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The Pillars of Dialogue: Love, Compassion, Tolerance and Forgiving
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It should be such a broad tolerance that we can close our eyes to others’ faults, show respect for different ideas, and forgive everything that is
forgivable. In fact, even when our inalienable rights are violated, we should respect human values and try to establish justice. Even before the coarsest
thoughts and crudest ideas, with the caution of a Prophet and without boiling over we should respond with mildness that the Qur’an presents as "gentle
words." We should do this so that we can touch other people’s hearts by following a method consisting of a tender heart, a gentle approach, and mild
behavior. We should have such a broad tolerance that we benefit from contradictory ideas, for they force us to keep our heart, spirit, and conscience
in good shape even though they do not teach us anything.
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Tolerance, which we sometimes use in place of respect and mercy, generosity and forbearance, is the most essential element of moral systems. It also
is a very important source of spiritual discipline, and a celestial virtue of perfected men and women.
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Under the lens of tolerance, the merits of believers attain a new depth and extend to infinity; mistakes and faults shrink so much that they can be
squeezed into a thimble. Actually the treatment of He Who is beyond time and space always passes through the prism of tolerance, and we wait for it to
embrace us and all of creation. This embrace is so broad that a prostitute who gave water to a thirsty dog touched the knocker of the "Door of Mercy"
and found herself in a corridor extending to Heaven. Similarly, due to the deep love he felt for God and His Messenger, a drunk suddenly shook himself
free and became a Companion of the Prophet. In another example, with the smallest of Divine favors, a murderer was saved from his monstrous psychosis,
turned toward the highest rank, which far surpassed his natural ability, and reached it.
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