Islam and Peace
Religious Harmony
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RELIGIOUS HARMONY
What the world needs today – perhaps more than
anything else – is an acceptable formula for the
attainment of religious harmony. This being
currently one of the most important topics under
discussion, I shall attempt to present here, in brief,
the Islamic viewpoint.
Let us begin with a verse of the Qur’an which reads:
He that chooses a religion other than Islam, it will
not be accepted from him, and in the world to come
he will be one of the lost (3:85).
In the opinion of certain interpreters, this verse
implies that salvation according to Islam is destined
exclusively for Muslims. Islam thus appears to
uphold the superiority of the Muslim community.
But this is an out-of-context interpretation and is
certainly not correct.
Let us take another verse of the Qur’an which
serves as an explanation of the above-quoted verse.
It states that: