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Bulletin of the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies (BRIIFS)

First § : The need for multiform dialogue has never been more critical in Southwestern Asian societies that have to deal with diverse identities, world visions, customs/traditions, and practices, such as the Lebanese and Emirati. In Lebanon, and despite all obstacles, this diversity is still promoted and preserved by several individuals and groups such as art NGOs and local authorities that have taken deliberate efforts to ensure the awareness and promotion of cultural diversity values such in education and the arts. This paper highlights a few of the many examples of dialogue for peace through the arts initiatives that have taken place in Lebanon and the UAE in the last few years and that I managed/organized or took part in — mainly the Peace Art Project at the American University in Dubai and the Nabad Program in Lebanon. These examples are cited to illustrate the relation between dialogue for peace and the arts.‬

Although many countries of the Middle East are going through difficult moments at present, where religion is misinterpreted as the main reason for conflicts and violence, there are also living experiences of peace and dialogue between people from different religions in the region, mainly Christians and Muslims. This paper suggests that religious Arabic music could be used as a method for creating nonviolent spaces that would lead to dialogue among members of both religions. Such an experience has been present in joint choirs for religious Arabic music in different countries in the region. Through examples of such choirs, the article will examine the influence of religious music and the possibility of applying it as a method for peacebuilding. Key words: Peace, religion, music, non-violence, interreligious dialogue ‬

This article puts forth the argument that the times of crises in which we live are so enormous that spirituality needs to inspire creativity that is more far-reaching than hitherto considered. We live in times of ecocide and sociocide — the destruction of our ecosphere and our sociosphere. If humanity wishes to leave this path of systemic humiliation, or at least to mitigate it, it is vital to prevent cogitocide, the degradation of our cogitosphere, of our sphere of thinking. For the cogitosphere to be healed, more is needed than placing calls for peace, justice, and charity within existing frames of living and expect others to change. Ground-breaking creativity is needed, starting with deeper questioning, including one’s own assumptions. This article therefore places question marks with concepts that at first glance seem to have little significance for ecocide and sociocide, such as ‘job’, ‘leisure’, ‘work-life balance’, ‘income’, ‘poverty’, ‘charity’, ‘professionality’, ‘business’, ‘consumer’, ‘monetisation’, ‘education’, ‘national sovereignty’, ‘church’, ‘temple’, ‘mosque’, ‘worship’, ‘meditation’, ‘prayer’. The article begins by presenting the work of anthropologist Alan Page Fiske and his four models of sociality. It proceeds with inscribing the concept of dignity into these four models, highlighting the advantages of the first model. The article then offers as case study the author’s personal experience. Her life project of many decades has been to combine spirituality and creativity to try out future ways of living that would enable all people to live one comprehensive life rather than fragmented lives, and this in service of a spirituality of dignity that overarches and connects all faiths. Planet Earth is the common good of all living beings, and everyone’s livelihood should be in harmony with the planet’s carrying capacity. The planet could be seen as humanity’s true church, temple, mosque, sanctuary, and university. The article formulates a planetary call on everyone to live one holistic life as a prayer and a meditation on global unity in diversity, in fulfilment of what could be called ‘the divinity of love’.

The paper discusses the relationship between places, imagination and spirituality. Why do people have such different ways of experiencing places? How does the Cave of the Seven Sleepers exemplify the capacity of religion to promote self and mutual understanding? Is it possible to become more skilled in cross-cultural epistemology, and what might the benefits be? Are there moments in creative processes which can be described as transcendent? A case study of an educational project using creative storytelling serves as a way of gaining some insight into the ways in which cross-cultural epistemology might operate in places viewed as culturally sacred. ‬

The thirty-second sura of the Qur’ān, Sūrat al-Sajda (“the Sura of Prostration”), is a rather short text that has hitherto received comparatively little scholarly attention vis-à-vis longer suras, suras with more explicit biblical intertextuality, or even shorter yet more distinctive or peculiar suras. At first glance, there is little that distinguishes this chapter from its numerous parallels, and the tafsīr (exegetical) and asbāb al-nuzūl (“occasions of revelation”) literature is relatively brief on its precise interpretation and relevance. To help fill this lacuna, in the present article I undertake a close reading of and commentary on Sūrat al-Sajda, along with providing my own translation of the Arabic into English. Throughout I argue three things: (A) a literary interpretation of Q 32 is greatly enhanced through familiarity with biblical themes, which the sura frequently and creatively engages;1 (B) the sura is best characterized as an eschatological proclamation drawing upon the Jewish/Christian post-biblical tradition; and (C) and somewhat relatedly, the Medieval exegetical tradition (tafsīr) often does little to elucidate a literary and historical meaning and context of this sura.

This paper aims at conducting a comparative study of Naomi Shihab Nye’s poetry and Manal Deeb’s paintings, scrutinizing their personal experiences as Palestinian American artists living between borders. The study focuses on their representations of homeland and their multi-cultural identities, examining the process of crossing borders between their ancestral homeland and the current country they live in, and their historical identities and their daily-lived experiences in different cultures. This study seeks to highlight how both artists destabilize fixed notions of identity, exile, belonging and homeland, while creating and rewriting their own identities/stories to map the homeland. Hence, the phrase “crossing the border” used in this study is not a physical act of crossing from one side to another, but rather, it is more of crossing it out as it becomes a bridge connecting both sides, and claiming existence within both—or more—realities/cultures.

