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A Charter of Privileges

6/9/2014

5 Comments

 
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This week the Scottish Bishops' Committee for Interreligious Dialogue met with some members of the Shia community. It was a very fruitful conversation and we learned about the difference between Sunni and Shia Muslims, the different approaches to authority and jihad in the communities and the desire of the community to be better known.  We heard a story which I am ashamed to say I knew nothing about though I feel I should have. 

We were talking about how people who perpetrate atrocities in the name of their religion are usually ignorant of the tradition. Their ignorance stems from the fact they think they know and are sure they are right.  The story was about St Catherine's Monastery in Sinai. 
It's a Greek Orthodox monastery, commonly called St Catherine's because the relics  of St Catherine are there though its official name is the Monastery of the God-trodden Mount Sinai.  It's located at the very place where God appeared to Moses in the burning bush, at the foot of the mountain where Moses received the 10 commandments so you can imagine what a sacred place it is. It's the oldest inhabited monastery in Christendom but has had to face threats to its existence. one such threat was from Islamic forces in the Middle Ages. It was saved because of a letter from the Prophet Mohammed offering it protection.

According to the tradition preserved at Sinai, Mohammed both knew and visited the monastery and knew the monks there, possibly from his years in charge of his wife's caravans.  When the young Muslim community moved from Mecca to Medina a delegation from Sinai asked Mohammed for a  letter of protection. This was granted, and authorized by him when he placed his hand upon the document.  According to the website In AD 1517, Sultan Selim I confirmed this, saving the monastery from destruction but he took the original letter of protection for safekeeping to the royal treasury in Constantinople. However he gave the monastery certified copies of this document, each depicting the hand print of Mohammed in token of his having touched the original. It was this letter that saved the monastery.

The
letter is to be seen in the monastery today. This is what it says:

"This is a message from Muhammad ibn Abdullah, as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far, we are with them.
Verily I, the servants, the helpers, and my followers defend them, because Christians are my citizens; and by Allah! I hold out against anything that displeases them.
No compulsion is to be on them.
Neither are their judges to be removed from their jobs nor their monks from their monasteries.
No one is to destroy a house of their religion, to damage it, or to carry anything from it to the Muslims' houses.
Should anyone take any of these, he would spoil God's covenant and disobey His Prophet. Verily, they are my allies and have my secure charter against all that they hate.
No one is to force them to travel or to oblige them to fight.
The Muslims are to fight for them.
If a female Christian is married to a Muslim, it is not to take place without her approval. She is not to be prevented from visiting her church to pray.
Their churches are to be respected. They are neither to be prevented from repairing them nor the sacredness of their covenants.
No one of the nation (Muslims) is to disobey the covenant till the Last Day (end of the world)."


 
Do the Islamic State know about this? Would they adopt it if they did? Or does the example of their founder not quite come up to their version of Islam - something found in other religions too.   I think this chapter of privileges would be a wonderful template for all religions to follow. Then we would be on our way to a humanity that might be able to live in peace and harmony.


5 Comments
Charles Upton link
18/9/2014 10:16:42 am

I kindly invite all readers to peruse "The Covenants of the Prophet Muhammad with the Christians of the World" (Angelico Press, 2013). Not only does it feature the Covenant of the Prophet Muhammad with the Monks from St. Catherine's Monastery in the Sinai, it also contains five other covenants concluded with the Assyrian Christians, Persian Christians, and the Christians of the Levant, as well as the Christians of Najran, and the Coptic Christians of Egypt. The work provides a comprehensive historical overview of Muslim-Christian relations. Muslims are also invited to sign the Covenants Initiative, available at www.covenantsoftheprophet.com in which they accept to abide by the Covenants of the Prophet in their dealings with peaceful Christians.

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Héctor
18/9/2014 11:23:06 am

There is something worse still, nun Isabel Smyth. The Shiites who spoke with you appropriated the work done by Dr. Morrow and present it, in fact, as a study of them. They hid the name of the author of that work. They would be thieves. You should talk to them and ask them why they did that. You should not treat as friends to that type of thieves. This is something that is repugnant to God.

