Peace: The Summum Bonum

the principle of unilateral peace and not bilateral peace. Peace can be achieved only on a unilateral basis. If you try to demand peace on a bilateral basis, then it would become impossible. A man was sentenced to death for ‘insulting the Prophet Muhammad’ on Facebook. What are your views on this? It is generally held that Islam prescribes capital punishment for those who commit blasphemy, that is, using abusive language against the Prophet of Islam. But this is quite untrue. According to Islam, blasphemy is simply a misuse of freedom and not at all a cognisable offence; the blasphemer is not liable to incur any legal punishment. This kind of law has no basis in Islamic scriptures. If someone uses abusive language against the Prophet, Muslims must take it as a case of misunderstanding, and then try to remove this misunderstanding in peaceful ways. They are required to do so by engaging in discussion or by providing the ‘blasphemer’ with Islamic literature that gives the true image of the Prophet of Islam. This notion of killing in the name of blasphemy is itself haram or forbidden. The basis of such rulings in countries like Pakistan is religious extremism, which is the biggest hurdle Islam faces today. In fact, the reverse of prescribing death punishments has been enjoined on the believers. As a part of His creation plan, God has granted freedom to people and no one can take away this freedom. While exercising one’s freedom of expression, the only condition should be that one does not resort to violence of any kind. We find many instances in the life of the Prophet of Islam where he did not punish people for acts which insulted or humiliated