NON-VIOLENCE Our Only Hope

This verse teaches us not to regard our enemies as objects of everlasting hostility, for a potential friend could be hiding in the guise of an enemy. Discover this friend and turn the potential into the actual. Then you will have no cause for complaint. It is clear that there are two ways of settling an issue — one violent and one peaceful. When we compare the two, we find that in any controversial matter, opting for violence is the harder course while opting for non-violence is the easier one. The general rule in Islam is that whenever there is any controversy, we have to choose to tread the path of peace rather than that of violence. In present times, when freedom has been accepted as an irrevocable right of man, peaceful methods should invariably be adopted. It would be appropriate to add here that, during the life of the Prophet, if certain wars of a limited duration took place; such engagement only reflected the conditions of those times. The wars that took place in the first half of the seventh century are explainable in terms of it being an age of religious coercion and religious persecution. The atmosphere of religious tolerance that prevails today was not to be found in those times, so that the opponents of monotheism, by initiating hostilities, forced the Prophet to fight. Today, religious tolerance has become an established right of every individual and every group. That is why the question of going to war to secure religious rights should never arise. No enemy is everlastingly hostile. For in every enemy there lies a potential friend. Constructive Islamic activities are possible only in a peaceful and normal atmosphere. The importance of peace in Islam is, therefore, so great that we are commanded to ensure peace by bearing with all kinds of unpleasant situations. Even when countering persecution by opponents, the ways of peace and avoidance must be adopted, and peace must at all costs be unilaterally maintained: that is an important principle of Islam. There is only one exception to this rule, and that is in the case of physical aggression by opponents. The Prophet of Islam began his prophetic mission in ancient Makkah, where he lived for a period of thirteen years after receiving his prophethood. During this period, his opponents repeatedly indulged in acts of persecution and violence. But the Prophet of Islam and his