Thread by @AbayomiRaheem

CAN WE UNDERSTAND OURSELVES BETTER?

m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid…

As a people of Africa whose modes of worshipping God differ, consequent upon the religions we practise, could we then learn coping mechanism in relating with one another, inspite of the existence of heterogeneity?

2. ACT 1

A Christian gets angry when s/he sees a Muslim who refuses to either close his/her eyes or say 'Amen' when the Christian leads a prayer. A Muslim picks enmity in the manner a Christian refuses to say Amen to his prayers too.

In the above scenarios, both the Christian

3. and the Muslim are acting under glaring ignorance and are both unnecessarily seeking validation in the wrong place.

A conscious Christian would never say 'Amen' to a Muslim's prayer said in Arabic and in which he mentions Allah.

WHY?
How do you want someone to say AMEN to

4. what s/he knows not the meaning? Whereas, many Christians have been taught that Allah is an Arabian idol.

On the other hand, a conscious Muslim would neither close his/her eyes nor say Amen when a Christian prays in the name of Jesus.

WHY?

The tenets of Islam forbid Muslims

5. to seek help or pray through/to anyone except Allah.

Now, how do we resolve this in an heterogeneous society?

Let the two parties (Muslim and Christian) pray in the official/local language of their community and replace Jesus/Allah with God. This allows both parties to

6. interprete the word God to whatever they believe in.

ACT 2

Christians complain that some Muslims (or Muslims generally, as may be applicable in some areas) neither greet them for Christmas (celebration of Jesus birth), Easter (celebration of Jesus resurrection), New Year,

7. Cross Over celebration, etc nor eat their foods during these festivals.

Muslims also do complain that some Christians (or Christians generally, as may be applicable in some areas) don't greet them for their festivals Eid-il Fitr (End of fasting festival), Eid-il Kabir

8. (festival for slaughtering rams), Maoludi Nabbiy (celebration of Prophet Muhammad's birth), Hijrah (Muslim New Calendar Year) nor eat from their foods during these festivals etc.

The above listed situations do not warrant enmity but a thorough understanding of our differences

9. in mode and manner of worship. Since we don't share same ideology, methodology, and mode of worship, our involvement in eachother's mode of worship could either be termed trespass or deviance to one's religious tenets.

Let me break down the reasons why these two parties are

10. getting issues twisted:

Reasons why some conscious Christians do not celebrate Muslims festivals with the Muslims:

1. They know and hold the belief that Muslim slaughter RAMS for Allah, who is an Arabian idol.

2. They don't celebrate Maolud Nabiyy (birth of Prophet

11. Muhammad) because they don't recognize him as a Prophet, let alone of believing in his Prophethood. Just like the Jews don't believe in the Prophethood of Jesus.

3. Some do it in reciprocating Muslims refusal to celebrate their festivals with them.

4. Some don't just feel

12. comfortable celebrating these festivals with the Muslims.

Reasons why some conscious Muslims do not celebrate Christian's festivals with the Christians:

1. Christmas: Conscious Muslims generally don't celebrate what has no reference in their own religion. Aside that, they

13. don't believe in Jesus as a Son of God, God, or One of the Trinity, but believe that Jesus is a messenger of God. Hence, they are scared of losing their faith that preaches God's oneness and His none having a child or companion.

Consequently, they want to guide their faith

14. jealously by not participating, greeting or eating food made for that purpose.

2. Easter Celebration: Conscious Muslims don't celebrate, greet Christians or eat foods prepared for Easter because they don't believe that Jesus got crucified let alone of him being killed

15. through crucifixion, not to talk of him resurrecting. Therefore, they see their greeting Christians or eating the food prepared for this purpose as a deviation from their religious path.

3. New Years: Majority of conscious Muslims still hold the belief that New Year is a

16. pagan festival. Therefore, they don't see the need in celebrating it, despite the fact that those in the Western part amongst them make use of both the Gregorian and the Lunar Calendars to calculate their dates.

What's the ways out of these conflicts?

1. As Muslims and

17. Christians, we must know and uphold the fact that there are people of these 2 religions who don't celebrate some of these mentioned festivals.

Examples:

We have churches that don't celebrate Christmas, Easter and even New Year, while some celebrate their Christmas in late

18. January and even some in February. This is so because they believe that Jesus wasn't born in December 25th.

We have many Muslims who don't celebrate Maolud Nabiyy (birth of the Prophet Muhammad) simply because they hold on to the fact that there is no evidence that the past

19. generations of Muslims that lived with the Prophet celebrated it. They see it as bid'iah (fabrication), and knowing the implication of engaging/involving in bid'iah (fabrication), they completely eschew the celebration.

2. In as much as we have those that we practise the

20. same religion together, but still don't celebrate some of these festivals, and we don't get mad with them, let us also excuse people of other religions from our anger of their failure in celebrating our festivals with us.

3. Both religions' followers have to understand the

21. differences that exist between respect and validation of their religion.

Respect: is when the people of opposite religion do not ask us not to celebrate our festival or our religion. We must also reciprocate this amazing gesture of their respecting us and our belief.

22. Validation: This occurs when we want the people of other religion to okay, approve and be a part of what we celebrate in our own religion. Both Muslims and Christians must do away with this attitude. Don't cut friendship with someone because s/he doesn't celebrate your

23. religious festivals with you.

4. Let understand ourselves and respect our differences, just like the way Traditionalists respect both Muslims and Christians. You are likely not going to see a Traditionalist picking a fight with either Muslims or Christians for their failure

24. to join their festivals. I've witnessed egungun (masquerade) festival where they stopped drumming when they got to the vicinity of Mosques and Churches. But we (Muslims/Christians) would rather increase our speakers volume when we get closer to each other's places of worship.

25. In conclusion, Christianity and Islam are not the causes of our religious unrests, but the concentration of ignorant followership that are being led by incompetent leadership (Pastors/Imams).

It is my hope that we get this right soonest, so as to come together to push Africa

26. to her rightful position. Religion has been identified as the bane of our retrogression as a continent and that is why I took so much time to put this piece together.

27. Thanks for reading through.

m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid…

Best,
©️ Abayomi Abdulraheem
ISERH Chief Servant

NB: An extract from my lecture delivered to the Scholars of ISERH Undergraduate Studies Class 5, titled PEACEFUL COEXISTENCE: IMPLICATION ON NATION BUILDING

@threadreaderapp unroll