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).