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It is significant that the great physicist and philosopher of Cambridge, Newton (d.1727) who was strongly drawn to Unitarianism conducted his scholarly research into Christian dogmas in complete secrecy and dared not air his views in the open. A tolerant person need not accept a secular approach to politics, even though a secular approach to politics helps promote religious tolerance. An important reminder about forgiveness. their beliefs, but also to affirm a non-negotiable Islamic See also, K.S. Coming to the Umayyad period we come across numerous instances of harmonious relations and friendship between Muslims and non-Muslims. Again, he may be tolerant up to a particular degree but not beyond that. The political expansion of the Arab-Islamic state in the regions adjoining Arabia proper took place at the point of the sword (as all political expansions have done in history). The simple knowledge that the milieu plays a tremendous role in shaping ones ideas, values and convictions, and the further knowledge that these ideas or values are not logically or scientifically demonstrable give a further boost to tolerance. The recent communications revolution bears the promise of ushering in a multi-cultural global society. Islam is the final revelation of Allah the Almighty and it is the prosperity such as they had never known before. (The Qur'an 2: Tolerance may co-exist with religious fundamentalism, provided the latter is of a form which does not involve any discrimination against others on grounds of faith.1 Since, however, the fundamentalist versions of all religions have some in-built elements of discrimination (in some form or other) the practice of complete tolerance does require a secular approach to politics. about atrocities committed by the Catholic Christians In a slow and prolonged process of cultural inter-action between the ancient and rich culture of the Iranians, and the Quranic and Semitic concepts of Islam several Iranian thought forms and cultural patterns became an integral part of the growing Islamic tradition. Are All Religions the Same? Islam teaches us that the strongest of servants are those who not only have the strength to suppress their anger when they are tested but also possess an immeasurable capacity to forgive. The Concept of Forgiveness in Islam. (At-Tirmidhi) If we can sincerely forgive those who anger us, inwardly and outwardly, then that cleanses our souls from the Satan and his negative energy. Many among them are scientists, politicians, lawyers, (At-Tirmidhi). We prepared this quick tour to help you get familiar with the new design so you find your way around the new site much quicker. According to Qur'an, the justice of Allah does not and will not inflict undue punishment on any believer, nor will He ignore the good deed of any person. It is the Truth from our Lord. A tolerant person need not be apathetic to persuading others to accept his own views or values, since tolerance is not the same as apathy. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! Inter-religious co-existence and tolerance prevailed for four centuries in the territories of Islam until they were attacked by the Christian crusaders at the fag end of the 11th century. One of the most devastating wars in the annals of human history; it even led to cases of cannibalism for sheer survival. jurisdiction. The Prophet and his companions had to abandon their hearths and homes in Mecca to escape humiliation, ostracism and torture at the hands of their opponents bent upon exterminating the new religion. Therefore, while Muslim believers must much respect the traditional interpretation of the Quranic texts no individual, school or system can rightly claim absoluteness or finality in an ever-changing human situation. Society. While waging war against the 6. The debate whether the Quran, as the Word of God, is eternal or created in time (just like the rest of God's creation) is one of the most crucial issues in the history of Islamic thought. We make no distinction between any of them, and unto Him we have surrendered, (al-i-'lmran, 3:84), Say (0 Muslims): We believe in Allah and that which is revealed unto us and that which was revealed unto Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac, and Jacob, and the tribes and that which Moses and Jesus received, and that which the Prophets received from their Lord. Empathy is the ability to place oneself in the life- situation of others and to see things from their perspective and in a different light, as it were. Therefore, oppressing people because they have different beliefs is Unfortunately, this is, precisely, what some scholars, politicians and religious leaders do when they bemoan the plight of Hindu society under Muslim rule in the medieval period. In the ancient period, the creative and expanding groups were the Aryans, the Iranians, Greeks, Romans and Chinese, while in the medieval period the Arabs, Turks, and Mongols played the role of the creative expanding group. Islam also teaches us that the best kind of forgiveness is answering the oppression of others with kindness. The emperor Julian the Apostate (d.363) stopped the persecution of heretics and pagans at the hands of the Christians who now ran the Roman Empire. All of its doctrines Having succeeded in repudiating papal authority, in the name of liberty of conscience, Luther tried to impose his own conscience on others with the help of force. responsibility. 