Download The Truth in Islam according to the Official Teaching of the Catholic

The Truth in Islam
according to the Official Teaching of the
Catholic Church
Serge Moussa Traore
The Truth in Islam
according to the Official Teaching of the
Catholic Church
L’Harmattan
© L’Harmattan, 2010
5-7, rue de l’Ecole polytechnique, 75005 Paris
http://www.librairieharmattan.com
[email protected]
[email protected]
ISBN : 978-2-296-10428-0
EAN : 9782296104280
DEDICATION
In Memory of Mamou Ouedraogo, my Muslim mother,
and of my Catholic father Grégoire Traore. Special thanks to
Anne Mougnères, Bernadette D’Souza, Kim Weiner and
Gary DeMichele, Barbara Pivarnik, David and Louise Cox,
Sherly Naithparambil, Ivan Page, Aylward Shorter, and
Donald MacLeod.
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CONTENTS
Introduction
1. What is interreligious dialogue?
2. The paralysis of interreligious dialogue
3. There is something true and holy in the other
religions of the world
4. Recognizing the good things in the followers of
Islam
5. What is true and holy in Islam according to Pope
Benedict XVI?
6. The question of Muhammad as a prophet
7. Is the Qur’an God’s word?
8. Preserving the truth found in the followers of
Islam
9. Promoting the truth found in the followers of other
religions
10. Working together for peace
11. A new way of working together for conflict
resolution and peace building
In conclusion
Bibliography
References
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The Truth in Islam
Introduction
The Church, therefore, exhorts her sons, that through
dialogue and collaboration with the followers of other
religions carried out with prudence and love and in witness
to the Christian faith and life, they recognize, preserve and
promote the good things, spiritual and moral, as well as the
socio-cultural values found among these men. (Vatican
Council II, Declaration Nostra Aetate, n.2)
The necessity and importance of interreligious dialogue
are not in dispute today. All over the world, we are
witnessing a surge in interreligious initiatives. Nevertheless,
interreligious dialogue is stumbling. It is understood in
different ways. It is put in question. It is even rejected by
some. It is looked upon with suspicion by many. The basic
question I would like to answer is, ‘What is the relevant
dialogue we need today?’ Many people hesitate to engage in
interreligious dialogue because of their misunderstanding of
its nature and purpose. They are suspicious about it. Is it
possible to propose an understanding of interreligious
dialogue that will help people to become wholeheartedly
involved? I found a solution in the teaching of the Second
Vatican Council.
The Catholic Church has been thinking about
interreligious dialogue since this Council. The Church was
active in establishing structures for the promotion of interreligious dialogue. Some education in interreligious dialogue
was included in the curriculum of seminaries and religious
institutes. Yet I argue here that the Second Vatican Council
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The Truth in Islam
was not interested in inventing a new missionary activity to
be called “interreligious dialogue.” The Church of the
Second Vatican Council asked Christians simply to enter into
dialogue with the world. Moreover, to be precise, the Council
wants Christians to stop demonizing the world and instead to
engage with it in a sincere and loving dialogue. Pope Paul VI
could not be clearer than this: “The Church should enter into
dialogue with the world in which she exists and labors. The
Church has something to say; the Church has a message to
deliver; the Church has a communication to offer.”1 Dialogue
is presented only as a means to recognize, preserve and
promote the good things, spiritual and moral, as well as the
socio-cultural values found among the followers of other
religions, and in the world in general. Dialogue, interreligious dialogue, was seen by the Church as a means to
achieve that noble aim. It is a means and only a means.
Therefore, I propose to go back to the first impulse of the
Second Vatican Council. We should orient our efforts to
recognize, preserve and promote the good things found in
other religions and in the world. This book is about how we
can do that. It is not about the means (dialogue and
collaboration). It is about the aim.
