Source & Credit: Ahmadiyya Gazette | April 4th, 2008
"O mankind, We have created you from a male and a female; And We have made you tribes and sub-tribes that you may know one another. Verily, the most honourable among you, in the sight of Allah, is he who is the most righteous among you. Surely, Allah is All-Knowing, All-Aware. (The Holy Quran 49:14)
"Moral improvement can be understood in terms of what the philosopher Peter Singer calls ‘the expanding circle.’ People have steadily expanded the mental dotted line that embraces the entities considered worthy of moral consideration. The circle has been poked outward from the family and village to the clan, the tribe, the nation, the race, and most recently (as in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) to all of humanity. This expansion has happened for a number of reasons. As people in more parts of the planet become economically interdependent, the hatred between them decreases, for the simple reason that you can‘t kill someone and trade with him too. Our sympathy response can also be cranked up by new kinds of information demonstrating that other folks are similar to ourselves. Words and images from erstwhile enemies can make it impossible to continue to believe that they are subhuman. A historical record can warn against self-defeating cycles of vendetta. ….. An expansion of sympathy may come from something as basic as the requirement to be logically consistent (and hence taken seriously) when imploring other people to behave in certain ways. People come to realize that they cannot force others to abide by rules that they themselves flout. Egoistic, sexist, racist, and xenophobic attitudes are logically inconsistent with the demand that everyone respect a single code of behavior." (Intelligent Thought – Edited by John Brockman, Vintage Books, 2006. Page 148-149)
"O mankind! Be mindful of your duty to your Lord, Who created you from a single soul (early life forms) and from it created its mate and from the two created and spread many men and women; and be mindful of your duty to Allah, in Whose name you appeal to one another, and fear Him particularly in respecting ties of kinship. Verily, Allah watches over you." (The Holy Quran 4:2)
-- Courtney: Ahmadiyya Times Staff
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