Tolerance

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Tolerance is a trait that is fast becoming scarce in the modern world. In third world countries, where the systems are not as smooth as one should wish them to be, lack of tolerance makes things more complicated and long drawn. The irony is that, the least developed the country is, the more people it supports. The lack of proper infrastructure makes working difficult and with zounds of clients standing in line, the offices are normally overburdened and it becomes hard to maintain a smooth servicing system. In a place like this mutual tolerance is important to make sure that everything goes as smoothly as possible.

But that is not the only case where people need to show good will, it also comes into play in every day dealings. There are many people that we meet in our daily life; some we like and some we do not. Normally we avoid the ones that we do not, not because that person is bad, but just because your interests do not match. In such a case, it does not hurt to meet the person on a regular basis only to know how he is doing. It is possible that you might consider that time wasted, but a good will gesture like this goes a long way into the future. I have many friends who present themselves to help out even though we were never best buddies.  You never know when a good deed might end up doing you good in the long run.

Apart from that, tolerance in religion is also very crucial in daily life. I myself am a Muslim, but when I went to Finland, I had a chance to spend a year with a Christian preacher.  We used to share an apartment and even had long drawn religious debates about each other’s faiths. Even though there were many points to which we disagreed, but that never created any sort of hard feelings between the two of us. He kept inviting me to his Sunday church, and when I was leaving, I presented to him my Holy Book Koran, as a gift.

Whenever you go out, deal with any person with any race, gender, nationality and religion, always keep in mind that that person is a human being first. How he came to be has a history of years of influence by different environments.  With different environments come different views and with different views come disagreements. You should be open minded enough to accept the other person’s beliefs and do not try to impose your own on him. You can however show him the way that you feel right but leave it to him to decide if he is willing to go that way or not.

Tolerance leads to peace, and with peace comes free thought and a free mind. We need to nurture this mind to lead us all towards a world of harmony and good will and serenity.