Prophet Muhammad: A Man of Peace

Further, we have the example of the Treaty of Hudaibiya where the Prophet accepted all the conditions of the opponents. This treaty was broken by the opponents which resulted in their surrender. Nevertheless, despite their atrocities, the Prophet did not even allow them to be insulted and, instead, announced a general pardon in the following words: “Go, you are free”. THE TRUE PERSPECTIVE If we were to objectively study the entire 23 years of prophetic life, it would be absolutely clear that he was a prophet of peace. If we compare the Prophet’s battles with other battles in history, we will find that the mission of the Prophet was nonviolent; the battles that happened were defensive in nature and under exceptional circumstances. The number of people killed in these battles was very few when compared to the casualties of many other historical battles. Battle / War Period Duration Casualties World War II 1939 – 1945 6 years About 65 million American Civil War 1861 – 1865 4 years About 500,000 Battle of Panipat 14 Jan 1761 1 day Over 100,000 Gulf War Aug 1990 – Feb 1991 7 months 25,000 Iraq War Mar 2003 – Dec 2011 8 ½ years 35,000 Battles of Badr, Uhud and Hunain combined 13 March 624, 23 March 625, January 630 1 ½ Days