Remembering Heroes and Victims
In this newsletter:
1. Muhammad Ali and his legacy – An Elijah perspective
2. Responses to Orlando – Elijah’s Leaders and Scholars Respond
3. Remembering Judith Hertz
1. Muhammad Ali and his legacy – An Elijah perspective
The death of Muhammad Ali, the funerary rites and the interfaith service held in his memory drew much global attention. Members of Elijah’s network have a special relationship to Muhammad Ali’s legacy. Elijah scholar, Timothy Gianotti, has been working closely with Ali’s family in planning the funeral, helping the family to get things ready. The family were able to provide information such as the weight of a casket, the types of flowers they would like, and other personal items that would help to ensure that his funeral would be taken care of without great stress to his family. Gianotti was quoted extensively in the media. We have asked him for a tribute to Ali, that captures his experiences in working with Ali and his impressions from the funeral and interfaith service.
Architect Lee Skolnick has been working with Elijah on the initial design of the Center of Hope. Click here to see the brochure and designs by Skolnick. One of Skolnick’s most celebrated projects is the Muhamad Ali Center in Louisville, Kentucky. Wisdom asked Skolnick for a tribute to Ali, capturing his experiences and impressions from years of collaboration with Ali.
A memory of Muhammad Ali
Lee H. Skolnick
Over the course of eight years, I was privileged to spend time with Muhammad Ali as we conceived and realized the Center in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky that would bear his name. This magical period of my life will always be a transformative and defining experience in so many ways.
Based on an international competition in the very earliest stages of the development of the project, we were selected to help develop the mission, goals and objectives, themes and concepts for the experience, as well as searching for the best location for the facility and creating its conceptual architectural and exhibition design. While we were naturally extremely attracted at the prospect of celebrating Muhammad Ali’s phenomenal life and the example he set as an ambassador for peace, I like to believe that our selection was based on not just our experience and expertise, but also on our passion for the project’s humanitarian mission and my pronouncement that after all the competitions, we would be “the last ones standing!”
Muhammad embodied and radiated the humanity to which we must all aspire. His vision was not to create a monument to himself, his career and triumphs. Rather, he sought to build a local and international resource that would be an inspiration and active motivator to help all people become “the best me possible”.
Muhamad Ali & I
For Muhammad, that meant using his life as a teaching example. Here we would demonstrate what it means to stand up for one’s beliefs even when it meant enduring great personal sacrifice. We would share the enormous strength that derives from a life centered on one’s faith. And we would spread the enduring truth that respect and sympathy for all peoples’ religious beliefs is the key to achieving a world of peace and grace.
How supremely fortunate I felt to travel the country with Muhammad and his wife, Lonnie, as we searched for meaningful and effective ways to deliver these messages to the widest possible audiences. It was of critical importance to all of us that The Muhammad Ali Center would be a place that welcomed and positively impacted all people– those of all ages, ethnicities, and religions. A place, in fact, that would bring people together to recognize and celebrate our shared values, ethics, hopes and dreams. To accomplish this, we conducted research visits to civil rights museums, presidential libraries, sports halls of fame, and even Graceland!
And it would be a mistake to forget how joyful and exhilarating this quest was. Spending time with Muhammad was pure fun. He radiated an aura that welcomed you into a very special place. His respect and love for all people was manifested in humor, warmth, and when you were with him there was an empowering sense that you were exactly where you were meant to be. As he greeted and responded to well-wishers and fans with his playful antics and goofy magic tricks, I never saw a moment of him judging anyone based on the color of their skin, their religious beliefs, their station in life, or their age. He responded to their goodness and they replied in kind. Ultimately, you actually felt like you were a better person by the experience and example of having been in his presence.
It remains to be seen whether we have achieved our goal of having the Muhammad Ali Center serve as a shining light that draws people together and succeeds in inculcating in future generations a deep appreciation for what we share rather than what divides us. Goodness knows that we hunger for this today more than ever. As Lonnie related to a friend on the days just before Muhammad’s passing– he can’t go yet, the world still needs him.
I was blessed and forever changed by getting to spend time with Muhammad and to try, in my small way, to assist him and Lonnie in their noble humanitarian mission. I was privileged and enlightened by coming to understand the true meaning behind his eloquent and profound Harvard University speech: “Me, We”. And I was emboldened to believe that it is truly possible to make the world a better place by inspiring each and every person to believe in their own goodness, potential and worth.
The world has lost a heavyweight champion for peace and understanding. But his legacy and lessons will forever endure.
