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By R. David Coolidge
Friday Prayer Service (Salat al-Jumah), Dartmouth College,
1.18.08
Today is a day for both thanksgiving and mourning. It is a day of thanksgiving
because we are in safety and security, here at Dartmouth, in Hanover, in New
Hampshire, in the United States. We are well-fed, and surrounded by numerous
opportunities for our personal growth and enrichment. However, we are saddened
by the news of people being killed during prayer at mosques in Pakistan and
Iraq. What sort of lunacy does it take to end another’s life at the moment of
communion with the Divine, in the most sacred of places?
God says in the Qur’an, “Truly, this community of yours is one community, and I
am your Lord, so worship Me.” (Qur’an, chapter 21, verse 92) The community of
God’s Messengers has spanned the ages, beginning with the first prophet Adam,
continuing through Moses and Jesus, and ending with Muhammad (may peace be upon
all of them). Each Messenger formed a community of followers, and they spread
through time and place, carrying the message that was given to them by the one
endowed with clear authority. We are part of the last community, destined to
carry the message of Muhammad until the end of time. And it is a vast
community.
The human mind seems to always want to limit the mercy and guidance of God, and
to carve out a little piece of the message as the most pure part, the most
authentic part, and in turn to denigrate the efforts of others to arrive at an
understanding of God, His books, and His messengers. Why do we do that? Can we
not see that God works in ways that we cannot even fathom? Look around you, and
see people like myself who were touched by the message of Muhammad (may the
peace and blessings of God be upon him), in all of its beauty and simplicity.
We did not know Arabic, we did not know Islamic history, we did not know who
was who on the current Muslim scene. But the character of everyday Muslims, the
beauty of the Qur’an, the inspiring story of the Prophet, the clarity of “there
is no god but God:” these were the things that brought us into Islam, and which
keep us Muslim.
The message of Muhammad has reached so many, in so many different times and
places, that we owe it to God to be thankful for this mercy by not trying to
denigrate the attempts of others to live their Islam faithfully, as best they
know how. Our first responsibility is to get ourselves right before God, and
that is a monumental task. But for some reason, there are Muslim who want to
kill each other just because one describes themselves as “Sunni” and the other
as “Shi’i.” If either of them truly lived the teachings of the great
Sunni and Shi’i scholars, they would realize what sort of misguidance and
corruption they were in. All the great scholars of this ummah (community) have
known and taught what a grave sin it is to take the life of another living
being, whether human or animal, without right.
So let us, at this moment, reaffirm that this prayer room, this organization,
is a place for everyone. It is a place for anyone who says, “I am Muslim,” and
wants to find communion with others who do the same. Whether you are Sunni,
Shi’i, Aga Khani, Bohra, Salafi, Hanafi, Ash’ari – whatever name you prefer –
you are welcome here as a brother and sister in Islam. And even more than that,
this is a place where any human being is welcome, who wants to know about
Islam, or to get to know Muslims in all their beautiful diversity. For truly,
we are not here to limit the mercy of the “All-Merciful, the Dispenser of
Mercy,” but we are here to worship our Lord, “the Lord of humanity, the King of
humanity, the God of humanity.” (Qur’an, chapter 114, verses 1-3)
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