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The Al-Alwani Cover Draft FINAL FOR PRINT.qxp_Layout 1 09/09/2020 17:50 Page 1 FINE DIFFERENCES Reaffirming our joint spiritual journey to God, and spiritual responsibility towards humanity is the burden we all share and the antidote to bigotry, prejudice, and all those ideologies that betray mankind’s sense of compassion and justice. Wholeness – despite our persisting fine differences – for society and for persons is the theme of this Muslim-Christian dialogue sustained for six years in Washington, D.C. : THE AL-ALWANI MUSLIM-CHRISTIAN LECTURES 2010 : THE AL-ALWANI The power of faith is the power to unite and the recognition of commonalities through the medium of communication is one path to achieve this, and one element of Iraqi legal scholar Taha Jabir al-Alwani’s greater vision. In 2007 a conversation began between John W. Crossin, a priest of the Order of St. Francis de Sales seeking to open the door of the forty-year-old Washington Theological Consortium – heretofore all-Christian – and Ahmed Alwani, son of Taha Jabir al-Alwani. The younger Alwani was seeking an institutional partner for his father’s project of relating Islamic scholarship to Western social sciences. • Must religious emotions and ideas fuel social conflict? • Who pays the cost of mediating conflict? ‘ • What is the right way to value human labor? • Who and what is meant by the Qur’an’s reference to the “People of the Book” ? FINE DIFFERENCES Addressing these divisive issues, Muslim and Christian thinkers in pairs dig down toward their respective ultimate convictions. Occasionally the pair concurs. Always they elucidate their fine differences. – 2017 THE AL-ALWANI MUSLIM-CHRISTIAN Edited lectures by RICHARD J. JONES 2010-2017 isbn 978-1-56564-955-2 EDITED RICHARD J. JONES e-book isbn 978-1-64205-313-5 by cover image © istock, vectorplusb ALWANI LECTURES TEXT_text 18/08/2020 18:20 Page i FINE DIFFERENCES THE AL-ALWANI MUSLIM-CHRISTIAN LECTURES 2010-2017 ALWANI LECTURES TEXT_text 16/06/2020 16:51 Page ii iiit london • washington ALWANI LECTURES TEXT_text 16/06/2020 16:51 Page iii FINE DIFFERENCES THE AL-ALWANI MUSLIM-CHRISTIAN LECTURES 2010-2017 Edited by Richard J. Jones iiit london • washington ALWANI LECTURES TEXT_text 16/06/2020 16:51 Page iv © IIIT 1441AH /2020CE IIIT, P.O. Box 669, Herndon, VA 20172, USA • www.iiit.org P.O. Box 126, Richmond, Surrey TW9 2UD, UK • www.iiituk.com Sponsor of the Lecture Series: The Washington Theological Consortium The Washington Theological Consortium is a network of graduate theological schools from a variety of Christian traditions, including Byzantine and Roman Catholic, mainline Protestant, Evangelical, and Historic Black divinity schools. The Consortium enables these schools to share course offerings, libraries, joint Certificate programs and other opportunities for faculty, student and public enrichment. With its partner institutions in Islamic, Jewish, and Spirituality studies, the Consortium also devel- ops courses and public programs for interfaith dialogue, including the Taha Al-Alwani Lectures. This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of the publisher. ISBN 978-1-56564-955-2 limp ISBN 978-1-56564-956-9 cased E - ISBN 978-1-64205-313-5 The views and opinions expressed in this book are those of the author and not necessarily those of the publisher. The publisher is not responsible for the accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites, if cited, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Layout and Design by Shiraz Khan Printed in the USA ALWANI LECTURES TEXT_text 16/06/2020 16:51 Page v endorsement comparisons are odious, as the saying goes. This is true when comparisons are made to claim the superiority of one thing over another. This is not the case in the volume edited by Richard Jones where parallel presentations by Christians and Muslims explore differences without any polemical bias, but rather in the spirit of “receptive ecumenism”, the sharing of gifts. The topics of the papers are wide-ranging: migration and integra- tion, reaction to violence, mediation, the ethics of work, law, pluralism — showing that Christian-Muslim dialogue is a rich field. The volume will be of interest to many different types of readers. Michael L. Fitzgerald, M.Afr. Apostolic Nuncio former president of the pontifical council for interreligious dialogue ALWANI LECTURES TEXT_text 16/06/2020 16:51 Page vi ALWANI LECTURES TEXT_text 16/06/2020 16:51 Page vii Contents Foreword ix Editor’s Introduction xiii 1 From Baghdad to Leesburg: A Leader of al-Ta’āruf 1 Zainab Alwani 2 Washington as a Site of Muslim-Christian Encounter 10 Richard J. Jones 3 Making Peace: Islam and the West 25 Abdul-Aziz Said 4 The Cost of Mediation: Who Pays? 31 Richard J. Jones 