A Muslim Prayer for Peace?

My girlfriend was in Manhattan recently and went to see the great gash that remains from the Islamist terror attack on September 11. She happened to visit nearby St. Paul’s Chapel, which gained renown as a place of rest for exhausted fire and rescue workers following the attack. She was surprised to find Muslim prayer cards officially distributed by the Chapel. On the front, the cards bear a photograph of the chapel, datable by a poster in the background to Easter of 2002. On the reverse side the cards bear the title “Muslim Prayer for Peace” and the following inscription:

In the name of Allah,
the beneficent, the merciful.
Praise be to the Lord of the
universe who has created us and
made us into tribes and nations
that we may know each other, not that
we may despise each other.
If the enemy incline towards peace, do
thou also incline towards peace, and
trust God, for the Lord is the one that
heareth and knoweth all things.
And the servants of God,
most gracious are those who walk on
the Earth in humility, and when we
address them, we say “PEACE.”

I am skeptical about the rationale behind a Christian church dispensing Muslim prayer cards, especially a church so physically and emotionally tied to an unconscionable act of war inspired by Islam. Ecumenism has no value if the intent to dialogue is not embraced by all parties. While the existence of Muslim prayer cards in St. Paul’s may evince a desire on the part of some Muslims to reach out to Christians, I doubt very much that any mosque would dispense Christian prayer cards to promote peace and understanding. What is more, while the prayer on the card may be intended to promote peace, the verses of the Koran from which it is derived are properly construed as promoting bigotry and violence.

I have not discovered the origin of this Prayer (I would be interested in hearing from anyone with information about the Prayer's origin), but a Google search results in hundreds of references to it. For this reason I assume it is widely used by Muslims, and frequently referenced by non-Muslims. The Prayer has four parts:

- a formulaic Islamic invocation;
- a statement that God made tribes and nations for peaceful purposes;
- instruction that peaceful enemies be left alone;
- and an assertion that God’s servants are humble and should be addressed peacefully.

The Exordium

The first part of the Prayer, “In the name of Allah, the beneficent, the merciful,” is inspired by the first chapter or surah of the Koran, called “The Exordium.” This part of the Prayer could be construed as ecumenical in spirit because it mentions the God that Muslims hold to be common to the three Abrahamic faiths without mentioning the Muslim prophet, Muhammad, who denied the divinity of Christ, and who is not accepted by Christians or Jews.

Muslims will know, however, that this part of the Prayer draws upon The Exordium, which ends with the sentence, “Guide us to the straight path, the path of those whom You have favoured, not of those who have incurred Your wrath, nor of those who have gone astray.” (1:7) Prayers of ecumenism and peace should emphasize points of agreement, rather than points of contention. When a phrase used in a prayer with ecumenical purpose is grounded in “scripture” that describes as having gone astray the very people or religion with which one is doing ecumenism, it is not unrealistic to question the sincerity behind the prayer.

The Chambers

The second part of the Prayer, “Praise be to the Lord of the universe who has created us and made us into tribes and nations that we may know each other, not that we may despise each other,” is grounded in the surah called “The Chambers.” This part of the Prayer could be construed as asserting that God created differences between all the people of the earth for purposes of peace. Lacking Koranic context, that is the most obvious conclusion.

The Chambers, however, addresses relations between (1) Muhammad and his followers, (2) his followers themselves, and (3) the Arab peoples in general. Nowhere in this surah is there an indication that it is addressed to a broader non-Muslim or non-Arab audience. Verse 13 reads, “You people! We have created you from a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you might get to know one another. The noblest of you in God’s sight is he who is most righteous. God is all-knowing and wise.” (49:13)

Taken in context, the reference to God creating nations and tribes is a reference to the Arab nations and tribes of Muhammad’s day, not to the broader human tribes and nations- then or now. This Muslim and Arab centric view is bolstered by verse 14, which clearly frames the discussion in the context of Arabs who follow Muhammad and the Arabs of the desert: “The Arabs of the desert declare: ‘We are true believers.’ Say: ‘Believers you are not.’ Rather say: ‘We profess Islam,’ for faith has not yet found its way into your hearts. If you obey God and His apostle, He will not deny you the reward of your labours. God is forgiving and merciful.” (49:14)

A prayer for peace between the tribes and nations of the world could be sincerely inspired by a Koranic passage originally intended to address the Arab tribes and nations of the Arab peninsula. Questions about the sincerity of the prayer are appropriate, however, when relevant parts of the passage from which it is drawn encourage violent bigotry. Verse 15 of The Chambers reads, “The true believers are those that have faith in God and His apostle, and never doubt; and who fight with their wealth and with their persons in the cause of God. Such are those whose faith is true.” (49:15) These are not peaceful words and they are bound by context to the words used in the Prayer.

The Spoils

The third part of the Prayer, “If the enemy incline towards peace, do thou also incline towards peace, and trust God, for the Lord is the one that heareth and knoweth all things,” is grounded in verse 61 of the surah called “The Spoils.” That this part of the Prayer, taken from the Koran, offers peace to Christians who are inclined toward peace does not offset the fact that the same Koranic verse infers that Christians are enemies. In effect, then, Christians are being labeled as enemies on literature distributed in their own church.

