Komparative studier:

Lissi Rasmussen and Aminah Tønnsen wrote their "Reflections on the Bible and the Qur'an" from 1980 - 1994. Some of them were later translated into Danish and became part of Lissi Rasmussens doctorate thesis "Diapraksis og dialog mellem kristne og muslimer" (1997.

Reflections on the Bible and the Qur'an
Aminah Tønnsen (1994)

Forgiveness  (June 21, 1994)

Almost every day we hear about people taking revenge on others that have wronged them - be it within the family, the community or even the world of nations.

Revenge is the result of bitterness, grudge and hate. Hate is a cover for innner weakness, and weakness grows when belief and trust in God vanish.

Bitterness, grudge and hate may split up families: Husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers an sisters. Hate an revenge may break up communities, and worst of all: Hate and revenge may start wars.

Forgiveness, on the other hand, heals wounds and reconciles people. It creates unity and brings peace and harmony to the individual, the family, and the community - and even to the world.

Belief in God gives us strength and helps us to be merciful to others. "If you forgive others  the wrongs they have done to you, your Father in heaven will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive the wrongs you have done." (Matthew 6,14-15)

And the Koran assures us: "The recompense for an injury is an injury equal thereto; but if a person forgives and makes reconciliation, reward is due from God. For God loveth not those who do wrong." (42:40)

How difficult it may be: God urges us to forgive - even when we feel innermost betrayed, wronged and hurt.

When Jesus hang on the cross, insulted, humiliated and tortured, he said: "Forgive them, Father! They don't know what they are doing." (Luke 23,34).

And when Prophet Muhammad entered the city of Makka, he forgave all those who had persecuted him and his followers and made war on them. Even when the murderer of his beloved uncle Hamza came to him and expressed his wish to embrace Islam, he forgave him and welcomed him into the fold of Islam.

Such were Jesus and Muhammad (peace end blessings be upon them). How difficult it may seem ot follow their example, let us give it a try. Life is too short to circle about old wounds. Let us not waste the precious time, God has given us on earth. We might regret it bitterly one day...

Forgive and make reconciliation, and reward is due from God.

Shalom - Peace - Salam  (June 27, 1994)

Shalom - peace - salam. Three small words - but what significant and wonderful words. Belief and trust in God brings peace and harmony to mind and body. Once you feel peace inside yourself, you will be able to bring peace to others: To your mate, your children, your parents and other relatives, to your neighbours ...
    Just another hopeless dream for the future? I'm convinced that we all carry this hope in our mind. And that by joint efforts we'll succeed.
    "Shalom!" says the Jew when he greets his neighbour. "assalamu alaikum!" says the Muslim, and "peace be with you!" said Jesus to his disciples. What a beautiful greeting!. 

During my childhood it was still common to greet people by saying: "good morning", "good afternoon" or "good evening" - thus expressing the wish of a good morning, a good afternoon or a good evening. And when departing we said "goodbye" - but who knows today that "goodbye" is a shortening of God be with you? These ways of greeting have almost disappeared, and the most common way of greeting each other nowadays is hello or hey - words devoid af any meaning.
  This change of manners intrigued me, when I came back to Denmark after having spent some years in a Muslim country. There I had become used to greet everybody with "assalamu 'alaikum" - though I myself was not a Muslim at that time. Just as it during my sejour in a kibbutz in my youth felt naturally to me to greet everybody with "shalom".
    I tried to accustom myself to the hellos and heys - but often I forgot and used the expressions of my childhood. It then happened that elderly people said to me: "How nice to hear that at least some people have not forgotten good old customs!"

Some years later I realized that I was a Muslim. It was a turning-point in my life that made me reflect deeper of everything that happenes around me - also the way of greeting one's neighbour.
    The first time I sad: "Good evening!" to a neighbour whom I met on my way to the letterbox while she was taking her dogs for a walk, she was clearly embarrassed. But quickly she recovered from the surprise and answered with a big smile: "Good evening!"
   But still I am not satisfied, and I often wonder, how she will react, if I say: "Peace be with you!" She is a Christian, and I am a Muslim. My mind says "peace be with you", but why then do I still hesitate?
    "Peace be with you!" Jesus said to his disciples, when he appeared to them after his resurrection (Luke 24,36). And the Koran says: "When a greeting is offered you, meet it with a greeting still more courteous, or at least of equal courtesy. God takes careful account of all things" (4:86)

So why do I still hesitate? Next time I see her...

Man's vicegerency on earth (June 28, 1994)

"Have many children, so that your descendants will live all over the earth and bring it under their control." (Genesis 1,28)
    These words of the Bible have benn interpreted in the past as giving man the right to dispose of God's creation at pleasure, as he was created to dominate over the earth. And these very same words have been pointed out as being the reason for our present environment crisis. European thinkers have from time to time expressed a different view: That man was created to be God's vicegerant on earth and thus responsible for guarding and preserving nature; but these ideas were never generally accepted.
    "It is He Who hath made you His vicegerant on the earth. He hath raised you in ranks, some above others, that He may try you in the gifts He hath given you" says the Koran (6:165)
    This verse makes me agree with the thinkers that the original biblical idea was that man's dominion was closely linked to the responsibility for the safeguarding of every single aspect of nature. Man's superiority over other creatures is based on reason and intellect that enables him to choose between right and wrong and to use his freedom of choice and action in the very best way - and thus serve the Creator.

But man's selfishness and imprudence has led him to misuse nature instead of using it: the balance in nature has been destroyed. The earth has dried up, and areas of desert increase. Rain has become acid. Ground water is polluted and scarce. Hunger occurs more and more frequent in some parts of the world - while "excess" food is destroyed elsewhere to keep up prices. One billion people live in extreme lack and poverty - while another billion live in extreme abundance and inconceivable luxury. Men and women are persecuted, tortured and imprisoned, and wars are fought just for lust for power and wealth. Animals are kept in capitvity and slaughtered under inhumane conditions. Animals are tortured just to satisfy pleasure-seeking spectators. Animals are tortured and killed just to satisfy man's vain desires. And animals are tortured to find remedies to cure illnesses that man has inflicted upon himself by chosing an unnatural, unreasonable and carelss lifestyle. Is is impossible to ennumerate all the disasters caused by man ...

However, it is a fact that those people, who generally are considered primitive by those who consider themselves as civilized, are the ones that have really lived in harmony with nature for centuries and have preserved nature in a most admirable way.
     Take the example of Chief Seattle, a Squamish-Indian, who wrote to the president of the United States in 1854 in order to protest against the way white settlers treated the Indians and the nature of North America. He wrote among others:
    "What is man without animals? If all animals disappeared, man's spirit would die of loneliness, because whatever happens to animals happens to man, too ... Teach your children, what we have taught ours: that the earth is their mother, what we do against the earth, we do against our sons. If man spits on the earth, he spits on himself. The earth does not belong to man, but man belongs to the earth. Man has not spun the web of life, he is a part of it like a single thread. What he does agsinst the web, he does against himself."

God has created everything to our benefit - should we then not do our utmost to safeguard this precious gift to the benefit of coming generations?
    This is to me the real meaning of life, and our most important task and test in this world.

"He is it hat has made you vicegerents of the earth. If then any do reject God, their rejection works against themselves." (Koran 35:39) "Will a person gain anything if he wins the whole world but loses his life? Of course note!" Matthew 16,26)

© Aminah Tønnsen, april 2002