Christmas letters from Muslims

Peace, Kapayapaan, Kalinaw, Kalinong, Salam, Shalom, to you this Christmas.

I was pleasantly surprised to receive letters from Muslims working in Saudi Arabia reacting positively to last week’s column piece, ``The Christmas Story in the Koran’’ (12/22/05).

First, I’d like to say that the Inquirer stylebook spells the name of the Muslims’ Holy Book as ``Koran’’ so the few times in the past that I wrote ``Qur’an’’ I always got a call from the proofreading department informing me that the spelling will changed. I again got a call regarding my title.

At first I was a bit hesitant to run the account on Mary’s pregnancy and the events that led to Jesus’ birth as narrated in the Koran. Was my copy of the Koran an accepted translation? I presumed that like the Bible that comes in different translations, the Koran also has many translations. My pocketsize copy is by Ballantine Books, a division of Random House and published in the US. Its title is ``The Koran’’ I got it from Powerbooks for only P125.75. The Bible isn’t as cheap.

Honestly, I was charmed by the account on Mary giving birth beside the trunk of a date palm. Famished and in pain, Mary heard a voice telling her to shake the tree, whereupon ripe dates fell on her. Dates are a good post-partum repast, I suppose. I thought, we have always associated Christmas with castanas (chestnuts). Why don’t we switch to dates?

I really prefer dates. Some of the best I’ve tasted were preserved ones that were still on the twig. They came from Tunisia. Dates, I was told, are a popular food item for Muslims at the end of Ramadan.

Now, if we go by the ripening of the dates and their falling on Mary, this would mean that Jesus was not born during a winter month but in the summer in that part of the world. Not that the exact date and time matters much now.

Anyway, here are some of the letters.



``I was, as usual, going over the columns and to my surprise, I found your story title to be quite intriguing. However, as I read the story, I was happy to know that even if our times have changed, good people are still not hard to find. Thanks for taking time out to read our Holy Qur’an (correct name) and I am grateful that you have published the story of our beloved Prophet Jesus (or Issa in Arabic). (Peace and blessings be upon him.) Keep up the good work. -alepa@Kfshrc@edu.sa’’

****

``Thank you for your nice article about Virgin Mary and Jesus as mentioned in the Qur’an. Yes indeed, as Muslim reverts we believe in them as well as all the prophets sent by Allah or God. Prophets sent by Allah to teach people to worship only one true God and their greeting is ``Salam’’ (peace). Jesus was sent to Bani Israel and said: `Hear Israel, your God and my God is one, so worship Him only.’ Also Issa (Jesus) said: `And verily Allah is my Lord and your Lord. So worship Him (alone).’

``That is the Straight Path--Allah’s religion of Islamic Monotheism which He did ordain for all of His Prophets. [Ayah 36, Surah 19 (Maryam), the Glorious Qur’an.]

``But (Jesus’) birthday is not celebrated by practicing (Sunni) Muslims. When Mary gave birth, fresh ripe dates dropped when she shook the trunk of the palm tree. Here in the Middle East, dates ripen during summer (July-August) and not December.

``Reading the Qur’an and learning Islam is really a good sign for all of us Filipinos in order to bring lasting peace and progress in our country. Peace be unto you. - Ben Manikan, Riyadh, KSA, afiainc1423@yahoo.com’’

****

``Salam! That is how we greet each other in Islam. Peace! And I would like to extend it to you. For me you are lucky to have the chance to have taken a glimpse of the Qur'an and I hope this won't be the last time. Please read it to feed your mind and to nourish your soul. Don't be afraid that you will end up comparing the Bible and the Qur'an. Happy Holidays! - Mary-Ann Amir,RN, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’’

****

I also received a letter from a friend and church activist from way back, now Midsayap-based Pastor Al Senturias, chair of the Mindanao People’s Peace Movement (MPPM). Al and his wife Linda (president of the Southern Christian College) are both involved in forging peace among Christians and Muslims.

