At Awra Amba, everyone is responsible for each other’s well-being and for the well-being of the community as a whole, and the community is responsible for everyone’s well-being. Our lifestyle reflects this belief.
For us, faith means thinking peacefully and creating peace, helping people in need, loving other people, doing to others what you would like to be done to you, and avoiding doing bad deeds to others.
We used to give “homework” to those who say that the Awra Amba community has no faith: what does the Awra Amba community do, say and think?
What do those people — who think they have faith — do, say and think? What is needed now, in the present time?
Below is a story of Zumra’s childhood experiences:
«My parents were Muslim, but they had Christian relatives. They lived in the same village. They drank coffee together, they worked together, their children played together.
So once I went to my Christian neighbors’ house and found the children eating. Their parents didn’t give me any of the food because they knew I was a Muslim. But their children didn’t know.
The food was meat; I knew what meat was, but I didn’t know anything about Muslims and Christians. The meat was tasty and I ate it.
If I had eaten all the meat before returning home, it would have been better. But I returned to my house with the rest of the meat. When my mother saw me, she said
— Where did you get this meat?
— I found it in our neighbor’s house and the children gave it to me (I thought it would be as tasty for them as it was for me).
My mother cried:
— Oh, this is the meat of Christian.
Even though I told her I liked it, she snatched the meat out of my hand, held it with a leaf so as not to touch it, and threw the meat away.
As my eyes stared at the meat, a hen picked it up and then a dog snatched it and took it away. My mother washed my hands because I had touched Christian meat, so as not to dirty her utensils / continue to pg. 65…
I asked:
— Mother, why did you take my meat (while she was washing my hands)?
— Because it is Christian meat.
— What is a Christian?
— A Christian is a human being.
— And what about us? Aren’t we human?
— We are Muslims.
— Isn’t a Muslim also a human being?
— Yes, we are also human beings.
— So I ate what people eat. Why did you take my meat?
— I told you not to eat Christian meat! (With some anger)
— What kind of meat do Christians eat? (Shifting my question)
— Christians eat cow meat.
— What meat do we eat?
— Muslims also eat cow meat.
— If all human beings eat cow meat, and if we are all human beings, why did you take my meat?
She didn’t answer me. My father, who had learned a little about the Muslim religion, stayed to listen to our conversation and said to my mother: “Now you have been asked a question that even we can’t answer. And he continued to say to her: “Give him an answer to his question.”
After that, I didn’t ask her any more questions. I was surprised that we are all human beings, but that one became a Christian and the other a Muslim.
That surprised me a lot. Later, when I asked people: “What do you mean by Muslim and Christian?”, they said to me: “It means Muslim and Christian. What else do you need to know?”
I asked them:
— How were Christians created in the beginning?
They replied:
— They were created by Adam and Eve.
— What about Muslims?
— They were created by Adem and Hawa.
— Were there two females and two males created in the beginning?
— No, there were not; there was only one female and one male.
— Then why do you have different names for them?
— It is a difference in language. There was only a female and a male.
— If human beings were created by only one female and one male, and if faith came after human beings were created, which Adam or Eve was Christian and which was Muslim?
— There was no difference in faith at the time when human beings were created.
— Then how did the difference in belief come about later?
— Faith was created after many prophets came to earth.
— Did Allah and God create the world together, including us?
— No, they didn’t, there is only one Creator. The Creator can’t be two.
— Then why does the Creator have two names?
— It is a difference in language. It is only the name that becomes two, not the Creator. There is only one Creator.
— Okay. How can faith be transmitted?
— Faith is imparted by doing good deeds. Faith is not just saying I am a Muslim or I am a Christian.
If faith is conveyed through good deeds, if the Creator became one, and if we human beings are of the same origin (Adam and Eve), then why don’t we lead ourselves to believe that we are brothers and sisters?
If we give different names to the same Creator, where will we end up? Today, giving different names to the same thing does not matter, so beliefs multiply by the thousands.
People have asked me why we don’t have a church or a mosque in our village. Building a church or a mosque was not the problem, I said.
I asked them where the Creator was.
They replied:
— He is everywhere.
So I replied:
— That means He doesn’t have a house problem.
On the other hand, I asked them where Allah could be found.
They replied:
— He is everywhere.
They all agreed on this idea. But they disagreed on the name of the Creator. I couldn’t understand why I should build a house in a particular place if He is everywhere.
I asked them:
— Could my mind allow me to do that?
— Your mind might allow you to do it.
Then I asked them if they thought we had the ability to control the Creator by commanding Him to come in and out of the house we have built for Him… Both the Creator and humans are everywhere. So why could we not be His church or His mosque?
Family discussion for peace
The Awra Amba Community believes that peace will be created throughout the world when people participate in family discussions for peace.
Members of the Awra Amba Community participate in family discussions every two weeks. The discussion can be held by gathering three to four nearby neighbors or just a single family.
The discussion has its own chairperson who is elected by the members of the family. Any member of the family can be a candidate for chairperson.
After the chairperson has led the discussion four times, a new chairperson is elected. chairperson of the family discussion. In the long run, all family members will be elected.
The agenda for the discussion may include the division of household chores or the occurrence of bad speech and bad deeds. The chairperson presents the agenda and gives each person an opportunity to reflect on his or her own behavior.
