Psalms, Islam, and Shalom: A Common Heritage of Divine Songs for Muslim-Christian Friendship

By Eric Sarwar

For fourteen centuries, a gap of mutual suspicion and hostility has existed between Christians and Muslims, despite attempts to engage theologically, apologetically, polemically, and militarily (such as the Crusades). During the past four decades, increased Islamization in Pakistan has led to blasphemy laws, nationalization of Christian institutions, a state policy of religious and political profiling, and discrimination against followers of Jesus. Historic animosity has resulted in widespread violence and persecution. Amid such an environment, past efforts at reaching Muslims with the gospel have proved ineffective or even detrimental, highlighting a need for a different approach to engaging with Islamic culture.

Eric Sarwar's research, experience, and practice have uncovered the valuable and mostly untapped role of the biblical Psalms in fostering peaceful friendship with Muslims. The book of Psalms, called Zabor in Arabic, is a common heritage of divine song that can be used as a point of connection for public witness between Muslims and Christians. Especially in the Pakistani context, Psalms carries vast potential, in terms of both text and musical expression, as a bridge to peacemaking and missional engagement. Yet the book of Psalms has never been a significant part of witness to the Muslim world. Sarwar believes that can change.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Release date: Sep 5, 2023
• ISBN: 9781506491202

Book preview

Praise for Psalms, Islam, and Shalom

A compelling study of the power of ancient, biblical poetry and sung prayer to express the deep cries of human hearts, to shape moments of profound encounter and recognition across religious and cultural divides, and to bear witness to the love of God in a hurting world. Dr. Sarwar’s life of ministry and study has been a profound witness to the themes explored in this book—and now it is a gift to us to have the insights and convictions that have guided his ministry in written form. May many future pastoral leaders and students learn to return to the Psalms, to receive the gift of sung prayer, and to stretch beyond their comfort zones to reach out to others in peace-shaping, shalom-seeking ways.

—John D. Witvliet, Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, Calvin University and Calvin Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, Michigan

"Psalms, Islam, and Shalom features Punjabi and Pakistani singers, songwriters, and other voices resounding as both Christian and Muslim witnesses that reverberate with comparative musicological, liturgical, hermeneutical, theological, and missiological implications and applications. Church, mosque, and academy will be resonating with Sarwar’s intonations for the next decade-plus!"

—Amos Yong, professor of theology and mission, Fuller Theological Seminary

Dr. Eric Sarwar has done a great job by exploring a needed research issue in the context of interfaith relations. His academic contribution in this field of research is commendable. This research will help us to understand this phenomenon better and build bridges for reaching out to others in a meaningful way. It’s a must-read.

—Dr. Qaiser Julius, director, Open Theological Seminary; executive secretary, Theological Educators’ Forum, Pakistan

Rev. Dr. Eric Sarwar has produced a magisterial study of the Psalms in the context of the Qur’an. He masterfully imagines scriptural engagement of various religious traditions on the common ground of the Psalms, which leads to innovative peace-building initiatives and enhances interfaith relationships. This book is a must-read primer for anyone interested in the wider application of the Psalms from musical, poetic, historic, and liturgical viewpoints in interfaith contexts. The book will be an ideal resource for students and scholars of music, art, theology, history, biblical studies, Islamic studies, interfaith studies, as well as for lay people.

—Dr. Thea Gomelauri, founder of the Psalms in Interfaith Contexts Reading Group; director of the Oxford Interfaith Forum

This book and the research behind it are important missiological contributions to interfaith dialogue between Muslims and Christians through the use of the Psalms. Dr. Sarwar ‘unmutes the prophetic voice of David,’ who is revered in both Islamic and Christian traditions. In an approach that is culturally relevant and contextually sensitive, Dr. Sarwar seeks a ‘sur-sangam’ convergence in Indic musicality and the traditional ragas form to bring together culturally appropriate Christian witness in Psalm Festivals and other opportunities for Christian-Muslim dialogue. Dr. Sarwar offers practical recommendations for continued dialogue and witness in the Pakistani context and among the diaspora. I highly recommend this book as a new and creative approach to interfaith dialogue.

