Islam and the West… for a better world @
loins of Adam's children, and made them testify against themselves. He said: Am I not your Lord? They replied: We bear witness You are." The brief story of the Primeval Covenant between God and the human has three fundamental consequences on the human condition. First, all human beings have the same God, the God of all humankind, who is known through many names in the various revelations, and describes Himself with many different aspects and qualities. Second, as far as human beings have answered the same unique question, they share a unique spiritual nature. According to this view, human nature is not defined by its genome, which is not so different from a chimp's. The human is not only an animal that has reason, as Aristotle had put it, nor an animal that possesses the ability to speak. The human is the creature that is able to know God. This common nature gathers all of us by the tight links of a brotherhood that is even more than Adamic: it is metaphysical. Once this spiritual nature is recognized in any of us, how is it possible to bring violence to the other? This is the deepest foundation of the ethics of dialogue, mutual respect and cooperation. Third, since there is a unique God for all humankind, and a unique spiritual nature, there is also a unique religion, very much as a single straight line can be drawn between two different points. This unique religion is known from the Islamic tradition as the "immutable tradition" ( ad-dîn al- qayyim ). How is it possible? We see so many religions on earth, maybe too many religions for the spiritual needs of the human. As you know, the Koran explains that the spiritual nature of the human is unique, but the peoples are very different, because the historical and geographical circumstances in which they live are different. God does not cease to reveal the same spiritual message under the veils of the words and symbols that fit the needs of the peoples.
I read in the Koran (Chapter 5, verse 48): "Had God pleased, He could
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