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(Merve & Ayat)

Explain and link the following verses and Hadith to today's topic and how to apply them in your life? Give examples:

a) “Hold to forgiveness; command what is right; But turn away from the ignorant” (Sūrat Al-’A`rāf: 199)

b) “Forgive and be indulgent (toward them) until Allah give command.” (Sūrat AlBaqarah: 109)

c) “The Prophet (PBUH) said  (faith) is patience and tolerance.”

(Joel & Sara)

2) Would you insult someone who insulted you? Why? Give evidence from Qur'an/Hadith/Seerah.

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1) Analyse the aspects of Tolerance from the Seerah of the Prophet (PBUH) in the following incidents. (Seif)

a) The story of Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) with the people of Ta’if.

b) During the conquest of Makkah.

c) search for the story of the Messenger, (PBUH), and the man who used to throw garbage in the Messsenger’s way and the values you could learn from this story.

2) Explain the learned value from the stories and how to apply them in your life? (Khalil)

3) What is the impact of Tolerance on individuals and society? Find out the highest crime rate in the world explain how tolerance would resolving this issue. (Amir & Murad)

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1) Search and gather some information about the UAE international conference of tolerance.

2) List some facts about the Ibrahimi house in Abu Dhabi.

3) Find out the percentage of violence in USA. Suggest some solutions.

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Write down what you know about today's lesson: (Your own words, NO search)

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Write down what you know about today's lesson: (Your own words, NO search)

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1) Explain the concept of Tolerance and its aspects.

2) Extract the values mentioned in some Hadith, verses and seerah texts about Tolerance.

3) Analyse the impact of tolerance on individuals and society.

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Share with your group verbally what did you learn today. Refer back to the L.O and Success Criteria as below:

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Share with your group verbally what did you learn today. Refer back to the L.O and Success Criteria as below:

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Something you learned from today's lesson.

Something you will do as an action in your daily life.

Something you will stop doing.

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Tolerance in the Seerah of the Prophet (PBUH) in Makkah and Taif.

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Tolerance in the Seerah of the Prophet (PBUH) in Makkah and Taif.

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God has always chosen prophets with the best of characters, morals and spirits.

Since God is All-Knowing, All-Wise, and has ordained human's destiny before their birth, it is feasible to think that He has already chosen His Prophets before even their entrance to the world.

Prophet Muhammad was not an exception. God bestowed on him the best of characters, one of which was his exceptional tolerance which is manifested in his life and teachings:

And verily, you (O Muhammad) are on an exalted (standard of) character. (Quran 68: 4)

We will examine some examples of his tolerance at the advent of Islam and during its expansion process. In the next article, we will examine his treatment of non-Muslims.

In Makkah

During the first thirteen years of his life in Makkah, he and his followers faced much persecution. Muslims were not ordered by God to fight back due to the fact that they had no military strength yet due to the small following which gradually increased.

It was only in Madinah when his following and military power rapidly grew that fighting to protect themselves and the new religion was allowed.

When the Prophet's opponents greatly increased their persecution, his companions asked him to curse them. At this, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) replied:

I have not been sent to lay a curse upon men but to be a blessing to them." (Muslim)

His opponents continued to treat him and his companions unjustly and cruelly, but he always prayed for them.

He once decided to personally visit the village of Ta'if, to the east of Makkah, to invite its inhabitants to Islam. The people rejected him, stoned him, ejected him, and made him to bleed. Angel Gabriel came to him and said:

"Allah has heard what your people say to you and how they reject you. He has ordered the angels of the mountains to obey whatever you tell them to do."

The angel of the mountains called him, greeted him and said:

"Send me to do what you wish. If you wish, I will crush them between the two mountains of Makkah."

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said:

Rather, I hope that Allah will bring forth from their loins those who will worship Allah alone and not associate anything with Him." (Al-Bukhari)

In the early Makkan period when the enemies of the new religion far exceeded the Prophet's companions in number, it often happened that when the Prophet would stand to pray, his foes would come near him and whistle and clap in order to disturb him, but the Prophet would not even once show his anger at such acts. He always opted for the policy of tolerance and avoidance of confrontation.

