ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY’S LIVING FAITH: THE 99 NAMES OF ALLAH AND THE BEATITUDES
As this covid-19 pandemic forces many to restructure their traditional way of acting, the yearly Silsilah Summer Course on Muslim -Christian Dialogue has been also affected and was moved to the online formation from June to November 2020. The formation was joined by the participants from different parts of the Philippines as well as some Xaverian Missionaries.
The choice of this years’ special program on “Living Faith” was a challenge for Muslims and Christians not only to reflect on the difference of their teachings but also to understand that in our journey of dialogue, Muslims and Christians are closer on the spiritual journey of life that brings us to goodness and rediscover the “Human Fraternity”.
Since we started with this online formation of Living Faith on June 27, we have been exploring and sharing 20 episodes. The first 10 episodes focused on the Muslim aspect of living faith based on 99 beautiful names of Allah whereas the last 10 episodes deepened the Christian beatitudes based on Mt 5, 1-12.
Before sharing what I have learned, I would like to mention the context that led me to join this formation. After finishing last year, the 2-week special program of Silsilah on Christianity and Islam at the crossroads, we made a batch statement to keep up the spirit and the culture of dialogue wherever we are. Then our batch created a messenger group to keep sharing our experiences. As the Catholic Church in the Philippines dedicated this year to Interreligious dialogue, Ecumenism, and Indigenous people, I decided to take this opportunity to learn more from this online platform that was informative (intellect), Formative(heart), and Performative (Missionary reach out)
The sharings from the Muslim and Christian guest speakers were informative in the sense that the host Father Sebastiano D'Ambra while asking questions to the speaker, had in mind that some of the participants are not familiar with the situation of Muslims in Mindanao or the beatitudes of Christians. That is why the introduction of the speaker was already a part of the context which both nourishes and challenges their faith. From that, we learned how our living faith must be grounded and inserted in a particular context to be able to see, seek, and love God in everything.
The sharing was also formative because they spoke from their experiences of faith in how the particular name of Allah impacts or the beatitude has shaped their lives. The commentary of Al Gazali for the chosen name of Allah helped the participants too to have a broader sense of Allah’s names while the deepening of Beatitude by Fr Sebastiano was a moment to discern how we can live the spirit of beatitudes as our Christian Identity.
As the performative role of the formation, the sharings of the participants who mostly live in an interfaith community made us understand more how genuine dialogue motivated by love must move people from their comfort zone in order to reach out to others without expecting too much the result since dialogue starts from God and bring us back to God.
Overall, these learnings affect my view of interfaith dialogue in its varied forms. I can say that dialogue is necessary for every aspect of our interaction either in the secular or religious sphere. I would like to end my sharing with this inclusive remark of Pope Francis on dialogue in Fratelli Tutti saying “Approaching, speaking, listening, looking at, coming to know and understand one another, and to find common ground: all these things are summed up in the one word “dialogue.”( no 198) Therefore, if we want to encounter and help one another, we have to turn to dialogue as an expression of love rather than a strategy.
