Keeping the Faith at Interfaith - part 1

A way to avoid divorce is to understand what divorce entails, actions that may lead to divorce and seek to find a path, by the Mercy of Allah, to distance oneself from it as far as possible.

A way to avoid the fire is to know how to avoid the fire, i.e. the actions that may lead one to the fire of hell. It is not enough to know and do the actions that will be a means to receive the Marcy of Allah and hence entry to paradise but it is also important to know the one action and/or one statement can change all that.

A way to avoid shirk is to understand what shirk is and what actions are considered shirk. In a diverse community where one is inclined to be in contact with people of other faiths and atheists, it is important to understand the practices of these people. Every action that they do and every utterance (with religious connotation) should be scrutinised, from an Islamic perspective, before we even consider engaging in the same.

The views of inclusivity do not mean "make the circle bigger" but rather to remove those parts that don't fit into the smaller circle, e.g. in our homes we cannot be inclusive by inviting people who will consume alcohol in our homes or perhaps other prohibited foods. Thus, we will invite them, but it will be on the terms of our deen, which is our way of life. And likewise, we can expand the principle to other matters including commonality with other religions. It is true that the closest religion to Islam is in fact Judaism since Jews are considered monotheists unlike Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc. Thus, if it is true that we have interfaith dialogue on common issues such as morals, then there are atheists who may share similar morals, perhaps sun-worshippers, etc. In this way the dialogue will be interfaith and beyond.

At these gatherings, we all say a prayer. The Muslim, no doubt, praising Allah and sending salutations on our beloved Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Do the others respond with "amen" - but if we were inclusive then the atheist won't respondk and neither will he/she offer a prayer. How we then do we respond when the other faiths pray to their Gods. If everyone says "amen", all well and good, but who gets the "amen" if the Muslim responds to the prayer of say the Bahai. If each one reserves their "amen" only for their own prayer, well then, the trust is already broken and why have a prayer at all.

So, one of the objectives of the Cape Interfaith Initiative is " To promote interfaith activities including prayer and meditation, faith sharing" - Is this communal praying across religions? What would we benefit from doing this? Is this the means to da'wah while it was not Prophet Muhammad's ﷺ example?

There is much to say on this subject - but can a non-Muslim, let's say a Christian, make dua for us when he addresses Jesus (peace be upon him). Is this inclusivity like someone bringing wine to your house and drinking it? - nay it is worse, because it is shirk (to worship and pray to Jesus - peace be upon him) - is it not?

In conclusion (to this part) - are we, through this initiative, exposing ourselves and our community, with little knowledge of our own religion, to other religions. Is this the way of the way of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