Buddhism and Islam: Suffering, the Hijrah, and Welcoming Strangers

I think of the freedom from suffering that Buddhism teaches us is only possible if we remove the three poisons of desire, hatred, and ignorance from our daily lives.

We need not accept suffering as unchangeable.

We need not treat hatred as the natural state.

We have the power to set ourselves free.

And I consider my own faith, Islam, a religion built upon a narrative of migration.

The story of the Hijrah reminds us that Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was a stranger too, who fled Mecca and was welcomed in Medina.

Surah Al-Nahl, 1642, tells us, as for those who immigrated in the cause of Allah after being persecuted, we will surely bless them with a good home in this world.

Or as the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, Islam began as something strange and will go back to being strange.

So glad tidings to the strangers.

If faith offers us the moral compass to stand alongside the stranger, government can provide the resources.

Let us create a new expectation of City Hall, where power is wielded to love, to embrace, and to protect.

We will stand with the stranger today.