Issues of Ijtihad

What is Peace? However, this is not simply a matter of ease versus difficulty. Rather, it means that peaceful methods are always efficacious, while violent methods are always ineffective. Instead of solving a given problem, violent methods only further exacerbate it and make it seem even more complicated. In this regard, we learn from the hadith referred to above that a more difficult method is one that makes it more difficult to achieve one’s goal. In contrast, an easier method s makes attaining one’s goal easier. Flexibility, Not Rigidity A hadith report likens a true worshipper of God, to a soft plant, which, whenever it is faced with a gust of wind, bends accordingly. And when the gust dies down, the plant once again stands up. (Al Bukhari, Hadith No. 5644; Sahih Muslim, Hadith No. 2810; Musnad Ahmad, Hadith No. 15769) In this way, it saves itself from troubles and difficulties. According to this hadith, there are two ways to face a storm. One way is to be rigid when faced with it. The other way is to be flexible. Another way of putting this is to say that one way of reacting is the violent way, while the other is the peaceful way. God wants us to abstain from the former and to choose the latter. Those who try to react to a storm by adopting the method of rigidity only show by this that they are victims of extreme