Going Against the Sunnah (Way) of the Prophet

everything in the heavens and the earth has submitted to Him, willingly or unwillingly? To Him, they shall all return. (3:83) This means that God’s desired religion is the religion of peace. The whole universe is a universe of peace. Similarly, the culture of peace prevails throughout the animal and vegetable world. It is desirable that this culture of peace be adopted likewise by man. Indeed, the objective of Islam is that human beings should adhere to this peace culture, for a full range of positive activities can blossom only in a peaceful society. In this age of modern communications, Muslims all over the world have been engaging in an armed struggle in the name of jihad. As a result of the coverage of these negative activities by the global media, Islam has come to be regarded as a religion of violence throughout the world. This is an extremely serious situation. The greatest need of the hour is to change this negative image of Islam. And it is the global media which should be used to project the correct image. That is, a true picture of Islam should be presented so that Islam may be seen by the people as a religion of peace instead of as a religion of violence. Now the time has come for a group of Muslims to make an effort towards this end, so that God’s religion may be universally accepted as a religion of peace and mercy, instead of as a religion of hatred and violence. In present times this great divine mission has yet to be taken up by any group. Any Muslim group who undertakes this task will receive God’s blessing and will undoubtedly be held deserving of His greatest reward in this world as well as in the next. This great task can be effectively performed only by Muslims who belong to a place which is already in the eye of the world media. In present times there are several Muslim majority areas which are so located. But events have shown that there is only one Muslim-majority area which can be truly successful in making this a reality. My estimate of the situation is that this area is that of the State of Jammu and Kashmir. For various reasons, this region is already in the world news. But, so far, it features in the world media as representing violent Islam. Now it is for the people of Kashmir to realize how advantageous their position is, and make use of it along positive lines, for the image building of Islam. This great blessing can be achieved by the people of Kashmir