On March 25th, 2021, Peacebuilders of the many Abrahamic Faiths in the Holy Land gathered for a shared prayer to invoke and honor the essence of love.
“The Prayer of Love” welcomed 82 peacebuilding participants from around the world and featured the prayers of Siham Halabi (AR Co-Founder, Israeli Board of Directors), Umm Bra’a Najah Kabaha (Sheikha from Nazareth), Rabbi Shlomo Dov Rosen (Yakar Jerusalem), Father Suhil Fachori (Catholic Church of Bethlehem), and Rev. David Grishaw Jones (Community Church, Durham NH). David Less & Sheikh Ghassan Manasra facilitated and hosted the prayers.
Introducing the meeting, Sheikh Ghassan said, “We say that we will have the prayer of love. The people will ask us, what’s the meaning of prayer of love? We say, you will ask your heart to know what the meaning of “the Prayer of Love” because the prayer of love it needs taste, it needs feelings, it needs thinking and connection, and all of us we are here together, and we will be together all the time and inshallah, we will begin now to know what the words for all of us is.”
Rabbi Shlomo Dov Rosen, who was in the midst of preparing for Passover by searching every nook and cranny in the house with his children, shared next that, “at the end of Passover, we read the Song of Songs in synagogue. The Song of Songs, in the simple reading, is about a man and a woman, but the Jewish tradition understands it’s about the Jewish people and God and obviously you can widen that to human beings who are looking for closeness to God, and the various verses are interpreted about the love between human beings and God. Looking, searching after Him, moving back moving forward, it’s a process where the back and forth is part of the relationship.”
He then went on to discuss how the searching of one’s home to take stock of everything is related to the Hebrew word for and Judaic concept of peace – Shalom – which comes from shalem, or “wholeness.”
“Peace within us, you know, often people interpret peace as being something about you know, everything being alright, not being pedantic, not being particular and not noticing distinctions between people, between cultures and I think that’s a mistake. Peace is coming to a place of understanding of the other, of noticing things, of looking through everything you have, of trying to understand yourself and understand different, you know, searching not only your house but searching every part of your soul, looking within yourself and then meeting another person in the same kind of way and trying to understand them and there’s a lot of tension internally that can come from that process, the process of looking for peace.
Peace in Hebrew is Shalom and is connected to Shalem. It’s the source, its completeness, it isn’t hiding things away. It isn’t, you know, hiding your crumbs under the carpet. It’s looking for wholeness, completeness. And completeness comes to in understanding other people, understanding of yourself and it comes from doing your homework and going through your home and going with your little children and looking under every cupboard looking for what we were told to look for but also to understand that in a deeper sense about looking within yourself into all kinds of things you maybe would prefer not to find but if you don’t look for them you might find them when you don’t want to find them and then you won’t have peace…
I…pray for all of us that we should come to that wholeness and come to that wholeness honestly, not in a nervous sense of we have to find everything but with honesty and openness try to come to a place of healing. And thank you very much, and Shalom from Jerusalem. “
David Less spoke next, and shared a story of a young woman, preoccupied with seeing her love, walking in front of a man who was bowing in his prayers.
“He stops and he says- Don’t you see I’m praying? How could you walk in front of me?
And she said – You know, I was really thinking about my beloved and I didn’t see you and I’m sorry but if you were really thinking about your beloved, you wouldn’t have seen me either. And that’s really what the prayer of love is about.”
David went on to share that to him the deepest forms of love are surrender to the Beloved completely. “Prophet Muhammad, Peace be upon him, was offered many titles and he said, I don’t care about any of those. The only title I care about is Abd’ Allah. And what does it mean? It’s the slave of God knowing that I am owned by God. So that’s the prayer I share, that all of us, all of us experience not here but here (pointing to heart), the Possessor of our heart. And in that way, this little group will change the whole world, as we change our own hearts and our awareness. Thank you, Amen Ameen.”
Sheikh Ghassan commented then that, “as the Sufis Mentioned, that the Love is the wave of the creation because God created this world through love. He didn’t create this world because it’s a duty. No. He loved to be known and loved to the people will know him, then he created this world through Love.”
Rev. David Grishaw Jones from New Hampshire shared a prayer from Holy Week, which he sang for us:
Arrows of light come pierce my soul. Arrows of light come pierce my soul. Pierce my soul, pierce my soul my soul, my soul. Breath of the bright wind make us one. Breath of the bright wind make us one. Make us one, make us one, one people one planet. Make us one, make us one, one people, one planet. Amen.