Throughout the early Islamic period, people from various Shurāt subgroups identified themselves in their poetry and to others as ‘the exchangers’ (al-shurāt), an appellation derived, along with related words, from Qur’an 2:207. The faces of different categories of exchangers-the ideal, the elegized, the summoned and the leader —depict various facets of the concept of exchange. The singular form, ‘exchanger’ (shārin), was claimed as an identity by people from across the spectrum of Shurāt groups, activist and quietist, from the earliest moments of the Shurāt experience until the late Umayyad period. Its basic meaning is two-fold: making a choice and taking decisive action. Whether activist or quietist, each person who called himself an exchanger (shārin) was distinguishing himself from the governing authority. It was his interpretation of exchange that determined how he expressed his opposition. The poems containing this term give us insight into the variety of meanings that exchange could signify. In addition to being used to define ideas about governing authority and leadership, it has often been associated with fighting the adversary in battle. The poems show that it can also mean to retreat, to be executed in captivity and even to admit defeat. The exchanger (shārin) is presented in the context of his life beyond the battlefield and beyond mere rhetoric. Thus, the poetry sheds valuable light on various social relations within Shurāt communities.

The Ibāḍī sect of Islam originated in Iraq during the first/seventh century, but missionaries soon travelled west to the Maghrib where many Berbers, who had already converted to Islam, became followers. The Ibāḍī missionary effort culminated with the establishment of an Ibāḍī Imamate by ‘Abd al-Raḥmān ibn Rustam in about AH 160/AD 776. Many Berber tribes in North Africa became affiliated with this state while establishing good relations with the Aghlabids, who then ruled modern-day Tunisia and Tripolitania. When the Aghlabids launched their conquest of Sicily in 212/827, members of Ibāḍī Berber tribes were among the Muslim forces. With the establishment of Muslim rule on the island, Ibāḍī tribes from North Africa began to settle there. Arabic and Ibadi historical sources suggest that their communities in Sicily became part of the Ibāḍī trade network that flourished between sub-Saharan Africa and the Mediterranean. The rise of Ibāḍī commercial interests on the island may have led Ibāḍīs there into conflict with the new Fāṭimid state that replaced Aghlabid rule. It seems possible that some of the struggles between the Muslims of Sicily and the Fāṭimid central government in Ifrīqiya were due to Fāṭimid attempts to control the Ibāḍī trade network and to undermine the economic power of the Ibāḍī tribes on the island, much as they had done in North Africa.

Ibāḍī Islam, practiced by the sultans who ruled Zanzibar from 1832-1964, is a moderate sect that emerged out of Khārijism. Like the Khārijīs, Ibāḍīs recognize as Muslims only those who belong to their own sect; unlike the Khārjīs, they do not support violence against non-members. Although they advocate ‘dissociation (barā’a) from non-Ibāḍīs, this is an attitude of withholding religious ‘friendship’ (walāya) and not one of hostility. Ibāḍism emerged during the heated political disputes of early Islam and was nurtured in the relative isolation of Oman’s mountainous interior and of remote areas of North Africa. The sultans of Zanzibar ruled over a highly diverse population, mainly Sunnī Muslims. Bū Sa’īdī rulers sponsored the development of Zanzibar as a centre of Islamic scholarship for both Ibāḍīs and Sunnīs. In practice, Ibāḍī-Sunnī relations were very friendly and Sunnī scholars were among the sultans’ closest confidants. During the reign of Sayyid Barghash (1870-88), some conversions of Ibāḍīs to Sunnī Islam provoked a severe reaction from the monarch; Ibāḍī scholars of the time also felt threatened by the attraction of Sunnī Islam. Nonetheless, Ibāḍī and Sunnī scholars had cordial and collegiate relations and crossed sectarian lines for the purposes of study and adjudication.

The historiography of Salafī reform in the Arab world has confined this movement within Sunnī circles and completely overlooked the role of Ibāḍī Salafism. Like their Sunnī counterparts, Ibāḍī reformers in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries called for a return to the era of the salaf in order to reform religious practices and renew Islamic thought. More interestingly, Salafism paved the way for a reconciliatory position between Sunnīs and Ibāḍīs for the sake of Muslim unity. This paper sheds light on Ibāḍī Salafism and highlights aspects of this Ibāḍī -Sunnī rapprochement. It analyzes the writings of two modern Ibāḍī reformers, Qāsim al-Shammākhī and Ibrāhīm Aṭfiyyash. While both supported Sunnī reformers, each did so in a different way. Al-Shammākhī defended the Sunnī Salafī argument to abolish the madhāhib (schools of jurisprudence) and open the gates of ijtihād. This, he believed, would allow both sects to find a meeting point in the pre-madhāhib era and would reveal the truth of Ibāḍīsm to Sunnīs. Aṭfiyyash’s approach was to deny any relationship between Ibāḍīsm and Khārijism. He wanted to present Ibāḍīs as adherents to the ideals of the salaf rather than those of a splinter group. Their different approaches reflect increasing flexibility in Salafī Ibāḍīsm after World War I. In all cases, Sunnī Salafī reform appealed to Ibāḍīs and provided reformers from both sects with the opportunity to create an ideological and political alliance.‬