 The peace and blessings of God be upon all of you. Thank you for having us here and hosting this far. It's an honor to be here. I'm actually not going to take too much of your time. I've noticed that usually when there's a Muslim speaker, people have a lot of questions. So maybe I'll actually open it up for some Q&A in a minute or so. You can ask me whatever you want about Islam. It doesn't have to be about fasting. But fasting is one of the pillars of Islam. So there's the same as hadith. Hadith is a saying of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. And there's different grades of these hadith. Some are strong, some are weak, some are fabricated. This particular hadith tends to be strong. Or he said, Islam is built on five. By five he had the pillars. So the first pillar is called the Shahada in Arabic. It means witnessing. So witnessing that there's only one God. And Muslims call this God Allah. And Allah is not a foreign God. According to the Qur'an, Allah is the God of Abraham. Allah is the God of Moses. Allah is the God of Jesus. And these prophets are mentioned in the text of the Qur'an itself. So Allah is not some Arab God or the God of the Middle Easterners or something like that. He's the God of Abraham. So Shahada is to witness that he is the only one God. When I say he is the only one God, that's, again, not to say that God is masculine or male. But every word in Arabic is assigned a gender and a linguist. So sometimes it's obvious, sometimes it's not. Sometimes it's a natural gender. And sometimes the linguist is assigned which is known as a lexical gender for the word. So for example, the word for son, S-U-N in Arabic, it's shams. But the linguist way back in the day decided that the son is feminine. And the moon is masculine. Nobody really knows why that is. Maybe there's someone here that studied the history or the ethnology of Arabic words. But the word Allah in Arabic is masculine lexically. So we refer to him as him. But there's no God but him and that's the Prophet Muhammad. He's to be among him. The Muslims believe to be the last in a long line of prophets starting with Adam. Including names like, like he said Abraham, even Noah, even David and Solomon are seen as prophets. Elijah. And there's a minority opinion that there are several female prophets including the wife of Pharaoh named Asya. Whose story is not told as far as I know in Jewish sources. As well as Sarah and Hagar and Mary, the mother of Jesus who's mentioned in the Quran as well. So the Shahada is similar to maybe the Shama in its abortions. This is sort of the essence of Islamic confession. And then the second pillar is known as Salam. Which believe it or not as a common etymology with Tafila, Hebrew which means prayer. So Muslims, well they should at least pray five times a day at different times. And these prayers take a few minutes when somebody converts to Islam. It's kind of burdensome. I have to pray again, I just prayed three hours ago. But then as you age and get wiser these things become much easier. So they take a few minutes, every few hours. And then there's something called Zaka, which is also known as Sadaqa, or swataka in Hebrew. It's related to Sadiq which has a root meaning of to purify something. So Zaka or Sadaqa is a poor Jew. Most things if there's excess wealth, this is only for people that can't afford that. Two and a half percent of their excess wealth will go to the less fortunate or to the poor. And then we have the fourth pillar which is called Hajj, or Hajj in Hebrew. Or if you live in Egypt it's also called Hajj. Because the letter Jeem in Arabic, the Egyptian dialect is pronounced like an email. So they'll say like Michael Gordon, instead of Michael Jordan. So again this is for Muslims that can afford to do so, they'll make a pilgrimage to Mecca. Once a year is the obligation. If you can afford to do so. And then there's something called the Umrah, which is the lesser pilgrimage. And then finally the fifth pillar is called Som, which is exactly the same word in Hebrew. Som in fasting also known as Siyam in the Quran. The Quran says, The Quran says to the Muslims at large that fasting is prescribed upon you just as it was prescribed upon those before you. And the exigents here clarify and say, Before you means Ahlul Kitab, the people of the Bible. The people of the book, Jews and Christians. And then The purpose of fasting is given. So there's an axiom amongst the scholars of Islam that the merit of something is known by its objective. So the objective of fasting, according to the Quran, is In order for you to be people of God consciousness. The word in Arabic is Taqwa, which is very, very difficult to translate. Sometimes it's translated as fear of God. In order for you to fear God, which is the beginning of our wisdom, according to the Quran. Sometimes it's translated as In order for you to repel evil, to guard against evil. In pre-Islamic times, the word Taqwa actually meant a shield. Something to block the blow of a sword. So probably the best translation is to be conscious of God. So when Muslims are fasting, when anyone's fasting in theory, there should be a sort of focus on the inward. You're not eating, you're not drinking. There's no marital relations in the daytime, according to Muslims fast. In order to focus on God completely. And how does one focus on God? I remember God, and by guarding one's limbs. This is something that a Muslim is supposed to