The Quranic Way of Conflict-Resolution

possible. God termed this treaty as a ‘clear victory’. Two years after this treaty, the whole of Arabia came under the sway of Islam. If Muslims were to act according to this above-mentioned Quranic verse, all of a sudden their history would take a completely different turn. It would also put a complete end to communal violence. In many cases, communal riots break out because, in the face of the ignorant and prejudicial ways of others, Muslims react in exactly the same way. This escalates the conflict, and then it escalates into rioting. For instance, in 1980, the town of Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh, in northern India, was rocked by a deadly riot. It all started when a non-Muslim’s marriage procession wound its way through the streets, with music and dancing. The procession happened to pass by a mosque. Muslims rushed out of the mosque and tried to stop it, claiming that it was an affront to the mosque. They tried to get the non-Muslims to take a different route, but the latter did not agree. This confrontation then rapidly turned into a deadly riot. In this case, Muslims reacted to the fanaticism of others by expressing the same sort of prejudice and fanaticism themselves. But if, instead, they had adopted the method that the Quran recommends, their response would have been totally different. And then, Moradabad would have been saved from going up in flames. According to a hadith contained in the Musnad of Imam Ahmad, Abdullah ibn Masud11 says that the Prophet related that evil cannot be wiped out through evil. Rather, evil can be wiped out through goodness. This hadith expresses a divine principle. The entire world is governed by this principle. And that is that in this world, every evil can be put an end to 11 A Companion of the Prophet, Abdullah ibn Masud (d. 650 C.E.) was one of the first to accept Islam.