Interfaith Dialogue in Islam

Difference in belief is necessarily subject to discussion, but not a reason for discrimination. If your belief system is different from that of others, you have every right to engage in discussion and dialogue on the subject, but in the process, you have no right to show disrespect to others. This holds true even if you believe that your ideology enshrines the supreme truth. The culture of discrimination is, after all, quite alien to a divine religion. What is jizya? Jizya was only a temporary kind of punitive tax levied upon a group of Arabs who had rebelled at the time of the Prophet of Islam. Despite their pact of allegiance to the Prophet of Islam, this group of Arabs had joined hands with the antagonists against the Prophet and his Companions. After jizya was abrogated, only the practice of Kharaj (land-tax) remained applicable to all (Muslims and non-Muslims) alike. The practice of collecting jizya by Muslim rulers in later times from the non-Muslim minority has no grounds in Islam. Who is a kafir? T he word kafir has never been used in the Quran to mean either a non-Muslim or an infidel. In fact, this term was applied solely to contemporaries of the Prophet. Kafir (pl. kuffar) was used to refer to those people who had completely understood the true message of Islam and refused to believe in it due to stubbornness. The Prophet peacefully conveyed to them the divine message over a long period of time, but they refused to follow the truth of his words. God, therefore, declared those people, the contemporaries of the Prophet as kuffar that is, the deniers. The use of the word kafir for anyone other than the contemporaries of the Prophet is not permissible. The most important point to be grasped on this subject is that the word kafir denotes an individual rather than a certain race or community. It is in no way a group appellation. However, the generally held view is that one who is not a Muslim is kafir. This is an entirely baseless supposition. The word kafir is not synonymous with non-Muslim or a non-Muslim community. Being a kafir is a matter of the heart, which God alone knows and therefore no person has any right to accuse a fellow human as being kafir. Kafir was a term of reference, restricted in place and time, and which is no longer relevant today. Now all are equally human beings and they have to be dealt with as human beings. There is a relevant story in the life of the Prophet of Islam that aptly illustrates this principle. The Prophet of Islam migrated from Makkah to Madinah in 622 AD at which time there were some Jewish tribes living in Madinah. One day it happened that the Prophet of Islam, seated at that