At first, I thought that it would not be difficult for me to
do. My mother was Muslim. Her parents were Muslims. I
have a wonderful relationship with the Muslims of my
family. My father was a Catholic. Born of a Muslim mother
and a Catholic father, I grew up in a Muslim-Christian
atmosphere. I was shocked when I met some Christians who
regarded Muslims as children of the devil. They simply
could not find anything good in the lives of Muslims, yet I
could find so many good things in the life of my Muslim
relatives. The discussion would then shift to seeing them as
not good Muslims. Those Muslims whose lives are
exemplary are not good or true Muslims. They are
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The Truth in Islam
“anonymous Christians”. They live according to the Gospel.
There is nothing good in Islam. Therefore there is nothing
good in the lives of true Muslims. The negative attitude of
these Christians disturbed me a great deal. I wondered if I
could still be part of a faith community that demonized
others. I realized that we cannot rely solely upon our own
personal experience to teach others. This tension compelled
me to reflect on the problem of the relationship between the
followers of different religions. A more objective study of
religions was necessary to confirm or to invalidate my toosubjective and emotional attitude towards Islam.
I was also challenged in my involvement in Rwanda as a
promoter of interreligious dialogue. I saw interreligious
dialogue as a powerful means for healing, reconciliation and
peace in such a broken society. When people of different
religions come together, they learn how to overcome the
barriers between them. In Rwanda, we need to gather all the
spiritual resources of all religions to bring about healing,
reconciliation and peace. However, I was soon challenged by
the hardness of the believers in Rwanda. Although they are
convinced of the importance of interreligious dialogue for a
peaceful society, they nevertheless could not see anything
good in one another’s religions. They believe that the
encounter between followers of religions is at a human level.
We can meet as human beings. We can meet as compatriots;
but at the religious level, we cannot meet. I was challenged
by such an attitude. Is it enough to engage in dialogue only
on the basis that we are all created by the same God? Our
history, from the tragic events of Cain and Abel to presentday genocides, teaches us that the unity of the human race,
and more profoundly, the unity of the same shared womb, has
never been strong enough to prevent us from killing one
another. We need to find a common ground elsewhere. We
need something that will bind us. I am convinced that it is
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The Truth in Islam
the recognition and adoration of God's presence or the
recognition of goodness in the other that will help us to value
one another.
I have embarked upon the study of other religions of the
world and particularly Islam. Why should a Catholic priest
study other religions? Religions can be studied at the
university level from different perspectives: sociology of
religions, philosophy of religions, and history of religion.
Technically, someone can teach a religion in which he does
not deeply believe. Since interreligious dialogue has become
an important issue in the world, many institutes have been
created to prepare people for interreligious dialogue. It seems
to me that there are two types of institute for such dialogue.
For example, there are institutes that teach Islam to
Christians, such as the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and
Islamic Studies at Rome, Italy. The other example would be
those institutes whose students are both Muslim and
Christian, such as the Institute of the Study of Religions and
Cultures, at the Roman Pontifical Gregorian University.
Muslims study Christianity and any other religions while
Christians study Islam and any other religion. The question I
would like to ask is this, ‘Why would a Christian study Islam
and for what purpose?’ Or, ‘Why would a Muslim study
Christianity and for what purpose?’
The question becomes more serious when I recall that I am
a Catholic priest. How well do I know my own religious
tradition? Christianity has such an immense patrimony of
written texts. I know little about it. So, what's the point of
spending time studying other religions instead of deepening
my knowledge of my own religion? It sounds so strange for a
Catholic priest to be named an expert on Islam! I will argue
here that many Christians hesitate to engage in interreligious
dialogue because they have listened to Christians, and priests
who are experts in other religions and they wonder how
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The Truth in Islam
Christian they still are. It pained them. It disturbed them.
Interreligious education came to be reduced to the study of
world religions. I will propose in this book that we need a
more dialogical education for interreligious dialogue. It is
not just about knowledge of other religions. It is about
discerning the presence of the same God in other religions. It
is about recognizing the spiritual richness of other religions.
