I wrote recently about the Christian concept of mutual love and submission. There is another world religion that talks about submission. It’s even in the name: Islam. The Arabic word “islam” means “surrender” or “submission”.

But, wait…Doesn’t “islam” mean “peace”? After all, it comes from the same root as “salam“, the word used in the greeting “salaam alaikum” which means “peace be upon you”. Isn’t it basically a match for the Hebrew “shalom” that we know means “peace”?

Time for a word study…

Etymology of Islam, Salam, and Shalom

Hebrew and Arabic are both Semitic languages (as are Maltese spoken in Malta and Amharic spoken in Ethiopia) . They have points in common with each other that are foreign to English semantics, with its words borrowed from many languages including Latin, Greek and Germanic origins. One difference is in the way that root words are expanded into multiple variants.

English roots are seen as syllables in the words based on them. For instance:

• From the Greek root “pneu-“, which means “air” or “lung” or “breath”, we get words like pneumonia, pneumatic, and pneumothorax. All are related to breathing or air supply of some kind.
• From the Latin “prim”, meaning “first”, we get primary, primeval, and primitive. All involve something that is before or earlier in either time or priority ¹ .

In contrast, Semitic languages use a root pattern of consonants, into which vowels are inserted to build words. As opposed to the English way of embedding the root word into the derived word, Semitic languages start with the same root consonants and then insert different vowels to derive multiple “branch” words.

One pattern used by both Hebrew and Arabic is S-L-M. But that root has different meanings in the two languages. In Arabic, the basic meaning is “submission”. In Hebrew, the core concept is “completeness”.

• Hebrew derives words including the verbs “shalam” (to pay, to complete, to make peace, to make amends) and “shelem” (to be complete) and the nouns “shalom” (peace) and “shleimut” (completeness).
• Arabic words derived from the same root consonants include the verbs “salima” (to be safe or secure) and “aslama” (to submit or to yield) and their noun forms “salāam” (peace, well-being) and “islaam” (submission or surrender).
  • Arabic also derives other words that seem unrelated, like “sullam” for a ladder, “selamlik” for a room in a Turkish palace, or “taslim” for a salutation.

So, do the two words — Arabic “islam” and Hebrew “shalom” — both communicate the same concept? Do they both mean “peace”? Kinda/sorta…but not really.

Both end with an absence of hostilities, which of course is a definition of peace. But “islam” gets there by way of surrender. There are no hostilities because one side has given in to the other (or has been conquered). “Shalom” arrives at peace by way of fulfillment. There is no need for hostility because everyone involved is completely satisfied.

What does this mean to Christians?

Those three concepts — submission and completeness leading to peace — are intertwined in the Gospel.

Submission

Both Judaism/Christianity and Islam emphasize that God (or Allah) is an all-powerful supreme ruler who must be obeyed. The difference is in the motive behind that obedience.

The God of the Bible adds to His absolute power; He also has absolute love. Submission to Him does not simply mean avoiding lightning bolts. It means surrendering to someone who has my best interests in mind because I trust that whatever He requires is for my own good.

Peace flowing from that kind of trust is quite different from the false peace of being beaten down and forced to give in. The English poet John Dunne, born in 1572, expressed this kind of submission rather forcefully in his Holy Sonnet XIV. One of its climactic statements is “I, except you enthrall me, never shall be free”.

Completeness

Completeness is the factor of the three that is fascinating me at the moment. What does it mean in relation to peace?

Blaise Pascal, philosopher and scientist in the 1600’s, is often quoted as saying that there is a “God-shaped vacuum” in human hearts. That emptiness haunts us as we try to fill it with anything other than God. The full quote is:

What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself.

1200 years earlier, St. Augustine‘s phrasing was “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.“

Both are making the point that human beings are incomplete without our proper relationship with God. That itching in our souls keeps us looking for the next … entertainment, person, job, place, accomplishment … to make us feel fulfilled. None of it works for very long. The new wears off, and the itch returns. That vacuum, that emptiness, that unfinished feeling always insists on making itself known.

As long as the vacuum remains unfilled, true peace is impossible.

Peace

The peace that God wants us to have is not the passive defeat of simply giving in to Him. He doesn’t want us to just roll over and play dead.

God wants a joyous, active peace for us. He wants us to have what comes from knowing that we are in exactly the place that we were meant to be, and that we have everything we need to be fulfilled.

He wants us to have Him, Himself. Not to serve Him, but to have Him. As the Westminster Catechism says “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.“

Jesus

How do we achieve that “chief end”? If we hadn’t inherited our sinful natures from Adam and Eve, the answer would be simple: Just submit to God as He deserves, and live in the light of all the blessings that brings, enjoying His company as we were meant to do.

Unfortunately, we aren’t capable of doing that. We can no more stop rebelling against God that we can stop breathing. That keeps us alienated, incomplete, and anything but peaceful.

That is the problem that Jesus came to solve. He came as the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6), the One who is able to say:

Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.

John 14:27

He led the way in fulling submitting to His Father (Philippians 2:5-11). He completed everything needed for our reconciliation and salvation (John 19:30).

It is because of Him that we can have …. shalom!

1. That word “priority” is itself from a Latin root that means “former”. 😁