Going Against the Sunnah (Way) of the Prophet

Going Against the Sunnah (Way) of the Prophet After 1947 Kashmir was the scene of a turbulent struggle. Initially, this took the form of peaceful gatherings and peaceful demonstration, but when these efforts yielded no result, the Kashmiris turned to violence. In October 1989, they gave up peaceful methods in favour of violent methods. Now the gun and bomb culture became the order of the day. Just a few months before the Kashmir movement took this new turn, I had gone to Srinagar, where I made a speech in the Tagore Hall on June 29, 1989. (The audio cassette of this speech is still available.) In the course of this speech, I mentioned an incident relating to the Prophet of Islam in which an Arab Bedouin once came to the Prophet’s mosque and defiled it by urinating inside it. The Prophet’s Companions wanted to punish him but the Prophet forbade them to do so and told them just to clean the spot with water (Sahih AlBukhari, Hadith No. 5679). This behaviour of the Prophet of Islam so impressed the Bedouin that he went to his tribesmen and narrated the whole story. The people were so impressed with this that shortly thereafter the whole tribe entered the fold of Islam. After narrating this incident to them, I pointed out that this was the method of the Prophet and that where the Prophet had achieved his objective by simply pouring water, they, on the contrary, wanted to achieve their objective by shedding blood. I told them that in that way they could never succeed in this world made by God. Subsequent events have shown that the words that I spoke in Kashmir on June 29, 1989, by the grace of God, became a reality in Kashmir. The armed struggle of the Kashmiris only added to their loss: no positive gain was achieved. Now the crucial moment has come for Kashmiri Muslims to take a U-turn and, to achieve their target, engage in a peaceful dawah struggle instead of violent communal strife. History is waiting In Chapter 10 of the Quran, God calls mankind to the “home of peace”. (10:25) Similarly, chapter three of the Quran has this to say: Do they seek a religion other than the religion of God, when