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Meaningful Engagement through Positive Discourse |
First and foremost, The Muslim Institute (TMI) endeavors to facilitate a world class intellectual forum to promote interaction of thoughts and philosophies about Islam as it was preached and practiced by the Prophet and his pure progeny - the ‘Ahl-Ul-Bayt’. It is through a process of creating an understanding of the ideals and realities of Islam and its image that TMI will foster dialogue and enable meaningful engagement through positive discourse amongst cultures and civilizations. To quote Rumi:
“There are many languages in the world,
in meaning all are the same.
If you break the cups, water will be unified and will flow together”
Truly the need of this age is to break the cups, remove the misunderstandings and flow together in harmony. The founders of TMI passionately believe that participants in dialogue among cultures and civilizations must attempt to understand, not only the cultures and civilizations of others, but must be cognizant of their own too. To do so, each party in the dialogue needs to take a step away so as to get an enhanced perspective on oneself. In essence this perspective provided by looking at themselves from a distance is vital to the shaping of one’s own self-chosen mode of existence and moral stance with respect to the other. This is the only way of moving forward towards meaningful engagement through positive discourse, to enhance understanding between religions and civilizations. |