THE CULTURE OF PEACE Part IV
Teachings of Islam
We often talk of peace in the context of war. But this is a very narrow and restricted
notion of peace. The fact is that peace is deeply linked with the whole of human
life. Peace is a complete ideology in itself. It is the master-key that opens the doors
to every sort of success. Peace creates a favourable atmosphere for success in
every sort of endeavour. Without peace, no positive action—small or big—is at
all possible.
1. Greater Provision
The Quran explains a fact of life in the following words:
Do not regard with envy the worldly benefits We have given
some of them, for with these We seek only to test them.
The provision of your Lord is better and more lasting.
THE QURAN 20: 131
THERE are two ways you can lead your life. One way is to make
the material world your target or objective, and seek your
success in worldly acquisitions and power. There are always
differences between people as far as these things are concerned.
People constantly fight with each other over these material things. And
that is why materialistically-minded people always feel that their rights
have been trampled upon by others and that they have been deprived.
These emotions are repeatedly expressed in the form of endemic
jealousy, revenge and violence.
The modern secular state provides all its citizens
the guarantee that they can follow, preach and
propagate the religion of their choice.
Another way of leading your life is to focus on your achievements. A
person who lives in this way is content with himself. He seeks whatever
he wants within himself, and this saves him from resenting or hating
others and inflicting violence on them. He obtains the sustenance of
the Lord—which means that he has acquired firm faith that he has
found the Truth, and he has discovered that the existence that God
has bestowed on him is far more valuable than all the treasures of gold
and silver. He lives with such an awakened mind that the entire cosmos
becomes for him an intellectual and spiritual feast. Such a person who receives the sustenance of the Lord in this way has risen so high that
such things as power and wealth appear to him to be very paltry. His
mindset automatically makes him a lover of peace. He comes to regard
hatred and violence as so utterly meaningless that he simply has no
time at all to hate or to make plans of inflicting violence upon anyone.
Why would someone who has gained an invaluable treasure run after
paltry baubles?
2. Peace, the Means for Security
The Quran relates that the Prophet Shu‘ayb was addressed by his
people thus:
They replied, ‘Shu‘ayb, we do not understand much of what
you say. In fact, we see that you are powerless among us.
Were it not for your clan, we would have stoned you,
for you are not strong against us.’
THE QURAN 11: 91
This verse refers to the protection provided by members of Prophet
Shu‘ayb’s clan, who, despite not being true believers, protected him
on the basis of tribal custom. This same phenomenon is expressed
in a Hadith report in the Musnad of Imam Ahmad, according to which
God has sent every prophet along with the protecting power of his
community. In the olden days, long before the rise of modern forms
of governance, people were protected by fellow members of their
respective tribes. According to tribal custom and tradition, it was the
duty of the tribe to protect its members against other tribes.
The Prophet of Islam ushered in a revolution that made it
possible for humanity to avoid confrontation and war and
nurture a peaceful society.
In those days, this served as a protecting power for the prophets, too.
Thus, the Prophet Muhammad received such protection by Abu Talib,
head of the Banu Hashim clan. Even though Abu Talib did not accept
Islam, in accordance with tribal tradition he continued to protect the
Prophet from his opponents.
In the present age, the tribal system has, of course, disappeared. But
the role of protective power that it once performed is now played by
the secular system based on the modern conception of the state. This
system now provides believers—including those engaged in inviting people to God’s path—the same sort of protection. The modern secular
state provides all its citizens the guarantee that they can follow, preach
and propagate the religion of their choice. No one can obstruct them
from doing so, provided, of course, they do not engage in violence.
The Prophet gave peace the status of a complete
and comprehensive way of life.
The protective shield that guarded the prophets in the past was based
on the tribal system. It was a tribal protection mechanism, and not
a specifically Islamic one. Yet, despite this, the prophets accepted
it. Likewise, in today’s world, the protection that Muslims enjoy is a
secular one, and not a specifically Islamic one. So, in accordance with
the practice or Sunnah of the prophets, Muslims must accept this
protective mechanism and engage in peaceful activities. However,
Muslim ‘leaders’ of the entire world have branded Secularism as
‘irreligiousness’ and have unleashed a verbal as well as physical war
against it. In this way, they have unnecessarily turned into enemies of
Secularism. Thereby, they left the valuable protection that the secular
system provided them unused.
3. Mercy for Humanity
Addressing the Prophet Muhammad, God says in the Quran:
We have sent you forth as a mercy to all mankind.
THE QURAN 21:107
The advent of the Prophet was an expression of God’s mercy for
the whole of humankind. Through him, God informed us about the
principles on the basis of which human beings can come to inhabit what
the Quran ( 10: 25 ) refers to as dar us-salam or ‘the Home of Peace’, an
abode of peace and security for its inhabitants. Through the Prophet,
God conveyed to us teachings that can make for a peaceful society. The
Prophet presented humankind with a complete ideology of peace. He
provided us with a formula that can enable us to abstain from hatred
and violence and lead a healthy life. He ushered in a revolution that
made it possible for humanity to avoid confrontation and war and
nurture a peaceful society.
Because of certain compelling circumstances, the Prophet had to
fight some battles, but these were so minor that they can be more
appropriately called skirmishes, rather than wars. The great revolution that the Prophet wrought can, therefore, definitely be termed as a
bloodless revolution.
The Prophet gave peace the status of a complete and comprehensive
way of life. He taught us that violence leads to destruction, while peace
leads to construction. He termed patience as the highest form of
worship, which means remaining fully established on the way of peace.
He termed strife, the disrupting of the peaceful system of Nature, as
the biggest crime. He gave complete importance to peace in accordance
with the Quranic teaching that equated the killing of a single individual
with the slaying of the whole of mankind.