This recognition is done through a critical, just, scientific and
honest discernment. I see only one reason for a Catholic
priest to study Islam, as an example. It is to recognize,
preserve and promote the good things God has put into the
lives of followers of Islam. To study other religions is simply
to seek the face of God in the lives of followers of other
religions. We study other religions murmuring all the time a
beautiful French song: ‘Je cherche le visage, le visage du
Seigneur,’ (I seek the face, the face of the Lord); ‘Je cherche
son image tout au fond de vos coeurs’ (I seek His image, in
the depth of your hearts). Only in this way do I deepen my
own religion as I come to see the same God I know at work
beyond the boundaries of my own religion.
In my study, I sometimes wondered if my Catholic
brothers and sisters would accept my findings. Then one day,
I was challenged by an individual. I stated that I was
convinced that Islamic worship of God is true worship.
There is something true in their worship of God. The person
reacted by simply stating, “Please, Father, teach what the
Church asks you to teach.” I got the message. He was
convinced that the Church never said that there is anything
true about the Islamic worship of God. I too was not sure
that it was stated like this somewhere in the official
documents. I insisted on justifying my approach. The
official teaching of the Catholic Church is the reflection of
the men and women of the Church. I believe that as a
member of this Church and as a priest, I can contribute to the
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The Truth in Islam
improvement of the official teaching. The official teaching
of the Church should not be confined to the work of
theologians living peacefully in seminaries or in the Vatican.
Christians are not senseless recipients of official teaching.
They also need to reflect on the teaching of the Church and
give feedback to those who have written about how they
should live the Christian life, even if he were the Pope.
Nevertheless, I was challenged. I realized the weight of being
called “Father” by some people just because they considered
me as a spiritual father, a spiritual guide. Was I leading them
astray by my personal convictions that would have been in
contradiction with official Church teaching? I took up the
challenge. I began a serious reading of the official teaching of
the Catholic Church about other religions and interreligious
dialogue. I was mesmerized and flabbergasted by what I
found. Paul VI in Ecclesiam Suam said clearly, “We do well
to admire these people (the Moslems) for all that is good and
true in their worship of God.” The official documents of the
Church are a goldmine of teaching. It is unfortunate that
such precious teachings remain unknown or poorly known.
Beyond that, I wonder how much of what is said in the
official documents of the Church, and especially in the
Documents of the Second Vatican Council, is actually put
into practice.
Here, we can recall the famous event of Regensburg,
Germany. During his apostolic journey to München, Altötting
and Regensburg (September 9-14, 2006) Pope Benedict
XVI met with the representatives of science at the University
of Regensburg on Tuesday, 12 September 2006. On that
occasion, he gave a lecture on “Faith and reason and the
university”. He explained his intention:
Starting with what Manuel II subsequently said in a positive
manner, with very beautiful words, about rationality that
must guide us in the transmission of faith, I wanted to
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The Truth in Islam
explain that it is not religion and violence but rather religion
and reason that go together. The topic of my lecture responding to the mission of the University - was therefore
the relationship between faith and reason: I wished to invite
[people] to the dialogue of the Christian faith with the
modern world and to the dialogue of all the cultures and
religions2.
Unfortunately, he quoted some words of the Byzantine
Emperor that were not kind towards the prophet of Islam.
We remember the reactions of Muslims all over the world.
The Vatican often refers in vain to her official teaching about
Islam.
What the Vatican perhaps forgot is that the
Documents of the Second Vatican Council are addressed to
Catholics, not to Muslims. What Muslims wanted to hear
was not what the Church said to Catholics about Islam or
Muslims. They wanted to hear what Pope Benedict XVI
thinks of Muslims and Islam. They understood that the Pope
agreed with Manuel II Palaeologus (1350-1425) in his view
that Muhammad brought nothing good to the world, only
violence.
By citing the Documents of Vatican II in his defense, the
Pope put the credibility of the Church at stake. Many
Muslims are now convinced that there is a wide gap between
what we actually believe and our official written documents.
