THE CULTURE OF PEACE — Teachings of Islam

for individuals or groups is not whether they might have enemies who are conspiring against them. Rather, it is whether or not they have sufficient sabr or patience and have adopted the necessary precautionary measures to cause any conspiracies against them to fail. If conspiracies can be likened to the rain, patience and God consciousness are like a strong roof. Rain is a problem only for those who have not bothered to make a firm roof over their heads. Restrain yourselves from committing excesses (ghulu) in religion. The world runs on the principle of competition. And that is why it is but natural that sometimes rivalries will develop between individuals and groups, which may later assume the form of conspiracies against each other. Whenever something like this happens, one should consider it not as an enemy’s conspiracy but, rather, as an expression of a basic law of Nature. To think of a conspiracy as an action of an enemy takes one towards violence. In contrast, if one takes it to be a result of a basic law of Nature, one will nurture a way of thinking that will lead one to take wise measures to avoid falling prey to such conspiracies — just as a wise man does not protest against the rain; but rather, builds a roof over his house to save himself from getting wet. No To Extremism The Quran tells us: Do not go to extremes in your religion. THE QURAN 4: 171 The same point is made in a Hadith report, according to which the Prophet declared: ‘You should restrain yourselves from committing excesses (ghulu) in religion. For it was due to their having gone to extremes in religion that the previous communities were destroyed.’ This Hadith is recorded in the collections by Al-Nasai and Ibn Majah, and in the Musnad of Imam Ahmad.