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The Pillars of Dialogue: Love, Compassion, Tolerance and Forgiving
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As for compassion, everything speaks of it and promises it. Therefore, the universe can be considered a symphony of compassion. A human being
must show compassion to all living beings, for this is a requirement of being human. The more people display compassion, the more exalted they
become; the more they resort to wrongdoing, oppression, and cruelty, the more they are disgraced and humiliated. They become a shame to humanity.
We hear from Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace, that a prostitute went to Paradise because her compassion compelled her to give water to a dog
dying of thirst, while another woman went to Hell because she allowed a cat to starve to death.
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As for forgiving, it is a great virtue. It is wrong to consider forgiveness separate from virtue, or of virtue as separate from forgiveness. Everyone
knows the adage: "Errors from the small, forgiveness from the great." How true this is! Being forgiven means a repair, a return to an essence, and
finding oneself again. For this reason, the most pleasing action in the view of the Infinite Mercy is the activity pursued amidst the palpitations of
this return and search.
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All of creation, both animate and inanimate, was introduced to forgiveness through humanity. Just as God showed His attribute of forgiveness through
individual human beings, He put the beauty of forgiving in their hearts. While the first man dealt a blow to his essence through falling, which is somehow
a requirement of his human nature, it was God’s forgiveness that gave a hand to him and elevated him to the rank of Prophethood.
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