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Ramadan and Easter: Multiplicity of doors to God’s mercy Dr Patrick Mclnerney
Introductory address at the Interfaith Iftar c0-hosted by the Diocese of Parramatta and the Columban Centre for Christian-Muslim Relations on Wednesday 20 April 2022 at Novotel, Parramatta. Ramadan is a wonderful time of grace. According to a hadith, a saying of the Prophet Muhammad (s): When there comes the month of Ramadan, the doors of heaven are opened; the doors of Hellfire are closed; and the devils are chained. Such is indeed a propitious time. However, a similar Islamic account of God’s abundant bounty almost killed me! Many years ago in Pakistan, I was weaving my motorbike through the traffic of Lahore, dodging motorbikes, cars, buses, trucks, rickshaws, bicycles, pedestrians, horse-drawn tongas, and the occasional camel-cart, all of which claimed the right of way. I was thinking about my homily for the following Sunday. The text was from Matthew’s Gospel: Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find
Bishop Antoine Tarabay, Bishop of the Maronite Eparchy (sixth from left) and Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohammad, the Grand Mufti of Australia (fifth from right) joined Bishop Vincent (third from right) and Fr Patrick McInerney (fourth from right) and other faith leaders and Members of Parliament at the Interfaith Iftar Dinner on 20 April 2022. Image: Diocese of Parramatta. it. (Mt 7:13-14) As I was thinking about the “narrow gate”, a hadith came to my mind, with the prayer that is said on entering a mosque, the prayer that is often inscribed above the door of the mosque: Allahumma iftah lī abwāba rahmati-ka O God, open to me the gates of Your mercy. And as I thought about that plural—not the narrow single “door” of Your mercy, but the plural wide-open “doors” of Your mercy—I felt the superabundance of God’s mercy, and tears started streaming down my face. And that is how Islamic sentiment nearly killed me – when you are dodging through Lahore traffic, you can’t afford for your eyes to become blurred with tears!
Does that mean that Islam is more generous in dispensing God’s mercy than Christianity? Not at all! Just this past weekend, Christians commemorated the death and resurrection of Jesus. Muslims cannot accept that Jesus died on a cross, for it would be a failure of one of God’s prophets. For Christians, the cross is not failure, but the necessary way which opens to the “success” of resurrection. More to my point, Jesus stretching out his arms on the cross is God’s universal embrace of all people and all creation. The Gospel states that at the moment of his death, “the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom” (Mt 27:51, see also Mk 15:38). This is a symbolic way of declaring that in Jesus, God is not concealed
in one place, for one tribe, or one people, but is open to all nations. Even more dramatically, the Apostles’ Creed states, “He descended into hell”. As God is the author of life, and death the antithesis of life, all who died were considered consigned to hell. Jesus “descended into hell” to open the doors of hell, not to let souls in, but to release all the dead who were imprisoned there since the beginning of human history. Thus, the risen Jesus is Lord of the living and the dead. In Christianity too, God’s mercy is superabundant. It is perhaps ironic that Islam, which insists on tawhid, the oneness of God, also insists on the multiplicity of doors to God’s mercy; and Christianity, which confesses the Trinity, three Persons in the one God, insists on the oneness of the door to salvation (c.f. Jn 10:1-10) – but that one door is universal and open to all. The medium in each case is different, but the message of Islam and Christianity is the same. God’s mercy is abundantly available to all, freely given, freely poured out. We Christians and Muslims, therefore, must show mercy to one another, and to all others, for we are all sisters and brothers. That is the common message of Ramadan and Easter. Rev Dr Patrick McInerney is the Director of the Columban Mission Institute and Coordinator of its Centre for Christian-Muslim Relations and is based in Sydney.