Attached with the letter was the ``Summary Report and Recommendations of the Mindanao People’s Peace Mission to Sulu’’(conducted before Christmas).

Among the 13 observations are:

1. The people complain of looting done by the military during operations and being fired at by helicopter gunships.

2. There are American troops in Sulu engaged in bayanihan or civic works. However, the people are not aware of the real purpose of the Americans’ presence.

3. There is suspicion on the part of the military leadership regarding the motivations of concerned citizens, just as there is deepening mistrust among civilians of military presence.

4. There is a strong citizens’ movement capable of working with local government units, the police and the military in building a peaceful, orderly and progressive community.

Even longer are the recommendations classified as short-term (1 year), medium-term (two to three years) and long-term (four to seven years). The long-term has to do with addressing the root of the conflict in Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Basilan, as well as other Bangsamoro areas in Mindanao and Palawan. This is the about the right to self-determination of the Bangsamoro.

There is so much more to this MPPM report than I am able to mention and which government, civil society and churches ought to pay attention to. There is reason to hope for peace, if only….

The Christmas story in the Qur’an

The Christmas story is not only told in the bible of the Christians, it is also in the Qur’an of the Muslims. I went over the Qur’an which is not familiar terrain for me, I also browsed through an Islamic website where I found interesting stuff.

In the Qur’an one will find an account of Mary’s own birth, the Annunciation and later, the Nativity and Jesus’ public life. Mary is mentioned in the Qur’an 34 times. But before Jesus’ birth is the story about the miraculous conception and birth of John the Baptist, the precursor of the Messiah that was to come.

The Qur’an says that Mary was the daughter of the wife of Imran. When Imran’s wife was pregnant, she made a vow that she would offer her child to be raised and serve at the Temple. She thought she would give birth to a son, but when she delivered, the child turned out be a girl. The mother was disappointed.

She named the child Mary which meant servant. Mary’s father Imran had died before she was born, so her mother brought her to the temple to be reared by the priests. Zakariyya (John the Baptist’s father?) was one of them. Unable to decide who would have the privilege of having custody of Mary, the priests drew lots. Zakariyya’s name was drawn and he became Mary’s guardian.

When Mary reached the age of puberty, Zakariyya saw to it she was protected from the eyes of men. Mary worshipped Allah in a special partition where nobody could enter except Zakariyya. Whenever Zakariyya came in he always found her with food.



``O Mary! Whence comes this to you?’’ Zakariyya would ask. Mary would answer: ``It is from Allah, and surely Allah gives sustenance to whom He pleases, without measure.’’

From the Qur’an here is the word-for-word account on the Annuciation:

This is one of the announcements of things Unseen by thee: To thee, O Muhammad! Do we reveal it; for thou wast not with them when they cast lots with reeds which of them should rear Mary; nor wast thou with them when they disputed about it.

Remember when the angel said, ``O Mary! Verily God announceth to thee the word from Him: His name shall be, Messiah Jesus the son of Mary, illustrious in this world, and in the next, and one of those who have near access to God;

``And he shall speak to men alike when in the cradle and when grown up; And he shall be one of the just.’’

She said, ``How, O my Lord! Shall I have a son, when man hath not touched me?’’ He said, ``Thus: God will create what He will; When He decreeth a thing, He only saith, `Be,’ and it is.’

``And he will teach him the Book, and the Wisdom, and the Law, and the Evangel; and he shall be an apostle to the children of Israel. `Now I have come,’ he will say, `to you with a sign from your Lord: Out of clay will I make for you, as it were, the figure of a bird: and I will breathe unto it, and it shall become by God’s leave, a bird. And I will heal the blind, and the leper; and by God’s leave will I quicken the dead, and will tell you what ye eat, and what ye store up in your houses! Truly in this will be a sign for you, if ye are believers….’’

But this is getting ahead of the story. In a later chapter (vide xix), the Annunciation scene is repeated. Mary gives birth, not in a stable, but beside the truth of a date palm. This is a rather colorful birth scene, what with dates falling on her.

