Islam and Peace

who do not see eye to eye with them. Jihad has been construed by them to mean the launching of offensives under the pretext of defending the faith. But the original meaning of jihad in Arabic is ‘striving very hard.’ Since the early Muslims had to strive hard during wars with aggressors, these wars came, in an extended sense, to be called jihad. However, the actual word for such a war in Arabic is qital, not jihad. Jihad in the Quran means an ideological struggle to conquer peoples’ hearts and minds. In Islam, peace has always been considered a sine qua non for any fruitful communication of the word of God, for sound intellectual development, and for a stable social equilibrium. Peace, in effect, is the only possible vehicle for progress. The Prophet realized this at a very early stage in his divine mission. He took no step which would have so provoked his opponents as to place his mission in serious jeopardy. It was anathema to him and the early Muslims—as monotheists—that polytheism should still be symbolically represented by 360 idols within the periphery of the Kabah. But he waited 13 years until he judged that the time was ripe to remove them, rather than create a situation in which pitched battles were likely to ensue. Similarly, when his opponents denied him and his companions access to the Kabah, while they were still nine miles away from Makkah at Hudaybiyyah, he had the foresight to refrain from fighting and, by making major concessions to his enemies, was able to conclude a peace treaty, which ensured many years of peace thereafter in which he and his companions could conduct their religious campaigns undisturbed. War is always considered as a last resort. It can be waged only by the ruling authorities, and if instigated by individuals or non-governmental groups, it is illegal. It must always be defensive in nature, can commence only after an appropriate