In one instance when the Prophet was praying at the Ka'bah while his enemies were watching his every move and action, one of his adversaries put on his back the intestine of a slaughtered camel during his prostration. The Prophet Muhammad did not react and stayed in that position. His daughter, Fatimah, rushed to take the filth off his back and cleaned him up.

In Madinah

Later, when Prophet Muhammad and many of his companions migrated to Madinah, again his great character in dealing with his companions and enemies was further manifested.

In Madinah, the Muslims were in the process of establishing the new Islamic state. Yet, their enemies in Makkah did not spare much time to wage war against them and pursue them even in Madinah.

In the battle of Uhud, when his Makkan enemies attacked the Muslims, Prophet Muhammad suffered head injury and his front teeth got smashed. When the blood started to seep from his head, he swabbed it saying:

"If a drop of my blood fell on the earth, those infidels will be destroyed by Allah."

Umar told him,

"O Messenger of Allah, Curse them!"

The prophet replied:

I wasn't sent (by Allah) to curse. I was sent as a mercy.

Then he said:

O Allah, Guide my people! (Authenticated by Al-Albani)

God confirms his blessed character by saying:

And We have not sent you forth but as a mercy to mankind. (Quran 21:107)

The Prophet Muhammad once said:

A true believer is one with whom others feel secure." (Al-Bukhari)

He manifested these words with action and was not fast to revenge or rebuke a wrong doer.

A Bedouin once entered the mosque and started to urinate in it. Mosques at that time had no walls and carpeted floors and the ceilings were palm leaves held up by palm stems. The people ran to (prevent and restrain) him. The Prophet Muhammad said:

Do not interrupt his urination (i.e. let him finish). Then the Prophet asked for a pitcher of water to be poured over the place of urine. (Al-Bukhari)

One of Jesus' famous saying is:

Love your neighbor like yourself."

Prophet Muhammad complimented this by saying:

By God, he is not a believer, by God, he is not a believer, by God, he is not a believer, with whom his neighbors are not secure." (Al-Bukhari)

This includes tolerance for actions they may do that is not pleasing to one.

Tolerance towards His Enemies

It is reported that one of the Prophet's neighbors was a Jew who hated the Prophet. Each day he would throw trash on his way. The prophet Muhammad never rebuked him.

One day, the Jew did not show up. The Prophet asked about him, and was told that he was sick. So, he went to visit him and inquire about his health with kindness. Upon seeing this, the Jew embraced Islam.

The enmity of his worst enemy toward his most beloved was also met with awesome goodness.

Hamza was among the Prophet's most beloved uncles. During one of the battles, Hend, the wife of Abu Sufyan, the arch enemy of the Prophet, had ordered her slave to find Hamza and pierce him with his arrow.

Upon seeing him dead, she rushed to his body and cut out his liver and started chewing on it while filled with rage.

Upon the conquest of Makkah, the Prophet did not seek revenge on her and accepted her and her husband as new converts and gave them full protection.

Anas ibn Malik, who served the Prophet for ten years, said that the Prophet never rebuked him:

When I did something, he never questioned my manner of doing it; and when I did not do something, he never questioned my failure to do it. He was the most good-natured of all men." (Al-Bukhari)

Such manners of tolerance gained him the respect even of his enemies, and his followers stood by him through all kinds of hardship and misfortune.

Although his worse enemies were the Makkan Arabs at the beginning, but in Madinah, the Jews did not spare any effort to conspire against him, even after treaties were signed with them. However, he tried to be as fair with them as possible and only waged war against them when they broke treaties which caused much loss of life of Muslims.