And make mention of the Book of Mary, when she went apart from her family, eastward,
And took a veil to shroud herself from them: and We sent Our spirit to her, he took before her the form of a perfect man.

She said: ``I fly for refuge from thee to the God of Mercy! If thou fearest Him, begone from me.’’

He said, ``I am only a messenger of thy Lord, that I may bestow on thee a holy son.’’

She said, ``How shall have I a son, when man hath never touched me? I am not unchaste.’’

He said: ``So shall it be. They Lord hath said: `Easy is this with me;’ and `We will make him a sign to mankind, and a mercy from Us. For it is a thing decreed.’

And she conceived him, and retired with him to a far-off place.

And the throes came upon her by the trunk of a palm. She said, ``Oh, would that I had died ere this, and been a thing forgotten, forgotten quite!’’

And one cried to her from below her: ``Grieve not thou, thy Lord hath provided a streamlet at thy feet:--

And shake the trunk of the palm tree towards thee: it will drop fresh ripe dates upon thee.

Eat then and drink, and be of cheerful eye: and shouldst thou see a man,

Say,--``Verily, I have vowed abstinence to the God of mercy.—To no one I will speak this day.’’

Then came she with the babe to her people bearing him. They said, ``O Mary! Now hast thou done a strange thing!

O sister of Aaron! Thy father was not a man of wickedness, nor unchaste thy mother.’’

And she made a sign to them pointing towards the babe. They said, ``How shall we speak with him who is in the cradle, an infant?’’

It said, ``Verily, I am the servant of God; He hath given me the Book, and He hath made me a prophet;

He hath made me blessed wherever I may be, and hath enjoined me prayer and almsgiving so long as I shall live.

And to be duteous to her that bare me: and he hath not made me proud, depraved.

And the peace of God was on me the day I was born, and will be the day I shall die, and the day I shall be raised to life.’’

This is Jesus, the son of Mary; this is a statement of the truth concerning which they doubt.

It beseemeth not God to beget a son. Glory be to Him! When He decreeth a thing, He only saith to it, ``Be,’’ and it is.

Peace be to all the warring Christians and Muslims. Maligayang Pasko sa inyong lahat!

The milkman of Talavera

Guyito, the Inquirer’s carabao mascot, would be happy to know that his fellow ruminants have transformed the town of Talavera in Nueva Ecija into a land flowing with milk and milk products. Thanks to the dream and the daring of entrepreneur Danilo V. Fausto, carabao’s milk is now making a healthy comeback and finding a niche in the market.

Another thing to moo about is fresh cow’s milk produced by small farmers’ cooperatives also finding its way into café society and boldly competing with imported milk that isn’t fresh at all.

Fausto’s ``Dare to Dream: A Filipino Entrepreneur’s Tale of Success in Dairy Farming’’ was launched last Monday at UP’s Balay Kalinaw with believers in the Philippine dairy industry in attendance. It was a small but happy affair. National Dairy Authority chief Salvacion Bulatao gave a national situationer while a nervous little farmer named Ka Henry whom Fausto brought along almost stole the thunder and received a standing ovation with his carabao success tale. But that is getting ahead of the story. People went home smiling and sporting white moustaches.

You might have seen in some malls the dainty DVF Dairy Farm’s ``Gatas ng Kalabaw’’ stalls that sell chilled fresh carabao’s milk in sealed bottles, plain or fruit- and pandan-flavored, as well as pastillas de leche and kesong puti. The promdi in you takes a second look and you wonder if this is for real. Carabao’s milk braving the mainstream?



That is exactly how Fausto’s tale of success has gone so far. Fausto, a UP graduate who used to be in banking and finance is now the president and CEO of DVF Dairy Farm, Inc. He narrates how it all all began:

``At the beginning, I was the laughing stock of farmers in Barangay Sampaloc and nearby barangays…They thought I was crazy, throwing away money when I bought 10 carabaos. As a businessman based in Manila, raising carabaos was alien to me. But I thought that given enough time and technical help from knowledgeable persons, I would be able to pull it off.