be doing all throughout the year, by the way. So Ramadan is really more like a training program to set the stage for the rest of the year. There are sort of wanes through the course of the year. It shouldn't, but it tends to. And then Ramadan, again, you enter into this training program. We're not looking at things that are forbidden. So it's not just a fast at the stomach. There's a hadith of the prophet where he said, there are several people. It's a rhetorical question. How many fasters are there, and get nothing from their fast, except hunger and thirst? Meaning that they're missing the point of the fast. The point of the fast is to really master the self. There's a hadith of the prophet, and there is a weakness of this hadith. But generally, the scholars of Islam will quote it, because they would argue that the meaning of the hadith is true, even though it's a chain of transmission. It may have some weakness. Anyway, it's reported that the prophet said, man arafat nafsat arafarata. The translation is, whoever knows himself knows his Lord. So the word in Arabic here, arafat, or ma'rifat, really means to recognize, recognize himself. Whoever recognizes himself will recognize his Lord. So one of the meanings here, according to the scholars of this hadith, is that if you recognize your origin as God's creation, as God's beloved creation, you will come to know that God is the beloved. Another shade of meaning of this tradition is that if you master yourself, then you'll come to know God. If you can guard your eyes, guard your ears, if you can guard your tongue from lying and from speaking ill of people behind their backs, from cursing, from even raising your voice. So we have descriptions of the prophet Muhammad, as far as his disposition goes. And all of the hadiths say that the prophet did not even raise his voice, that he was an easygoing personality, that he said, the best of you are those who are best to their family members. He said that he is not from us who doesn't honor the elderly and have mercy on our young. He said none of you will enter paradise until you truly believe, and none of you will truly believe until you love one another. And then he said, shall I tell you of something that will increase your love? And he said, yes. And he said, afshus salamu alaykum spread peace amongst yourselves. So this is the main sort of focus or point of the fast, is to really transcend the physical and also to empathize with those who are less fortunate to experience something of what they're experiencing for the sake of increasing our concern for them. Because the more empathy one has, the more compassion one has. And the more compassion one has, the more God-like as it were, or more angelic they are. Jesus is actually quoted in the Qur'an as saying, qudurah bani din, which is always the Arabic. But he said, be lordly. Be like God. Be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect in the language of Matthew. What does it mean to be like God? It means to appropriate, if you will, defined qualities that are at a human level. None of us can be God. Despite what some world leaders think. Or perceive themselves. We're not going to name draw. But to be divine, to lower his deed, is to assimilate qualities of God, such as mercy and compassion. And this is accomplished through these pillars of Islam. Through prayer, through charity, through pilgrimage, and especially through fasting. The prophet said in the hadith, quoting God, he said, all of the actions of the sons and daughters of Adam are for him, except fasting. For indeed, that is mine. And the exigence they say, what this means is, no one knows that you're fasting. When you pray, people can see you pray. When you go to pilgrimage, people can see you in your garb and you're making your circummanulations and so on and so forth. When you're giving charity, people can see that. When you're fasting, no one knows except God. So the prophet said, God says, fasting is for me and I will reward them for that. Up to at infinity. So fasting has a very honored place amongst the practices of the Muslim. That's all I wanted to say. If there's time for a few questions I can if not I'll just go through them. What do you think? Sure. Thank you. We will have time for questions of all three of our speakers. At the end of the next one I would like to introduce is Rabbi Larry Lelder. He is of the Reformed Jewish tradition and the leader of congregation Beth Eme in Pleasanton. That's funny because my congregation doesn't clap when I want to speak. Let me begin by offering greetings from the Jewish community to our Muslim friends during their holy month of Ramadan. Shalom alechem. Assalamu alaikum. Peace to you. Thank you to Mother Logan for bringing all of us together for this interfaith Eftar. Father, what would it ask us to speak about fasting and hospitality in the three Abrahamic faiths? And so I'm going to turn my attention to the theme of hospitality and some of my favorite stories about Abraham. The book of Genesis says that Abraham was sitting at the entrance of his tent at the hottest time of day. It says He's there at the entrance of his tent when he sees three men approaching who turn out to be angels only if he doesn't know them. Now the Rabbi's asked a question the Rabbi reads the text and asks this question why would Abraham be sitting out there in the doorway of his tent during the hottest time of day? It's actually cooler inside the tent