Introduction: “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.” -Plato Compassion plainly defined is “sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it” [1] It is the culmination of the values of sympathy and empathy. While with sympathy one feels for the other’s suffering and with empathy, one is sharing the other’s hardship and suffering, compassion is actively trying to reduce the other person’s suffering. It is moving away from kind words and entering into the realm of action and determination. Compassion is a noble ideal and a value that has been the centrepiece of human society since the dawn of civilization. The etymological root of compassion is the Latin word compati which means “to suffer together with”. Compassion is said to be the essence of humanity and nearly every religious tradition of the world ranks compassion as one of the most important virtues for one to have. A detailed discussion of compassion and religion is ...