May you be drenched in peace and every word you utter, and every action you take reflect peace, indeed that is the essence of Islam.
It is tempting to give tit-for-tats, when you do that, you are getting away from the subject and moving on to attacking the person or his belief. Is that what religion teaches? No, it does not.
To be a Muslim is to be a peacemaker, one who seeks to mitigate conflicts and nurtures goodwill for peaceful co-existence. God wants us to live in peace and harmony with his creation; that is indeed the purpose of religion, any religion. Mission statement
The basic requirements to be a Muslim are: i) belief in a creator, ii) belief in accountability for our deeds and secondary requirements are the pledge, and following the will of God, i.e., to work for a world of peace and justice as God wants his creation to be in peace.
God is fully aware of our nature; to be individualistic and has made an allowance for that. Look at the matter, no star is alike, no piece of rock is alike and look at life - no ones DNA is alike. God has intentionally created diversity so that we can use our intelligence to respect the otherness of other. If we can learn to accept and respect the God given uniqueness of each one of us, then conflicts fade and solutions emerge.
God does not care if you follow Ismaili, Bohra, Ahmadiyya, Shia or Sunni traditions or of any faith, but he cares if you are good to each other and treated others as you wanted to be treated.
I hope you care about Humanity to drop this, no one will go any where with, so what is the point?
Akbar Ally you are doing a great job and one of your comments is included on the Islamic blogs. I admire what HH Aga Khan is doing on Pluralism, he is one of my mentors and a person I receive knowledge from by reading or listening to his lectures. It is in my profile at: http://www.mikeghouse.net/ProfileMikeGhouse.asp
May we all be enlightened and work for a balanced life.
Mike Ghouse
www.MikeGhouse.net
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