Once, when the Prophet was sitting at a place in Madinah, along with his companions, a funeral procession passed by. On seeing this, the Prophet Muhammad stood up. One of his companions remarked that the funeral was that of a Jew. The Prophet replied:

Was he not a human being?" (Muslim)

Since Prophet Muhammad wished to avoid war at all costs, he strove to bring about a peace agreement between him and the Makkans. After great efforts on his part, the non-Muslims agreed to a ten-year peace treaty, which was drafted and signed at Al-Hudaybiyyah, a place outside Makkah.

During this important meeting, the Makkans insisted on a number of extremely provocative acts. For instance, the agreement mentioned the Prophet's name as "Muhammad the Messenger of Allah." They insisted to replace by "son of Abdullah." The Prophet accepted peacefully and deleted the appellation.

Similarly, they made the condition that if they could lay their hands on any Muslim they would make him a hostage, but if the Muslims succeeded in detaining any non-Muslim, they would have to set him free.

The Prophet even relented on this point for establishment of peace in the region. He was clearly setting examples of fairness and tolerance while exposed to injustice and intolerance.

Despite all the concessions Prophet Muhammad made with the Makkans, the later violated the same treaty they signed earlier. It was then that the Prophet finally marched with his huge army to Makkah and without any resistance conquered the city which was once the abode of his worse enemies.

As mentioned earlier, the Prophet and his followers suffered a great deal during their thirteen years of living in Makkah and after their migration to Madinah. His own tribesmen and even family members continue to oppose him in not only in Makkah but rose to fight him in Madinah for over 20 years.

They did not spare any effort to inflict the worse humanly possible hardship on them. In Makkah, it included, torture, sanctions, taking their lives' belonging, separating family members and slaughtering them where ever they could find them.

With God's help and his and his companions' steadfastness in Madinah and upholding the message of Islam, they finally conquered Makkah. Its leaders came to him fearing that he would kill them as all conquerors do. But instead, he said:

Go! You are all free!" (Authenticated by Al-Albani)

Prophet Muhammad's mercy and tolerance did not exclude his worse enemies. Such tolerance awed his enemies who were now the newly converted Muslims. The end result is a clear history that is registered to this day. Message of Islam spread across the world, to include on fifth of the global population.

These are only a few among many examples of the Prophet's tolerance and noble character. Aisha, the wife of the Prophet was asked regarding the character of the Prophet (peace be upon him). She said very simply, that:

The character of the Prophet was the Quran." (Muslim)

Clearly, the Prophet molded his own life in accordance with the ideal pattern of life that he presented to others in the form of the Quran revealed to him by God. He never beat a servant, or a woman, or anyone else. He did, of course, fight for what was right. When he had to choose between two alternatives, he would take the easier course, provided it involved no sin.

No one was more careful to avoid sin than he. He never sought revenge on his own sake for any wrong done to him personally. He was tolerant. Only if God's commandments had been broken would he meet out retribution for the sake of God. It was such conduct which gained the Prophet universal respect.

Scholars further explain about the Quran being his character:

"What this means is that he followed its etiquette and adopted its attitude. Whatever was praised in the Quran, he was pleased with, and whatever was condemned in the Quran he hated. It says in one report that Aisha said:

His attitude was the Quran, whatever it was pleased with he was pleased with and whatever it hated he hated. (Ibn rajab in Jaami' al-'Uloom wa'l-Hukam (1/148))

One may say, since he was the last Prophet and messenger to mankind, no other can ever be quite like him. This is true because none shall ever have to shoulder a fraction of the responsibilities he had to bear.

However, we, as his followers, have the easy part which is to seek and adopt his gentle qualities and high moral standards into daily practice; for the Prophet's life was divinely chosen to function as a practical manual of how one should better himself.

Prophet Muhammad's character and qualities are not only for the Muslims to follow, but the sincere seekers who learn about him, praise his noble character and wish to follow it.

Goethe, a famous German writer, artist, and politician of the 1800s, marveled over the achievements and status of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) saying:

"We Europeans with all our concepts and ideas have not yet attained that which Muhammad attained, and no one will ever surpass him.

