Love and Friendship as Manifestation of the Divine
Understanding peace and coexistence holistically to restore, nurture and nourish our common humanity
Love and Friendship: The Heart and Soul of Peacemaking
‘One’s life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation and compassion.’- SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR
Love and friendship, generosity of heart and spirit, always ready to welcome strangers into their midst, are profoundly ingrained in the heritage of the Middle Eastern people. This must be a reminder that peace and coexistence is possible, should the region decide to rediscover its true civilisation.
Middle East: The Cradle of Civilisation
The ancient Middle East gave rise to some of the greatest empires in human history, including Mesopotamia, Babylonia, the Persian Empire and the Byzantine Empire.
The ancient Middle East is the birthplace of Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Three religions, one God.
The Middle East is the land of equals in the eyes of creation and the creator, where everyone is special and no one is exceptional.
What is the purpose of this journey we call life?
What is the essence of a good life?
What is Life's Greatest Gift?
As the Persian sage, poet and philosopher of love, Molana
Jalāl al-Dīn Moḥammad Rūmī, has so wisely reminded the world:
‘We are born of love; Love is our mother.’
‘Love is the bridge between you and everything.’
'Reason is powerless in the expression of Love.’
Let us all come together as composers of symphony of love, do what is right, and achieve the gift of peace and friendship that has eluded the region for such a long time.
Paraphrasing the timeless words of Rumi, suffering people of the Middle East, I urge you to rise and' become a pilgrim on the road of love. The first condition is that you make yourself humble as dust and ashes.' Then, believe me, having rediscovered love, angels will land on your hearts and miracles of peace will appear in your lives and communities.
image: alberto miranda via economist.com
A Call to Peace in the Middle East, I call upon you, enough is enough. Seek unity and speak for peace
Enough is Enough. Enough of hatred, animosity, killing, murders, and assassinations. Enough of bombs, missiles, drones, conquering and occupation. Enough of injustices, lies and cheats. Enough of indifference, cruelty, pain and hurt. Enough of insecurity, divisions, separations, burning bridges, expulsions, lack of dreams, imagination, despair and hope.
The time is now for the Middle East to embark on a different project and change direction from war and destruction to love, friendship and reconstruction. The time is now to detoxify the region and move it away from darkness to light, from coldness to warmth, from inhumanity to tenderness and compassion. Time to reimagine a better Middle East, a better and more hopeful life, where love takes a centrepiece, underpinning everything that is in everybody's daily lives. Where each person has a place he/she can call home, flying their flags of nationhood with pride. Where there will be no more wars, but dialogue, conversation and non-violent resolution of conflicts. Where everything is designed to foster understanding and mutual respect between the people, nurturing and increasing their sympathy, empathy, generosity, and kindness towards each other, their communities and societies, to enable and empower them to build bridges of love to peace and coexistence.
This is the Middle East I wish to see and I believe the children of Abraham have the capacity and the means to build it, if they collectively take action in the interest of the common good.
ILLUSTRATION BY NADEZDA GRAPES/ADOBE STOCK
Soon they will discover that there must be peace and that they must be able to coexist and live in peace and harmony.
Soon they have to begin a peace process before everyone is killed and everything is destroyed and thus nobody left to negotiate the peace for.
Soon they will realise that military responses, destruction and brutality would not end the terror, the conflict, the war. Rather, they would spark a cycle of escalating violence, the loss of innocent lives, children, mothers and fathers.
Vengeance, retaliation, brutalisation, dehumanisation and humiliation of the ‘other’ is not a sign of strength, it is indeed the sign of weakness of character and peronality and of a troubled mind.
The only path is to work together decisively and cooperatively and work for understanding, mutual respect and justice for all.
What is needed is civility and humanity.
Thus, at my table of peace negotiations, as well as the usual crowd of participants, there will also be seats for philosophers of love, poets, mystics, spiritual and cultural leaders, artists and storytellers, to bring meaning to discussions and show the negotiators what it means to be human and what life and living is all about.
