Allahu Akbar - God is most great!

Thursday and Friday we learned about Isalm and went to the Holy Places.  Following tha I cam upon an article from which the following two paragraphs come.

"I learned that Muslims affirm five “pillars” of faith, all of which should sound extremely familiar to Christians: a declaration of faith, daily prayer, fasting, charity, and pilgrimage. Muslims uphold the New Testament and the Hebrew Scriptures as sacred texts, revere Jesus as a great prophet, and his mother, Mary, as a saint. Having learned Arabic, I could read parts of the Qur'an, which says “surely those who believe, and those who are Jews, and Christians … whoever believes in God and the Last Day and does good, they shall have their reward from their Lord.”

Dome of the Rock - built in 688.  In it I the rock from which Mohammed ascended to the heavens.

Some of the beauty seen in the Dome and throughout the Temple Mount.

 

"Islam and Christianity have a complicated, 1400-year history, one all too often marked by profound misunderstanding and violence on both sides. This is an appropriate moment to remember that reconciliation — hanging together in hope, working toward fruitful relationship — is the central work of the Church. We practice reconciliation when we refuse to separate ourselves from others we don’t know or understand; when we insist on a more honest view of the world, even if it’s a more complicated one; when we pray for and move toward forgiving those who have hurt us; when we are kind and merciful toward our neighbors, our colleagues, our friends, and ourselves."

Claire Dietrich Ranna