Does Islam tolerate other beliefs?Sunday, August 31st, 2008


I hope you don’t mind receiving my letter. It is short but full of information
Does Islam tolerate other beliefs?.

 
The Quran says: God forbids you not, with regards to those who fight you not for
[your] faith nor drive you out of your homes, from dealing kindly and justly
with them; for God loveth those who are just. (Quran, 60.8) 
It is one function of Islamic law to protect the privileged status of
minorities, and this is why non-Muslim places of worship have flourished all
over the Islamic world. History provides many examples of Muslim tolerance
towards other faiths: when the caliph Omar entered Jerusalem in the year 634,
Islam granted freedom of worship to all religious communities in the city. 
Islamic law also permits non-Muslim minorities to set up their own courts, which
implement family laws drawn up by the minorities themselves. 
When the caliph Omar took Jerusalem from the Byzantine, he insisted on entering
the city with only a small number of his companions. Proclaiming to the
inhabitants that their lives and property were safe, and that their places of
worship would never be taken from them, he asked the Christian patriarch
Sophronius to accompany him on a visit to all the holy places. 
The Patriarch invited him to pray in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, but he
preferred to pray outside its gates, saying that if he accepted, later
generations of Muslims might use his action as an excuse to turn it into a
mosque. Above is the mosque built on the spot where Omar did pray. 
According to Islam, man is not born in ‘original sin’. He is God’s
vicegerent on earth. Every child is born with the fitra, an innate disposition
towards virtue, knowledge, and beauty. Islam considers itself to be the
‘primordial religion’, din al-hanif, it seeks to return man to his original,
true nature in which he is in harmony with creation, inspired to do good, and
confirming the Oneness of God.
 





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