True spirituality can bring about peace 🕊️
By Thomas F O'Neill
September 11, 2001, changed our nation profoundly, and those
who remember what our lives were like prior to 9/11 realize how egregious that
attack was and how it changed us. Since then, there is a growing number of
Christian fundamentalists in America who depict Islam as nothing more than
radical suicide bombers waging war on the U.S. There is certainly a terroristic
threat against America by radical Islamic fundamentalists, but they do not
represent all of Islam.
Christian fundamentalists also have a habit of distorting
history to show how superior they are over the other religions of the world.
However, their Islamophobic rhetoric is far from the truth.
When the Christians were experiencing the Dark Ages
(400-1400 A.D.), brought on by religious extremism. Muslims were writing about
Plato, Aristotle, and other great philosophers.
It was the Muslims' deep thirst for knowledge and wisdom
that preserved some of the early literature of antiquity's greatest
philosophers. They also preserved the writings of early Christian theologians.
Most contemporary historians - but not all - believe that
during the Dark Ages the Christians burned the library of Alexandria in Egypt.
The library contained hundreds of thousands of scrolls, literature, and
knowledge of the ancient world's greatest thinkers.
The Christians at that time, however, believed that the
Bible contained all the knowledge necessary for man's salvation. That belief
resulted in the burning of the library and the loss of a treasure trove of
knowledge.
There is a particular Islamic sect known as the Sufis, who
believe all knowledge is sacred because the human intellect is ours for the
enhancement of humanity.
St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1228 A.D.) was greatly
influenced by the Sufi belief system. He and the Sufis believed that the spirit
of God is implicit and can be known intrinsically by all people, regardless of
their religious upbringing. The Sufis and St. Francis of Assisi's spirituality
stood in total contrast to mainstream Islam and the Catholic Church's teachings
at that time.
The Sufis sought to bring spirituality into the Islamic
faith by living and communicating it altruistically. St. Francis was trying to
accomplish a similar mission within the Catholic Church of his day.
In the 13th century, Muslim and Christian extremists were
slaughtering one another in the name of religion. St. Francis, however, walked
into the Muslim camps without harm. He talked to the Muslims about Sufi
spirituality and how similar it was to his own.
He was revered by Muslims and Christians alike for his
implicit understanding that if you want to be understood, you must touch the
hearts of others. He did not accomplish his mission by imposing his will and
beliefs upon others. He simply lived his life as he would want others to live
their lives; in doing so, others embraced and emulated his way of life.
The Sufi Muslims have a similar mission: to bring about
peace in the world through a genuine, authentically lived spirituality.
We mustn't judge all Muslims by fanatical fundamentalists.
On the contrary, there are many good and spiritual followers of Islam.
Fundamentalism is dangerous - it forces ill-willed people to
live their lives ignorantly due to a lack of spiritual insight and a
narrow-minded belief system. You can find these extremists in every religion
throughout history.
Religion is shaped by one's parents and by their parents'
parents, but our spirituality is what we are born with. Spirituality is the
spark, the essence, and the spirit that sustains us and all things. It's beyond
rituals and religious symbols because it's the core of our existence. True
spirituality is the torch that lights the way, not religious principles that
are imposed or mandated on others. It is lived and expressed freely in one's
character for others to emulate and embrace.
I did not write this with the intent of offending the
religious. I wrote this as a way of expressing how religious beliefs and
differences separate people. On the other hand, spirituality can and does unite
those who are searching for an altruistic way of life.
Thomas F O'Neill
Email: introspective7@hotmail.com
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posted by Thomas F. O'Neill | 4:17 AM
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