Owais Saqlain Ahmed / New Delhi

Tolerance is often mistaken for weakness or indifference. In truth, it is one of humanity’s greatest civic strengths—an active, deliberate force that holds diverse societies together. On this International Day of Tolerance, the Medina Charter of 622 CE stands as powerful historical proof that inclusive governance is not a modern invention. It is, in fact, a hallmark of early Islamic administration at its finest.

Tolerance Is Not Passive. It Is a Powerful Skill.

Many assume tolerance means merely enduring things you dislike. That is a misconception.

True tolerance is ethical leadership in action: respecting differences, protecting rights, and upholding dignity for everyone.

A garden of identical roses is tidy, but a garden of wildflowers is alive. Diversity does not weaken a society, it energises and strengthens it.

A teacher once told her students, “We are all different pencils—some short, some long, some sharp, some blunt, but each of us is needed to draw a perfect picture.” That is tolerance: every voice, every shade, every edge is essential.

Why Tolerance Is the Operating System of Modern Society

In a world shaped by viral outrage, mass migration, and digital echo chambers, tolerance is not optional. It is infrastructure.

It enables peaceful governance, productive dialogue, protection of individual rights, and social resilience in times of stress.

For young people and emerging democracies, tolerance is both a moral compass and a strategic advantage.

John F. Kennedy said it well: “Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one’s own beliefs. Rather, it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.”

Enter Medina: The World’s First Multi-Faith Constitution

Fourteen centuries ago, Medina faced tribal warfare, deep distrust, and social fragmentation.

When Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) arrived in 622 CE, his response was not conquest and certainly not forced conversion. It was a contract.

The Medina Charter, perhaps the earliest example of a multi-faith constitution, united Muslims, Jews, and various Arab tribes in a spirit of shared responsibility. It guaranteed equal rights, security, and mutual protection. It established a pluralistic state governed by shared law.

This was not theoretical idealism. It was governance in real time.

Real Stories from Medina: Tolerance in Action

1. Justice Beyond Identity
A dispute once erupted in the marketplace: a Muslim merchant accused a Jewish trader of cheating him. The crowd quickly split along familiar lines. When the Prophet heard of it, he summoned both men, not as adversaries, but as equal citizens under the charter. After hearing witnesses and verifying the scales, the verdict favored the Jewish trader. The Muslim accepted the judgment without protest. The charter had spoken: justice has no exceptions. A potential riot dissolved into mutual respect.

(Inspired by principles in Sahih al-Bukhari 2546, emphasizing fair judgment regardless of faith.)

2. Welfare Without Conditions
One morning, a Jewish family awoke to an empty pantry. Their Muslim neighbors noticed the silence, the closed curtains, the children’s tired faces. Quietly, baskets of dates, bread, and goat milk appeared at their door. There were no sermons, no conditions, only compassion. Under the charter, welfare was a shared duty, not an act of charity. The family ate, and bonds grew stronger.

(Inspired by Quran 60:8.)

3. Solidarity in Scarcity
During a drought, a Muslim farmer and his Jewish neighbor stood over their cracked field. Instead of hoarding resources, they met at dusk beneath the palms and divided what little water remained. They rationed grain and took turns guarding the communal well. When rain finally returned, their fields and their trust survived. Scarcity had become solidarity.

(Inspired by Sunan Abi Dawud 3052.)

Youth: The Next Architects of Inclusive Societies

Today’s young citizens live in a world of intersecting cultures, ideas, and digital communities. You don’t just need tolerance, you are uniquely equipped to lead it.

Remember the Islamic Golden Age, when Muslim, Christian, Jewish, and Hindu scholars worked side by side, translating texts, debating ideas, and creating knowledge without barriers or fear.

Ancient Arabic wisdom reminds us: “Ilm (knowledge) is the sword that cuts through the roots of prejudice.”

Your tools are empathy, critical thinking, digital literacy, and courage. Use them in leadership programs, civic platforms, classrooms, and online spaces. Tolerance must be taught, practiced, and scaled.

Medina’s Playbook: Lessons That Still Work

The charter’s principle of mutual responsibility shows that progress is most stable when rooted in inclusivity.

Whether in Medina or Mumbai, sustainable peace depends on dialogue, shared prosperity, and respect for all.

During another tense moment in early Medina, tribal groups gathered under the charter for mediation. Everyone, regardless of lineage or background, was given a voice. Grievances were shared, fears addressed, solutions crafted. This model remains a blueprint for modern community mediation.

The True Test of Modernization: Can We Manage Difference?

Innovation is easy. Technology is advancing rapidly. But managing deep differences without erasing them, that is the real measure of a mature society.

Governments, schools, and media institutions must embed tolerance into law, teach it in classrooms, and model it in public discourse.

Helen Keller put it simply: “The highest result of education is tolerance.”

November 16: When the UN Echoes Medina

Since 1995, the International Day of Tolerance has reminded the world that skyscrapers and smartphones mean nothing without a moral foundation.

The UN links tolerance to sustainable development, peace, and equality.

In many ways, the Medina Charter articulated these principles 1,400 years ahead of its time.

Islamic Governance 101: Compassion as State Policy

The Prophet’s administration in Medina was not only spiritually inspired, it was ethically structured.

Compassion was not an add-on. It was a central policy.

When an elderly non-Muslim woman fell ill, Muslims across the neighborhood cared for her, carrying water, cooking broth, and staying at her side. She recovered surrounded by people who shared neither her faith nor her lineage, but shared her humanity. In Medina, empathy was not personal sentiment—it was civic duty.

(Inspired by Sahih Muslim 2565.)

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Tolerance Is Civilization’s Ultimate Strength

True tolerance requires courage to stand with the different, honesty to defend justice, and wisdom to build together.

The Medina Charter and the UN’s call for tolerance converge on a single truth: progress does not grow through uniformity, it flourishes through well-managed diversity.

On this International Day of Tolerance, let us not merely celebrate inclusion. Let us practice it and institutionalize it, just as Medina did fourteen centuries ago.