Comparative Analysis Of Understandings Of Divine Relationships Between Muslims And Christian
I am going to be discussing about the similarities and differences between Islamic and Christian understandings of divine relationships. People think information of shared essentials are related to both religions, whether it be diverse in dimensions they are talked about in religious writings of two traditions. Addition to God has mainly been advanced from a western Christian viewpoint because of the philosophy. People claim that the main difference between the two faiths is that Muslims approach God in a less direct, more mediated way than Christians. Though, the significance of it for Muslims should be observed if it’s to a better understanding of Islamic spirituality and to the mental well-being.
Thomas Merton and Hafiz have similarities and difference on the viewing of Christian and Islamic spirituality. They both emphasize oneness and love with god, self-discipline and surrender to god. He states that with Judaism, Christianity and Islam they share the same monotheistic God and simple mythology of the Hebrew scriptures. They share many of the same beliefs dealing with the New Testament as well. In the book thoughts of solitude, he says “In order to gain possession of ourselves, we have to have some confidence, some hope of victory. And in order to keep that hope alive we must usually have some taste of victory. We must know what victory is and like it better than defeat. ” Meaning when you feel as if you failed at something you’ve done never give up just try again. We must believe in ourselves that we can do it because once you let that slip of hope fade away it’s difficult to gain it back. Having god and praying will help you gain confidence in what you want to achieve in the long run. To sum up when you pray to god he does hear you that doesn’t mean you’ll get what you want right then and there it’s all about patience. The Christian saints and the Sufi mystics have called God guide, creator, friend, etc. In other words, God is the way to study about love because nature of divinity is an essential compassion.
For a Christian or a Muslim who lives his or her belief is very important, essentially trying to say that there is a deep internal feeling in your gut that God will always be love. The Sufi way both mentioned about love another word as mahabba and trusting and surrendering to God (Tawakkut). Something that it is similar between Merton and Hafiz was their love for God and the holy location. They both mention the ocean and mountains as their holy place to connect with God. Their differences Is that Merton would rather be alone with God while Hafiz is expressing that he himself is God. Another difference I see is that Merton relies on self-experience while Hafiz trusts on community experience as a whole around him. Thomas Merton has his own opinions on the spiritual journey, he wrote “When our life feeds on unreality, it must starve. It must therefore die”. He is implying that there would be times in people’s lives where they don’t do good deeds and you will one day have to pay for what you have done. Any thing you do in the dark will eventually come to the light whether you like it or not. I believe that there is a hell and heaven if you do good by God you won’t have to suffer because you know in your heart that you have done nothing but good things around you.
On the other hand Hafiz sees it in a different aspect in the book, I heard God laughing. In one of his poems he says “Where this scared wine of God’s truth, knowledge, and love is forever and ever freely offered to you”. What he means by that is by drinking the wine you would feel a lot closer to God and you would feel like God is in your presence once you drink the wine or eat the bread. That’s the difference between two because Thomas Merton did not once mention anything about wine and being close to god he talks more about the nature of things in life. Merton wrote in his book, thoughts of solitude that “If we wage it courageously, we will find Christ at our side. If we cannot face it, we will never find him”. To sum it up he’s talking about the war against despair and saying that if people don’t try their best on things that they want to achieve in they won’t get where they desire. You can only help yourself no one can do the work for you, if you want it you must go get it not for anyone else but for yourself. Nevertheless, Hafiz voices in I Hear God’s laughing poem in the jeweler “When you sit before a master like me, even if you are a drooling mess, my eyes sing with excitement”. He is trying to say that people now a days do things and put there self-down because of something they might not like about their self basically just to have self-value and see that you mean something on earth. It is to have faith in yourself and in your skill to follow through and get things done. Furthermore, having a high degree of self-worth means feeling worthy of good things.
The ideas you get when you read Hafiz’s poems is him talking about gratitude, love of god and submission just a variety of ways of saying God. The way he seeks God is having a awakened soul meaning to have self-love and self-beauty. What I mean by that is you have to love yourself before you let anyone else love you and that is very important to remember. Hafiz’s moral virtues and vices all comes down to having gratitude towards God. I enjoy the fact that when reading his poems, it always grabs your attention and is never boring. When Hafiz writes his poems it never gets hypocritically religious, but he portrays spirituality in such a way where it’s almost like you see vivid colors of real life from tears to laughter, from confusion to simplicity, from the uplifting to the outrageous.
Lastly how Hafiz’s poetry tells us about the nature of Islam we can feel infinite love while reading the poem because he himself sees things very highly of God. Mysticism involves both an understanding of the divine and spiritual practices that trains a person for this experience.