15. In other words, the individual is constrained either to remain in perpetual doubt or to believe on the basis of faith. The Sultans of Golkunda and Bijapur and the Rajas of Vijaynagar entered into pacts or fought among themselves in their own respective political interests, as they saw them, quite irrespective of their religious affiliations. their beliefs, but also to affirm a, "There is no The earliest Islamic establishment did the same without making any distinction (valid and essential for the modern mind) between political loyalty and religious faith, or between the matters of inner autonomous faith and the matter of loyalty to the sovereign. (The The Prophet said that: "Whoever suffers an injury and forgives (the person responsible), God will raise his status to a higher degree and remove one of his . His example was later on followed by the great Sher Shah Suri (d. 1545) whose enlightened religious liberalism and administrative reforms are still remembered by all Indians, Hindus and Muslims alike. How could we prevent hatred, pettiness from dwelling in our hearts; how could we generously stifle these feelings? And when it is recited unto them, they say: we believe it. Arab political expansionism, to begin with, was a violation of the spirit of tolerance. During the first thirteen years of his life in Makah, he and his followersfaced much oppression from their opponents. We The head of the Babylonian Jews in Baghdad was greatly venerated by the Muslims who viewed him as the direct descendant of David. Islam accommodates and welcomes all people as Hatred is revealed by (the utterance of) their mouths, but that which their breasts hide is greater. In the same manner, we forget the good things that others have done for us, and remember only the good that we have done for them. (Al-Baqarah, 2:256), Unto you your religion, and unto me my religion. The tragic story of the Spanish Muslims has been told by reliable historians, Muslim as well as others. Before it was over, three centuries later, thousands This is because when someone has upset us, they have a power over us because we allowed them to do so. Therefore, the existence of various The right direction is henceforth distinct from error. Side by side with Choose not for friends such of those who received the Scripture before you, and of the disbelievers, as make a jest and sport bf your religion. All impartial historians (including reputed non-Muslim scholars) concede the atrocious behavior of the Christian crusaders towards the Muslims and Jews in the territories the crusaders had temporarily conquered from the Arabs and which remained under Christian rule for an interregnum of approx. Tolerance, Patience or forbearance describes the ability of a person to ignore the mistakes of the people. Lo! and acting justly towards them. to their ego's desire for revenge. But the way in which the child is more or less indoctrinated by his parents and teachers almost inevitably leads to the fallacy of cultural reification-- the identification of symbols with what is symbolized. The liberal approach to religion demarcates the proper function of religion and lays emphasis upon the fundamental concepts and values of a religion rather than upon cultural, social, economic, political matters which are best left to man's collective wisdom expressed through the democratic process. The above verses, read in conjunction with the clear and categorical Quranic text, (2:256) by no means validate the pre-Islamic penalty for apostasy. According to the Islamic doctrine of religious tolerance conquered territories ipso facto become parts of 'the land of Islam' (darul Islam). spread to all part of the world in order to transcend and elevate the Jews, but rather treated them with unparallel Historians of repute, including eminent non-Muslim scholars, testify to the above. reason as to why hundreds of thousands of people keep reverting to 24. (an-Nisa,4:144 ), O ye who believe! The reported sayings and doings of the Prophet were put into writing, sorted out and classified a little less than 200 years after his passing away. So in sha Allah when someone hurts us, let us try to meet their oppression with kindness and forgive them, even if they are not sorry. Pope Paul III severely punished free enquiry in religion and science. 29. The Jews still have their problems of emotional distance or prejudice. decide on their own. The Ash'arite theologians held that the Mutazilite view compromised the status and supreme worth of the Word of God'. (Ha-Mm, 41:43 ) Shaikh Ahmad Sarhindi (d.1624) and Shah Waliullah (d.1763) are notable instances. Then whoso doth good works and is a believer, there will be no rejection of his effort. Till that time Western Church fathers, scholastic thinkers and writers were not acquainted with the full range of Greek thought and culture, their attention being focused on translated versions of some selected writings of Aristotle and others derived from Arabic sources. Indeed, there was a measure of tension (which persists till today) between the humanism of the sufi and the legalism of the jurist or the theologian. Tolerance merely signifies the willing acceptance of the view that beliefs or convictions, other than ones own, may also inspire goodness and beauty in the depths of the human soul. Islam 1966. Allah is Forgiving, Merciful. A standard English dictionary defines tolerance as 'the disposition to tolerate or allow the existence of beliefs, practices or habits differing from one's own, now often freedom from bigotry, sympathetic understanding of others beliefs etc., without acceptance of them' In 1469 Prince Ferdinand