PEACE IN ISLAM

A believer should not pray to God thus: “O God, destroy the enemy.” Rather his prayer should be: “O God, help me to stay away from the path of violence and confrontation, in spite of the enmity of others, and help me to pursue the journey of my life along the path of peace.” The power of peace is far more effective and useful than the power of violence. A Muslim is one from whose tongue and hands, people are safe. Extinguishing the Fire of Violence The Quran says: Each time they kindle the fire of war, God extinguishes it. THE QURAN 5: 64 This verse of the Quran shows the creation plan of the Creator for this world—a plan based on the principle of peace. Whenever one of two opposing sides is intent on fuelling the fire of war, the other should attempt to extinguish it by resorting to peaceful strategy so that violence can be prevented from spreading. The most desirable way of leading our lives in this world is not to fight fire with fire, but to extinguish it. This is something that should be tried at the very beginning of any disagreement. War Only For Defence The Quran says: Permission to fight is given to those who are attacked, because they have been wronged. THE QURAN 22: 39 This is not just a Quranic injunction aimed at Islamic believers, but rather, a statement of international law. The verse clearly says that war is permissible only when it is taken up to counter open aggression, i.e. in self-defence. All other forms of war come under the heading of aggression. And aggressors have no lawful place in this world. According to the Quran, even defensive war can be taken up only after making a formal declaration of war, and only by an established government (THE QURAN 8: 58). Non-governmental organisations have no right to wage war on any pretext. We can thus safely conclude that