Peace in Islam

(39:10). The reason for the rewards for patience being so great is that patience is the key factor in maintaining the desired system of God. In the words of the Qur’an, the patient man “is the helper of God” (61:14). The other injunction, designed to maintain peace in human society, forbids the waging of an offensive war. No one, in Islam, enjoys the right to wage war against another. There are no grounds on which this could be considered justifiable. There is only one kind of war permitted in Islam, and that is a defensive war. It is only if one nation, by deviating from the principles of nature, wages war against another, that a defensive war may be waged by the country under attack. Even then, it must be of temporary nature, and subject to humanitarian considerations. To sum up, Islam is a religion of peace. The Arabic root of Islam is ‘silm’ which means peace. The Qur’an states: ‘... and God calls to the home of peace’ (10:25). Peace is the basic of all religions. Let us all then strive to establish peace in the world, for that is the bedrock on which all human progress rests.