NOTICE OF AN ESSAY CONTEST ON PEACE ON EARTH
The Friendship and Peace Society is sponsoring an essay contest on peace based on quotations from the three Holy Books: the Tanach, the Gospels and the Koran. The contest will be advertised at each university in Palestine and Israel and each university will choose its best essay in Arabic or English and in Hebrew or English respectively. Each winning essay will receive a prize of $100 and the best Palestinian and the best Israeli essay each will receive an additional prize of at least $200. The essays are due by May 1 at your university.
Directions: Utilizing the quotations below, write a well-organized essay discussing how the concept of peace is embedded in the three Abrahamic religions and how the religions foresee a time of peace and unity during the end times.
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I. All three Abrahamic religions have peace as an ideal. Develop that idea using the quotations below.
JUDAISM: Proverbs: 3.17. Her (Wisdom's) ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.
CHRISTIANITY: Matthew 5. 9. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called Sons of God.
ISLAM: The Table, Sura V. 15-16. Now has come to you light from God and a plain scripture, whereby God guides him who seeks His good pleasure into paths of peace.
The Spoils of War, Sura VIII. 61. And if they incline to peace, do you also to it, and trust in God.
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II. All three Abarahamic religions teach respect for other people, not merely for their own adherents. Develop that idea using the quotations below.
JUDAISM: Torah: Leviticus 19: 33-34. And if a stranger sojourn with you in your land, you shall not vex him. But the stranger (non-Jew) that lives with you shall be to you as one from among you, and you shall love him as yourself. For you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
CHRISTIANITY: Matthew: 7.12. So whatever you wish that men would do to you, so do to them; for this is the law and the prophets.
ISLAM: The Cow, Sura II. 62. Lo! those who believe (in what was revealed to you, Mohammed), and those who are Jews, and Christians and Sabeans--whoever believes in God and the Last Day and does right--surely their reward is with their Lord, and there shall no fear come upon them neither shall they grieve.
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III. The concept of non-violence is present in each of the three holy books. Discuss that concept using the quotations below.
JUDAISM: Exodus 20.13. You shall not kill.
CHRISTIANITY: Matthew 5.44-45, 48. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust....You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
ISLAM: The Table, Sura V. 28. (Abel to Cain, but universalized) Even if you stretch out your hand against me to kill me, I shall not stretch out my hand against you to kill you, for I fear God, the Lord of the Worlds. Lo! I would rather you should bear the punishment of the sin against me and your own sin and become one of the owners of the Fire. That is the reward of evil-doers.
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IV. Judaism and Christianity prophecy a time of peace and non-violence in the end times, and Islam confirms the validity of the two preceding Holy Scriptures as well as foreseeing the coming together of the religions. Develop those ideas using the quotations.
JUDAISM: Isaiah 2.3-4 . It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come, and say:
"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths."
For from Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He shall judge between nations, and shall decide for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
CHRISTIANITY: Matthew 6. 9-10.
Our Father, who is in heaven
Hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Matthew 13. 44. The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man finds and covers up; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
ISLAM: Counsel, Sura XLII. 13-16. He has ordained for you that religion which He commended to Noah, and that which we inspire in you (Mohammed), and that which We commended to Abraham and Moses and Jesus, saying: Establish the religion, and be not divided therein....
To this, then summon (O Mohammed). And be you upright as you are commanded, and follow not their lusts, but say: I believe in whatever Scripture God has sent down, and I am commanded to be just among you. God is our Lord and your Lord. To us our works and to you your works; no argument between us and you. God will bring us together, and unto Him is the journeying.
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