12 October 2023

Dear Companions on the Path,

As I write, rockets are flying between Tel Aviv and Gaza. Apartment buildings are thundering to the ground. Parents and children cannot find each other. The grief is immeasurable.

How did we get to this point? How did the Holy Land become a Hell on Earth?

Arabs and Jews have never truly been enemies. They have lived together for centuries, and they can again.

Imagine a Holy Land in which there are no barbed wire fences, occupations, checkpoints, or blockades … a land in which people of all faiths and races are fellow citizens with equal rights … a land in which property is passed down the generations or fairly bought and sold, but never taken by force (or, if so, returned) … a land where the Temple Mount, with its Al-Aqsa Mosque and Western Wall, is amicably shared between Abrahamic siblings as a house of prayer for all people.

I remember accompanying my father when he took part in interfaith peace talks in the Sinai Desert in 1984, culminating in a predawn ascent of the holy mountain. You will find my father’s report of the meeting below, as well as the message he sent after 9/11.

Below also please find a list of aid organizations caring for the wounded in Palestine and Israel, as well as survivors of the recent devastating earthquake in Afghanistan. To fund their urgent humanitarian work, these organizations depend on the generosity of people of goodwill, and donations of every amount help.

Let us continue to pray for all those in harm’s way, intoning Amaan 101, 301, or 501 times each day. Our task is to remember the harmony of the prophets in the heavens, to work for the harmony of all people on Earth, and to seek every opportunity to realize peace and justice in the world. Every life is incalculably sacred.

Yours ever,
Pir Zia

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