How to Establish Peace in the Holy Land

violent movement is that the Jews are their enemies, and that fighting the enemy is but natural. This argument is certainly against the teachings of the Quran. According to the injunction of the Quran, war can be waged only against an attacker, not against an enemy. The following verse of the Quran throws light in this regard: ‘Do a good deed in return for a bad deed and then you will find that your enemy has become your dearest friend.’ 7 According to this verse of the Quran, our enemy is our potential friend. That is why, according to Islamic teaching, what we should do is to turn the potential into the actual through dialogue or peaceful effort, rather than destroy all positive opportunities by unnecessarily waging war. 5. If we point out to the Arab leaders the importance of peace, they will answer, ‘Yes, we want peace, but we want peace with justice.’ This way of thinking is totally unrealistic, for it is a fact that peace does not on its own bring justice. Peace only opens the door to opportunities, and the desired justice is achieved only by availing of those opportunities. We learn this principle from the ultimate outcome of the Hudaybiyya Pact, which I have referred to earlier. It must be remembered that the Prophet Muhammad followed this Hudaybiyya principle throughout his life. 6. One of the principles of Islam is that action should always be result-oriented and not just entered into purely for the sake of action per se. That action is not Islamic action which fails to produce the desired result. The Prophet observed: ‘A true Muslim is one who abandons such actions as yield no result.’ 8