Peace: The Summum Bonum

Peace: The Summum Bonum against you but do not commit aggression. God does not love aggressors. (Quran 2:190) A tradition narrates: God grants to gentleness what He does not grant to harshness. (Sahih Muslim, hadith no. 2593) In the Quran God is referred to as: ‘the Source of Peace’. (Quran 59:23) The practical example of the Prophet Muhammad provides an incontrovertible proof of the value of this policy of avoidance and non-confrontation. He never lifted the sword in aggression or for territorial conquests. Only under extreme circumstances of defence did he allow defensive battles. Additionally, all the battles fought at that time were actually skirmishes and not wars as none of them lasted even for a day. Is the media to be blamed for social disharmony? The media is not on a mission to create social disharmony, it is a profit-based institution of news reporting. What we often refer to as ‘negative articles’, is nothing but an outcome of the evaluation done by the media industry to offer the news that their readers ask for. The readers seek sensational news and the media supplies it. If the media industry does not sensationalize news, their newsworthiness would decrease among the followers. Hence in order to survive in the competitive environment, they resort to this modus operandi. So, the media cannot be blamed. In such a situation, the audience should realize that the media