Does ‘Salam’ Mean Submission or Peace?
To me, there are two fundamentally different kinds of Muslims according to this distinction.
‘Salam,’ as in Islam and Muslim ― same root, also as ‘sjalom’ in Hebrew.
I intend no denigration of Islam or any other religion.
Every religion is worthwhile if one dares to fall deeply inside. Otherwise, it’s just a sociocultural happening. There is no harm in that if there is clarity about the quality of religious content.
By the way, mine is Open Religion. Please respect it as I respect yours. Also, I don’t want to proselytize, just to let you think and feel for yourself.
Inner peace, a universal good
With this at the forefront, one can only applaud. A religion that brings inner peace to all is a mature one — as I would say, ready for the next step to being Open.
Inner peace is the aim of Compassion, basically. It is the most valuable good.
Moreover, it is incompatible with the coerced submission of anyone to anyone else.
Submission?
There is no room for oppression in any genuine religion, including Islam. Nevertheless, some see ‘salam’ as the submission of the true believer to ‘God’ who apparently demands such submission.
A discussion about whether such a God exists is, of course, pointless to a submitted believer because it’s not, to him, about rational arguments and logical argumentation. Anyway, a religious belief is a feeling; therefore, it is explicitly not an end product of mere rationality.
So, submission or peace?
The incompatibility that I just referred to lives on the outside. As ‘coerced submission,’ it’s in no case something from the inside.
That’s where I make the big difference — or unity.
Submission from the inside?
Indeed.
What this means is that the ego lowers its walls to make room for the total person in two directions. This is needed for any genuine religiosity in the first place.
I know this feeling very well, also in a religious context. I know it as one of the most excellent things if there is no coercion involved. Bring one grain of that, and all may be lost.
This way, genuine submission and inner peace point to the same.
No argument about this. Just go for it and feel it yourself.
So please don’t make the surface-level mistake of discarding depth, even if this mistake seems to be made so frequently in this world in which religion serves to many as a means for ego-purposes, be it in this world or the next.
In the universe of religion, mere ego-purposes are an utter disgrace. I wonder why this is not evident to some.
Respect your religiosity.
Then, our souls may meet.
What eternal joy!
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