Humans are the image of God in this world. God has sent us in this world to make this world a better place to dwell for humans.
Minhaj University the School of Religion & Philosophy, Headed by Dr.Herman Roborgh and Dr Khurram Shazhad, Director Academics organized an exclusive awareness session on 28th October with distinguished International Speaker Mr.Gerald Herschel Gluck, Chairman and founder of Muslim-Jewish Forum, the United Kingdom on the eve of International Conference on Science. Reason & Religion held on 26th and 27th October (2019). The objective of the session was to have knowledge of Judaism in a comparative study with other religions.
Mr.Gerald stated,’’ that is a great challenge to introduce Judaism is such a short span of time. What we believe that humans are the image of God in this world. God has sent us in this world to make this world a better place to dwell for humans. We must shun all the negativity from our mind. We must be modest in our attitude towards others. Like Islam, Judaism also believes that one should be intolerant of everything that is undesirable and produces disgust in a person. We must develop in ourselves a force to avoid urges of indecency and obscenity. We must prepare ourselves to combat against all evils. The preaching of Judaism strongly stresses that humans should create a strong feeling of the inner self which enables him to censors the doing of his self and eradicates by his own free will even the slightest inclination towards evil.”
Talking about the place of women in Judaism he said. ’the woman enjoys all rights and privileges, dignity and respect as men and women are highly respected as we believe that woman have more obligations and responsibilities than the man being mother, wife daughter and sister. They ought to be respected and have every right of freedom in Judaism to lead life at their sweet will.”
Stating the rights of Fellow Beings he said,’’ We lay exclusive emphasis on the justice, trust, respect for life and property, patience, humility, thankfulness and forgiveness.”
While enlightening the community life in Judaism he narrated, ’we believe that community is governed by a sense of both individuals and collective responsibility to God Who has defined the limits of human behaviour. In discussing the collective aspects of human interaction in any community, it is only logical to start at the beginning, which is with family. The religious teachings of Judaism are designed to strengthen and protect the important nurturing grounds of future generation with utmost care and concern.’’
Responding to the question of living relationship and marriage he briefed, ’living relationship is not permissible in Judaism. Marriage is considered a cornerstone of the family and is strongly encouraged as a partnership with both partners for assuming their responsibility for their life together.”
Talking about the charity he added,’’ like zakat in Islam charity is invariably mentioned in Judaism with its virtues and benefits in this world and the next, like increase in wealth and Divine reward and with the warning of dreadful punishment who fail to pay it. As per Judaism, an average person must pay 10% of his gross income and the opulent may pay 20% of their gross income as an obligation. We believe that charity is the backbone of the economic system of any country. It leads to establish a self-supporting society in which everyone gets the chance to fulfil his basic needs and to lead a respectable life.
At the end of the session, he in his message to the Pakistani community said,’’ I am highly delighted by the hospitality of Pakistani people and thankful to Minhaj University Lahore for providing me with the opportunity to participate in the conference by the gesture of graceful invitation. Indeed, such visits will improve the bilateral relations between the two countries and shun the prejudicial notions that Jews and Muslims like each other begrudgingly.”