Interfaith Dialogue in Islam

objects other than God was equivalent to shirk or associating partners with God. This they believed would go contrary to monotheism, or the belief in the oneness of God. However, in razing down these houses, the Wahhabis deprived future generations of Muslims from having an experiential realization of prophetic history which they would have gained by seeing these historic places. Is democracy unlawful in Islam? Democracy is completely Islamic. Let me share two references. According to the Quran, believers are those who conduct their affairs by mutual consultation. (Quran 42:38) According to a hadith: As you (society) are, so would your rulers be. (Shuab al-Iman, hadith no. 7006) These are the premises of democracy. Democracy is government of the people, for the people and by the people. Unlike dictatorship or monarchy, in a democracy it is the society which dictates the events. Can one practice polygamy in today’s age? Monogamy is the rule in Islam and polygamy only an exception. In terms of birth rate, the number of men and women in a given society is approximately equal. But often, for a variety of reasons, especially during war, the number of men in society decreases, leaving an excess of women. Now the question arises as to what the solution to this problem should be. In view of the inevitability of this imbalance, how is a healthy relationship between the two to be established? The choice for us, therefore, is not between monogamy and polygamy, but rather, between lawful polygamy or illicit polygamy. Secondly, Islam permits polygamy on the precondition that a man be able to justly treat all the women he marries. What is the difference between Islam and Muslims?