To Get To Know Each Other

The following are some pages of what I wrote  two years ago in Arabic, in which I express my ideas about peace among peoples irrespective of religion, ideology or race. Therefore, this writing can be understood by those who believe or by the others as a wise saying if they want.  - Omar Shabsigh (YK1AO) - Courtesy: http://www.maqs.net/~w9xy
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August 20, 1999

Wherever you look around in the world, you find all kinds of struggles; racial, tribal, religious and even economical.

If you look closely at all these struggles all over the world, you find out that they are all for nothing. For example, one cannot know why people have been fighting each other in Afghanistan when they all claim to have the same ideology, unless every chieftain is fighting just to become a head of state: he wants the chair-throne.

Such struggles have been going on since the creation of Mankind in different forms: struggle for food, for water, for natural resources (oil these days), or to establish a so-called hypothetical right (Israel) or to defend a real right (Palestinians).

Here the question arises. Was the reason for the creation of Mankind on earth so that people could go on fighting, killing, or persecuting each other? If this is so, then it is all a big laugh.

One day, I was reading in Surat AL-Hujurat in the Qur'an. Maybe I was thinking about all the miseries of humanity. I stopped at an Ayat (sentence), which I had read many times before. This time, a wonderful, great, broad and comprehensive meaning for this Ayat came into my mind. This prompted me to write the following words about my understanding, under modern circumstances, of the meaning of the Ayat. This understanding could, with all modesty, be a solution for most if not all human tragedies these days.

Ayat 13 of Surat Al Hujurat: (See: The translation of the meanings of the Our'an issued by "King Fahd Complex for the Printing of the Holy Qur'an").

Quote:

 "In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

O mankind! We have created you from a male a female, and made you into nations and tribes that you may get to know one another."

Unquote.

If we look carefully into the Ayat we can see that it is directed to all Mankind at all times irrespective of faith, race or if they do not believe in anything.

After this general call, the text begins by stating a fact which is very well known, but that has very significant consequences. The text states the natural differences among people; they are males and females and everybody was born from the unification of male and female. Being that, moreover, they are of different peoples or tribes, and consequently different ethnic, religions and color origins.

What is the reason for such diversity of human kind? The text answers with a very simple statement:

"TO GET TO KNOW ONE ANOTHER"

How beautifully said! Then the reason for diversity is this. This is not a reason that concerns God but for Mankind itself. Diversity is a characteristic that corresponds totally to the nature of the Humankind. God created the human being with a natural love to knowledge and discovery. This cannot be fulfilled unless diversity exists. Such love also brings happiness to man's heart, when he starts learning about all his surroundings that are different, whether that is other humans, plants, animals or all kinds of things in this vast universe. This curiosity, let us call it, makes a person meeting another person, want to discover everything about him. Such knowledge takes away any ambiguity which could have led to fear. Thus knowledge becomes a tool to erase fear from others which leads to mutual understanding.

In the language "to know" is opposite to "to ignore". Ignorance is very dangerous. Ignorance breeds suspicion and fear which can only be conquered by knowledge.  This applies to everything in this universe: be it an animal, an object, another person or a different society or country.

Then the reason for diversity of the human beings is for them to know each other well. That leads to friendship, love and cooperation among all peoples especially in our world which is getting smaller with the progress of science. Diversity is  then not meant to make people fight each other.

Had people understood this wisdom of Creation of different human beings and had they applied it in practice, all struggles would have stopped. Family quarrels between husband and wife would have stopped. He or she should look in wonder why the other is saying something or doing something different from him or her. And one should think: " How wonderful. The other is different. I should know how and why and try to accommodate the difference".

We can go on relating examples of frictions on the sectarian, religions, political, ideological differences inside the same society / nation or among nations. Thus one can have world peace in a world that cannot sustain any more any bloody struggles. Respect the other, love him and cooperate with him for the benefit of all, for the benefit of mutual co-existence on our beautiful planet Earth.

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