Afroza Uddin is an educator
and activist. She has worked both as an adult
ESL teacher and
an elementary school teacher for a number of years.
I
am sure you have heard the buzz about the unveiling and official launch
of "The Charter of Compassion" in November of 2009 either in your local
mosque or on the news.
The Charter of Compassion is a call to bring the world together. The
charter is based on the premise of The Golden Rule and thereby claims
that the “principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious,
ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others
as we wish to be treated.” The Golden Rule requires us to use empathy and to put ourselves in other people’s shoes.
The Charter of Compassion came into being on February 28. 2008 by the
highly esteemed authority on theology, Karen Armstrong. It was on this
day that Armstrong had delivered a TED talk for her wish to help create
and launch a Charter for Compassion. Her
talk had led her to successfully win the $100,000 TED Prize which in
turn helped faciliate Armstrong’s wish for the existence of The Charter
of Compassion today.
Since then, thousands have contributed to the charter’s unveiling to the world on November 12, 2009. The Charter was
created by people from all walks of life, nationalities, beliefs and
backgrounds with the intent to unify, inspire and bring compassion back
into the heart of society.
The most beautiful thing about the Charter is it’s call to unite the world for one central goal. The
goal to make this world a socially just one that brings concerns
citizens together to alleviate the suffering of our fellow human
counterparts.
“Compassion
impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow
creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the center of our world and put
another there, and to honor the inviolable sanctity of every single
human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute
justice, equity and respect.”
Such
a policy only becomes "real" and indoctrinated if you implement it
every day with all people both near and far in your private and public
life.
On November 20, 2009 Toronto residents came together to launch The
Charter by holding lectures, discussions, film screenings, reflective
walks and dedicating weekly sermons to the topic of compassion. Events
across the globe took place as well. In Toronto a Muslim led event
called “The Wall of Compassion” (see image) was organized by Afaun
Mandol of Muslim Presence Toronto. The Wall was invited to be signed at
your local mosque, synagogue, church, temple or public space.
Muslims
in your local mosque heard kutbas (sermons) reminding us about
importance of compassion and mercy with respect to Islamic principles.
I thought I'd share some info about it and the Muslim perspective on the topic by quoting from
this article that suggests good reminders for being compassionate:
“For our family, friends and relatives let us live by the Prophetic
advice, ‘Love; you will be loved; Forgive; you will be forgiven’; for
people in need, ‘Help them as you would like to be helped’; and for
relating to fellow human beings, he invoked the Qur’anic verse, ‘Treat
them with kindness and justice.'
“Compassion is connected to our capacity to love – love for others what
we love for ourselves – as the Prophet Muhammad advised in the famous
tradition,” he said. “When we give of ourselves we must give of what we
most love as Allah says in the Qur’an, ‘You will not attain piety until
you give of what you love’.”
Ironically, in a recent discussion I had with an Imam, we had discussed
the status of the Ummah today and why there are so many issues that we
are battling as a people/community, domestically/locally. These are the
issues that most Muslims fail to address at times and instead focus on
helping those far removed from them. In other words we often ignore
what is occurring around us. He
felt that the real issue at hand in our Ummah is the failure of
morality. We have lost our humanity along the way where Muslims no
longer understand how to be just in an unjust society.
I wonder how we are to decipher what is right when there are so
many varying voices and no singular voice that can be perceived
necessarily as wrong? The task is daunting. We do have the tools, the
answers etc. in the Quran, Sunnah and Seerah of the Prophet (pbuh), but
how many of us really put faith in what Allah has ordained beyond our
natural humanistic inclination to be concerned with the "self"? Where
is our moral compass? To we have the capacity to think on our own? Or
are we just followers? And finally, where is the heart?
My allergist whom I had struck up a conversation about the perils of
the world shared the following Confucius quote with me: The journey of
a thousand miles still begins with a single step.
AFFIRM THE CHARTER
