Peace: The Summum Bonum

the wording and ordered his scribe to write simply “Muhammad, son of Abdullah”. He did this in order to avoid any form of confrontation. The Prophet was an extremely peace-loving person and the term ‘confrontation’ was not in his dictionary. He wanted to establish peace at any cost. A third example, is when the Prophet marched into Makkah with his followers. A Companion of the Prophet said: “Today is a day of revenge”. At this, the Prophet replied: “No, today is a day of mercy”. (Kanz al-Ummal, hadith no. 30173) Historians acknowledge that Makkah was conquered without any bloodshed. Did the Prophet make any allowance to go to war? Islam does give permission to do battle. But such permission is given only in the case of an attack by opponents in spite of the policy of avoidance being followed by the Muslims, thus creating a situation where self-defence becomes necessary. According to the teachings of Islam, war is to be waged not against the enemy but against the aggressor. If Muslims hold someone to be their enemy, that does not give them the right to attack him. The only right given to them is to convey the peaceful message of Islam to others. Islam permits defensive fighting against violent aggression, but only when all efforts at avoidance and reconciliation have failed. The Quran states: Permission to fight is granted to those who are attacked because they have been wronged. (Quran 22:39) At another place the Quran enjoins the believers thus: Fight in the cause of God against those who wage war