He/she will then present this to all the other members and give each discussion member an opportunity to give feedback. If the discussion members have something to say about another member’s behavior, they will express it by offering advice on how to change the behavior. If the individual has no remorse and no feedback from others, he/she is advised to continue.
Children have the same rights as adults
Children participate in family discussions and problem solving, and have the opportunity to lead discussions. Children are elected to lead the discussion and practice leading a meeting. When children observe their parents making a mistake, they teach the parents not to make the mistake again.
If the parents accept the children’s advice, the children will not raise the issue in the discussion. But if the parents do not accept the children’s advice, the children will present their parents’ mistakes in the discussion.
Therefore, all members of the discussion will give advice to the parent so that he/she does not make the mistake again. The same is true if the children do not accept their parents’ advice. In this way, children will teach their parents, and parents will teach their children.
Marriage
In the community, marriage is contracted with the full consent of the couple. Marriage is contracted at the age of 19 for females and 20 for males. This ensures that the participants are mature enough to make their decision.
After marriage, the husband should not have any sexual partner other than his wife, and the wife should not have any sexual partner other than her husband. If they have sexual partners other than their spouses, what is the point of marriage?
When two people get married in Awra Amba, they put their signatures on a document in the presence of eyewitnesses who are found nearby. Anyone found in the area, male or female, can act as a witness for the marriage signature.
In the community, when a marriage takes place, no one says, “I am the bride and I am the groom,” and neither the bride nor the groom remain idle. Both go to their workplaces afterwards to do their regular activities.
The husband and wife decide together where they will live. All major issues are discussed and decided equally between the couple. In this way, they can live in peace and happiness.
Wedding ceremony
In the community, married couples do not organize a wedding ceremony. The bride and groom do not even prepare tea. Only when guests come from far away for the occasion, the couple may prepare lunch.
This is because in Awra Amba we believe that it is not necessary to waste our income that we have worked for a long time. Rather, the expenses that would have gone to a wedding ceremony can subsidize the couple’s life and career. Marriage without a ceremony is also necessary to avoid elopement.
This idea is based on the possible scenario that parents do not have money to pay for their children’s wedding and the couple who wants to get married knows that their marriage cannot happen due to lack of money, in which case they may decide to elope.
Divorce
In the community, marriage is one-on-one and considered sustainable. This leads to respect for children and builds a strong family foundation. The separation of the couple after the birth of children results in the rights of the children not being respected.
If there is a divorce and the children go to live with their father, they will miss their mother; if they go to live with their mother, they will miss their father. Therefore, in the community, divorce is an extreme measure based on valid reasons.
The problems that can lead to divorce are: if there is an incurable disease, especially one that prohibits sexual intercourse; if there is constant nagging between the couple; if there is sterility in one of the partners; if one of the couple violates the community’s rules.
In the community, the procedure for divorce is that the grievance committee identifies the couple’s problem and tries to resolve it. If the problem is resolved by the committee, their marriage is not dissolved. If not, the problem is presented in a meeting with the entire congregation.
If the couple’s problem is not one of the issues listed above, the members of the community will resolve their problem and their marriage will continue. However, if their problem is one of the issues leading to divorce, the members of the community will decide to end the marriage.
The divorced couple will divide their property, including their house, equally. We also encourage them and help them to maintain a good relationship as friends.
Mourning
In the Awra Amba community, everyone shares in the joy or sorrow of others. The community tries to fulfill a person’s needs as much as possible during his or her lifetime.
If someone is sick, the community tries to find ways to make him/her heal from his/her illness. In this way, the community lives a life without remorse.
But when everything has been done to heal a sick person, and there are no more ways to heal him and he dies, what can we do?
Just as there is life coming into this world through birth, there is also disappearance from this world through death. This is a natural phenomenon.
Therefore, when a person dies, it is beyond human capabilities to bring him back to life, so people might cry. But there should not be any extreme grief.
Mourning cannot bring the dead back to life. We have lost our relative. We waste our time. We are hurting our brains for no reason, wasting the family’s economy.
While enough people are attending the funeral, the rest of the community members will stay with the family of the deceased to help them forget their grief.
After the funeral is over, the family of the deceased will go to work with the other people. This is to help them forget their grief.
The people gathered at the funeral do not have to contribute any money, and the family of the deceased does not have to spend any money.
If a person comes from a distant place to attend the ceremony, the community will take care of him. Therefore, the family of the deceased will have no economic pressure. If the family of the deceased has money, it will be used for the benefit of the children.
If they have no money, since the grief of the family is the grief of the entire community, the community will collectively take care of the children.
Collective Trust
Collective trust in others is a fundamental element, based on solidarity, cooperation and reciprocity whenever possible. It is also trust in elected leaders who are known to act for the common good and not for their personal interests.
This mutual trust has undoubtedly been fostered by a long history of sharing and fighting against the same oppressions of the surrounding society.
Honesty is a social value
In the Awra Amba community, it is considered a crime to take even a single coin of someone else’s property. If the community finds lost property anywhere, the person who found it will kindly return it to the owner.
If the owner cannot be found, the property is turned over to the Lost and Found Committee. The committee will try again to find the owner. If the committee finds the owner, the item will be returned to the owner. Otherwise, it will be used to help people in need.
Be true to ourselves
Talking about something and practicing what we affirm should always go hand in hand. Not practicing what you say is considered a disgrace by the community.
No begging
Helping each other is our culture, but we discourage begging. If we help those who are in need, we will not find beggars. Then begging will disappear.