MUHAMMAD ALI: Reflecting on a decade of serving a soul’s preparations for the journey home
Timothy J Gianotti
For over a decade, I was blessed with the privilege of being one of two Muslim scholars/theologians who worked with Muhammad and Lonnie Ali, along with a small team of dedicated professionals – lawyers, accountants, funeral directors, PR specialists and event planners, law enforcement and security, government officials, etc. – to prepare for Muhammad Ali’s inevitable passage from this world to the next, ensuring that he had the best types of funeral resource available to him. Muhammad had given this much thought as his body declined, and he wanted his funeral events to be his last statements to the people of planet Earth. He insisted that his burial and funeral be in accord with Islamic law and traditions, but he wanted everything – insofar as it was possible – to be open to and inclusive of folks of all backgrounds and faiths. In other words, anchored in an unwavering belief that God is one and so godly religion must be unitive, he wanted to bring diverse peoples and faiths together in these special and definitive celebrations of his life and legacy.
The spiritual and practical preparation for death and the afterlife is considered to be a critically important dimension of Muslim spiritual life, and so I was happy to be of service when I received a call some ten years ago to help an anonymous yet “prominent” American Muslim think through what it would mean for him to have an authentic Muslim funeral that would be religiously inclusive. As I researched Muslim traditions and consulted with trusted scholars and religious leaders about an increasingly complex array of hypothetical situations and questions, I crafted briefs for the client and his/her team of advisors. As the trust grew between us and the briefs were becoming one larger work on Muslim funerary practices and possibilities, non-disclosure agreements were brought out, and the identity of the client was revealed. At this point, the contractual nature of my consulting melted away and the work became a work of love and service to a great soul whom I was just beginning to know.
When the time finally came for meetings and meals in the Ali home in Louisville, I had no idea how powerfully I would be affected. I have been somewhat estranged from the sporting world since high school (more than three decades), and, even when I had been more engaged as an athlete and fan, I never followed boxing. So, I am somewhat embarrassed to say that I did not know very much about the Champ’s boxing career when I first met him and Lonnie. The man I met in Louisville, however, was not the personification of physical power and verbal brilliance that revolutionized boxing and changed both sporting and human rights history; he was rather a humble, purified soul, who spoke very softly when he spoke at all, and whose physical vulnerability was both evident and moving. It was almost as if the arc of his life was proclaiming a universal truth that even the greatest, strongest, and most celebrated among us leave the world the way they come: vulnerable, weak, humble, dependent, and yet – in all of this – bearing witness to God’s miraculous power. This Divine light radiated, I think, from his grace-filled acceptance of his condition and his intense drive to use his remaining strength to serve humankind in compassion and courage and unwavering faith.
So what I remember from the passage of this great soul is the way he loved universally, the way in which peoples of all faiths and cultures and socio-economic situations embraced him back as one of their own, the way he gave dignity and hope to people, the way in which his compassion reached the most desolate areas and the most desperate hearts, the way his courage ignited new hope and inspired so many to stand for what they believed. This was the spirit that hovered over the procession of his coffin in his hometown of Louisville, where folks of all ages, all colors, all faiths, and all socio-economic situations lined the streets and wept and tossed flowers in the blessed streets through which he ran one last time and wept tears of grief and love and pride and chanted “Ali, Ali, Ali” and held up hand-written signs saying “Thank You!” Never have I witnessed such an outpouring of love. Riding in the car directly behind the hearse, both Imam Zaid Shakir and I commented that this could be nothing other than “Wilaya” – the intimate belovedness to God that awakens and emboldens the love of humans and angels alike.
2. Responses to Orlando – Elijah’s Leaders and Scholars Respond
The world’s attention was riveted by events last week in Orlando. Several Muslim scholars and leaders of Elijah’s network have crafted messages in response to these events. We bring them here to the attention of Wisdom readers
On the Carnage in Orlando
By Mustafa Ceric, Grand Mufti Emeritus of Bosnia and member of Elijah Board of World Religious Leaders
On behalf of the innocence of the Muslim open mind I want to extend my deepest condolences to the families and friends of the victims of the barbaric assault that occurred the day before yesterday morning at Pulse in Orlando, Florida. I unequivocally say that such an act of hate-fueled violence has no place in the good heart of man.
As a human being of open mind, I believe that all human beings have the right to safety and security and that each and every human life is inviolable.
Each and every human being has the right to life, religion, freedom and dignity.
None is guilty of the sin of the other. “No soul bears the sins of another,” says the Quran.
Thus, the innocent open minded Muslims must speak out against the violence in the name of religion.
The Muslims must stand up together to clear up the air of hatred for and against Islam, the innocent of those who claim to belong to Islam, but they don’t.
