The Power of Peace

in conveying God’s message to people.” Yet, why did it happen that present-day Muslims failed to find guidance in this clear message of the Quran? Instead of engaging in the peaceful communication of the divine message to people, they became involved in jihad—specifically in the sense of qital (armed combat). Given the prevailing circumstances, it was not difficult to foresee that such extremist actions would result in nothing but further devastation. Why, then, did contemporary Muslim leaders make the grave error of adopting the un-Quranic notion that “jihad is the only solution”? The answer lies in their abandonment of ijtihad-e-mutlaq (that is, independent reasoning to derive rulings directly from the Quran and Sunnah. Instead, they adopted an imitative mindset, relying solely on the codified jurisprudence (fiqh) compiled centuries earlier. At the time, the jurisprudential texts were saturated with rulings on jihad and combat. Every major fiqh book contained extensive chapters on jihad but was entirely devoid of rulings or discussions on inviting people to God (dawah). While the Quran explicitly commands dawah, these leaders had neglected the Quran as a source for deriving rulings, relying exclusively on fiqh. Unfortunately, the pages of fiqh offered no guidance on the concept of dawah. This highlights the immense value of ijtihad and the detrimental consequences of relying solely on codified fiqh for deriving rulings. A similar error was made by Muslim leaders of the Indian subcontinent after the rise of British dominance. They declared India as Dar al-Harb (the abode of war).