THE CULTURE OF PEACE — Part II Teachings of Islam

Dousing the Fires of Violence The Quran tells us: Whenever they kindle the fire of war, God puts it out. THE QURAN 5: 64 From this Quranic verse we learn something about God’s Creation Plan. We learn that this Plan is based on the principle of peace. We learn that if someone is bent on stirring the fires of violence, we should try to put out the flames through measures of peace so that the fire does not spread. It should never be that one party throws bombs and the other party retaliates in the same way. This is definitely not the proper way to react. The right way to respond is that if someone throws a bomb, you must defuse it. Success goes along with patience. The above-quoted Quranic verse indicates that throwing a bomb in retaliation for a bomb thrown by someone else is not the way that God wants us to behave. God wants us to respond to situations like this by seeking to defuse bombs and render them ineffective at the very outset itself so as to prevent the disruption of peace. It is natural and but to be expected that one will inevitably face various unfavourable conditions in society. No human society has ever been free of these. The solution to this problem is not to try to eliminate these conditions. Rather, their real solution is that we must make sure that we do not add an additional undesirable condition to the already existing ones. We must not add one more bomb to the existing number of bombs. In this way, we can help prevent unfavourable conditions from further worsening, and, in this way, we can solve them. This is the real and effective solution to the problem. Strife After Reform The Quran tells us: Do not corrupt the land after it has been set in order. This is for your own good, if you are true believers. THE QURAN 7: 85 This Quranic verse indicates a fact of Nature — that this world has