ASK MAULANA

On the question of religious diversity, I would say that dealing with religious diversity is not a matter of religious belief. Rather, it is a matter of social ethics. Belief is a personal matter, while religious diversity is a social subject. It poses the issue of how to live in a religiously diverse society and a diverse world. It is a fact that there are differences in every aspect of life. These differences are due to the law of nature and cannot be eliminated. It is unrealistic during dialogue to try to establish one’s superiority. The purpose of dialogue is to find how different sections of society can co-exist peacefully. Diversity in society can never be eliminated. So, bringing an end to diversity can never be the goal of dialogue. Its goal is peaceful co-existence. If so, what is the truth? It is subject of personal pursuit, and not of social discussion or social gatherings. It is everyone’s problem to find the truth in which they can believe, because a person cannot live without conviction. This issue has two aspects. One aspect relates to the individual. Each individual must attempt to live by conviction and recognize the truth. The other aspect is to maintain social harmony. Experience shows that social harmony is achieved only by adopting the formula of coexistence. There is no other option. Each is free to adopt a religious belief by choice, but being members of society, we must learn to live peacefully with people who hold other religious beliefs. Believing strongly in a particular religion, being firmly convinced about it, and at the same time living peacefully with people who follow or believe in other religions are not contradictory to each other. The human mind has enormous capacity, including peaceful coexistence with people who believe differently. Allow me to cite my own example. I believe in one Reality in one religion, and I can say that I have love for everyone. I believe in Jesus Christ’s call to love one’s enemies. If you operate on my heart, you will find there is no hate inside for anyone, only love for everyone. When the Prophet of Islam was in Madinah, a funeral procession of a Jew passed by. The Prophet was seated at that time. On seeing the procession, he stood up in respect. One of his companions said to him that the deceased was a Jew, not a Muslim. And the Prophet responded,