Abrahamic Religions and Civilizations!
I remember when I was younger, all what i wanted to do in this life was to watch TV and play video games. Every time I try to watch my favorite series or any good movie, one of my elder brothers would come and command me to change the channel to something more useful, apparently, there was nothing useful on this big box called TV to him except NEWS. Every time we change to a new channel, we were seeing the latest hottest news from all around the world, with the usual daily scenes in Palestine, of course.
Everyday I was watching Palestinians women and children being killed and injured, crying, screaming, and falling on the ground. I was wondering with my little knowledge i had about the world around me back then; why on earth these horrible things are happening to them, and why, the Jews, hate us that much. Why don't they just grip a piece of land of their choice and leave some other for the Palestinians?
Why the world can't do anything about this? And when i was going out, I was hearing the people at the mosques crying out loud on the prayer, oh God, please help the Palestinians. I started to wonder more, are people from other religions feel the way we Muslims do? Do they feel the pain when they watch people dying on the street everyday? but wait a second, that was only on TV, I never have seen anything like this my whole life, so, is it true that if we didn't experience something, ourselves, we won't be able to feel it?
Years after that, I traveled from Saudi Arabia where i was born and lived most of my life, to Malaysia, one of the most successful and developed Muslim countries, if it wasn't the best ever. There, i met, studied and have worked with Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, and even atheists. I then realized, they were just like us, feel the way we do, and think the way we do, and I even bet that some of them or some of the Jews i was thinking about when I was watching TV, were just like me, they were staying at home, watching TV, and wondering, why on earth Muslims are doing this to us now?
I kept questioning everything, reading, studying, discussing, and even debating, to find answers for some of my questions, which the most important one was, why can't we just live as we first were doing, long time a go?
Why can't Jews, Christians and Muslims live peacefully with each other? Then I was trying to guess, thinking, oh come on, you think you are in heaven, nothing is perfect, and the followers of religions will ALWAYS fight!
Then, i thought to go deep into history to study why people could live together in the past but we failed to do so now. I then came across so many books and i started to get answers for some of my questions little by little. I wanted to share some of my thoughts about this since a while but i didn't have the time to sit and write all that. Once i got the time, i jumped over to my pc and started either typing my own words or quote from some books here and there. That's why, Ill start today with this topic at hand, about Abraham Religions, and i mean here Jews, Christians and Muslims, and how they were treating each other, and other civilizations as well. Nevertheless, I saw a lot of negative issues which i got bored talking about and watching on tv, and I wanted to discuss something more useful, and to avoid talking about the blood which have been shed as much as i can, to restore the glory of the past, from a point of view, which will be different than the one adopted by media today.
Dr. Muhammad Arif Zakaullah is a lecturer in my university, International Islamic University Malaysia. He teaches in the Department of Economics, and I have invited him in one of the programs I have organized in my university entitled The Enemy Within as a speaker. In recent years his research and publications have focused on the American political economy. In his book, The Cross and the Crescent, he wrote in chapter 12 (The View of the Other) the following:
-----------------------------------------------
One of the most easily distorted aspects in the discussion of a different faith is the view of the other. More often than not, it is our pride and self-interest that makes us see others in a negative light. Once this negative perspective becomes our way of thinking, we forget to differentiate between the right and wrong in our treatment of others. In ancient Egypt, the Pharaoh saw the Israelites as the other and hence mistreated them. Although the Egyptian civilization had great monuments, sophisticated art and writings and architecture to its credit, its sub-human treatment of the Israelites hangs over it like a dark shadow. The same is true of the ancient civilizations of Greece and Roman Empire which, despite their great achievements, remain at a lower standing due to the mistreatment of others.
As the Roman Empire was on the rise it experienced the coming of Jesus Christ. Once Jesus appeared on the scene he was treated as the other. His followers, being the other as well, after him, were also discriminated against and tortured by the Romans.
In the 4th century, the Roman Emperors embraced Christianity and designated it as the state religion. As Christianity became powerful, both the Jews and the believers of the common Roman religion became the other. They were punished for their beliefs, tortured and persecuted. Narrating the oppression of Jews by zealot Christians, Abba Eban in his book Heritage: Civilization and the Jews, writes that in 1012 the son of the leading Jewish scholar, Gershom ben Judah (960-1028), was forcibly converted to Christianity. Gershom was no ordinary person; he was revered highly for his scholarship, piety and was popularly called Rabbenu (Our Rabbi) by the larger Jewish community. Abba Eban quotes the tributes paid to Rabbi Gershom by leading Jewish religious scholars in the following words:
Rabbenu Gershom, may the memory of the righteous and
Holy be for a blessing, who enlightened the eyes of the
exile, and upon whom we all depend and of whom all
Ashkenazi Jewry are the disciples of his disciples
Holy be for a blessing, who enlightened the eyes of the
exile, and upon whom we all depend and of whom all
Ashkenazi Jewry are the disciples of his disciples
Islam, which was rising in the East, had a different view of the Jews as it accorded a special status to the People of the Book (people who believe in the same God and follow their scriptures which are meant to give them divine guidance to the same eternal truth) and hence deserve to be treated with respect, dignity and religious freedom. The followers of Jesus and Moses were given full religious freedom in the Islamic civilization and their faith and religions were respected. Contrast the above suppression of the Jews and their forcible conversion to Christianity with Abba Ebans comments on the Jewish life and experience in the Islamic world as he says:
Above everything else, life under Arab rule offered wide scope for creative spiritual energies. How else can we explain the heights of creative energy, of literacy grace and aesthetic perfection exemplified in the eleventh and twelfth centuries by Solomon ibn Gabriol, Moses ibn Ezra, and Judah Halevi, all in Spain; and in Egypt by Moses ben Maimonides or Ramban-who also was born in Spain. In some places in the Arab empire, the Jews reached spiritual heights they had not scaled under Christian rule in diaspora.
In the great centers of Islamic civilization it was not just religious freedom and social acceptance but also the opportunities to climb the social ladder that were open to Jews, and they were able to reach high positions, serve society and contribute to solving the problems of their own community and civilization. One such example, among many, is the story of Hasdai ibn Shaprut. Caliph AbderRahman III of Spain (891-961) appointed Hasdai as Physician in his court. Commenting on the power and position enjoyed by Hasdai in Muslim Spain, Abba Eban writes:
From the standpoint of Jewish history, however, his most far--reaching act was to elevate Hasdai ibn Shaprut, his court physician, to the office of director of the customs department and to role of trusted adviser and emissary. It was Hasdai who conducted the delicate negotiations that led to the conclusion of peace treaties with Leon and Navarre in the late 950s.
Just as Abd-er-Rahman, in placing himself on par with the caliphs of Damascus and Egypt, established Muslim Spains political autonomy, so Hasdai ibn Shaprut, as leader of the Jewish community of Muslim Spain, deliberately sought to end his peoples subservience to Babylon. He named rabbi of Cordoba the learned Moses bin Hanokh (B.C. 965), who headed a yeshiva (rabbinical academy) and wrote responsa, so that Spanish Jews would not have to send to Sura and Pumbeditha for answers to halakhic questions. Hasdai befriended poets and supported scholars. A practicing physician, he also patronized the sciences and other learned professions.
-----------------------------------------------
