Allah in quran say:-

The role of Tolerance in our society

We always talk on different issues of society in Pakistan, which includes, poverty, lack of
education, quality of education, lack of availability of clean drinking water, lack of health
facilities, corruption etc. Most of the times certain core social issues are ignored in the debate
which makes the society. Among those issues tolerance is one which is totally absent from the
society and it has been decreasing by each day, which is an alarming sign for the society. What is
tolerance? Tolerance is patience, open-mindedness, acceptance the thoughts of others even if we
don’t agree with them. Just like Muslims, Jews and Christians also believe in Prophets and
Messengers of Allah, who also gave the message of tolerance.
Allah does not burden a soul greater than it can bear. Whenever He troubles us with some
difficulty, He gives us hope too. We are not left alone with trials and hardships. In Surah at-
Talaq, verse 07, Allah says:
After every difficulty, Allah will soon grant relief.
Allah test His prophets too in order to provide examples to follow for human beings and give
them lessons that Allah never abandon His being,
Yaqub ibn Ishaq ibn Ibrahim (alaihi salam)
When someone says sabr, you often hear the word jameel added to it. This famous slogan was
used by Yaqub. The story begins with the hate between two groups of his own sons – one group
containing Yusuf and Benyamin, another group the rest of his sons who were in fact much older
than the other two. These older sons were extremely jealous of Yusuf, and so one day they took
him and threw him in a well, and then came back to their father weeping and saying that a wolf
ate him. Yaqub, who was very intelligent, guessed the real story. Imagine your favorite son being
harmed by your other sons, wouldn’t it make any stable person crazy in grief and anger? But
what did Yaqub say? Sabrun Jameel! Imagine how much trust in Allah you need to do that. This
is what he said,
‫ل‬
‫نقاَلنبنسلنسلوُلنستلنفكسمنأنفففسفكسمأ نسمررلاَفن ن‬
‫صسبلرنجصميِللنوُاَلللفهاَسلفمسستننعاَنفنعلنىىنماَتن ص‬
‫صففوُنن‬
[Jacob] said, “Rather, your souls have induced you to something, so patience is most fitting. And
Allah is the one sought for help against that which you describe.”
Ibrahim (alaihi salam)
He was kicked out of his house for believing in the Oneness of Allah. He was thrown in the fire
for the same reason, and Allah ordered the fire to become cool for him. Years later, he was
ordered to leave his wife and infant son in a lonely barren desert, and then again to sacrifice his
own son. About this last test Allah Himself said,
‫إصنل ىهننذاَلنهفنوُاَسلبننلفءاَسلفمصبيِفن‬
Indeed, this was the clear trial. [37:106]
Most of us know these stories, but it is difficult to realize what Ibrahim must have felt like in all
these situations, because none of us are tested anything even close to it. But just try to imagine
the inner state of the human being Ibrahim, for he was a human being after all, and imagine the
strength of his piety which alone gave him the patience to come through it all with record marks.
May Allah’s peace and blessings be on them all, and may Allah allow us to follow their
examples.
Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was not an exception. God granted on him the best of characters,
one of which was his exceptional tolerance which is showed in his life and teachings:
He once decided to personally visit the village of Ta’if, to the east of Makkah, to invite its
inhabitants to Islam. The people rejected him, stoned him, ejected him, and made him to bleed.
Angel Gabriel came to him and said:
“Allah has heard what your people say to you and how they reject you. He has ordered the angels
of the mountains to obey whatever you tell them to do.” The angel of the mountains called him,
greeted him and said, “Send me to do what you wish. If you wish, I will crush them between the
two mountains of Makkah.”
The Prophet said:
“Rather, I hope that Allah will bring forth from their sides those who will worship Allah alone
and not associate anything with Him.” (Al-Bukhari)
Once, when the Prophet was sitting at a place in Madinah, along with his companions, a funeral
procession passed by. On seeing this, the Prophet stood up. One of his companions remarked that
the funeral was that of a Jew. The Prophet replied:
“Was he not a human being?” (Muslim)
In the battle of Uhud, when his Makkan enemies attacked the Muslims, Prophet Muhammad
suffered head injury and his front teeth got smashed. When the blood started to seep from his
head, he cleansed it saying:
“If a drop of my blood fell on the earth, those infidels will be destroyed by Allah.” Umar told
him, O Messenger of Allah, Curse them! The prophet replied: “I wasn’t sent (by Allah) to curse.