They belong to the world of evil.
But evil does not exist.
It comes only when good is absent in the same way as darkness comes when light is off.
Hence, the good must be present all the time to prevent the evil ever to show up.
Me must be good to conquer the evil in us and in others.
Love and Peace
By Ghassan Manasra, International Co-Director, Abrahamic Reunion
It was very hard to me to hear what happened yesterday in Orlando. It makes me and all of my family very sad, we know the meaning of sadness, because we came from a land of pain and conflict, we came from the land of the prophets, which the whole world refers to as the Holy Land. We came here to change our life and to begin a new life and to create a new line of support for the Holy Land.
For the past 30 years I have worked in many dangerous situations in the Holy Land as a Peacemaker. And for the past 15 years I have acted in the Middle East as the Arab coordinator for the Abrahamic Reunion, an organization dedicated to using religion as a force for peace and understanding. Last year I, together with my colleagues, in the Abrahamic Reunion were invited to the Parliament of World’s Religions in Salt Lake City, Utah to speak about peace in the Holy Land.
Following that conference, I moved to Sarasota with my family to find a quiet life. We came to be a part of the number one country in the world.
But a few months after I moved to Sarasota, an unbalanced person killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, and I began to ask myself how could I help heal the situation and to restore peace.
I together with fellow members of Abrahamic Reunion, began to create interfaith peace projects in Sarasota and throughout other areas of Florida.
After that we began to establish some interfaith projects in other areas of the world, including, 4 projects in England, Germany and Turkey and soon we will travel to establish projects in other areas of Europe and the Middle East.
But last night I was very sad and very pessimistic, because a deranged person who calls himself a Muslim, committed a senseless act of violence in the name of ISIL. I don’t think people who do these things are real Muslims, I think they are slaves to their lusts, and to their desires, they are part of a wave of darkness, and they are part of a primitive way of thinking, they belong to their own dark imaginations.
Through this wrong way of thinking, or I should say this sick way of thinking, they put all of their psychological and sociological failings, on to the other, and which other? They will put all of their blame onto our country, and this is our problem today.
From here I think that we need to work together, to create more projects, and to work in the field of the education. We need to build new educational programs, and spread them throughout the world, to the Muslim world from the Quran and the Hadith, to Christian world from the New Testament, and to the Jewish world from the Bible.
The Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him said: (Shall I guide you to something, if you’ll do it, you’ll love one another? Spread peace among you.)
Look at this Hadith look at the meaning of this Hadith, the prophet teaches us how to spread peace and how to love one another. How to create new ways of life all the time, Love and Peace, so nice to have them together, Love and Peace, because if we bring them together, and we work with them together, we will have a very great life, a very quiet life and we can create lots of understanding and connection throughout the world.
Another Hadith (Oh people spread peace, give food for the people and pray when the people are asleep, and you will enter paradise)
Look at this Hadith it is not just for Muslims, this Hadith is for all people all around the world, because The Prophet said: “Oh people”; he didn’t say: “Oh Muslims.” It is a message for all human beings, so we need to spread peace any place we can and to every person in the world.
And the last Hadith I’ll mention here is: (Give food to the people and begin with peace, to the people you know, and to the people you don’t know)
We don’t need to interpret this Hadith, it’s very clear, and very easy to understand, we just need to open our internal eyes and the internal channel of divine knowledge, then we can understand everything around us and all life, we need to be very careful and not to allow these people to speak in the name of Islam, we need to watch their deeds and their behavior, because they damage us as Muslims, and they create a strange life for us, and a strange spiritual situation for us in the world.
I would like to say to all of the Imams in the USA, Europe and throughout the world: Please watch your religious discourse, your teachings, and your students, because you like your brothers and sisters from the other religions, are the guardians of humanity.
It’s not the place to write an article of analyses, I am very sad and I am full of worry, I hope we will do more and more to protect all people around the whole world.
I would like to send prayers for the souls of those who died last night in Orlando:
God, have mercy of those who died,
O Lord, send patience and solace to their families and friends,
O God, protect all people throughout the world from evil, and from extremists,
O God, protect us by your light and by your divine transfiguration.
God, we are your children, and we are your inheritors on this earth,
Give us the power and the courage to continue our peace work, in every place in the world and in every part of this life,
God, we love you, and we love all of the people on our planet,
Let us know ourselves through others, and let us to be one family from today until the end of all life.
Amen
* Ghassan Manasra is a member of the Elijah Academy and presented at Elijah’s Summer School in 2014.