The enemies of peace, goodness, and friendship, for sure may accuse me of being nothing but a dreamer!
To the usual doom-and-gloom brigade, I say:
‘The world belongs to the dreamer and doer
That lives within you and me
We build a better future when we are willing
To let our best ideas roam free
Today, the world is calling upon us
To activate our power
To dream differently.’
One who dreams is called a prophet
All in all, a pertinent question is: Can there be peace in the Middle East? I say YES, if there is a will for it and if we are guided by the spirit of our humanity and the sanctity of life as a sacred value.
We must not be defeated by hopelessness. Everyone should remain hopeful and positive that peace is possible.
Nota bene
‘Think of Others’
As you prepare your breakfast, think of others
(do not forget the pigeon’s food).
As you conduct your wars, think of others
(do not forget those who seek peace).
As you pay your water bill, think of others
(those who are nursed by clouds).
As you return home, to your home, think of others
(do not forget the people of the camps).
As you sleep and count the stars, think of others
(those who have nowhere to sleep).
As you liberate yourself in metaphor, think of others
(those who have lost the right to speak).
As you think of others far away, think of yourself
(say: “If only I were a candle in the dark”).
And
‘The war will end
The leaders will shake hands
The old woman will keep waiting for her martyred son
That girl will wait for her beloved husband
And those children will wait for their heroic father
I don’t know who sold our homeland
But I saw who paid the price.’-Mahmoud Darwish, author, poet and storyteller
There are literally thousands and thousands of books, articles, analysis, reports and documents that have tried to shed light on the Middle East, its wars, conflicts and daily crises. These studies range from emphasising the historical/religious/ cultural/ linguistic, nationalistic reasons to regional/national, international rivalries and competition for the region’s natural resources and more recently for the access/control of water; to arms sales in the interest of recycling the petrodollars and to ensure democracy never finds a foot hole in the region, so that it remains weak, unstable, divided, and ripe for exploitation, control, plunder and pillage.
When it comes to peacebuilding, as many scholars of peace studies and peace education have noted, ‘Peace is notoriously difficult to define, and this poses a special challenge for articulating any comprehensive philosophy of peace. Any discussion on what might constitute a comprehensive philosophy of peace invariably overlaps with wider questions of the meaning and purpose of human existence. The definitional problem is, paradoxically, a key to understanding what is involved in articulating a philosophy of peace.’
Here in this short piece, my main aim is to introduce one very significant element that has been missing to a better understanding of the crises in the Middle East and on how we may understand this process better, to enable us to suggest a possible solution. This, in my opinion, is a significant omition. Without this and other similar values we will not succeed in peace building.
For me, that missing element is our humanity, our spirit and our heart and soul. At my roundtable for peace negotiations, there will be seats for philosophers of love, poets, mystics, spiritual and cultural leaders, artists and storytellers, to bring meaning to discussions and show the negotiators what it means to be human and what life and living is all about.
For so long a so-called group of small groups of powerful people with deep vested interests, who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political/economic power, devoid of any humanity have been running this disastrous show.
Time is now for us to be led by our humanity and the philosophers of love, where all the issues from all sides can be addressed with an eye on justice and accountability by taking action in the interest of the common good, where the negotiations can be conducted in the spirit of open heartedness to the extent that the negotiators will maximise love and caring, kindness and generosity, sympathy and empathy, contributing to our capacity to respond with awe, wonder and radical amazement at the grandeur and mystery of life and our place in the planet of earth we call home. Carpe diem!
Hope for the region lies in the transformative power of love, forgiveness and reconciliation, lest we forget.
Courage and good-heartedness to take action in the interest of the common good to build a lasting peace
All said and done, Love is Life’s Greatest Gift. I pray that, one day again, and I hope very soon, the children of Abraham will devise a way to live together in peace, dignity and harmony. Amen.