The Prophet termed patience as the highest form of
worship, which means remaining fully established
on the way of peace.
The Prophet taught us to greet each other with the greeting Assalamu
Alaikum or ‘May peace be upon you!’ This means that our relationships
with each other should be based on peace and security. He taught us
that success in the Hereafter is the real goal of human activity and
struggle in this world. In this way, he uprooted the false belief that
the target of our life is worldly progress, which is the basis of all
forms of confrontation and violence. He gave humanity this beautiful
formula: Become someone who benefits others. And if you cannot
benefit others, then at least become harmless as far as they are
concerned.
He taught us not to consider anyone as our enemy. From him we
learnt, too, that if we behave in a good way with our opponents, we will
realise that hidden deep within every person we think of as our foe is
a potential friend.
4. Jihad, a Peaceful Activity
Every word has both a literal as well as a conventional meaning—one
that is related to how the word is conventionally used and understood.
This is the case with the word ‘jihad’, too. The word ‘jihad’ comes from
the root juhd or jahd. The literal connotation of this is exertion with
much effort. The word ‘jihad’ is conventionally used for various sorts of
exertion or struggle, one of which is war.
However, it is used only for a particular and exceptional sort of war,
one which is fought in the cause of God to end religious persecution.
A war that is pursued for wealth and power will not be called a Jihad.
The Quran says:
Perform jihad with this most strenuously.
(Here 'this' refers to the Quran)
THE QURAN 25: 52
The Quran is not a sword or a gun. It is a book of ideology. In such
a case, performing jihad with the Quran would mean an ideological
struggle to convey the peaceful message of Islam to people. In the
light of this verse of the Quran, jihad in actual fact is another name for
peaceful activism or non-violent activism.
The Prophet taught us that violence leads to destruction,
while peace leads to construction.
The Quran uses two different words in this regard: jihad and qital. Where
the reference is to a peaceful struggle or exertion, the Quran uses the
word jihad. For instance, the Quran ( 25: 52 ) refers to a peaceful jihad of
inviting others to the faith through the Quran. And when the reference
is to physical war, the Quran uses the word qital (as for instance, Quran
3: 121 ). But in the later period, after the demise of the Prophet, the
word jihad began being often used as synonymous with qital, or war.
However, even if this usage of the term jihad is regarded as proper, still,
it would be only an expanded usage of the term. In terms of the actual
or essential meaning of the word, jihad is a term for a peaceful action,
not a violent one. It is undertaken to enlighten people intellectually and
spiritually; not to kill them.
Thus, Jihad if understood correctly is an entirely peaceful action. At
the individual level, to engage in jihad is to refuse to deviate from the
path of God despite the desires of one’s baser self and the difficult
environment one confronts. It is to face the challenges that stand in
one’s path and remain steadfast on the path of Truth. At the collective
level, jihad can be called a peaceful struggle.
At the very basis of this struggle is an intellectual awakening among
people, leading them to positive and constructive action and refining
their character. Jihad, understood in this sense, inspires people
to seek to become beneficial to others, and to be concerned about
their welfare. The weapon deployed in true jihad is love, not hatred
and violence.
5. Salvation in Silence
Hadith reports relate, in different ways, the importance of silence.
According to one report (contained in the collections by at-Tirmidhi,
al-Darimi and Ahmad) the Prophet said that the person who keeps
silent has attained salvation. This does not mean that people should
stop speaking and become totally silent. Rather, what it actually means
is that one should become silent and think and only then should he
speak. We should properly train ourselves and develop the habit of
speaking less and keeping silent more, and of speaking only after we
have properly thought what we are going to speak. This we can do
by developing the habit of consciously engaging in this practice in our
ordinary, everyday conversations. If we can develop this habit in our
everyday conversations, then we will respond in the same way when
we are faced with extraordinary or challenging situations.
Ordinarily, what most people do is that when they are faced with a
situation, they react immediately and unthinkingly, blurting out
whatever comes to their mind at that moment. This is not at all a
proper way to react. Rather, one must first think, and, only after that,
begin to speak. If you respond in this way, you can save yourself from
having to later repent about what you had said, because once you say
something, you can never take it back.
If people only think before speaking, and speak while
keeping their emotions under control, most conflicts and
strife will die out even before they are born.
It generally happens that when one is faced with an unfavourable
situation, one flares up and speaks in an unpleasant manner. A
simple way to save oneself from this is to develop in one’s daily
conversations the habit of first thinking and only then speaking. Once
you become used to thinking and only then speaking in ordinary, dayto-day
conversations, then, because of this habit, you will do just the
same when you are confronted with difficult situations. Your habit of
controlling yourself in ordinary, everyday conversations will make you
able to speak in the same way while keeping yourself under control—to
speak with mental discipline—in emergency situations, too.
Much of the chaos and conflict in this world has to do with words. Some
words provoke hatred and violence. Other words nourish a climate of peace and humaneness. If people only do this one thing—of thinking
before speaking, and speaking while keeping their emotions under
control—most conflicts and strife will die even before they are born. To
be able to keep oneself under control and speak is a very great thing.
An exalted person is one who even in the face of
violence thinks of peace, and who in the midst of
war makes plans for reconciliation.
Only those people possess this lofty attribute who keep examining
themselves and constantly introspect and take account of their words
and deeds. When you hear something, you should not answer or react
immediately. Instead, you should pause for a while, ponder on what
you have heard, and think of what your ideal response should be. This
will guarantee that you reply in a proper manner to what you have
heard. Instead of reacting to stones with stones, you will find yourself
responding with flowers and thereby you will achieve success!
.....to be continued.
This article is in continuation of a series entitled ‘The Culture of Peace’
that commenced from Issue 19 (July 2014).
