I find it amusing, often perplexing, when sometimes you extend a simple greeting to another brother, like say for instance: “Sallam Alaikum” and sharply dissenting, he waves his head from side to side and defiantly responds with the word “Shalom”!
This stubborn response curiously seems to grant a certain measure of peace to the aggrieved …
Sallam Alaikum simply means “Peace be upon you” in another language. But the fanatics will obstinately insist on solely employing the word “Shalom” to situate themselves in the appropriate context, or do we use the word, “fold”!
Fair enough …
But this can be remarkably contradictory! For almost all the brethren I have ever met are comfortable concluding their prayers with the word “Amen”; whose origin, ironically is Hebrew!
Semantics?
Ask the same brethren why some copies of the Holy Book are more complete than the others and seek to offer insights into the period of the inquisition in Rome, where many changes to the aforementioned were said to have been effected at the Ecumenical Council in Rome, whereby some of the original teachings were extracted and even distorted … and Holy Ghost Fire will instantly be breathed into your nostrils!
Seek to offer insights into the allegorical pictures painted in the Holy Book with explanations outside the understanding of the “Man of God” on the pulpit, and in your eyes the image of the angry devil with a wispy tail will be seen …
Question how the prophet, who preached nothing but peace, love and harmony, could be reconciled with the present-day bloodthirstiness, savagery and barbarism of the “believers”, the common-place orgies of murder and extermination wreaked on “unbelievers” and you would have comfortably banished yourself into exile … or for a lifetime be fleeing from a fatwah …
But the ignorance of the brethren and the rigidity of the fanatics will and cannot distort or violate eternal truths. The Truth is, always has been. Man is simply yet to become …
Seeking is a life-long activity; and the one who finds the Truth opens the doors to conviction and eventual freedom in his experiencing, which alone can validate the words that the teaching brings him.
When the words of the teaching he has been handed do not resonate with his intuition, do not tally with his experience – often contradict, and give way for guesswork and varying personal interpretations, then, the search invariably must continue …
He who finds the truth seeks it. He who seeks the Truth finds …
Irregardless of the faith, group or religion we may belong to, irrespective of the teachings we might prescribe, may we always be open to the Light Streams which ceaselessly gush from On-High, that our paths be blessed. Amen