The Quranic Way of Conflict-Resolution

they realize this, it is too late: they have already taken to violence, resulting in much loss of life and property. Secondly, the need to avoid useless things. The Quran (23:3) says that one characteristic feature of the believers is that they ‘turn away from all that is frivolous’. This Quranic verse tells Muslims that when foolish people do something wrong out of ignorance, they should not get provoked. They should avoid confrontation and conflict. If Muslims adopt this Quranic method of avoidance of conflict, it will cut the very roots of inter-communal conflict. This is because the cause of many cases of inter-communal conflict involving Muslims is that Muslims fail to avoid reacting through confrontation in the wake of provocation. They get quickly agitated and take to fighting others. Take, for instance, the case of a riot that broke out several years ago in a town in western India. This is a quite typical case. The riot would definitely not have happened had Muslims adopted the method of conflict- avoidance mentioned above. The riot started when some non-Muslims burst crackers while Muslims were praying in a mosque located in a non-Muslim dominated locality. Because this happened just outside a mosque, the Muslims took it to be absolutely intolerable. They got very agitated. Finally, this resulted in a deadly riot. According to the Quran, what they should have instead done was to simply avoid reacting to the provocation and refrain from confrontation. Thirdly, the need to abstain from ignorant prejudice and fanaticism. In the context of the Treaty of Hudaybiyah, the Quran (48:26) relates that when the Prophet’s opponents displayed their ignorant prejudice against the Muslims, the believers did not respond in the same way. Rather, they remained established in God-consciousness. It was because the believers did not behave as their opponents did that the Treaty of Hudaybiyah was