Prophetic Vision

(41:34), the enemies had been turned into close friends. The majority of the Mongols had been brought into the fold of Islam. “The Religion of Muslims had conquered where their arms had failed.” (The Preaching of Islam, by T.W. Arnold). As another historian has put it: “The conquerors had accepted the religion of the conquered.” Prophet Muhammad held that the power of peace was far greater than the power of violence, and on many occasions, he and his followers successfully put this into practice. As a result, this concept of peace, as opposed to violence, influenced the course of events at the time and continued to have an impact on later generations. In present times this thinking has assumed the status of a permanent social philosophy. Many prominent thinkers are its advocates. For instance, it was this principle of peaceful activism on which Mahatma Gandhi based his movement of non-violence and with this power of non-violence the freedom movement successfully achieved its target. Then it was this same principle by which the South African leader Nelson Mandela became successful in his political movement in support of the blacks against the whites. Prophet Muhammad was born in the second half of the sixth century AD. It was an age of constant skirmishing. In those days people resorted to violence, regardless of the issue, for they knew of no other solution to their problems. In such an atmosphere, Prophet Muhammad declared that the power of peace was far greater than the power of violence. This peaceful activism could have been understood only by one whose vision was so profound as to