The Roots of Toleration in Civil and Moral Thoughts of “Ekhvanossafa”

Toleration is a salient characteristic of thoughts and teachings of “Ekhvanossafa and Khellanolvafa” (sincere and loyal friends) community, who emerged about two thousand years ago during the flowering time of Islamic civilization. Their tolerance and forbearance have been observed in some studies conduced about them inside and outside our country, while the roots of their approach, which was put forward centuries before emergence of these themes in the West, have been neglected. This research was conducted with the aim to recognize the roots and destiny of their salient thought characteristic. Meanwhile, it was tried to, beside briefly introducing this thinking way, answer the innovative question of where the roots and factors of toleration of Ekhvanossafa have originated from. It should be noted that to do this research, the descriptive method and interpretation of texts were employed.