THE SPIRIT OF PLURALITY TO EARTHING TOLERANCE IN INDONESIA ACCORDING TO AL-QUR’AN PERSPECTIVE (The Contextual Interpretation of QS. Al-Baqarah: 148)

Abstract

The religious plurality is a necessity which must be responded wisely and cleverly. Nowadays, the existing of religions which should be a conflict reducer among religious people, it actually becomes the  main cause of the conflicts. This is due to the lack of wisdom in responding to the challenge of religious plurality itself. And one form of the wisdom is to grow the spirit of plurality in religion. The Quran itself is not counter to the term plurality. There are several verses that explain the existence  of other religions –other than Islam-. In QS. Al-Baqarah: 148 for example, explained that every people has a wijhah (direction of Qibla) respectively. Indeed this verse descend in the context of qibla movement. However, this verse can be understood in the broader context in which the meaning of wijhah in this verse may mean religion or belief. In this verse there is also a command to compete in goodness (fastabiqul khairat). This shows that Allah SWT legalize the existence of religious diversity, with the record must be able to compete in doing good. That is, someone does not need to questioning religion  when doing good. Thus, the spirit of the plurality of religions in this verse is a spirit to compete in goodness. So that when someone does good to all people regardless of the difference of belief, then at that time he has earthed tolerance.