Avoid Unnecessary Conflict

Avoid Unnecessary Conflict The fifth verse of this chapter reads: “Guide us to the straight path.” This is also an automatic response from man to his God. Man’s grasp of reality tells him that the greatest blessing that he may ask from God is right guidance. Right guidance is a must for man. And it is God alone who can set man’s foot on the right path. Overwhelmed with his feelings of obligation to his Maker, he says: “O God, show me the right path.” The sixth verse of this chapter reads: “The path of those You have blessed; not of those who have incurred Your wrath, nor of those who have gone astray.” This verse is an elaboration of the above verses of the chapter. Avoid Unnecessary Conflict T he Prophet of Islam started his mission in Makkah in 610 AD. At that time he used to pray by adopting the Kaaba as the qiblah (prayer direction). Then in 622 he migrated to Madinah where some Jewish tribes had settled. The Prophet then adopted the Jewish qiblah for his prayers over a period of fifteen or sixteen months. Then he again turned his face towards the Kaaba as the qiblah for his prayers. This event is referred to in the Quran in the chapter Al-Baqarah (The Heifer): But even if you should produce every kind of sign for those who have been given the Book, they would never accept your prayer direction, nor would you accept their prayer direction: nor would any of them accept one another’s direction. If, after all the knowledge you have been given, you yield to their desires, then, you shall surely become a transgressor. (2:145) This prophetic example embodies an important principle: