Reconciliation - Islamic Sulha / Musalaha
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The West has been made painfully aware that Muslim nations are in conflict with the world at large. At the forefront are the hostilities between Muslim ethnic groups and their surrounding Christian neighbours. Eighteen years of ethnic and religious conflict in Sudan have left 2 million dead. Tensions are high in other nations, such as Nigeria and Indonesia, and have escalated into violence.
One look beyond Muslim / Christian tensions reveals another level: conflicts within Muslim nations and people groups. Kurds versus Turks, Arabs, and Iranians; Berbers versus Arab Moroccans, Algerians, and Tunisians.
In the Middle East, society is fragmented. There are vast and often irreconcilable differences between city dwellers, villagers and nomadic tribes. Middle-Eastern society might seem a cohesive block of shared ideologies, lifestyles, religions, and attitudes, but that is far from reality. Conflicts in Arab society are frequent and require a means for resolution.
Reconciliation
A structure for resolving conflict has existed in the Arab culture for centuries. In the harsh environments of the desert, a beautiful pearl of reconciliation was forged. At the heart of Arab society, conflict resolution has been practised for centuries in the form of the sulha (settlement). Even before Islam, sulha came about as a means for settling disputes in the absence of a legal system. Musalaha (reconciliation) is reached in the step-by-step process of sulha, practised by both Muslim and Christian Arabs. According to Islamic law (sharia), "the purpose of the Sulha is to end conflict and hostility among the Muslims so that they may conduct their relationships in peace and amity." In Jordan sulha is integrated in the judicial system; in Lebanon and the Palestinian areas it is not, yet it is widely practised.
Forgiveness
Given the severity of living conditions in the desert, competing tribes long ago realized that sulha is a better alternative to endless cycles of vengeance. Each tribe initiates the process of taking stock of its losses in human and material terms. Tradition has it that stringent conditions are set, to settle the tribal conflict definitively. The process is built on relationships, and forgiveness is required, but the penalties can be severe. One main condition is that the parties in conflict pledge to forget everything that has happened and to initiate new and friendly relations. The ritual process of sulha usually ends in a public ceremony of musalaha performed in the village square.
Musalaha might be a sought-after key to unlocking the Muslim mind for the Gospel. The Muslim understanding of reconciliation is a powerful illustration of what Christ did for humanity on the cross. As our sin separates us from God, He could demand justice from us: the wages of sin is death, and our death is the rightful sulha (settlement). Instead, Jesus is God’s provision of that sulha and we can live because in our place Jesus redeems humanity, and restores our relationship with the Father.
Prayer Points
* Pray that the ministers of the Gospel know how to use the keys to Islamic culture to unlock the hearts of those captured by bitterness and hate.
* Pray also for the West, that xenophobia will vanish and instead forgiveness, love, compassion and grace will flow through the hearts of those who believe in Christ the Saviour, especially to those from a Muslim background.
* Pray especially for those from a Muslim background who do not yet believe in Jesus as their "sulha" to the Father.
* Pray that the believers from a Muslim background will share the good news of Jesus to all their next of kin and their friends, to the glory of God our Father.
Related
Filed under: Mind Sets in Islam by TDI
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Thank you for your comments on sulhu. Very good.
However, your comments re discord among Muslims leaves out the Western input through colonialism and afterwards. The West has drawn so many artificial borders, separated brothers/sisters, placed unrelated peoples within artificial borders, distorted economies and cultures, sought to undermine Islam with its secularism. Most serious problems among them have at the bottom a Western crime. Authority for my comments can be found in my writings. See website.
The idea that Islam is a peaceful religion fails to consider the violent nature of the spread of this religion among the nations. This political system rules by fear, and terror.
People in USA don’t seem to be able to grasp the critical nature of our relations with Islam. To say they are peaceful is to ignore the 30,000 Kurds who were murdered without cause by Sadam Hussein. To say it is a peaceful religion is to say that the terrorists who attacked on 9/ll/01 were not acting in obedience to their leader’s instructions.
And, I believe, we need to address this without fear or confusion.
Their Imams often tell them that suicide-bombings are the surest way to get to heaven!
That is anything but peaceful!
We want to win their hearts to Christ with love and grace, but we must be honest about who we are dealing with…
The family of Brigette Gabrielle was very kind to their Muslim neighbors, but they attacked them with the obvious intent to kill them.
This requires a level of wisdom and grace of which we are only capable with God’s supernatural power.
We serve the God who created this earth. This is HIS kingdom, and we will be covered by His wing, but let’s not pretend we are dealing with quiet little peasants here. Sometimes these people are truly willing to die for what they believe; and they do plan to take advantage of that ticket to heaven!
while i agree that islam is not always a peaceful religion (in fact, it glorifies jihad or holy war), the killing of the kurds by saddam hussein had nothing to do with islam any more than hitler’s killing of the jews had to do with christianity. it was ethnic cleansing pure and simple. unfortunately, “christians” are not exempt from practising this. also, 9/11 was not really about islam fighting against christianity; it was at least as much, if not more, motivated by the hatred of the u.s.a. by people who felt themselves exploited. it was chanelled into a jihad mentality by osama bin laden for his own purposes, but was at base more related to the conflict between the palestinians and israel than between islam and christianity.