Mecca was the hub of trade in pre-Islamic Arabia and governed by the tribe of Quraysh. If you were a visitor in Mecca without the protection of a confederate or patron allied with the Quraysh, you were left to your own accord and even exploited. When a Yemeni merchant was refused payment for his goods by a notable clan member of the Quraysh, he decried the wrong in the marketplace, but nobody came to his aid due to the prominence and influence of the Meccan. Eventually, the merchant went to the top of a mountain and spoke with vehement eloquence, appealing to the Quraysh, as a whole, to give him justice.
Abdullah ibn Jud’ān, a leader of two great alliances, gathered chiefs and members of different tribes to establish a pact of honor and justice that pledged their collective duty to support the oppressed beyond tribal allegiance or political and commercial gains. The pact was known as the hilf al-fuḍūl (the pact of the virtuous), and a young Muhammad, 20 years before the first Revelation descended to him, participated in that historic meeting. The Messenger, peace be upon him, is later reported to have said in a hadith related by Ibn Ishāq, “If now, in Islam, I was asked to take part in it, I would be glad to accept.”
As a Muslim who considers all life sacred, I have been deeply disturbed by the loss of life in the war in Israel and Palestine that seems as if it will not come to an end unless the world community enacts a hilf al-fuḍūl and pledges to stand with the oppressed by demanding a permanent ceasefire and the return of all Israeli hostages and Palestinian political prisoners, with a peaceful resolution of the 75-year old conflict. The ongoing cycle of violence that has made children collateral damage overlooks the shared humanity that my peers and I have repeatedly emphasized over the last month.
As a first-time college chaplain who has had to figure out her standing as a professional spiritual care provider to all amidst a war that seems to be dividing people in the world and on campus, I have been leaning on my colleagues and campus partners to understand what it means to be in a community during this difficult time. This Thursday, Professor Magnús Bernhardsson will discuss the history and context of the current crisis in Israel and Palestine. Students will have the opportunity to submit their questions and wonderings in advance before the event. Later the same evening, Catholic Chaplain Bridget Power and I have invited Dr. Jordan Denari Duffner, a Catholic scholar on Catholic-Muslim relations, to speak about the current war in Israel and Palestine, Islamophobia, and how we as people of faith can respond in this moment.
I also found myself circling back to the op-ed that my colleague, Rabbi Seth Wax, wrote last March at the onslaught of the war in Ukraine that has since claimed half a million lives, both Ukrainian and Russian. Rabbi Seth highlighted “our need to embody some of our highest values: generosity, empathy, solidarity, and hope,” and these lessons are applicable this time on campus as well.
While there are several humanitarian relief organizations abroad you can donate to, you may also want to be generous with your words and give the benefit of the doubt to your fellow companions at Williams who may or may not be affected by the war in the same ways you are. We can demonstrate empathy by taking on someone else’s perspective and recognizing it as their truth without judgment or the need to “fix them.” By engaging with others across our political alliances here on campus and beyond, we can stand in solidarity for human life, no matter on what “side” life is lost. We can come together as one community that may agree to disagree but is willing to engage in dialogue and begin the work of looking each other in the eye and saying, “I honor you, and I want to make this world a better place for you and me, and our children.”
I urge us to begin talking about peace for all in the world. Let us start locally by tying the bonds of kinship and working towards reparations for the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohicans, who were displaced from Williamstown by the direct actions of Ephraim Williams Sr. and Ephraim Williams Jr. And, I invite us to aspire to be a model community amidst institutions of higher education, one where we look out for each other while joining hands in alliance with the oppressed of this world, no matter who and where they are.
Sidra Mahmood is the College’s Muslim Chaplain.