The Spoils addresses the duty of all “believers” to fight “unbelievers” and notes that those who so struggle are entitled to the spoils of war. Specifically, The Spoils focuses on the Battle of Badr. Islamic tradition teaches that Muhammad planned to attack an unarmed Meccan caravan, but his plan for easy spoils was disrupted when Mecca sent an army to defend the caravan. During the ensuing Battle of Badr, Muhammad led some 319 men to unexpected victory against the reinforced Meccans who numbered nearly 1,000 men.

Verse 61 reads, “If they incline to peace, make peace with them, and put your trust in God. It is surely He who hears all and knows all. Should they seek to deceive you, God is all-sufficient for you. He has made you strong with His help and rallied the faithful round you, making their hearts one. If you had given away all the riches of the earth, you could not have so united them: but God has united them. He is mighty and wise. (8:61) This is a halfhearted approach to peacemaking. It does not instruct Muslims to be peacefully inclined, but rather to grant peaceful terms only to those who are inclined to make peace. It instructs Muslims to be skeptical about the sincerity of others with the suggestion that they might “… seek to deceive you.”

The verses immediately preceding verse 61 are explicit in advocating violence: “Let not the unbelievers think that they will ever get away. They have not the power so to do. Muster against them all the men and cavalry at your command, so that you may strike terror into the enemy of God and your enemy, and others besides them who are unknown to you but known to God. All that you give in the cause of God shall be repaid to you. You shall not be wronged.” (8:59 - 60)

The verses immediately following verse 61 are equally emphatic in their call to violent bigotry:

“Prophet, God is your strength, and the faithful who follow you. Prophet, rouse the faithful to arms. If there are steadfast men among you, they shall vanquish two hundred: and if there are a hundred, they shall rout a thousand unbelievers, for they are devoid of understanding. God has now lightened your burden, for He knows that you are weak. If there are a hundred steadfast men among you, they shall vanquish two hundred; and if there are a thousand, they shall, by God’s will, defeat two thousand. God is with those that are steadfast. A prophet may not take captives until he has fought and triumphed in the land. You [Muhammad’s followers] seek the chance gain of this world but He desires for you the world to come. God is mighty and wise. Had there not been a previous writ from God you would have been sternly punished for what you took. Enjoy therefore the good and lawful things which you have gained in war, and fear God. God is forgiving and merciful.” (8:62 – 70)

An important phrase in this surah is that, “… victory comes only from God.” This assertion is a basis for an Islamic theological proof, namely, that the rapid success of Islam in conquering so much of the world was proof of the rightness of Muhammad and Islam. Islamists today- Osama bin Laden among them- use this proof to recruit terrorists like those who murdered more than 3,000 people on 9-11. They argue that God has allowed the decline of Islam because Muslims have ceased combating the unbeliever, and that God will restore glory to Islam when Muslims again take the offensive.

The Spoils can not be properly construed as other than a call to violence, bigotry and theft. It is insulting that this surah inspired a Muslim Prayer for Peace that is used for ecumenical purposes. It is surreal that the same Prayer is distributed by Christians in a Christian church in response to an Islamist act of war.

Al-Furqan

The fourth and final part of the Prayer asserts that God’s servants are humble and should be addressed peacefully, and comes from verse 64 of the surah titled “Al-Furqan.” The Prayer reads, “And the servants of God, most gracious are those who walk on the Earth in humility, and when we address them, we say 'PEACE.'” Here, as in previous parts of the Prayer, Koranic context provides a meaning rather different than the obvious. Compare the language of the Prayer with its inspiration in Al Furqan, “True servants of the Merciful are those who walk humbly on the earth and say: ‘Peace!’ to the ignorant who accost them.” (25:64)

Al Furqan is a response to Muhammad’s detractors. It rebukes those of his contemporaries who viewed him as a fraud, it defends his claim of the Koran as revelation, and it promises the unbelievers no end of torture and suffering in the afterlife. Taken in context, the inspiration for the final part of the Prayer is Muhammad’s anger and frustration over those who did not accept his message. The language in the Prayer, which is derived from Al Furqan, does extend peace to the unbeliever. This offer of peace is insulting, however, because when taken in context, it is addressed to a “them,” defined as ignorant unbelievers who accost Muslims.

Praying For Peace

It is possible to construe the Muslim Prayer for Peace with the assumption that its proponents have the purest ecumenical intentions. However, in doing so, one must blindly untether the prayer from the unfortunate hateful context of its Koranic moorings, and one must ignore the overt labeling of non-Muslims as enemies. This approach, extending every benefit of the doubt, is naive. Islamic theology is well defined and those writing and publishing Muslim prayers can be expected to understand the context of the verses referenced in the prayers they publish.

Islam provides a peaceful framework for religious devotion for hundreds of millions of people in spite of the bigotry and intolerance that shape the Koran. With this in mind, it should be possible to write a Muslim prayer for peace with no contextual references to bigotry and intolerance. It is important to question why a peace prayer that is widely used by Muslims draws upon contextually bigoted and violent Koranic verses. It is imperative to question why such a prayer is being distributed by a Christian church.

* Koranic verses taken from the translation by N.J. Dawood, published by Penguin Classics.

Posted by publius at June 1, 2004 02:14 PM