texts there are interpreted as referring to Jesus.
Therefore I would conclude this part of how Moses is seen from the
Christian perspective by saying that while we share the Old Testament
sources with the Jewish People yet the Christian tradition sometimes
deviates from the Jewish one by referring them to Jesus. In the New
Testament, Jesus is equal to the Father and Jesus acknowledges the
authority of Moses.
We have no scripture sources about the Prophet Muhammad. I presume because
since chronologically Islam comes after Christianity. Neither do we have
dogmatic teachings about the Prophet Muhammad himself. We do have polemic
literature in the middle ages and earlier after the rise of Islam. I'm not
interested in dealing with this, one because this is neither the scope of
this meeting since it dealt with crusades etc. neither it is a
constructive area. I'd rather go to contemporary Christianity and here I
refer to what is the Catholic Church's teaching and recommendation to us
Christians regarding Islam and the Moslems.
In 1964 the Catholic Church held its Second Vatican Council. In one of its
documents called: 'Nostra Aetate' in Latin meaning 'in our time' in
chapter 3 we Catholics are told by the Magesterium of the Church how we
should relate to Islam. The essence is given at the first sentence: "Upon
the Moslems, too, the Church looks with esteem".

We also had the Juma Prayer and the Recieving of the Shabbat Prayer,
conducted by the Muslims and Jews respectively and witnessed by all
others.

Just before Shabbat we were blessed by the visit of Eyal Davidov of the
Drummers' Circle that gave us the chance to drum together for about an
hour. And in the evening we had a social evening with snacks, dancing and
singing together till late at night.

When we concluded participants noted the deep level of interaction that
was gained by the interfaith, non-political, approach and the friendships
that started as a result. We fare welled with strong hugs, looking forward
to the next conference that is tentatively scheduled for 26-28 August.


---------------------------------------------------------------------
The Interfaith Encounter Association
P.O.Box 3814, Jerusalem 91037, Israel
Phone: +972-2-6510520
Fax: +972-2-6510557
Website: www.interfaith-encounter.org

Board:
Sr. Karmela Farrugia, Chair
Sheikh Muhammad Kiwan, Vice-Chair
Mr. Shlomo Alon, Vice-chair
Sheikh Ali Birani
Rabbi Dov Maimon
Ms. Ibtisam Mahamid
Deacon Eng. Jirias Mansour
Sheikh Tawfiq Salama

Dr. Yehuda Stolov, Director
E-mail: [email protected]

Posted by admin at June 14, 2004 11:07 AM


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