I searched in history for the loftiest example for man to follow, and I found it in the Prophet Muhammad. Thus the truth must prevail and become supreme, because Muhammad succeeded in subjugating the whole world by means of the message of Divine Oneness."
(From Discovering Islam's archive.)

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Prophet Muhammad: Master of Tolerance | About Islam

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God has always chosen prophets with the best of characters, morals and spirits. Since God is All-Knowing, All-Wise, and has ordained human's destiny before their birth, it is feasible to think that He has already chosen His Prophets before even their entrance to the world. Prophet Muhammad was not an exception.

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Prophet’s Love and Tolerance for Mankind

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Prophet’s Love and Tolerance for Mankind

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Read More on islamonline :

https://islamonline.net/en/prophets-love-and-tolerance-for-mankind/

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The Prophet Muhammad is introduced in the Qur'an in these words:

[And We have not sent you forth but as a mercy to mankind.] (Al-Anbiyaa': 107)

This shows that his distinctive quality was that he was a blessing incarnate in word and deed.

According to a tradition recorded in the Sahih of Imam Muslim, when the Prophet's opponents greatly increased their persecution, his Companions asked him to curse them. At this the Prophet replied, "I have not been sent to lay a curse upon men but to be a blessing to them." His opponents continued to treat him and his Companions unjustly and cruelly, but he always prayed for them.

Once he was so badly stoned by his enemies that the blood began to spurt from all over his body. This happened when he went to Ta'if, where the Hijaz aristocracy used to while away their summer days. When he attempted to call them to Islam, instead of listening to his words of wisdom, they set the street urchins upon him, who kept chasing him till nightfall. Even at that point, when he was utterly exhausted and bleeding from head to foot, all he said was, "O my Lord, guide my people along the true path, as they are ignorant of the truth."

His heart was filled with intense love for all human kind irrespective of caste, creed, or colour. Once he advised his Companions to regard all people as their brothers and sisters. He added, "You are all Adam's offspring and Adam was born of clay."

All this tells us what kind of awareness he wanted to bring about in man. His mission was to bring people abreast of the reality that all men and women, although inhabiting different regions of the world, and seemingly different from one another as regards their colour, language, dress, culture, etc., were each other's blood brothers. Hence a proper relationship will be established between all human beings only if they regard one another as sisters and brothers. Only then will proper feelings of love and respect prevail throughout the world.

According to a hadith, the Prophet once said, "A true believer is one with whom others feel secure. One who returns love for hatred." The Prophet made it clear that one who would only return love for love was on a lower ethical plane. We should never think that we should treat people well only if they treat us well. We should, rather, be accustomed to being good to those who are not good to us and to not wronging those who harm us.

The Prophet once borrowed some money from a Jew. After a few days the Jew came to demand payment of his debt. The Prophet told him that at that moment he had nothing to pay him with. The Jew said that he wouldn't let him go until he had paid him back. And so the Jew stayed there, from morning till night, holding the Prophet captive. At that time the Prophet was the established ruler of Madinah and could have easily taken action against him. His Companions naturally wanted to rebuke the man and chase him away. But the Prophet forbade this, saying, "The Lord has forbidden us to wrong anyone." The Jew continued to hold the Prophet captive until the following morning. But with the first light of dawn, the Jew was moved by the Prophet's tolerance, and he thereupon embraced Islam. In spite of being a rich man, he had detained the Prophet the day before on account of a few pence. But now the Prophet's noble conduct had had such an impact on him that he was willing to give all his wealth to the Prophet, saying, "Spend it as you please."

According to another hadith, the Prophet once said, "By God, he is not a believer, by God, he is not a believer, by God, he is not a believer, with whom his neighbours are not secure." This hadith shows how much he loved and cared for all human beings. One of the lessons he taught was that we should live among others like flowers, and not like thorns, without giving trouble to anybody.