I was sent as a mercy.” Then he said: “O Allah, Guide my people!” (Authenticated by Al-Albani)
These are only a few among many examples of the Prophet’s tolerance and noble character.
Aisha, the wife of the Prophet was asked regarding the character of the Prophet (peace be upon
him). She said very simply, that:
“The character of the Prophet was the Quran.” (Muslim)
Tolerance is the basic principle of Islam. It is our religious and moral duty to follow the basic
principles of Islam in which tolerance also comes. The Quran speaks about the basic dignity of
all human beings regardless of their race, color, language or nationality. In Islam, tolerance
means to identify the right to life, property, family honor and morals or principles of all people.
Freedom of religion has been guaranteed by Islam since the beginning. It prohibits violence and
constraint in matters of faith and belief. The Quran Allah Almighty says: “There is no
compulsion in religion.”
One of the most important aspects of the human rights issue is respect and tolerance which
society must show towards the religions of other people; this, of course, includes the issue of
freedom of religion. So to “tolerate” another’s beliefs does not mean that one accepts them as
true; but in being tolerant one respect another’s right to free will to choose what to believe. On
the contrary what is happening in Pakistan? Group of Muslims do not accept people from
different fiqh even though they are Muslims, pray five times a day, pay Zakat but because they
do not believe exactly the same way as that group of people believe thus they are either abusing
them, calling them kafir and most disturbingly killing them.
Most often, conflict arises due to inability of listening to others’ opinion rather one person tries to
impose his/her thought/s on other person, which leads to a conflict. This lack of listening is due
to the lack of tolerance and patience. Even in religious thoughts, both parties rather than trying to
convey the message with wisdom, they started to impose their thoughts and try to convince
which ultimately leads to a fight. It has also been seen that in order to win an argument people
start giving extreme examples which has sometimes nothing to do with the broader topic, in
general.
Similar situation can be witnessed in the class rooms, where students are lacking in patience and
don’t even wait for others to finish what they are saying and tries to cut the speaker down. In the
classroom it is the responsibility of teachers to teach student that how they should talk in a group
and listen to others who are speaking first and wait for their turn to share their opinions.
Similarly, a family needs to train their children in a similar way such that tolerance prevails in
the society. The most remarkable example in this regard is our political talk shows on the media,
which shows height of intolerance in the society.
Electronic media has a big influence on our youth. From the last few years, our youth started to
follow the politics and started watching current affairs programs on electronic media. The current
affairs programs are meant to get the opinion of both the sides and guests should be encouraged
to complete their point of view but most of the anchors lack their patience and never allow their
guests to complete the statement. This attitude has been developed in our youth and also at
general level.
Social media websites like Facebook, twitter and others are also playing their role to make
people intolerant. People do post and share their thoughts on social media and expect others to
like their thoughts but when people say something opposite to their thoughts, a person does feel
offended and this situation leads to another argument and ends up in a fight. In my point of view,
this social media sites are good but are making us intolerant. Starting a debate about a
knowledgeable topic and listening to the point of views of others is fine but one should never try
to win the debate by turning it to an aggressive argument.
While talking about winning an argument we have developed this behavior inside us that we
debate or we argue with others in order to win. We do not want to learn, which should be the
main objective of discussion. To win an argument we will either give an extreme example or start
telling lies and most of the times involved emotionally to that extent that we start taking other's
argument so personal that the entire discussion eventually ends up in a big fight. My one word
for all those is "tolerance".
But how can a person become tolerant? I have observed that we just say “Salam” to only those
whom we know. Islam gave us the lesson of saying Asslam o Alaikum because it creates love
among people. As said by our beloved Prophet (SAW), “Salam main pahal kro”, even non-
Muslims say hello to all those whom they don’t know, which spreads smile and a person can
become more tolerant. By listening to others opinion and by not taking things very personal, we
can become tolerant. If someone advises, we need to listen to it rather gets insulted. Following
teachings of Islam will help us to become more tolerant. Last and most importantly, civil
societies and our leaders show tolerance towards each other. Teachers in the class and parents at
home play vital role in building tolerance in the society.
In the end l would like to finish with the words of Iqbal,