TOWARDS GLOBAL PEACE

the angle of the future. It is this reality which has been pointed out in the Quran in these words: ‘God knew what you did not know.’ (48: 27) At the outset, the Hudaibiya peace treaty appeared to mean nothing but surrender and humiliation. But God saw it from the point of view of its practical result in the future. That is why the Quran called it a clear victory. The well known-disciple of the Companions, Ibn Shihab Az Zuhri, says: “Never before in Islam had there been such a great victory before Hudaibiya. Whenever Muslims and non-Muslims met one another before Hudaibiya, they came to the point of confrontation. But when peace prevailed and war was stopped under the treaty, people became safe from one another. In this peaceful atmosphere, they interacted with one another and began exchanging their thoughts. After the peace treaty, within a period of two years, many people got attracted towards Islam as had happened before, only over a much longer period of time.” The Hudaibiya Sunnah is the sum total of the actions of the Prophet of Islam, resulting in the ‘clear victory’ as recorded in the Quran, which led the Islamic movement to the age of revolution and ultimate ascendancy. Consequently, such opportunities were opened up for Islam as had never hitherto presented themselves. The implementation of the Sunnah Hudaibiya is, to put it briefly, that problems should be ignored in order to buy time in which to avail of the opportunities. God has made this world in such a way that, here, according to the Quran, difficulty is always accompanied by ease (Chapter 103). By the law of nature itself, it happens that in this world there are always favourable opportunities alongside problems. By availing of these opportunities, great progress can be made. The reason for failure in life is often traceable to the fact that people become embroiled in controversy. They think that unless all obstacles and hurdles are removed, the onward journey can never be made. But the Sunnah of the Prophet of Islam is totally different. It guides us to refrain from tackling difficulties by confrontational methods. Instead, we must find ways and means of availing of the existing opportunities by avoiding the problems. If necessary, this principle should be observed The reason for failure in life is often traceable to the fact that people become embroiled in controversy. They think that unless all obstacles and hurdles are removed, the onward journey can never be made.