of Aragon All Rights Reserved, IslamiCity is a registered trademark of HADI, a nonprofit 501 (c)(3) organization. The significant point is that the vast majority of the Indian Muslims were ethnically of Hindu stock. The same process was repeated later on in India, and subsequently, in Malaysia and Indonesia, with respect to their respective pre-Islamic Sanskrit cultures. After all, sometimes our own actions can provoke another persons wrong doings and we may not be aware of how we contributed to the conflict. Share. Here, you will also find the links to the most visited sections of IslamiCity, such as Prayer times, Hijri Converter, Phonetic Search, Quran Section, IslamiCity Bazar and more. If we have enough tolerance then we do allow other's to talk and we must have the capacity to listen and bear their perceptions. religion of God. The secular constitution of the USA was, however, not the work of atheists, agnostics or materialists, but of committed Christians who sincerely and passionately had veered round to the belief that religion was, essentially, a personal matter which should be kept separate from the affairs of state and public issues, and the state, as a public corporation, should have no official religion. There are two kinds of forgiveness in Islam: Allah's forgiveness and human forgiveness. Muslims gave people the opportunity to These scholars tend to ignore the fact that the Sufi, approach to the problem of tolerance was radically otherwise. An unfortunate one who curses others does not have the right to expect respect from others. There is a strong similarity between the liberal approaches of Bayle and John Locke of Oxford. The Fatmide Caliph, Aziz (d.996) appointed a Jew, Yaqub bin Killis, as the Vizier. This is not a simplistic indictment of British imperial policy in India. Can hatred dwell in the heart of the believer? Result This has fed into the rigid, fundamentalism that has little room for tolerance, forgiveness, or openness to diversity. If we can progressively minimize our spite every day, then soon we will bear no hatred or malice in our hearts, in sha Allah (God willing). It makes us a community. Dalai Lama. Emperor Trajan (d. 117) was the first to ban the propagation of the new religion, as it was totally opposed to the Roman creed. The incredible momentum of the Arab-Islamic revolution of the 7th. It is both ironic and amusing that Protestants settled in large numbers in Maryland and, on becoming the majority, discontinued the tolerance established by the Catholics, The policy of tolerance was, however, re-established after 1660. The historical question itself comprises two distinct issues, (a) what are the ideals or teachings concerning tolerance in the scriptures and the writings of theologians, jurists and saints, and (b) how far have these ideals and teachings been practiced at different points of time? We forgive someone when we have the power to take revenge. Islam also teaches us that the best kind of forgiveness is answering the oppression of others with kindness. 23. reason as to why hundreds of thousands of people keep reverting to And our God and your God is one; and we are Muslims [in Ambassador to Saudi Arabia who declared in a radio interview that : do not expel you from your homes from being righteous towards them The idea of religious tolerance was understood and practiced in China, India, Greece and Rome in the ancient period. Pardon means treating the evil doer and those who are mistaken with tolerance and forgiveness, and not punishing him or treating him in the same way he did. People embrace During this period Islamic piety was focused, more on the five pillars of the religion, rather than on the social aspect of the shariah. The process of formal conversion to Islam was a long drawn out affair extending to almost two centuries in Syria, Iraq, Iran, Egypt and other places. This is a solitary instance of the Prophet having removed or destroyed idols from a place of worship under the control of non-Muslims for several centuries. The sovereigns, firmly and consistently repudiated the claim of the Islamic jurists that the jurisdiction of the shariah was all embracing. (al-Ghashiyah,88:21,22), And they say: None entereth Paradise unless he be a Jew or Christian. The Roman Catholic colon/ of Maryland, established in 1649, also ensured complete toleration, though the state had retained the traditional principle of 'jurisdiction', that is the jurisdiction of Christianity over the state.16, The first large modern state, founded on the principle of separation of church and state, is the United States of America. Unfortunately, the Sanatana Dharma of India was vitiated by intolerance in the shape of the most heinous forms of caste taboos and prohibitions on social intercourse. Tolerance is not the fear of giving offence, just as it is not the fear of commitment to a particular viewpoint. Milton declared in 1644, 'Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all other liberties'. The Jewish prophets proclaimed the destruction of Roman glory and political supremacy because the people did not worship the one true Lord of the whole universe. And they have broken their religion (into fragments) among them, (yet) all are returning unto Us. Section 107, and such (and all) material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. and Jews under the tolerant Muslim rule as opposed to the savage Therefore their death at the point of the sword was a lesser evil for them. 4. It is a religious and moral duty. Muslims have been generally very tolerant people.