APRIL 15 Indo-Pak Detente

This is the need of the hour if we are to save ourselves from unnecessary losses in vital fields due to present-day confrontational attitudes. This formula, which was adopted by the Prophet in state as well as in international matters, was a very reasonable one. I shall give here three examples of its application which have a direct bearing on the present situation. 1. As recorded by Sahih al-Bukhari, the Prophet of Islam was once seated by the wayside when a funeral procession passed by. On seeing it, the Prophet stood up. One of his companions remarked that it was the funeral of a Jew. The Prophet replied: “Was he not a human being?” The Jew in question had belonged to a faction which opposed Islam. But the view the Prophet took of him kept apart the two sides of his personality. From one point of view, he was a Jew and a dire opponent of Muslims and their religion, Islam, but, from another point of view, he was simply a human being. It was the wise separation of two distinct aspects of the deceased which made it possible for the Prophet to stand up to show him respect. 2. Another example of this principle as applied to national life is to be found in the history of Islam, namely, the Treaty of Hudaybiya. This was a no-war pact entered into by the Prophet with those very people who unjustly held Makkah and the House of God in their tyrannical grip. Prior to the beginning of this treaty, they had not allowed the Prophet and his companions to visit the House of God (Kaba), notwithstanding God’s declaration in the Qur’an that this holy shrine would remain open to visits from both townspeople and outsiders. The negotiation of this peace treaty became possible only after the Prophet had separated religion from the political conflict in the Makkan context, thereby eliminating possible causes of friction. This peace treaty, as finally drawn up, yielded innumerable benefits. One important consequence was that it made free movement possible between Makkah and Madinah, despite the existence of political differences. The road to mutual commerce was thereupon thrown open. People began travelling everywhere in an unrestricted manner for the purposes of education and commerce, and there eventually came a time when both warring groups started to live together as friends. 3. A signal example of the adoption of this principle in international affairs was the Prophet’s decision in the case of Qibla of Bait al-Maqdis. After the emigration, when the Prophet had reached Madinah from Makkah, and had established the ritual of congregational prayer to be performed five times a day, he proclaimed Quds (Palestine) as the Qibla for worship. (This remained in