in the shade which is where one would more likely hang out when it's July in Livermore. Ah say the rabbis it is to prove that Abraham was actively looking for wayfarers so that he could invite them in and take care of them in the heat of the day. Alright so Abraham's a good guy he's a friendly host but the rabbis go further you see the text in Genesis actually begins like this the eternal one appeared to Abraham as he was sitting at the entrance of the tent at the hottest time of day looking up Abraham saw three men standing opposite him seeing them he ran for the entrance of the tent to meet them Now that is actually a rather contradictory storyline is it God who appears to Abraham or three men that is angels? The rabbis reconcile the contradiction by saying that it was both first God appears to Abraham but when the three guests show up he excuses himself from his conversation with God and runs out to greet the guests to invite them inside the Talmud concludes with the following observation greater than the reception of God is the practice of hospitality and that's a remarkable statement on the part of the rabbis but they are actually articulating a theology of relationship as a way of encountering God the philosopher Franz Rosenzweig offered this explanation the story opens by saying that God appeared to Abraham but when Abraham applies that vicious to his own world he sees three men standing before him this is the height of religious awareness to see God in the human condition back to our three angels or men, whatever the text says that Abraham went out to the herd to get something to serve to his guests it says in my car he took a young cap tender and good to prepare a meal the medieval commentator Rashi asks why the text bothers to add the adjectives tender and good obviously Abraham wouldn't serve an old tough cut of meat to his guests three words are being used young cap, which is one word tender and good, when one word would suffice what's the point of the superfluous language now Rashi this commentator was a vintner by profession and he lived in Provence so he knew something about good food he hypothesizes that Abraham wasn't simply serving veal to his guests indeed a single calf alone would have been an abundance of food for three guests no, his generosity was such that he slaughtered not one, but three calves, young tender and good each indicating a separate animal that's what the three cast otherwise wouldn't need three words why three when one would do so that he could serve each guest his own delicacy which Rashi says was tongue depending on your taste that may or may not be delicacy now Rashi being a true connoisseur is not content to leave it there and it's an extra culinary comment Abraham says so tongue with mustard I don't know how he knew that but he says it's obvious he must have served with mustard I think this is a delightful commentary every generation of rabbi seems to want to expand the description of Abraham's hospitality I haven't touched on fasting we do that too though I stand in awe of the spiritual discipline and the observance of rabbatan which goes far beyond the Jewish tradition of fasting on Yom Kippur and a few minor holidays but all of our traditions all of us share an ethical impulse the test of religion is its application to the reality of life we may think we are devoted to God but unless we are devoted to one another we cannot come close to God I thank Saint Bartholomew's Church for being our tent of Abraham tonight and enabling us to find God by meeting one another it's a pleasure to introduce our third and final speaker who is the Reverend Mark Stanger he is a candidate at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco also a clergy municipal church also a good friend and he has spent many years as a missionary to Jerusalem and he has guided many pilgrimages there I thought he would be an appropriate speaker following the Christian tradition I've never been a good student so I missed the assignment about fasting and hospitality I want to talk about living together with our differences his disciple John said to him teacher we saw someone casting out demons in your name and we tried to stop him because he was not following us but Jesus said do not stop but no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me whoever is not against us is for us with these words the first followers of Jesus show something of our common human tendency for suspicion and exclusion who is in, who is out who is worthy, who is unworthy their words were directed against a different group doing the same healing work they were committed to doing they had different competing truth claims and I have a pretty bad Christian joke so bear with me this is the way it appears somewhere on the internet I heard it slightly different and the guy says I was walking across a bridge one day and I saw a man standing at the edge and he was ready to jump I ran over and said stop don't do it why shouldn't I? there is so much to live for like what? are you religious? he said yes me too are you Christian or non-Christian? I'm Christian are you Catholic or Protestant? I'm a Protestant me too are you Episcopalian or Baptist? I'm Baptist wow, me too are you Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of the Lord? Baptist Church of God me too are you original Baptist Church of God? are you Reformed Baptist? are you Reformed Baptist Church of God? Reformed Baptist Church of God me too are you Reformed Baptist Church of God Reformation of 1879 or Reformed Baptist Church of God Reformation of 1915 we said I'm Reformed Baptist Church of God Reformation of 1915 I said die you heretics die you heretics We laugh at a joke because there's usually some truth in it. It's an extreme and silly example, but we know that I'll just speak for us. Christians always have and still do misunderstand each other to the point of mistrust and exclusion and even extermination. And though the followers of Jesus sprang from the Jewish tradition and we continue to value large parts of that tradition, which we have appropriated as our own, before long we became suspicious and hostile toward those who faithfully lived and preserved that tradition, Jews, to the point of mistrust, exclusion and extermination. And if you don't already know, then you can probably imagine our response when Islam appeared in the late 6th century, suspicion, misinformation. When I was young, I was fortunate to grow up in the Chicago area with Jewish people nearby and even other Christians of other denominations and learn about this. But I could see and know their goodness because I knew them. But for me growing up, Islam was an idea out there somewhere followed by people in other places, remote and not on my radar. Later in my trips to the places mentioned in the Bible following footsteps of Jesus and the other prophets, it brought me in contact with large numbers of Muslims in cities and towns, small villages in the Middle East. And I know Islam is a worldwide religion and actually Indonesia has the most, I think, the capital. But it was my exposure to Islam in the Middle East that really grew my pursuers. There I saw devotion and dedication that keeps inspiring and there's a million examples. To see a truck driver, a taxi driver stop, get out of their field where you get down, put the rug down, a quick swatoo to purify and then save them prayers. I knew a university student. I was waiting for him. He was giving a senior seminar. When he finished, he got out and on the tile floor, right in the hallway of the school building, he got down, prostrated, prayed, and gave thanks. Our driver, during Ramadan, our tour driver, was fasting for the long day, but he cheerfully brought a tray of drinks to us at lunch at hospitality. Trumped his way into fast quiet. I have a million others. The devotion to prayer, a Palestinian car mechanic, his sisters and mother all got a pass to come to Jerusalem for one day. He didn't. So he risked his life by climbing over the security wall just so he could pray for one day at the Dome of the Rock. And both devotion and hospitality, Mike Barber and his brother, one time during Ramadan, I had about a two o'clock haircut and they said, you know, we're not going home tonight. We're going to order in a comeback here at Sunset and eat with us and then we're going to work later in the night. All these things, one of them, that same Barber let me share his prayer about while he did his evening prayers where I had some other Muslim friends who asked me to please leave the room, not the end of the room when they prayed. But for both, I was impressed by their devotion. With my new Muslim friends, we didn't discuss doctrines or dogmas or history and only occasionally was I asked why were Christians worshiped as many as seven gods? We actually don't, but I understand that our belief in one god has some confusing footnotes. With them, we were able to thank God together for food, for freedom to pray, for our lives and health, for our families and communities. We were agreed that God is God and we are God's creatures. That the goodness and providence of God was everywhere to be seen, even in suffering. We all knew that we are not God. We are different from God and from the differences and though God is completely other and different from us, yet in love, God chores out the mercy. Love, affection, friendship, service to others, witnessing for justice, all of these are what let us see beyond differences. Do I have two more minutes? Our prophet St. Paul said in his new understanding of life beyond tribal religion, with bigger eyes, he said there is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in the anointed one, Jesus. My teacher said that that in no way implies that differences should be ignored or dismissed, for although it's true that there is neither Greek nor Jew, we are one human family, we are all in this together. The fact is there are Greeks and Jews and Catholics and Protestants and Sunni and Shia and others. When we look for those things which unite, prayer, hospitality, service to others, spiritual thirst, casting out the demons of human suffering, making a place for healing, self nourishment, connection, flourishing in faith, this assortment collapses the differences and yet it doesn't permit us to lose sight of the fact that in the world there are differences. One can even maintain, said my teacher, that there's nothing else except differences. We are different from one another, we are different from God. We see the love difference for devoted believers, Jew, Muslim, Christian and everyone else. Our differences are a reflection of God's mysterious others. God's distance and difference from the creation from us and yet our love and care for each other and our standing with each other reflect God's overflowing heart of love and care, God's closeness to creation and to us. Ramadan, Dubai.