``When I bought my first carabao stocks, rice harvest was one and a half months away. There was no available forage so the carabaos’ health deteriorated. The joke then was that my carabaos had piano ribs because they were so thin. After the rice harvest, rice straw became abundant. This gave me the opportunity to stock rice straw in traditional silos or mandala.’’

In no time, people stopped laughing and farmers started asking if they could take care of some carabaos (Indian murrah) and participate in the venture. Things began to happen. Milking carabaos multiplied.

In 1992, the Talavera Dairy Cooperative Inc. was set up and thus began the farmers’ organized venture into dairy farming. It helped a lot that the Philippine Carabao Center in Munoz was just nearby. (That’s the home of the first test tube carabao and where Erap made his now famous ``tubeless carabao’’ quip.)

Fausto figured that ``with improved management, caracow breed and proper nutrition, carabaos can provide farmers with adequate income through milk production.’’ He based this on the estimates of Central Luzon State University technicians. A farmer with three to four caracows could get 20 liters a day with one liter selling at P30. This means an added monthly income of P18,000 or P216,000 on a good year.

Such was the experience of Ka Henry, the farmer with the carabao tale mentioned earlier, who received two heads from the PCC dispersal program. In four years Ka Henry was the owner of six carabaos. He was able to return the initial two heads, pay his debts, renovate his home, buy a tricycle and send a daughter to college. Today his carabaos’ milk earns him an added P21,000 to P31,500 a month.

``I have always believed that in order for one to succeed in business, one has to get out of the box,’’ says Fausto. ``I told members of the cooperative that from the time they were born, they were already poor. Even their forefathers were poor farmers. So there was nothing wrong if we tried something different to increase the productivity of the soil and in so doing increase their income. We could improve the soil’s productivity even without the use of modern technology by simply changing the product. So I convinced our members to plant Napier grass instead of rice.’’ Napier grass is used as carabao feed.

Fausto’s draws the main bulk of DVF’s dairy requirement from the farmers’ dairy cooperatives. Cow’s milk is now also being produced in large quantities. There are a variety of needs to meet and plan for—feeding programs for the poor, fresh milk for the table and coffee clubs as well as the demand for gourmet cheeses. Home delivery has started.

Fausto has even developed a scheme for absentee overseas Filipino workers (OFW) who might want to go into ``passive investment’’ by partnering with farmers.

In his foreword, economist Dr. Sixto K. Roxas has glowing words for Fausto’s groundbreaking work. ``This is an inspiring tale of a venture undertaken for both profit and social purpose by a person who might well be… the archetype of a true development entrepreneur. Beyond merely undertaking a business, an entrepreneur is an innovator whose venture energizes a process of change and development in a nation’s economy. He is the agent of change whose creative vision, skillful promotion, and bold risk-taking transforms the whole production cycle in society, generating for the people new income streams and higher living standards.’’

Inspired and interested? Contact DVF Dairy Farm Inc. at 4157881 or dvfausto@pldtdsl.net.

Oikocredit, small change, big impact

You must have seen a 20-peso bill with a circular doodle with three arrows coming out of it. You must have wondered whether that was someone’s way of venting his ire on the state of the Philippine currency. But when you looked closer, you must have read the words below that whorl--``UN Year of Microcredit 2005, Sustainable Microfinance Services for the Filipino Entrepreneurial Poor’’.

With a big bang, the 2005 UN Year of Microcredit ended last week with the so-called ``Filipino entrepreneurial poor’’, composed mostly of mothers, bannering the theme, ``Tinig ng Mga Nanay, Ating Ipatnubay'' (Let the mothers' voices be our guide). Microfinance beneficiaries, enterprising mothers mostly, from different parts of the country attended the gathering in Quezon City and showed off what has become of the ``small change’’ entrusted them. The delegation from Negros even brought in masscara dancers to provide color.

