THE CULTURE OF PEACE — Part VI Teachings of Islam

worship—this is what we learn from a Hadith report in the collection by at-Tirmidhi. Every individual and group repeatedly faces difficult situations. On such occasions, people, whether consciously or otherwise, take this difficulty to be a permanent condition, and so they immediately begin to fight against it. But this sort of fighting always proves to be futile. Its only outcome is that it adds some more difficulties to an already difficult situation. The greatest attainment in life is to find God, while the greatest deprivation is to fail to find Him. No difficult situation lasts forever. It is always temporary. And so, the only easy solution of a difficulty is to adopt a policy of waiting. That is to say, one should not unnecessarily start fighting against a difficult situation. Instead, one should simply adopt a ‘wait-and-see’ policy. As a result of this policy, you will save yourself from losing peace of mind, and whatever has to happen will happen, in its own time. When people are faced with a problem, they generally look for an instantaneous solution. This is the underlying problem. If, instead, one adopts a 'wait-and-see' approach, then the problem will no longer remain a problem at all. Divine Warning, Not Oppression by Fellow Humans According to a Hadith, the Prophet is said to have predicted with regard to the Muslim ummah that soon people would summon one another against them just as when eating, people call others to share their meal. (Musnad Ahmad) Events show that this prediction came true in the second half of the 18th century. To begin with, this happened through the agency of European colonialists. The Europeans later were joined by other communities. And this process is continuing till today. The question is: Why did this happen? A study of the Quran reveals that this happened directly in accordance with the practice of God. God’s practice in this regard is that He sends warnings to communities or peoples to wake them up. This is a sort of shock treatment to jolt people and make them reform themselves.