Muslims and Entering a Church
Abdul Karim Bangura
As Mwalimu Toyin Adepoju has put it, no one can know everything. Thus, it is with sincerity that I ask whether anyone on this forum is aware of any precept in the Qur'an or the Hadith that prohibits a Muslim from entering a church, as I am quite baffled by the Nigerian official's refusal to enter a church, especially when citizens of his country he is representing are bereaved. While I pride myself as an avid student of the Torah, the Bible, the Qur'an and the Hadith, I might have missed such a prohibition.
I lean more toward the great Sufi Rumi or Jalaluddin Balkhi on matters dealing with Abrahamic connections. As I state in my book in progress tentatively titled Rumi on Judaic-Christioan-Islamic Connections, Rumi's reverence for all faiths is captured in the poem titled Only Breath as follows: "Christian or Jew or Muslim, or Hindu, or Buddhist, Sufi, or Zen all belong to the beloved...."
As I also note in the work, in the midst of the crusades and violent sectarian conflict, Rumi said "I go into the Muslim mosque and the Jewish Synagogue and the Christian church and see one altar." As I further mentioned, in December of 1273 when Rumi died, representatives of every major religion---the Pope, etc.---attended his funeral.
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