After quite some time, I felt compelled to get in touch with a Muslim teacher again. She wrote back to me: ‘Last night I thought of you again and hoped that you would write to me soon, because I have a new mobile phone and some numbers, including yours, have been lost. How wonderful to hear from you today.’ She then told me about the breaking of the fasting the day before, which many people had attended and for which she had written a special prayer. It said, among other things: ‘In the Jewish tradition, we pray: “Grant peace, goodness and blessing, grace, mercy and compassion upon us and upon the whole world.”’ God of the Covenant, spread your shalom – not as a fleeting truce, but as healing wholeness, as reconciliation that builds bridges over the abysses of history. In Christian testimony, we hear the words of Jesus: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. Not as the world gives it, I give it unto you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.‘ Grant us this peace, which reaches deeper than treaties and borders, which transforms fear into trust and enmity into the strength to begin anew. And in the Qur'an it says: ’Whoever saves a human being is as if he has saved all of humanity." God, the Merciful, remind us that every life is sacred and that no bloodshed honours your name. Richly rewarded, I wrote her a heartfelt thank you!