Statement on the Orlando Massacre
By Muhammad Suheyl Umar Professor & Head of Department (Social Sciences), University of Central Punjab, Pakistan
The person who has committed this heinous act of murder in Orlando, whatever professed religious proclivities and unhinged condition of mind he might have carried with him as a personal history, is a criminal according to the Islamic Law, is a criminal in the light of the core human values, is a criminal in view of the universal standards of ethics as well as a criminal according to the law of the land where he lived and to which he owed loyalty as a citizen, and criminals like him usually need to find a very good criminal defence lawyer such as those from https://www.noll-law.com/il/springfield-criminal-defense-lawyers/ if they want the best outcome of what they are accused of. He is a criminal because:
* It is forbidden in Islam to declare people non-Muslim unless he (or she) openly declares disbelief and it is forbidden in Islam to kill the innocent, non-combatant, people whatever be the moral depravity of such persons may be, and to harm or mistreat-in any way- people of other faith traditions. It is also forbidden in Islam to enact legal punishments (hudud) on a personal level, without following the correct procedures that ensure justice and mercy, and which, moreover, can only be dispensed by the authority of the State.
* God has described Himself as the ‘Most Merciful of the merciful’. He created man from His mercy. And God created man for His mercy: ‘Had your Lord willed, He would have made mankind one community, but they continue to differ, except those on whom your Lord has mercy; and that is why He created them …’ (11: 118-119). Islam is mercy and its attributes are merciful. The Prophet, who was sent as a mercy for all the worlds, summarized a Muslim’s dealings with others by saying: ‘He who shows no mercy, will not be shown mercy’; and: ‘Have mercy and you will be shown mercy’.
* But, as can be seen from everything mentioned, this person has misinterpreted Islam into a religion of harshness, brutality, torture and murder. It is a great wrong and an offence to Islam, to Muslims and to the entire world.
Public Announcement: Responding to the Florida Massacre
Timothy J Gianotti, IISF Principle Teacher & Director
The Islamic Institute for Spiritual Formation joins its voice to the voices of Muslims worldwide and all peoples of healthy-minded religion in condemning the atrocities perpetrated against the innocent in Florida.
We remind ourselves and one another that each and every human being is a purposeful creation of God, a being created in God’s image, and an earthen vessel into which the Almighty has breathed the Divine ruh or spirit. This means that DIGNITY must always be our default, regardless of race, religion, socio-economic situation, educational level, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, political persuasion, lifestyle, or any other factor.
We remind ourselves and one another that beauty can never be served by ugliness, that peace can never be served by militarism and violence, that Truth can never be defended or supported by perversion and falsehood.
We remind ourselves and one another of the Qur’anic moral teaching that the unjust taking of a single soul is tantamount to the slaughter of all humanity.
The recent funeral and memorial service for our beloved brother Muhammad Ali, where he was laid to rest in the most beautiful casket (click here to learn more) in front of those who loved him, which happened to occur just before the abominations in Florida, illumine the fact that real religion bears fruit in the form of love, charity, generosity, healing, respect, appreciation of difference as a gift from God, moral courage, patient perseverance, and hope. The hatred and sickness and senseless violence we have witnessed in Florida has no place in religion, and so we categorically condemn such acts and firmly stand in solidarity against them.
May God embrace the slain with forgiveness and mercy; may God’s healing and mercy illumine the wounded and the traumatized; may God’s knowledge and wisdom fill our hearts as we diagnose and treat the psychological and spiritual sicknesses that give rise to such abominations; and may we all come together and call the world to that which gives life instead of that which demeans and destroys it.
3. Remembering Judith Hertz
by Rabbi Richard Marker
Judith Hertz, a founding member of the Elijah Board of World Religious Leaders, passed away after a long illness on 2 June 2016 at the age of 80. Judith was internationally known for her commitment to the Reform [Jewish] Movement, and through that, in a number of national and international organizations. A 60-year member and longtime leader of New York’s Central Synagogue, she, along with her late husband Martin, became involved in the leadership of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, now known as the Union of Reform Judaism. She was the chair of URJ’s committees that deal with other religions in the USA, and was well known as a lay leader in a role dominated by clergy.
She was also active in the World Union of Progressive Judaism, on the board of Religions for Peace, a URJ representative to IJCIC [International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations], and was a selected delegate to the Elijah Board of World Religious Leaders. Until her health made it impossible, Judith attended these meetings faithfully.
Judith had a lifetime commitment to both intra-Jewish, and interreligious amity, always from a solid commitment to and being informed by the Reform Movement. Her presence in every setting was both predictable and welcomed, and her voice always thoughtful even when opinionated. We in the EWBRL will surely miss her. She is survived by her daughter and two grandsons.