5 Economic Health, Division of Labor, and the Three Dimensions of Islam 42 Waleed El-Ansary 6 Good Work and Good Works 78 Richard J. Jones 7 Islamic Law and the Law of the Land 88 Azizah Y. al-Hibri 8 Religious Law and Civil Law of Marriage in the United States 93 Richard J. Jones 9 The Qur’an and the People of the Book 103 Seyed Amir Akrami ALWANI LECTURES TEXT_text 16/06/2020 16:51 Page viii 10 People of Scripture: A Christian Response 118 Pim Valkenberg 11 Violence in the Name of Religion 134 Anthony C. E. Quainton 12 Violence in the Name of Islam: Origins, Developments, and Promising Transformations 140 Amr Abdalla 13 African Nationalism and Its Effects on Interreligious Relations 148 Sulayman S. Nyang 14 Interreligious Dialogue and Governance in Africa: Response to Sulayman Nyang 155 Kwasi Kwakye-Nuako 15 The Qur’anic Foundation of Interreligious Tolerance 160 Abdulaziz Sachedina 16 Religious Faiths in a Pluralist Society 175 Daniel A. Madigan Afterword 185 Appendix 186 Contributors 189 ALWANI LECTURES TEXT_text 16/06/2020 16:51 Page ix FOREWORD n internationally recognised and respected expert in the fields of Islamic legal theory, jurisprudence (fiqh), and usul al-fiqh, Taha J. al- AAlwani (1935-2016) was a graduate of Al-Azhar University, President of Cordoba University in Ashburn, Virginia, United States, (where he also held the Imam Al-Shafi’i Chair in Islamic Legal Theory at the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences), and one of the founders and one time president of IIIT. The lectures collected in this volume were delivered between 2010 and 2017 in a series sponsored by the Washington Theological Consortium and named in his honor. A prolific writer and researcher, al-Alwani wrote on a wide range of subjects, substantially presenting the Islamic theological perspective on many of the issues facing modern society. These have been translated into major languages, making his name familiar to both English and non-English/Arabic speaking readers across the Muslim and Western worlds – his insights and penetrating logic continuing to give great value and relevance to his works. Al-Alwani was a leader in his field and strongly believed in dialogue between different faiths and cultures, his purpose being to foster under- standing and respect for the differing interpretations of the Divine by the Other, with a view to strengthening relationships based on that belief. He understood that intrinsic to the inner and spiritual realizations of those who drink from a revelational spring other than one’s own, is a set of theologically related fundamentals common to all faiths and across which a complementary conversation can begin. The power of faith is the power to unite and the recognition of commonalities through the medium of communication is one path to achieve this, and one element of al-Alwani’s greater vision. For this to be genuine one has to allow proponents of faith to speak for themselves, that is to freely present their understanding of the spiritual tradition(s) they collectively live by and which shape their understanding of the meaning and purpose of life and humankind’s relation to God as they view it. In an attempt to continue ix ALWANI LECTURES TEXT_text 16/06/2020 16:51 Page x FOREWORD al-Alwani’s legacy IIIT has offered just this, a platform for people to ‘speak for themselves’, that is to enunciate their faith perspective, the culmination of which is this anthology. Each contributor offers their own unique style of exposition and characteristic interpretation based on the theological perspective from which they choose to view their spiritual station. The topics are varied and do not shy away from some time-honored points of contention, but they also contend with many time honored universal truths. Most important of all, the approach taken is one of open and intelligent dialogue. Taken together we are presented with an informative account of the spiritual traditions and indeed heritage of others and the inner meaning they give to the topics they have chosen to discuss in relation to their faith. Dialogue is not easy, for it initially takes a person out of their comfort zone and requires on their part mental effort and a broadening of horizons. But in the end dialogue pays dividends. Essays such as those in this anthology are interesting in that reading below the surface of text one begins to build a better picture of high aspirations and noble aims, bringing commonality into focus. Doubtless readers will agree on some of the positions taken and disagree on others. That is precisely the point, to discover points of both convergence and divergence, and walk away having imbibed a greater wisdom. That is the power of faith to unite, as al-Alwani saw it.
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