Words for Peace

Children of Abraham

Richard L. Shafer[1]

During the holidays this year, I was given a special calendar, the “International Calendar” published by the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of Wisconsin-Madison. On the page for each month is the word peace in the language appropriate to the photograph for that month. The photos are gorgeous! January’s picture shows fishing boats in Essouaria, Morocco, and so the word is Salaam, the Arabic word for peace.

February’s calendar picture, an elephant in Jaipur, India, comes with the word for peace in the Hindu language, Shanti (shan-tee). Although most Indians are Hindus, about 13% are Muslims, and over 2% are Christians. So, about 15% of Indians can be called “children of Abraham.”

Over 174 million Muslims live in India[2], representing some 75 sects of the faith. Taken together, they comprise the second largest national population of Muslims in the world, after Indonesia. While the majority of Indian Muslims are Sunni, the Shia and Sufi sects are well represented.

It is said that Christianity was brought to India by the Apostle Thomas[3] and was expanded by the Syrian Christians (now known as the Eastern Orthodox Church). In the early 16^th century, Europeans began to colonize India, and when they came, they brought their Roman Catholic faith. 17 million Catholics now live there.

Jews came to India perhaps as traders in the “early first millennium” B.C.[4], settling in the South and bringing their concept of peace, Shalom. Refugees from Jerusalem, Iran, and other locations formed other communities on the subcontinent. Today, however, fewer than 6000 Jews remain in India, according to the 1991 census, most having emigrated.

So in India, the concept of peace is represented throughout the population, in the words shanti, salaam, and shalom, among others. Like us, they all share a hope for peace.

My new International Calendar’s February page also reminds me that Lent begins this month, on February 21. Lent is all about peace -- Lent is about turning away from sin and toward God, about deepening our connection to God.

As we share hopes for peace, so we often share spiritual practices. Lent is usually observed by abstaining or fasting: For centuries, Christians have fasted during Lent[5], following the example of Jesus’ fasting in the desert (see Mark 1:12, etc.). In fact, adherents of all the Abrahamic faiths have used fasting as part of their spiritual practice, helping them turn toward God. For example, Jews fast on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:29). Muslims fast during daylight hours (no food, no water) throughout the holy month of Ramadan (Qur’an 2:183).

This year, as you abstain or fast, you will be moving toward peace. You will be turning away from hate and war and killing, and toward peace, toward shalom, toward salaam, and toward Shanti. May you receive the peace which passes understanding.

[1] This is one of a series of occasional columns in which the author, raised in the Christian tradition, searches for common ground and common history among the teachings, beliefs and practices of adherents of the Abrahamic faiths -- Islam, Christianity and Judaism.

[2] See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_India#History

[4] See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_India

[5] See, for example, the discussion at http://www.ewtn.com/faith/lent/fast.htm