Peace in the Quran

them the right to attack him. The one and only right given to them is to convey the peaceful message of Islam. Islam permits defensive fighting against violent aggression, but only when all efforts at avoidance and reconciliation have failed. The practical example of the Prophet of Islam provides an incontrovertible proof of the value of this policy. Bringing monarchy to an end and establishing the caliphate in its place in the first phase of Islam was the beginning of this process. The system was first established in Arabia. At that time there were two major empires. The Byzantine and the Sassanid, to both of which the reform movement in Arabia posed a challenge. As a result, these empires wanted to crush it. The Prophet’s companions therefore faced stiff resistance but by God’s succor they were successful in their mission and the coercive system, termed absolute imperialism by the French Historian Henri Pirenne, was uprooted. It took this revolutionary event to end a coercive system which had been established for centuries and replace it with a system based on freedom. This goal could not have been achieved in its first stage. But by divine succor Islam succeeded in breaking the historical continuity of this ancient coercive system in the 7th century. Subsequently, this change affected all of human history and as a continual process, ebbed and flowed until it reached its culmination in the 20th century. Then came the de-centralization which took place at the beginning of the 20th century, political power being limited solely to the administration. And the interference of political institutions became very limited. Social departments became generally independent of it. This great change in the pattern of human life was exactly in accordance with Islam. It thus became possible for