Reply
Charles Upton
18/9/2014 11:49:34 pm

Dear Sr. Smyth,

Greetings of peace. I see that a statement authored by me has already been posted on this website. I would only like to add that, while Dr. John Andrew Morrow has done great work in re-discovering and re-publicizing the covenants of the Prophet with the Christians of the world, while I myself conceived of the Covenants Initiative which allows Muslims to declare themselves legally bound by these covenants today -- which is why I fully understand Hector's sentiments, who is one of our colleagues -- the main thing is to make them better known, not to own them. In line with this goal, could you forward a message from us to The Bishop's Committee for Interreligious Dialogue? It would include letters of support we received from the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in Constantinople, from Theophilos III, Patriarch of Jerusalem, and from Archbishop Vigano, the Apostolic Nuncio from the Vatican to the United States.

Sincerely,
Charles Upton
for Dr. John Andrew Morrow
and the Covenants Initiative

Reply
Héctor
19/9/2014 05:11:39 am

THE POPE TO JEWISH LEADERS EXPRESSED CONCERN ABOUT RELIGIOUS EXTREMISM
http://www.aica.org/14118-el-papa-expreso-ante-lideres-judios-su-preocupacion-por-extremismo.html
Thursday 18 Sep 2014 |
Vatican City (AICA in spanish) (Argentine Catholic Informative Agency): Pope Francisco conveyed its concern by religious extremists when he was met this Wednesday at the “Santa Marta House” with forty Jewish leaders in the world, with whom also exchanged views on the situation in the Gaza Strip. "Before you were the touched, but today are Christians who are discriminated and persecuted in various parts of the world", warned. The Pontiff also expressed his desire that the Palestine-Israel crisis can be resolved. The delegation, led by the President of the World Jewish Congress, Ronald Lauder, coincided with the Pope on the need to work together to generate greater understanding in the Middle East and diminish, thus, fundamentalism. Meanwhile, the argentine Claudio Epelman, director of the Latin American Jewish Congress and responsible for the dialogue with the Holy See of the CJM (Congregation of Jesus and María), said that Francisco expressed its desire that the Palestine-Israel crisis can be resolved. At the end of the meeting, the Pope dismissed guests one by one and gave them a commemorative coin minted by the Vatican on the occasion of the historic journey to the Holy Land.

Pope says: "Before you were the touched, but today are Christians who are discriminated and persecuted in various parts of the world"
I say: And what about Muslims? Are they not there? The victims of the Israelites are not Muslims? The Pope looks with one eye? Is the dialogue only between Catholic and Israelites? Can we speak then of dialogue between the different faith?
AICA says: The Pontiff also expressed his desire that the Palestine-Israel crisis can be resolved.
I say: About that crisis he speaks? That is a crisis or an occupation and permanent robbery with violation of hundreds of United Nations agreements?
AICA says: The delegation, led by the President of the World Jewish Congress, Ronald Lauder, coincided with the Pope on the need to work together to generate greater understanding in the Middle East and diminish, thus, fundamentalism.
I say: About what fundamentalism is spoken there? Is the dangerous Jewish fundamentalism also included? Or is it that there is only "Muslim fundamentalism”?
My dear sister Isabel. I tell him something. I know a Jesuit priest who has very close contact with the Pope Francisco. That man is the priest of my son. I took the Covenants of the Prophet Muhammad with the Christians of the world to him and I asked him what was your opinion of those pacts. The priest answered: do not interest me!! Do you think dear sister that so there can be dialogue between the three monotheistic faith? It is very clear that this is impossible. However, I'm still building bridges with Christians and Jews to develop interreligious dialogue.

Reply
Gabriel Marsh link
11/5/2021 07:45:36 am

Thaanks for writing

Reply



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    I am  a Catholic nun, involved in interfaith relations for many decades.  For me this has been an exciting and sacred journey which I would like to share with others.

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