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Peaceful Coexistence in Multi – religious Society: Lessons from Islamic Civilization

Mohamed Rasak Mohamed Arkam

armarkam@gmail.com

Peaceful co-existence is considered as an important pillar of a multi-cultural society, and an essential factor for the development of communities. The study focuses on clarifying the concept of peaceful coexistence, and its principles in multi-cultural society in the light of Islamic civilization. The following Qur’anic verse clearly point outs that, there should not be any discrimination based on family, faith, colour, race or religion. ‘‘O mankind, we created you all from a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another’’ (Sura Hujarath: 13). Islam means peace. Islamic teachings hold many injunctions for settling discriminations between people and nations which aims at establishing peace. Islamic civilization shows that Muslims and other people of different faiths co-existed in peace throughout the history. The carter of Madinah, declared by prophet Muhammed (PBUH) is the best example which was undertaken to establish peaceful coexistence within different beliefs. Unfortunately, establishing peaceful coexistence has now become a challenging task in this world. Several countries have been suffering from inter and intra conflict among religions and faiths. The paper aims to present the view of Islam towards peaceful coexistence in multi religious society by citing some examples and lessons from the Islamic civilization. Keywords: Peaceful coexistence; multi religious; Islam; peace; civilization