We simply do not live what we profess. We do not practice
what we preach. The official teaching of the Catholic Church
runs the risk of being pure literature if we do not commit
ourselves to putting it into practice. We have lost so much of
our credibility. It is time we became real and sincere. We
believe that good things can be found among the followers of
other religions. Let us not repeat the sentence as a mantra.
Let us actually name those good things. Our credibility is at
stake.
The question of credibility is serious. Is the Catholic
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Church even credible in its commitment to interreligious
dialogue? The letter of 138 Muslim scholars in October 2007
has been greeted by many as a response to so many years of
effort at dialogue from the Christian side. Many Christians
were disappointed by the non-response of Muslims to the
Christian invitation to dialogue. We hear Christians saying
“we have always taken the initiative!” In that case, we should
ask ourselves a serious question, ‘Why were Muslims not
really willing to engage in dialogue?’ Is it not because we
were not very credible and clear about dialogue and
particularly interreligious dialogue? Interreligious dialogue
did pose some serious questions and problems to Christians
themselves.
This book is intended to promote interreligious dialogue.
It seeks to promote better understanding between Muslims
and Christians. Its starting point is Nostra Aetate 2:
The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in
these religions. She regards with sincere reverence those
ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings
which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she
holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that
Truth which enlightens all men. Indeed, she proclaims, and
ever must proclaim Christ "the way, the truth, and the life"
(John 14:6), in whom men may find the fullness of religious
life, in whom God has reconciled all things to Himself.
This book is a reading of the official documents of the
Church about religions and interreligious dialogue in search
for what the Catholic Church has actually recognized
officially as true and holy in Islam. I believe that the
recognition of what is true and holy in other religions is the
best way forward for interreligious dialogue.
I start with asking a simple question, ‘What is
interreligious dialogue?’ I investigate the Church Documents
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The Truth in Islam
in search of the Catholic Church’s understanding of
interreligious dialogue. Chapter 1 poses the problem of
interreligious dialogue today, according to my own
experience. In Chapter 2, I reflect upon the difficulties of
interreligious dialogue today: why is it at an impasse?
Chapter 3 explores the teaching of the Church about the
recognition of something true and holy in the religions of the
world. Nostra Aetate 2 is a very important statement of the
Catholic Church. By calling attention to that conviction in
the documents of the Church, I want to free it from any
possible doubt. In Chapter 4, I identify in the official
documents of the Catholic Church what is true and holy in
Islam. I am searching for what the Church has recognized as
true and holy in Islam since the Second Vatican Council. In
chapter 5, I analyze the documents of the current Pope about
dialogue with the Muslims to see if he indeed believes that
something true and holy does exist in Islam. Chapter 6 will
discuss the question of recognizing Mohammad as a prophet
and chapter 7 the question of the Qur’an as the word of God.
Chapter 8 will explore the different ways we may have to
share our spiritual riches. Chapter 9 reflects on the necessity
to purify our memories and finally chapter 10 explores a new
way of working together for peace. To conclude, I will
propose a way forward for interreligious dialogue today: a
sharing of our spiritual riches.
The only purpose of this book is to promote better
understanding between Muslims and Christians. I propose a
way forward in interreligious dialogue: recognizing the
spiritual bonds that unite us. This teaching of the Second
Vatican Council was never properly put into practice.
Catholics came to have different views on the attitudes
Christians should adopt towards other believers. The Church
is quite clear in her documents. I simply would like to apply
the teaching of the Church by identifying “what is true and
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holy in Islam”. This is to help my fellow Christians and
particularly Catholics to better appreciate their official
teachings.
I am also interested in reaching Muslims. I would like
Muslims to know what the Catholic Church officially sees as
true and holy in their religion. It is one thing to say that the
“Catholic Church does not reject what is true and holy in the
religions”. However, it is another thing to actually identify
those things which are “true and holy”. My purpose is to
help Muslims appreciate the official convictions of the
Catholic Church.
The inspiration for this book came during my stay in the
United States as part of the Fulbright Interfaith Community
Action Program 2008. The diversity of interreligious
initiatives in America is impressive. It is nearly impossible to
put all of what is going on in a book. It would fill volumes.
Bud Heckman’s work, The Interactive Faith: the Essential
Interreligious Community Building Handbook (Skylight
Paths 2008) is praiseworthy. However, he gave us just a
sampling of the many interreligious initiatives going on in
America. It is a movement that cannot be stopped. Each one
of us Fulbright scholars tried in our host institution to
participate in the movement. The introductory seminar in
Philadelphia gave us a taste of interreligious dialogue in
America. It was simply a celebration. All of our encounters
with people involved in interreligious dialogue were a
celebration of God’s grace and presence. The Seminar at
Dialogue Institute at Temple University, Philadelphia,
warmed our hearts. It is with such a heart that each one of us
went on to their host institution. I had the joy of staying at
the Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut, which has a
great tradition of training ministers in interfaith dialogue and
reflection.
At our host institution, we began by learning. As scholars,
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we were interested in giving and in teaching, but soon we
realized that wisdom means listening first. We learned in our
courses. We learned through conferences and seminars. We
visited interfaith organizations and centers. We celebrated
important events in the life of different communities and the
country. The doors of homes were opened to us. We were
used to seeing their outsides. Now we saw their insides and
the natural breath of American families. We worshipped
with people of other faiths. We also enjoyed ourselves. We
visited museums and parks. We walked in the cities. We
celebrated Halloween and Thanksgiving. We ate together.
We laughed together. We felt good. We also spent time
studying, reflecting and praying. We were conscious that
God was present. Each human encounter can be filled with
the divine presence. We felt the presence of God not in the
earthquake, not in the strong wind, not in the fire but as the
sound of utter silence, a gentle breeze (cf. First book of
Kings19:18) that was guiding and leading us. This book bears
the signs of our American experience.
We also gave something of ourselves. We preached. We
gave talks. We gave lectures. We participated in
interreligious panels. We shared formally and informally. I
shared with audiences my convictions in interreligious
dialogue. I then had a conference in the Muhammad Islamic
Center in Hartford. I presented what the Catholic Church has
recognized as true and holy in Islam. My Muslim audience
was very receptive and even mesmerized. They encouraged
me to publish it so that many people would come to know the
official teaching of the Church about Islam. We often know
what some Catholics think but we seldom know the official
teaching of the Church. I thank all my Muslim brothers and
sisters for helping me write this book. Muslims encouraged
me to provide them with a text. I owe this book to all my
friends in America. They encouraged me and helped me by
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reading it through and through. I thought at the beginning of
simply compiling the documents of the Church about Islam.
This work has been already done. I realized that what was
needed more was an exploration of what the Church
recognized as true and holy in Islam. Christians and Muslims
seem unable to believe that the Catholic Church has ever
recognized something like that. I hope this book fills that gap
of ignorance.
While writing this book, I realized that my past
experiences of encountering and above all discovering others
inspired me a great deal. I had the good fortune to spend one
year living in Egypt and visiting India. My stays in those
places were deep spiritual journeys for me. In Egypt and
India, I discovered other religions in their many forms and
dimensions. For God, Allah, Vishnu, Krishna, artists worked
hard to build magnificent divine dwelling places here on
earth. I allowed myself to be awakened by the muezzin early
in the morning. The calls to worship reminded me of the
importance of letting God be God in our daily lives. What
counts, ritual prayers or prayers of the heart? It does not
really matter. What matters is giving time and space to the
divine, so that He may be adored.
I went into mosques and temples. I very much enjoyed the
“removing of footwear” before entering those holy places. I
understood that something would happen there. Would it be a
burning bush? Maybe! Was it a burning heart? Certainly! To
walk barefoot in those places of worship was quite an
interesting experience of touching the untouchable, touching
the unseen. I always felt like praying in silence in those
places of worship. Praying or thinking? They do go together
at the moment. I thought of this divine, this God. Who is He
or She really? Karen Armstrong’s book “A history of God,
the 4, 000-Year quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam”
will remind me of a human being’s long search for the God
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