سامی مذاہب میں روادرای کا تصور اور پاکستانی معاشرہ :تقابلی جائزہ

Comparative Study on Ttolerance in Semitic Religion and our Pakistani Society

Abstract

This study presents a comparative analysis of the concept of religious tolerance (rawādārī) in the Semitic religions—Islam, Judaism, and Christianity—and its contemporary manifestation in Pakistani society. Adopting a descriptive and qualitative methodology, the research examines the foundational scriptural and prophetic teachings of each tradition regarding coexistence, respect for religious others, and freedom of belief. The Qur'anic principle lā ikrāha fī al-dīn ("no compulsion in religion") and the Prophetic model of amnesty at the conquest of Mecca are highlighted alongside the Qur'anic prohibition against reviling other religions' deities. The study further documents the exemplary treatment of non-Muslims during the era of the Rightly Guided Caliphs, citing covenants guaranteeing the protection of churches, synagogues, and religious symbols. Parallel teachings are traced in the Torah's ethical injunctions concerning the neighbor and the stranger, and in the Gospels' commands to love neighbors and enemies, with reference to the views of Christian thinkers such as Augustine, Aquinas, Martin Luther King Jr., and Desmond Tutu. The paper then interrogates the historical gap between normative teachings and lived reality, surveying episodes of religious extremism in Christian and European history—the persecution of pagan and dissenting sects, the Crusades, the Inquisition, and the Catholic–Protestant wars—as evidence that intolerance is not unique to any single tradition. Turning to the Pakistani context, the study identifies a persistent tension between religious ideals and societal attitudes, where prejudice and hostility toward religious minorities contradict explicit scriptural commands. It concludes that religious tolerance is indispensable for social peace, that all Semitic traditions originally espoused it, and that education, media, and religious discourse must be mobilized to revive this ethos, alongside firm protection of minority rights and renewed attention to the model of the Rightly Guided Caliphs.