He then shared that, “Love is not simply an idea, it’s not simply an academic concept but that love is a practice a practice that we engage not only in the church but here with our brothers and sisters in the Abrahamic Reunion. A practice that we engage in many traditions and across our many faith traditions so I’m so delighted to be in a community that practices love in that spirit and it allows me to learn and to go deeper in my own practice of love and then to create this beloved community with all of you.”
Siham Halabi, AR Druze Leader from Daliat al-Carmel, shared that in Israel, March is the month of women, and also Mother’s day is March 21st, dedicating prayers to all the women and mothers in the world for their value and dignity. She then prayed:
Oh God, that you smooth out every challenge and You are Bringer, Provider to every poor person. And You are the Strengthener of every weak person. And You are refuge to everyone who is afraid. In You we take refuge throughout the paths of life. We ask you to bless us with your mercy. O God give peace to us. From You and to You is peace. O God give us peace and bless us and let us enter into the house of peace. Oh God, You are Higher and Sovereign. Keep us in your highness. You are the source of abundance and blessing. Alhamdulillah fi-ssamavat, Alhamdulillah laka alal-ard. We bless you in the heavens and on earth. Ameen, Ameen, Ya Rabb-il-alameen. Shukran. Amen. O God of the world and of heaven. Thank you!
Sheikha Najah Kabaha shared a hadith (holy saying) of the Prophet Mohamad, “Nobody ever has faith until he loves to himself as he loves to another.” She said that, “This hadith is not a negation of faith in God, but rather to make faith fulfilled or complete. This thing is easy to those who are with a pure heart and very hard for those who are not with a pure heart… this demands of us patience, taking responsibility of agression, forgiveness of sin, and co-sharing with people joy and pain.”
She prayed:
Oh God make our hearts sit together and belong to each other. And reconcile us together. And bless us towards the path of peace. In the name of God and His willingness, so that happiness and love may not be guided but through God. In the name of God and His willingness, nothing pushes away sickness and evil but God. Bismillahi Mashallah! In the name of God and His willingness, there is no grace but from God. Bismillahi-Mashallah, wa-la-haula-wala-quwwata illa billah. In the name of God and His willingness there is no sovereignty or power but, in the name, and character of God. O God! He who nobody can make Him be fooled, whoever hears Him or not hear Him. And God cannot be over busy with more problems and He does not complain about, about those who cry out to Him. Bless us with Your abundant Mercy Oh God! Oh God compassionate and merciful. I love you all and God. Thank you. May the peace of God be with you.
Father Suhil Fachori, from Bethlehem shared last, offering from Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians, and the book of Revelations:
If I spoke in the tongues of people and angels but I have no love, I would become wrong and nothing, I would mean nothing. And if I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge. And if I have faith that can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship and that I may boast but I don’t have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and love is kind. It does not envy, and it does not boast and it’s not proud. It is the Love that we need to live and nourish among each other.
From Revelations:
If anybody says I love God and hates his brother, then he’s a liar. Because he who do not love his brother whom he sees, how can he love God whom he does not see?
“I want to conclude with a small story. There’s a big scholar who had disciples. One of his disciples asked him one question. When is the sign of ending of the night and the beginning of the morning? One of the disciples said, It’s the moment that the person can discern whether a dog or a human is coming, an animal or human coming from afar? The scholar said, No. Another disciple said, It’s the moment where we can discern between two different fruits? And again, he said, no to him. I said okay then how can we discern between day and night? It’s the moment you look at any human face and you discover that this is your brother or sister, otherwise you will always live in darkness.
And today I see all of you as my brothers and sisters and may God all forgive you and prolong your life with health. Thank you.”
In closing, Sheikh Ghassan commented that,
“I would like to say that we began. We will not finish now. We will take a part of time to continue this great prayer.
This prayer will be our path. Will be our light in our seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling and touch. And we will be so strong to face and to handle with all our challenges.
You know, this prayer comes to keep us safe and quiet. And to be as our inner connection between all of us. This prayer will show us that there’s no differences between all of us.
The people think that the differentiation will be between our characters, our religion, our nationality, our language. But come to connect with our essences. Our essences is the same. There’s no difference between one and another.
I will not say anything more, but I want to tell you that all this prayer, took me away. And I can see myself as a complete person. Because I you, you me. Thank you so much and we’ll see you next month.”
