Towards Peace
Al-Risala (English), August-September 1992, p. 4
By Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan is named as the default author of the periodical; a piece that carries another writer’s byline is credited to that writer.
Towards Peace
1992 8-9 August-September 4-5 Towards Peace (559) Pope John Paul II, speaking in Coventry, England, said:
Wherever the strong exploit the weak, wherever the rich take advantage of the poor, wherever great powers seek to dominate and to impose ideologies, there the work of making peace is undone; there the cathedral of peace is again destroyed. Toda y, the scale and horror of modern warfare – whether nuclear or not-makes it totally unacceptable as a means of settling differences between nations. War should belong to the tragic past, to history; it should find no place on humanity’s agenda for the future. (p. 24).
This is the absolute truth. It is, in reality, the disparities existing between men – some rich, some poor, some weak, some strong, some old, some young that lead to the disruption of peace within, and between nations. It is these differences of age, rank, wealth and ability that encourage individuals and nations to perpetrate injustice in society or in the world at large.
All this is basically a question of mental attitude. The privileged need only see the underprivileged to want to exploit them. This exploitative mentality sometimes leads to extremes, such as all-out war. Such a mentality is clearly warped and only if it is somehow radically transformed will the injustice created by it be finally eradicated.
UNESCO has very aptly included in its constitution the following aphorism:
Since war began in the minds of man, it is in the minds of man that the defence of peace must be constructed.
The guidance provided by Islam on this issue can be summed up as ‘accountability to God: Islam instills in man’s mind the precept that he is not free in this world, but is subject to God’s will. This ingrained sense of accountability makes him extremely cautious, for he knows that he will ultimately be brought before God to be judged for his words and deeds. He realizes, therefore, that he must remain within well-defined limits, never so much as attempting to overstep them by the smallest margin. He knows that if he did so, he would not be able to save himself from the grip of the Almighty.
God is the Being from whose grip no one can ever attempt to escape. With this dawning realization, none dare rebel. Such thinking serves them as a powerful check on all kinds of cruelty and injustice.
One factor which leads more to injustice than any other is the tendency of those possessing greater material luxuries to consider themselves superior to the less privileged. This encourages them to think that they can do as they please, and that no one dare stop them. It is this mentality which is one of the major causes of all chaos and strife.
Islam, however, tells us that this is not an issue between man and man, but between man and God. This being so, differences and disparities are rendered absolutely meaningless. This is because in comparison to the Creator and Sustainer, all human beings are equally weak and powerless. There is no one greater than God. There is no one more powerful than God.
In order to establish peace and stability in our time, it is essential to produce a peace-loving mentality. It is only the peace-loving mind which can, in actuality, put an end to all the chaos and strife still prevailing in the world of today.
