Dear Friends,
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf spoke about the transformative power of spirituality in combating terrorism at a United Nations panel on June 24th entitled “Countering Terrorism and other acts of Violence based on Religion or Belief: Fostering Tolerance and Inclusivity.”
He expressed that when human beings live in the orientation of God or The Absolute, the propensities towards violence diminish and iterated that “we become unified within ourselves and with God – an imperative that Muslims call Tawhid and are commanded to work towards. In this initiative state, we see with God’s eyes and understand with God’s understanding…”
In addition to Imam Feisal, key panelists included Dr. Maleeha Lodhi, the Permanent Representative of Pakistan, Ambassador Feridun Hadi Sinirlioǧlu, the Permanent Representative of Turkey, Archbishop Bernardito Auza, the Permanent Observer of the Holy See, Mr. Vladimir Voronkov, Under-Secretary General for Counter-Terrorism.
I invite you to read the full speech below.
With Warm Salaams,
Naz Georgas, Executive Director
Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
May God’s peace and blessings be upon you all, Assalamu alaykum.
The terror attacks all over the world mentioned by the previous speakers, taken as a whole, altogether prove that no religious community in any country or region has either a monopoly in perpetrating violence in its name, or is immune from being victims. Terrorist violence has become globally systemic and needs to be addressed as such.
We therefore congratulate Secretary-General Antonio Gutierrez on his welcomed launch last week of the United Nations Strategy and Plan of Action Against Hate Speech. As he pointed out, combating terrorism successfully requires a multi-pronged globalized approach, involving the joint commitment of governments, law enforcement agencies, religious experts, civil society, the private sector, digital media experts, and an effective media campaign.
One strand of this Initiative has to be the religious dimension; and to this I will now speak.
I have found, over the course of my work in interfaith dialogue, that religious people have more in common than we may think. We all orient ourselves towards a domain of the Sacred that we characterize in different ways. Perhaps the most inclusive term for the shared life focus of religious people is simply the Absolute. Everything but the Absolute is relative in some way-to change, to diminishment, to death. As the Quran puts it, “everything on it [the earth] will vanish, and what remains will be the Face of your Lord.”(55:26-27).
“My experience teaches me that, beyond the specific theologies of the various religions, religious people all worship the One Divine and Transcendent Absolute…”
My experience teaches me that, beyond the specific theologies of the various religions, religious people all worship the One Divine and Transcendent Absolute, Whom Muslims, along with Arab-speaking Christians and Jews, call Allah. The Quran describes Him as unlike anything and unlike anyone [laysa ka-mithlihi shay’, wa lam yakun lahu kufuwan ahad]. For the Christian mystic Meister Eckhart, the Absolute is the Godhead that transcends the Christian Trinity. For Jews, The Absolute is the Ein Sof, the Infinite, Without End. The Katha Upanishad of Hinduism calls The Absolute Nirguna Brahman, “beyond name and form, beyond the senses, inexhaustible, without beginning, without end, beyond time, beyond space and beyond causality, eternal, immutable.” For Taoists, It is “The Tao that cannot be spoken.” Buddhists prefer to focus on the individual personal experience of The Absolute, beginning with the experience of Enlightenment and culminating in Nirvana.
My experience also teaches me that when we live in orientation towards the Absolute, the propensities within us towards violence of any kind diminish. We move towards violence from some violence or conflict within ourselves. But within the embrace of the Absolute, all internal conflict vanishes. We mirror within ourselves the Oneness of the Absolute. We become unified within ourselves and with God – an imperative that Muslims call tawhid, and are commanded to work towards. In this unitive state, we see with God’s eyes and understand with God’s understanding, so to speak. We are at peace and for peace in the world around us. This is the experience which, more effectively than any other, personally transforms a potential or actual terrorist into a human and humane being.
All the religions have within them this transformative power. Muslims experience it when they pronounce the shahadah sincerely with all their heart, for by those words they witness to Oneness with their own inner eye. Jews experience it when they pronounce the Shema, by which they hear the Oneness with their inner ear. When Jesus commands his followers to “love the Lord with all your heart, soul, and might” and to “love your neighbor as yourself,” he takes them on wings of love to the same experience of unity in Oneness, whence they speak and act through the power of the Holy Spirit.
“A global goal of the religions in this time of systemic global terrorism is to invite all and sundry into the experience of the Absolute, by whatever means It communicates to them, through whatever religion or spiritual practice.”
Terrorism is one consequence of losing the experience of the divine Oneness. Outside the Absolute, our inner drives lose focus in a chaos of relativities. What the Hindus call illusion, or maya, masquerades as truest reality – wealth, status, or simply our own ego. These relativities misdirect our energies in ways that are inevitably conflictual. As the Buddhists teach, ignorance yields craving and hatred-the “three poisons.” When they are frustrated, our egoistic cravings enflame. We’re on the path to terrorism.
A global goal of the religions in this time of systemic global terrorism is to invite all and sundry into the experience of the Absolute, by whatever means It communicates to them, through whatever religion or spiritual practice. This is the distinctly religious balm for the violence within the terrorist’s soul. And this is the distinctly religious contribution to the end of terrorism.
The United Nations joins the nation-states of the world in common cause towards peace. What if it were also to unify in common cause all lovers of the Absolute? What if the United Nations spoke not just for all the values the nations share, but for all the values the religions share? For under the banner of the Absolute, the religions do unite. And yet no world organization speaks forcefully and consequentially for that unity. What a force for peace the united religions of the world would be, not merged with each other, but reflecting off each other the distinct face of the Absolute each one sees. This, to me, is the unfinished business that now cries out for the UN to incorporate into its mission.
All of you present here today, including especially HE Archbishop Bernardito Auza, are the best qualified people in the world to lead the way on broadening the UN Charter to empower qualified voices within the UN structure to represent the religious communities of the world in the love they share for the Absolute and for mankind.
While the struggle to achieve this is collectively ours; the victory shall belong to God and to humankind.
May we raise our collective voices in action and in prayer, and may God grant us success, Amen!
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf
Chairman, Cordoba House
Cordoba House is dedicated to leading, engaging, and promoting a distinctively moderate, open-minded, forward-thinking, pluralistic, and spiritual multi-national American Muslim community. Help build a more peaceful world by making a donation to support our work!
