Two Muslim and Jewish leaders find out how similarly their faiths view our existence and our purpose in life, in this episode of Do You Belief?
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00:00 Where else do we have an opportunity, me and you, to speak?
00:04 Not in many places in the world.
00:05 We both know this.
00:07 Especially Jews and Muslims.
00:09 Hi, my name is Mohamad Imran.
00:21 I'm a Muslim and I'm one of the founding board members of Centre for Interfaith Understanding.
00:26 Hello, I'm Morty Miller from the Jewish faith and a member of the Jewish community of Singapore.
00:34 Of course I'm a Muslim and you're a Jew and there's some similarities between our faiths.
00:39 But I wanted to ask you a question about your understanding or rather the Jewish teaching
00:45 on creation.
00:47 Well actually the Bible, right, the Jewish Bible begins with creation.
00:52 The first verse for any Jew opening the Bible, the holiest book, is "Bereshit," in the beginning,
00:59 "Bara Elohim," God created, "et ha-shamayim ve-et ha-aretz."
01:05 So God created, started with heaven and earth, meaning He did not begin with the creation
01:11 of man.
01:13 And here we're answering the question of how were we created, not only the world created,
01:18 but how did mankind was created.
01:22 It was created from earth.
01:24 Man being created last can also say that man is quite important because you go into a house
01:33 only after all of the furniture is there.
01:35 So you need first to prepare everything and the most important thing, the most important
01:40 being is us human beings.
01:42 Obviously it does not mean we can overlook other creatures.
01:49 In the Quran at least, it uses the language of male and female coming from the single
01:56 essence.
01:57 I think we can both agree that both male and female, the creations of God, occupies a wonderful
02:04 place in the whole schema of creation.
02:07 And of course in Islam also there is a verse in the Quran that talks about the dignity
02:11 of humans were created.
02:14 "Wa laqad karamna bani Adam" so the children of Adam has been endowed with dignity.
02:21 And that speaks about the importance of humans to uphold that aspect of dignity because,
02:29 to use the biblical language also, that we are created in the image of God.
02:35 And there are certain values that humans need to uphold.
02:38 The fact that we come after the rest of the world has been created, we are not supposed
02:44 to destroy it, but we are supposed to take care of it because we are supposed to tread
02:51 this earth gently and be respectful of all the other creations of God.
02:58 What is my purpose towards God and what are my duties to my fellow friends, family, human
03:09 beings, universe?
03:12 The purpose, the purpose of man is to fear God and to follow the Torah, the commandments
03:19 of God and to obey the commandments of God.
03:23 We can learn, we can never really fully grasp the essence of what is God, but we can go
03:29 closer and closer by examining ourselves because man is created in the image of God.
03:36 You should love your fellow as you love yourself.
03:41 We all had our flaws or our mistakes.
03:44 This is the essence and you have to love your fellow from any religion.
03:50 You have to just love others that were created in the image of God like you love yourself.
03:56 It reminds me of how God has the most perfected aspects of his essence, all these values like
04:04 we all loving, all compassionate, all just, all merciful.
04:10 And as humans, of course, we cannot be the totality of God's essence, but we ought to
04:15 emulate.
04:16 If God is all compassionate, then we ought to display compassion in our daily interactions
04:21 with each other, with people around us, even with the non-human world.
04:26 Strive to all the kind of values that embodies in the essence of God.
04:31 And that's how I see it as God breathing life into humans in order for us to partake in
04:37 those values that is wider than us.
04:40 Islam means submission.
04:44 And of course it comes from the root word "salam" which means peace.
04:48 And that submission to God is what brings peace internally to us and around us.
04:55 And that submission is to walk humbly on earth.
04:59 That is how we submit to God.
05:01 When you were saying "salam", right?
05:03 "Salam" and "Islam" and "salam" and obviously we know the Hebrew word "shalom".
05:08 "Shalom", yes.
05:09 So "shalom" obviously is also peace, but it has another meaning.
05:13 First of all, according to Jewish tradition, it's one of the names of God.
05:17 So we have ten different attributes of God.
05:22 They're divided into many, many divisions, but one of the main divisions is the right
05:26 side that has to do with being merciful and giving, and then the left side has to do with
05:34 withdrawing.
05:36 And then the middle side is the whole of "shalom", of harmony.
05:42 Not to be too give and give and give too much, because sometimes you have to learn how to
05:49 practice the left side of life, because God also has that aspect.
05:54 And then trying to bring the whole world into balance, into harmony.
05:59 The moderation that you talk about is a well-pronounced concept in Islam, which we call "wasatiyah".
06:06 It's the middle path, the balance.
06:10 Sometimes people think that the middle way is kind of wishy-washy, compromised, but it's
06:15 not actually.
06:17 In the Muslim tradition, it's the position of strength.
06:21 Think of the midpoint at noon when the sun is at the highest.
06:25 It was a position of strength.
06:28 We need to somehow learn to live with that balance.
06:32 We do believe you have to find ways to fight the evil, and to fight the bad, and not embrace
06:42 it.
06:43 If there's someone that you just hate for no good reason, then you help him.
06:48 Don't help the other, help him.
06:50 But if there's someone that's doing evil and spreading evil and harming others, then no.
06:56 Sometimes helping him is not helping him.
07:00 We do want to fix the world.
07:03 And that's where the struggle is.
07:05 Because I do recognize, as what you have mentioned, that part of our purpose in life is to promote
07:12 peace and goodness.
07:14 But we are also confronted with the problem of evil.
07:17 But as humans, we are also forgetful.
07:19 And that's the very nature of being human.
07:21 As much as we can talk about all the lofty ideals, but sometimes in our lives, we also
07:25 fall short.
07:26 The reminder that we ought to behave in a good way to display these values can come
07:32 from anyone.
07:33 Because I personally believe these values are universal.
07:37 They are what is meant for all of humans.
07:43 And humans need to connect with these values.
07:46 And that speaks about the most important principle, at least for me, is the fact that God has
07:52 created the world with diversity.
07:56 I think it's fundamentally wrong for anyone to eliminate this diversity and treat people
08:02 who are different from them as their enemies, as you mentioned.
08:06 I don't think that is the purpose of creation.
08:09 Purpose of creation, given the diversity, is actually to know each other, to create
08:14 understanding, and to pursue the common good for all.
08:17 It's the flourishing of life, I think, that is embedded in the fact of creation.
08:24 What is my value here?
08:25 What is my added value?
08:27 To use everything God gave us, granted us, and maximize this.
08:36 We need to challenge ourselves, study.
08:40 We're lucky to have hands.
08:43 Use the hands in a way that's going to do good to the world, and so on, and so on.
08:49 Where I come from, we didn't have so many religions.
08:52 Living here is the first time that I'm encountering so many religions.
08:57 And I have an opportunity.
08:58 Where else do we have an opportunity, me and you, to speak?
09:02 Not in many places in the world.
09:04 We both know this, especially Jews and Muslims.
09:08 This is special.
09:09 This is special to me, and I think that this strengthens my Judaism, and I hope it strengthens
09:15 your Islam.
09:16 So, a Jewish person, a Muslim, we can sit down and have deep conversations about the
09:22 meaning of life, the purpose of life.
09:24 If you have any questions or comments, please leave a note, and hopefully we can continue
09:30 learning from each other.
09:32 Thank you.
09:33 [Music]
09:45 [End of Audio]