The Power of Peace

retaliate, quietly migrated to Madinah. Hijrah, in its nature is without doubt an example of non-violent activism. This peaceful strategy enabled the Prophet and his migrant companions, about 200 in number, to build a powerful center of Islam in Madinah. If the Prophet had opted for the way of armed confrontation instead of peaceful migration, perhaps the history of Islam would have begun and ended in Makkah. 3. After the emigration, the Prophet’s antagonists waged war unilaterally. The outcome was the bloody pitched battles at Badr and Uhud. At that moment, the Prophet again negotiated a 10-year peace treaty by accepting all the conditions of the enemy. This pact is known in the history of Islam as the Hudaybiya peace treaty. This event is called a ‘clear victory’ in the Quran (The Quran, 48:1). It was this peace pact, which paved the way for that peaceful constructive activity which finally made possible the conquest not only of Makkah but the whole of Arabia. 4. At the end of the pious Caliphate, a bloody confrontation between the Banu Hashim and the Banu Umayyah took place. As a result, the advancement of Islam came to a halt for ten years. What re-opened this chapter of advancement was the retreat of Hasan ibn Ali (d. 50 AH) from the field of battle. This step was indeed a practical form of non-violent activism. This peaceful step taken by Hasan ibn Ali once again opened the doors of progress to Islam. 5. By the end of the Abbasid caliphate, Mongol tribes had attacked the Muslim world and destroyed the entire region right from Samarqand to Aleppo. Apparently, the history of Islam had come to a standstill. At that juncture Muslims had engaged in peaceful dawah work. As a result, the majority of the Mongols accepted Islam. How that miraculous feat occurred was expressed by an orientalist in these words: “The religion of Muslims has conquered where their arms had failed.” 6. Another important event of this nature concerns the scholars of Islam of the early phase. After the pious Caliphate, the political set-up had degenerated. The Caliphate had permanently changed into kingship, and apparently there had been developments that invited confrontation with the rulers. But according to the guidance of the Prophet, the believers totally avoided political clashes with those in power. A history of political corruption, starting from the time of the Umayyad caliphate, continued for centuries. Yet the great religious scholars known as tabiin, the disciples of the Prophet’s Companions, taba tabiyiin, companions of the tabiin, the traditionists, the jurists, the sufis, all the great religious scholars, refrained without exception, from setting themselves on a collision course with the rulers. It was no simple matter to avoid the field of violent activism and opt for the field of non-violent activism. It was during this period, therefore, that on the one hand, peaceful dawah work was initiated in various countries, and on the other, the Quran, hadith, fiqh, and other Islamic