—Rev. Greg Sinclair, Diaspora Ministry Leader, Resonate Global Mission, Hamilton, Ontario

"Lucid and highly readable, Eric Sarwar’s Psalms, Islam, and Shalom is a carefully researched song of the heart. The long and bloody history of Muslim-Christian conflict in Pakistan would ordinarily have condemned from the start a young Christian pastor’s best efforts to create spaces of dialogue and relationship with Muslim neighbors. But Sarwar’s social location as a musically trained Christian leader with an unusual gift for connecting deeply with Pakistan’s Muslim musicians and religious leaders opened his eyes to the treasure that the Psalms represent as a shared legacy that binds Christians and Muslims together. Psalms, Islam, and Shalom is the story of that shared legacy."

—Rev. Dr. B. Hunter Farrell, director, World Mission Initiative, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary

"Eric Sarwar’s important work is crucial for its scholarship, certainly. However, I believe it is a paradigmatic landmark paving the way for Muslims and Christians to meet in worship. As such, it opens a whole new realm of possibilities that traditional evangelism and dialogue models do not imagine."

—Kevin Higgins, president, William Carey International University; general director, Frontier Ventures; facilitator, Muslim Ministries

This book is a resource for chaplains, pastors, musicians, missionaries, and scientists to explore song’s empowerment of interfaith friendship. Without blurring Christian faith distinctives, Dr. Eric Sarwar bravely probes how common musical experience opens shared and surprising meaning among people of different faiths. In a divisive digital world, this book offers practices that cross religious divides, sharing harmonies of faith as a bridge over troubled waters.

—Dr. Shirley J. Roels, executive director, International Network for Christian Higher Education

If Muslim-Christian peacemaking requires imagination, we exclude the arts at our peril. While traditional efforts begin with interfaith dialogue, negotiation, or apologetics, Eric Sarwar charts his path to peace through the power of song. A songwriter himself, Sarwar opens up an impressive aesthetic approach to interfaith engagement.

—Matthew Kaemingk, author of Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear; Mouw Chair of Faith and Public Life, Fuller Seminary

Delightful, engaging, and innovative! Dr. Sarwar engages Muslim-Christian interfaith dialogue from a new and creative angle using music and common Zabur/Psalms heritage as a bridge. I see huge potential for contextual evangelism, discipleship, dialogue, and more through the Psalms-singing and music. This is a must-read for anyone interested in contextual theology, Muslim-Christian relations, or South Asian studies.

—Esa Autero, dean of Graduate Studies, South Florida Bible College and Theological Seminary

Rev. Dr. Eric Sarwar’s groundbreaking and timely book challenges the church, not least in Pakistan, to recognize the limitations of traditional mission methods and to engage in new, creative, contextual missional approaches for the twenty-first century. In particular, Dr. Sarwar highlights the importance of ‘worship as witness’ as he focuses on how vernacular translations of the Psalms, composed in cultural music styles, open up a third space for creative conversations with Islam. I warmly commend this book, especially to those eager to explore new frontiers in the mission of God.

—Rev. Uel Marrs, Global Mission Secretary, The Presbyterian Church in Ireland

Psalms, Islam, and Shalom

Psalms, Islam, and Shalom

A Common Heritage of Divine Songs for Muslim-Christian Friendship

Eric Sarwar

Fortress Press

Minneapolis

Psalms, Islam, and Shalom

A Common Heritage of Divine Songs for Muslim-Christian Friendship

Copyright © 2023 Fortress Press, an imprint of 1517 Media. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Email [e-mail] or write to Permissions, Fortress Press, PO Box 1209, Minneapolis, MN 55440-1209.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023932329 (print)

Cover design: Emily Harris

Print ISBN: 978-1-5064-9119-6

eBook ISBN: 978-1-5064-9120-2

Contents

1. Introduction: A New Approach toward Shalom

Prelude: Alap

2. From Polemics to Peacemaking

Performance: Bandish

3. Sur-Sangam: Musical Heritage of Pakistan

4. Islamic Views of Art and Music

5. Convergent Paths: The Psalms and Islam

6. Divergent Paths: Where Views Differ

7. The Punjabi Psalter: The Legacy of a Century-Old Songbook

Postlude: Taan

8. Psalms as a Mandate for Musical Mission to the Muslim World

Appendix: Parallel References of the Psalms and the Qur’an

1

Introduction

A New Approach toward Shalom

Almost two thousand years ago, the gospel of Jesus Christ came to the land now known as Pakistan. Tradition tells us the Apostle Thomas brought the Good News to the Indus River Valley in the first century on his Great Commission journey to the Indian subcontinent.

