THE CULTURE OF PEACE — Part V Teachings of Islam

enemy, and that one should ask for peace from God. This means that if someone thinks of us as his enemy, we should not react in the same way by considering him our enemy and starting to fight with him. Rather, despite this person’s enmity, we should seek to avoid quarrelling with him. Even though he treats us as his enemy, we should try to avoid fighting with him. When, in this Hadith report, the Prophet tells us to ask God for peace, it means that we should adopt the path of peace, rather than confrontation, and that along with our peace-loving efforts, we should seek succour from God. Your plea to God should not be for the destruction of the enemy. Rather, you should ask, ‘O God! Bless me that, despite people’s enmity, I do not take to the path of violence and confrontation, but, instead, that I carry on with the journey of my life walking on the path of peace.’ Establishing social peace is within our own control, rather than being dependent on others. From this we learn that according to the Law of Nature, peace is the general rule, whereas violence is an exception. We also learn that if a person or group appears to be one’s enemy, confrontation is not the only way to respond. A better and more effective way is to solve the problem of an enemy through peaceful actions. The power of peace is both more effective and also more beneficial than the power of violence. The Method of Non-Violence According to a Hadith report (Sahih Bukhari) the Prophet said that God gives in response to softness what he does not give to sternness. This is a way of expressing a law of Nature that God has established in this world. On the basis of this law, if you behave in a gentle, non-violent way, your work will be more effective. But if you are harsh and violent, you will not succeed, and your efforts will fail. Whenever someone adopts the harsh and violent way, his efforts are unnecessarily divided on two fronts: on his own inner development, on one hand, and on fighting his external enemies, on the other. In contrast, if someone is gentle and non-violent, it becomes possible for