Non-Violence and Peace-Building in Islam

from visiting the House of God. Our camels for sacrifice have not been allowed to proceed. God’s Prophet has been forced to turn back from Hudaybiyah. Two of our persecuted brethren, Abu Jandal and Abu Basir, have been handed over to their persecutors.” Yet, it was this humiliating treaty that paved the way for a great Muslim victory. The Treaty of Hudaybiyah appeared to be a capitulation before the opponents of the Muslims but, in fact, it gave the Muslims an opportunity to consolidate their position. The Prophet accepted all the Quraysh’s demands, in return for a single assurance from them—namely, that they would cease all hostilities against the Muslims for ten years. Continual raids and threats of warfare had prevented the Muslims from pursuing constructive missionary work. As soon as the Prophet returned from Hudaybiyah, he intensified missionary work in and around Arabia, the groundwork having been done beforehand. Now that peace prevailed, the message of Islam started spreading rapidly. The Prophet also turned his attention to building up the influence of Islam in Madinah. The culmination came within only two years of the Treaty of Hudaybiyah: the Quraysh surrendered without even putting up a fight. There was no further barrier now to the Prophet’s triumphant entry into Makkah. The deliberate imposition of a humiliating retreat from Makkah had paved the way for a great victory. People nowadays tend to resort to violence on the slightest provocation from their opponents. When the losses of meaningless war are pointed out to them, they seek to justify themselves by saying that they were not the aggressors and that their opponents had forced them to take to fighting. “We didn’t fight!” they retort. “It was those people who did it! They conspired against us to make us fight.”