Reconciliation in Islamic Thought and Practice

by Lea Levy

Both Dr. Marcia Hermansen and Dr. Ebrahim Moosa are interesting and intelligent people who have had experiences around the world and have come to study Islam after traveling along long and convoluted paths.

Both speakers see Islam as a source of peace and knowledge. The ideas of forgiveness with the divine and between people exist in all of the Abrahamic traditions, and in Islam, the Prophet Mohammed sets the example for forgiveness, peace making, and not wishing ill fortune onto anyone.

Moosa responded to Hermansen’s talk mostly by agreeing that for reconciliation to be possible we must first acknowledge G-d. Reconciliation with G-d is a model for reconciliation between peoples.

He opened his talk by talking about Muslims’ relationship to Allah and his truth. Once we have surrendered to the creator, we can acknowledge that the horizontal relationships that we have with other people are always mediated by the vertical axis that we have with G-d. He said that someone who is ungrateful of his or her relationship with G-d is an infidel, and cannot live a good life. Giving thanks is therefore one of the most important elements of Islam.

Recently, many politically motivated assertions have been made that Islam is not compatible with the western way of thinking and with secular democracies. However, Tuesday’s talk shows that this is far from the truth. It is very dangerous to generalize to this point. While it is true that some radical extremists hold views incompatible with western democracy, not all Muslims do. Islam like all other religions is trying to find its place in the modern world and to reinterpret certain texts along with the times.

Peace, justice, and reconciliation are central to Islamic beliefs, and this talk demonstrated that a change in the widely held perception that Muslims are violent needs to take place.