Role of religion for our contemporary harmonious living Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohammed Keynote address at the Interfaith Iftar on Wednesday 20 April 2022 at Novotel, Parramatta. I begin by thanking my dear brother and friend, Vincent Long, and my dear father and friend, Patrick, and the rest of the stakeholders of this council, for this kind invitation. I am pleased to see you all in this gathering, which builds bridges of understanding and establishes love within our community. Tonight, we represent how our beloved country, Australia, remains a model of multiculturalism and acceptance. Ladies and gentlemen: Religion in its true and divine essence, was and still is the founder of human civilization, the incubator of science, the guardian of the human mind, the protector of freedoms, the supporter of the oppressed and a deterrent to the aggressors. Religion, as we learned from its pure sources, was and still is an approach to justice, protection for people, architecture for the universe, and an enemy of poverty, disease, hunger, and everything that humiliates human dignity. It is a call for peace that rejects wars, and a call for security that rejects violence, terrorism, and intimidation of people. It is an invitation to the mind to think and be guided, and an invitation to the heart to believe and be reassured, and an invitation to the soul to be filled with love and joy. Respected guests: Societies in which racism and hatred prevail, and where regimes take an anti-religious stance, and do not trust its strength and ability to create values of love, tolerance, and justice, will fall into chaos because it will not be able to impose an external obligation on a person who has lost all sense of self discipline. Ladies and Gentlemen: One of the biggest challenges facing religious leaders is that MAY 2022 / ISSUE 198
we live in a world that suffers from moral crises and spiritual drought, and in its dealings only the interests and ambitions that have brought us wars, ruin and murder, is known. Neglecting the great role of religion in the life of societies inevitably means social collapse and the dominance of violence and hatred, and the absence of moral values. The thinker and writer, philosopher Voltaire, turned to this devastating danger when he warned, “Why do they doubt in the existence of God, without whom my wife would betray me, my children would disobey me, and my servant would steal from me” And what this great thinker pointed out and warned against means that the absence of religions and the disruption of their role at the level of individuals, societies and countries constitutes a human catastrophe that creates areas of moral chaos that make extremists, racists, advocates of hatred and outlaws the ones who lead the world. It allows them to hold the reins of legislation and laws and pushes their agenda to tamper and threaten the natural order of the universe. One of the challenges that affect the credibility of religious leaders is that it is neither reasonable nor acceptable to turn our faces towards God in the places of worship and then turn our backs on the oppressed and homeless people in Ukraine, Palestine, Myanmar and the Uyghurs; they ignore rather than condemn the events in the city of Jerusalem, where worshipers are assaulted and prevented from attending their prayers in the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the most holiest of months. This is unacceptable and needs to be addressed by our leaders loud and clear. Hence, it is our duty as leaders of religions to ignite the light of faith in the depths of the human soul so that man returns to his instinct that promotes faith and what it contains of love, so that the purity of the soul, the radiance of the heart, and the genius of the mind return to him, and turn towards so-
Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohammed, Grand Mufti of Australia.
cietal reconstruction instead of conflicts and wars. Playing this role is a living response to the call of the great messengers to spread love and make peace. Respected guests: We have the right to be happy because God chose us as advocates of love and peace. God is love, and John wrote in his first epistle: “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” He also said: “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.” The same message was addressed by the Messenger of Allah, Muhammad (s): When he said, “One does not enter Paradise until they believe, and you do not believe until you love one another, shall I tell you of
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something that if you do you it will cause you to love one another? Spread peace among you.” Ladies and Gentlemen: I do not need to remind you that if it wasn’t for the Islamic and Arab culture, the works of Socrates and Aristotle would not have been known. As the Arabs and Muslims were the one who interpreted their work and dispersed it to the rest of the world. Finally, let us be mindful of how the media can warp our views of one another. We must be wary of this and make the effort to truly understand without the hindrance of those who wish to divide us. I would like to end with the verse: “O you who have believed, enter peace completely [and perfectly] and do not follow the footsteps of Satan. Indeed, he is to you a clear enemy.” (Quran 2: 208) We pray for peace to prevail across the world. May Allah protect Australia and its citizens. Ramadan Mubarak to you all.
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