The Culture of Peace

The Culture of Peace we should seek succour from God. Your plea to God should not be for the destruction of the enemy. Rather, you should ask, ‘O God! Bless me so that, despite people’s enmity, I do not take to the path of violence and confrontation, but, instead, that I carry on with the journey of my life walking on the path of peace.’ From this we learn that according to the law of nature, peace is the general rule, while violence is an exception. We also learn that if a person or group appears to be one’s enemy, confrontation is not the only way to respond. A better and more effective way is to solve the problem of an enemy through peaceful actions. The power of peace is both more effective and beneficial than the power of violence. The Method of Non-Violence According to a hadith report, the Prophet said that God grants to non-violence what he does not grant to violence. This is a way of expressing a law of nature that God has established in this world. On the basis of this law, if you behave in a gentle, non-violent way, your work will be more effective. But if you are harsh and violent, you will not succeed, and your efforts will fail. Whenever someone adopts the harsh and violent way, his efforts are unnecessarily divided on two fronts: on his own inner development, on the one hand, and on fighting his external enemies, on the other. In contrast, if someone is gentle and nonviolent, it becomes possible for him to focus all his energies on just one front: on his inner development. Consequently, he will be much more successful. The above-mentioned hadith tells us about this basic law of nature on the basis of which the entire system of this world functions. Whatever one obtains in this world is what one gets by behaving in accordance with, rather than in violation of, this system. This system of nature is based completely on the principles of peace and non-violence. That is why whenever you