Islam and Peace

Islam and Peace Islam is a religion of peace. The very word ‘Islam’ (from the Arabic silm) connotes peace. All its teachings are calculated to imbue its adherents with the ideal of living in peace with themselves, with the rest of society, with other countries and even with their sworn enemies. The Quran, treating peace as sacrosanct, frequently exhorts believers to tread the path of reconciliation rather than wage war, urging them to return good for evil, so that direst enemies will turn into dearest friends. The Hadith or sayings of the Prophet Muhammad abounds in instances of the signal success of peaceful solutions to problems. The Prophet’s life is marked by events which testify to the effectiveness of peace in situations where, had it not been for the cautionary admonitions of Islam; war might well have been waged with an entirely destructive outcome. In the early seventh century, at the outset of the mission of the Prophet Muhammad, Arabia was wracked with internecine warfare between tribes, blood feuds were commonplace, and wayfarers could not travel singly in the desert for fear of being slain. It was the Prophet’s task in this hostile atmosphere to convey the word of God to people who, steeped in the ignorance of polytheism, were unaware of true religion. Given the harsh lawlessness of the times, it was no mean feat for him to have successfully carried out his mission with an absolute minimum of bloodshed. What is lamentable nowadays is that Islam is not seen as the peaceful religion which in essence it has always been. This is because extremist Muslims present a distorted image of their religion in order to legitimize their political ambitions and whitewash—as ‘holy wars’—their military clashes with those