WAR AND PEACE IN ISLAM — In the Light of Quran and Hadith

This verse clearly states that Islam allows only defensive war. Aggressive war is not permitted in Islam. No exception whatsoever is permissible in this regard. The Quran does contain some verses that refer to war. These pertain to those situations when Muslims were at war. One such verse is: Fight those from among the People of the Book who believe neither in God, nor in the Last Day, nor hold as unlawful what God and His Messenger have declared to be unlawful, nor follow the true religion, until they pay the tax willingly and agree to submit. THE QURAN 9: 29 In Islam there is only one legitimate form of war, and that is defensive war. It is important to note that this verse does not say that Muslims should wage war with “so and so”. It only means that Muslims should fight in defence, against those who have waged war against them. This verse speaks of war against attackers: it is the only real reason to engage in war against them. Their being non-believers is not the reason to engage in war against them. The mention of non-believers here is not to indicate that their being non-believers is the reason for war. Rather, it is only to specify who they were. The reason for war was not that they were non-believers, but, rather, that they were attackers. This verse should, therefore, be understood in the light of the verse quoted earlier. i.e. THE QURAN 2: 190. Another point to bear in mind is that the prophetic period of the Prophet of Islam lasted for twenty-three years. More than half this period was spent in Makkah. There were non-believers in Makkah then, but no verse was revealed to the Prophet commanding him to wage war against them. Had the justification to wage war with people been their being non-believers, the command for war would have been given earlier, when the Prophet was in Makkah itself. But a verse of this kind was revealed only after the Prophet’s migration to Medina. This was because at that time, the opponents of Islam realized that Islam was flourishing on account of having found a strong base in Medina. It was then that they took to violent aggression. In the Makkan period, Muslims were merely considered a different religious sect by their opponents, but in the Medinan period they were taken as a grave threat. That is why in the Makkan period, the opponents of Islam were