Source: dawn.com

The depth of one’s spirituality is directly proportionate to one’s level of tolerance for other people’s beliefs. This means the more convinced a person is in his/her own beliefs and convictions; the less that person should be bothered by the beliefs of others. This is not to say that he is not concerned with their actions; his empathy comes from a deep concern for their well-being. But the calm of his inner ocean is less easily ruffled by the opinion of others and therefore, his actions are not knee-jerk reactions but well-intended, deliberate responses to the needs of the world around him.

Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”

-Rumi

In today’s Pakistan, I see less people who seem comfortable in their own beliefs than when I was growing up. No doubt there is an increased display of outward religiosity, coupled with a growing intolerance for other people’s beliefs. The more need a person has to prove his religiosity to others, the less he is comfortable with his own self.

In our country there are several branches of Islam, some more and some less tolerant of each other, including Sunni, Barelvi, Deobandi, Shia, Agha Khani, Bohra, Wahabi, Salafi, and Ahmadi whom the second amendment of our constitution forbids from even calling Muslim. The Ahmadis have been persecuted in Pakistan for the last 40 years. Even a Nobel Laureate such as Dr Abdus Salam, …continue reading at dawn.com