Photo: mrehan (Flickr)It is not an easy task to pursue peacebuilding as one’s intellectual and scholarly enterprise. The need to be critical is a major task for a scholar. It is also one that is spiritually fulfilling and allows one to utilize our ‘aql or reason.
“God is not merciful to one who is not merciful to people.” Hadith
Recently I was asked to describe my work as a peacemaker to a group of fellow professors and university administrators from around the nation.
I found the answer in one line: “Operationalizing mercy in human interaction.”
I find that when I express my work as a peacemaker it is often captured in ways that make the assumption of the ‘soft’ skills of negotiating directly or as a third party neutral. Peacemaking is seen as only a means within itself and not as a values based modality for engaging with one’s self and others.
As I continue to explore the dimensions of peacemaking and peacebuilding in my teaching and learning, three major themes emerged in my consideration of this topic.
1) Peacemaking as an act of spiritual devotion: Time and again I am reminded by many Muslim teachings (and Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Jain, Hindu, the list goes on) of how connected the state of relations with others can be directly proportionate with one’s relationship with the Divine.
The way we treat our companions in life is a barometer for one’s relationship with God. The quality of our sound ethical, moral and collegial interaction with others is not peripheral to an exercise of a religious purpose in life.
It is central. It is the way to actualize the mercy that Prophet Muhammad (upon him be peace) was sent as a mercy to humankind. To find ways to emulate mercy to practice it daily, with discipline and with the wide range of humanity seals our hearts in devotion to God in a way that brings to light the beauty of daily prayers.
We embody mercy in ways so subtle when it becomes a form of our piety both inwardly and outwardly that we wear it as a garment that shrouds and protects us and those around us from hurt, arrogance, greed and pain.
2. Peacemaking as an intellectual pursuit: It is not an easy task to pursue peacebuilding as one’s intellectual and scholarly enterprise. The need to be critical is a major task for a scholar. It is also one that is spiritually fulfilling and allows one to utilize our ‘aql or reason.
At the very same time, the ethics of engagement for a peacebuilder cannot separate the ways and means of pursuing peace. When I am engaged in peacebuilding activity both in praxis and research, should not my own methods of conversations both in text and in person with others exemplify a peacemaking cognitive structure and way of thinking as well as being?
It takes constant struggle against the internal ego-inflammatory drugs of public recognition to hold tight to a rope of humility. It takes companions who push one down into the reflective process of a Muslim brother or sister as a mirror.
In the end, I think it makes for better scholarship if one finds ways to be critical of the merits of another’s argument and not a demonizer solely of someone’s character.
3. Peacemaking as an internal pursuit. I was reflecting too on the helpful movement towards practice based pedagogy in many peacebuilding curricula. However, spiritual formation is often compartmentalized into a different category of instruction or taxonomy of knowledge.
The practice of peacemaking emanates from the struggle of the torrent of the territory of the heart. It is tempered daily from interaction with irritation of humanity and what others pose to inner fluidity of mercy and its external manifestation in action, though, words and deeds.
Discipline of our hands begins with discipline of thought, heart and mind. Violence in my thoughts and feelings can creep its way into my actions and the often unaccounted for, verbal abuse that is not seen by many as a form of violence.
How does one find mentors in the interior, the exterior, the deeper elements of forming a peacebuilding self narrative and community practice? Do you have one person or a group who mentors you through all of these facets of peacemaking? Do you have a community of practice and learning you draw from?
Who keeps you challenged, nurtured and also pushes your practice and research forward? Who dissents with you and gives you a chance to practice an ethics of disagreement?
So, I continue to think of ways to operationalize mercy, and ask for your help in challenging me to do so.
For more updates from Najeeba Syeed, check out her Facebook pageand Twitter account! This post was first published on the author’s personal blog: Najeeba’s World.
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