Oikocredit and the Microfinance Council of the Philippines organized the event that capped the International Year of Microcredit.



``Small change, big impact’’ was the catchphrase used by microfinance institutions (MFI) to trumpet their successful efforts. Indeed, countless mothers who used to be very poor have leapt out of poverty with the help of microfinance, many of them with rags-to-raves stories to tell.

Please pass the Kleenex. Staying dry-eyed was hard to do when the video docu on Virginia Borde, 2005 Citigroup Microenterpreneur of the Year, was shown to the assembly. Abandoned wife and mother of several children, Borde rose from penury, thanks to microcredit, to become owner of farm machinery for rent to small farmers.

A woman from Camarines Sur was able to expand her market stall through a small a small loan from the Center for Agriculture and Rural Development (CARD). ``Now,’’ said this poster woman for microfinance, ``my earnings have truly improved. I can afford to send my children to school and I can even save money in case of an emergency.’’

CARD, one of Oikocredit’s partners here, is the conduit of loans worth 1.2 million euros.
Oikocredit is an international church-related private development financing institution. (Oiko comes from the Greek word oikoumene where the word ecumenism was derived. Ecumenism means Christian unity.)

Oikocredit’s 30th year coincided auspiciously with the UN’s International Year of Microcredit. Established in the Netherlands in 1975, Oikocredit is owned by members from around the world. These are churches, church-related groups, local parishes and individuals from developed countries. Oikocredit draws from the members’ ``small change’’ and ``widow’s mite’’ as well as from third parties.

May I say here that many NGO careerists and beneficiaries do not realize that the money they spend comes from the ``widow’s mite’’ of ordinary people in Europe and elsewhere.

Oikocredit is convinced that many of the world’s poor stay poor because they have no access to credit. Mainstream banks think the poor are not creditworthy. So where can the poor get capital to start a small food stall, buy a second-hand sewing machine or a milking cow?

Oikocredit does not lend directly to beneficiaries. It channels the resources to MFIs.
``Walk a second mile.’’ The exhortation from the bible (Matthew 5:41) pushes Oikocredit to go beyond the handing out of loans. The local Oikocredit staff must walk the second mile to monitor the projects and give assistance should problems arise. What are the local realities? What factors contribute to success or failure?

Two friends of mine, veteran church development workers Delle Tiongson Brouwers and Ging Ledesma work with Oikocredit in Europe and Asia to walk the second mile.

In the beginning Oikocredit was regarded with skepticism. There was this belief that economic initiatives of the poor will dissipate and so will Oikocredit’s investments in them. But the unpredictable happened. The poor paid their loans. In all of Oikocredit’s 30 years only 10 percent of disbursed loans were written off. Of course, realities such as typhoons, disease, civil wars and economic meltdowns have to be factored in.

Oikocredit is present in more than 30 countries where more than 400 projects are being assisted. Some 24,000 churches, parishes, religious orders and individuals worldwide have joined and bought Oiko shares.

Investment in Oikocredit is now more than 200 million euros. No investor has yet lost a penny. Investors are not there for the money. They believe in Oikocredit’s goals—to provide the poor access to credit and to give churches and individuals an instrument for socially responsible investments.

Investors could withdraw their investment when necessary and receive a modest dividend of two percent.

In the Philippines, Oikocredit is exposed to 27 MFIs, cooperatives, small- and medium enterprises, fair trade organizations and other groups with proven social relevance. Loan size is from 50,000 to two million euros; term of loan is from one to six years. Interest rate is flexible and depends on the risks involved.

``Let us be clear: microfinance is not charity,’’ UN Secretary General Kofi Annan had said. ``It is a way to extend the same rights and services to low-income households that are available to everyone else. It is a recognition that poor people are the solution, not the problem. It is a way to build on their ideas, energy and vision. It is a way to grow productive enterprises, and to allow communities to prosper.’’

Oikocredit Philippines’ email address is: office.ph@oikocredit.org.