The Words of the Bujang Family
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The Words of the Bujang Family |
I was able to attend through the good office of the honorable Reverend Sun Myung Moon the Summit of World Muslim Leaders held in Jakarta, Indonesia, in December 2001. The summit carried the theme “Islam and the Future World of Peace,” and the overview referred to the unique role that Islam can play in promoting world peace.
Muslims from all races and nationalities, from every particular community and system, be it large or small, assembled there. Indeed, the summit went very well. Whether the meetings were held together or divided into small groups, the issues relating to world peace were discussed in an atmosphere of harmony, peace, love and respect of each other as Muslim brothers and sisters unified in mind and spirit for the purpose of the summit.
That the meeting was held under the auspices and funding of Reverend Moon and his followers is made all the more significant by virtue of the fact that it is common knowledge that Reverend Moon’s calling is Christianity, and yet here is a man big enough in heart and spirit to see that peace for the world can never be achieved without the involvement of every creed, race, religion, and nation of the world.
The summit would not have been possible without his blessing and the good work of his followers dedicated to his vision of peace.
Cynics can point at the gathering and accuse it of anything, but the brothers and sisters of Islam who were present, as well as non-Muslim brothers and sisters there, know the expressed and manifest good that the gathering has done to unite mankind in peace.
That Indonesia was chosen as the venue for the convention is most apt, it being the country with the highest Muslim population in the world. It took no small effort to plan, manage, and finance the summit. It is made all the more meaningful when one reflects on the fact that this was an effort not made by government machinery. It was a non-government program driven by great civic consciousness on the part of the people involved. It could only have been carried out to such a resounding success by the commitment of Reverend Moon and his dedicated followers to the mission of world peace.
Reverend Moon and his organizations have already convened all kinds of gatherings, every one of them for the sole purpose of establishing peace, harmony, and the unification of mankind. For my humble part, I can only expound on the value of his work by reflecting on those events that I have had the honor to be part of.
It was in 1997 that I first came into direct contact with Reverend Moon. Being a professor of literature in Malaysia, I was among those invited to an Asian Literary Perspectives Conference convened in Washington, D.C., in April. This was followed in June with a Western Literary Perspectives Conference, also held in Washington. Both gatherings met with my approval by the seriousness of the academic sessions and the well-planned proceedings.
I am no stranger to world conferences, having previously been to programs organized by universities or government networks in Germany, Holland, England, China, Russia, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, and Brunei, as well as the United States. Those gatherings, however, were relatively small in terms of member representation and are highly specialized, and more often than not, one is left to fend for oneself.
In contrast, gatherings made under the auspices of Reverend Moon’s organizations come in fine, well-organized packages that can match those organized by top-notch governmental bodies. What is especially soul-inspiring is the fact that participants at Reverend Moon’s gatherings come from all parts of the world and are of every color, creed, and religion.
The Literary Perspectives Conference of 1997 carried the theme “In Search of a New World.” The overall aim was to promote a new vision of culture for the world, a culture of love and peace for humankind. The concept of family was given a new perspective as the central core in the realization of this new world. This is a basic concept, of course, but one is also very aware of our present dilemma: that the traditional family unit is either already lost or in danger of being lost because of factors such as the unnatural liaisons of homosexuals and lesbians, and the growing number of single-parent families.
In this respect, Reverend Moon’s work shines forth like a beacon of hope, strengthening the value of the family bound together by love and marriage. And his work does not just stop at hearsay and discussions. He has gone even further by uniting individuals from all over the globe in bonds of matrimony and pledges of fidelity, in order to keep the purity and love of the true family alive. He went to all lengths to make the ceremony a beautiful experience, an occasion worthy of remembrance. The inter-religious atmosphere of these marriage blessings is highlighted through the presence of representative heads of various religions. For me the ceremony is unique of its kind, far exceeding the excellence of anything that merits entrance in The Guinness Book of Records. It is a historically momentous occasion both for the couples being blessed and for the guests. The focus on uniting couples who pledge to maintain eternal love for each other in front of God represents Reverend Moon’s conscious effort to establish family values as the core of the new world.
His work in this area is matched by his efforts to bring unity and peace to people of the world through other projects. The Religious Youth Service is one program that consciously provides youths of the world a sense of importance by being able to contribute to societies large and small all over the world. The Professors World Peace Academy assembles academicians from around the world for the express purpose of promoting better understanding of world issues and opening up people’s minds in all areas of study.
In Malaysia, my involvement is very much in the area of family matters, through the Women’s Federation for World Peace and the Pure Love True Family movement for world peace. This is yet another of Reverend and Mrs. Moon’s projects in their effort to promote a better world for everyone.
Reverend Moon’s work has stretched throughout the world. But if only more people would sit up, listen, and get involved in his many endeavors to promote world peace, then the nobility of his vision would become more evident and we could perhaps avoid the many man-made tragedies borne of ignorance of each other’s value and needs. In my opinion, the greatest value of Reverend Moon’s work is that it helps the people he has touched to fully understand the meaning of, and have the power to develop, a civic consciousness, the desire to get up and do their level best for the goodwill of man and the good of mankind.
Prof. Datin Dr. Rahmah Haji Bujang