In another hadith the Prophet said, "If a believer is not able to benefit others, he must at least do them no harm." This shows that to the Prophet the man who becomes useful to others leads his life on a higher plane. But if he fails to do so, he should at least create no trouble for his fellow men. For a man to be a really good servant of God, he must live in this world as a no-problem person. There is no third option.

The Prophet's own example was testified to by Anas ibn Malik, who served the Prophet for ten years. He said that the Prophet never ever rebuked him. "When I did something, he never questioned my manner of doing it; and when I did not do something, he never questioned my failure to do it. He was the most good-natured of all men." Such conduct gained him the respect even of his enemies, and his followers stood by him through all kinds of hardship and misfortune. He applied the principles on which his own life was based in equal measure to those who followed his path and to those who had harmed or discountenanced him.

In the present world, everyone's thinking, tastes, aptitude, likes, and dislikes can never exactly coincide. For many reasons, differences do arise in this world. But then, what is the permanent solution to the problem? The solution lies in tolerance. The Prophet's entire life served as a perfect example of this principle. According to his wife `A'ishah, "He was a personification of the Qur'an."

That is to say, the Prophet moulded his own life in accordance with the ideal pattern of life that he presented to others in the form of the Qur'an. He never beat a servant, or a woman, or anyone else. He did, of course, fight for what was right. Yet, when he had to choose between two alternatives, he would take the easier course, provided it involved no sin. No one was more careful to avoid sin than him. He never sought revenge on his own behalf for any wrong done to him personally. Only if God's commandments had been broken would he mete out retribution for the sake of God. It was such conduct which gained the Prophet universal respect.

In the early Makkan period when the antagonists far exceeded the Prophet's Companions in number, it often happened that when the Prophet would stand to pray, his detractors would come near him and whistle and clap in order to disturb him, but the Prophet did not even once show his anger at such acts. He always opted for the policy of tolerance and avoidance of confrontation.

When the opposition became very strong, the Prophet left Makkah for Madinah. But his antagonists did not leave him in peace. They began to attack Madinah. In this way a state of war prevailed between the Muslims and non-Muslims.

Since the Prophet avoided war at all costs, he strove to bring about a peace agreement between him and the Makkans. After great efforts on his part, the non-Muslims agreed to the finalizing of a 10-year peace treaty, which was drafted and signed at Al-Hudaybiyyah.

While the Hudaybiyyah treaty was being drafted, the Makkans indulged in a number of extremely provocative acts. For instance, the agreement mentioned the Prophet's name as "Muhammad the Messenger of Allah." They insisted that the phrase "the Messenger of Allah" be taken out and replaced by "son of Abdullah." The Prophet accepted their unreasonable condition and deleted the appellation with his own hands. Similarly, they made the condition that if they could lay their hands on any Muslim they would make him a hostage, but if the Muslims succeeded in detaining any non-Muslim, they would have to set him free. The Prophet even relented on this point. For the restoration of peace in the region, the Prophet accepted a number of such unjustifiable clauses that were added by the enemy. In this way he set the example of peace and tolerance being linked with one another. If we desire peace, we must tolerate many unpleasant things from others. There is no other way to establish peace in society.

Once the Prophet was seated at some place in Madinah, along with his Companions. During this time a funeral procession passed by. On seeing this, the Prophet stood up. One of his Companion remarked that the funeral was that of a Jew. The Prophet replied, "Was he not a human being?"

This incident illustrates how an atmosphere of mutual love and compassion can be brought about in the world only when we consciously rise above all insidious demarcation of caste, colour, and creed. Just as the Prophet did, we, too, must look at all men as human beings who deserve to be respected at all events.

Excerpted, with slight modifications, from: www.alrisala.org

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Prophet's Love and Tolerance for Mankind - IslamOnline

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The Prophet Muhammad is introduced in the Qur'an in these words: [And We have not sent you forth but as a mercy to mankind.] (Al-Anbiyaa': 107) This shows that his distinctive quality was that he was a blessing incarnate in word and deed.

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A study paper on Tolerance and its aspects.

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A study paper on Tolerance and its aspects.