By Sohaib Saeed
First published in Interfaith Matters, January 2010

A worshipper who bows before Almighty God, and a gazer into the night sky contemplating the endless reach of its galaxies, cannot but be struck by a sense of personal insignificance compared to what is greater and ultimate. This sense of humility is the first we shall consider of the pillars of effective dialogue, on which the efficacy of any exchange must stand.

Humility is a virtue with which any individual should seek to adorn his or her self. It is a garment so beautiful that all around admire it, unlike the cloak of pride which repulses all who set eyes on it. So elusive a virtue is it, that as soon as a person thinks he has attained it, he should know with certainty that he has not. Yet humility, like other character traits, has identifiable features which can be observed in the practice of dialogue.

The first thing is to realise that not all truth resides in you, and your believing something does not make it true. A seeker of truth looks for what convinces her heart and mind, and believes in it; therefore it is not surprising that she would defend this belief in the face of critique. Yet humility requires listening to other perspectives and arguments put forward for opinions we do not (yet) share. Only a humble person can truly engage with a narrative that is not his own.

There is no harm in seeing perfection in whatever you hold to be God’s revelation, as long as you acknowledge the finitude of your human mind, which will get things wrong at times, and miss the point at others. One does not need to have a relativist approach to religion to accept that other people’s insights can enrich our own understanding.

Most importantly, humility means recognising the inherent worth of every human being, however similar or different they are, and wishing the best for all.