Although some Hindus and Buddhists received the gospel with joy, the roots of the Christian faith never grew deep and wide in the Indus Valley. When Muslim missionaries reached the area in the seventh century, they conquered the land for Islam. The nation of Pakistan, itself carved out of the British Raj of the Indian subcontinent on August 14, 1947, as a place specifically for Muslims, now hosts the second largest number of Muslims in the world after Indonesia. About 96 percent of the country’s 242 million people claim the faith of Muhammad, while some 2.5 percent of Pakistanis identify as Christians.

For fourteen centuries, a gap of mutual suspicion and hostility has existed between Christians and Muslims, despite attempts to engage theologically, apologetically, polemically, and militarily (such as the Crusades). During the past four decades, increased Islamization in Pakistan has led to blasphemy laws, nationalization of Christian institutions, a state policy of religious and political profiling, and discrimination against followers of Jesus. Historic animosity has resulted in widespread violence and persecution. Amid such an environment, past efforts at reaching Muslims with the gospel have proved ineffective or even detrimental, highlighting a need for a different approach to engaging the Islamic culture.

Psalms as a Common Heritage

My research, experience, and practice have uncovered the valuable and mostly untapped role of the biblical Psalms in fostering peaceful friendship with Muslims. The book of Psalms, called Zabur in Arabic, is a common heritage of divine song that can be used as a point of connection for public witness between Muslims and Christians. Especially in the Pakistani context, the Psalms carry vast potential, in terms of both text and musical expression, as a bridge to peacemaking and missional engagement. Yet the book of Psalms has never been a significant part of witness to the Muslim world.

The Qur’an teaches its followers to read and respect the previous scriptures, consisting of the Torah (Tawrat), the Psalms (Zabur), and the Gospel (Injil). Most Muslims, however, do not read any of them. Many do not read even the Qur’an. From a historical perspective, although Zabur is among the four revealed books of Islam (including the Qur’an itself), most of the interfaith conversation has centered around the Tawrat and Injil. Why have the Psalms been muted or neglected?

Until recently, the Church has shown little interest in using music and psalms to build a bridge to the Islamic culture. The value of these resources for missions has been overlooked not only in Pakistan but in broader Christian engagement with the Muslim world. Some, including researcher and theologian Jeremy S. Begbie, do recognize music as a powerful medium that resonates with the dynamics of Christian faith. Begbie contends that music has considerable power to generate fresh and fruitful resources for the theological task.¹ Yet music remains neglected in the theological corridor as an abstract construct, its process of communication seen as too opaque or fluid for meaningful analysis.

Music as a Creative Strategy

Music communicates powerful information and emotion. Its emotive and spiritual language can serve as a peacemaking bridge between Muslims and Christians. When used in interfaith gatherings, music creates a mental, emotional, and spiritual bond in shared performance spaces.

Pakistan, which literally means land of the pure, is a unique country where famous gospel singers are Muslim artists. It is an oral culture with a tradition of poetry, sacred hymns, and the oral performative practice of cantillation, affording great potential for bonding people across religious lines. Because Pakistani music serves as a tool for communication and cultural cohesion, the common sacred text of Psalms and cultural musical tunes provide a rich and robust context for religious dialogue.

This book proposes a creative strategy for building Muslim-Christian friendship by using the lyrical poetry of the Psalms translated into the vernacular and composed in culturally relevant music. The book of Psalms, I believe, provides a mandate for musical mission in the Islamic context.

My Story

As a fourth-generation Christian, musician, and pastor from Pakistan, with fluency in Punjabi, Urdu, and Hindi, I hold both cultural music and the Psalms close to my heart. They represent my identity. My grandfather, Mohan Lal, provided my classical music training in North Indian musicology. I was given the title sadhu (Sanskrit for a holy man) during my initial immersion into the traditional rhythms and rhymes of Pakistan’s music culture, including raga-based psalm singing. This training led me to serve as a worship leader with liturgical and contemporary