QUR'ANIC PRINCIPLES OF PEACEFUL COEXISTENCE

The Qur'an being Allah's final message to humanity has provided comprehensive guide for mankind which if judiciously followed, human relations shall witness but progress and development. Allah has created human being with variegations in thoughts, physical and geographical conditions in order to recognize one another and develop their environments according to their abilities. But these differences need to be managed with sagacity to maintain balance and mutual relationship among human beings. In order to avoid communal clashes, mutual suspect, anarchy and unjustifiable wars among people of divergent religious, ethnic, racial and professional affiliations, which are unfortunately recurrent in human history and the contemporary world. Allah had sent divine guidance for peaceful co-existence. This article delves through inductive study into the Qur'an to infer principles of peaceful co-existence. It found that: Freedom of religion, justice, and tolerance, equality of mankind, mutual respect, dialogue, reconciliation, inter-marriage (between some of them) and approval of propagation as the only lawful means of religious conversion are the enshrined principles of peaceful coexistence. The article concludes that these principles are the ingredients for security and sustainable development in any given society and recommends practical ways of adopting them in the modern world.