TOWARDS GLOBAL PEACE

activities. On the external front, he allowed only for a defensive war in the face of clear aggression. He specified that even in this case, it is not permissible to kill non-combatants. Since in today’s age of weapons of mass destruction it is not possible that non-combatants will not be killed during a war, there is only one option for Muslims now—and that is peaceful settlement of disputes. The option of war has ended. This is Islamic pacifism. It is unfortunate that Muslims have forgotten this and have been unable to deliver the message of Islamic pacifism to the world. Muslims are as unaware of this ideology of peace as others are. The reason for this is that throughout history—and equally today— there is a very big evil called ‘selective reporting’. At home, a motherin-law does selective reporting of her daughter-in-law to her son, and a daughter-in-law does selective reporting of her mother-in-law to her husband. Neither of them will provide the full story. This is a mentality that has been carried down over the centuries. The historical treatises written by Muslims are all characterised by selective reporting. They talk a great deal about battles and wars, but almost nothing about other issues. The Prophet engaged in dawah work, inviting people to God, and so did his companions. Following this, vast numbers of people embraced Islam, but details of the spread of Islam are not recorded in history books written by Muslims. The first book specifically on this subject was written in the 19th century by a British scholar, Professor T.W. Arnold—titled, The Preaching of Islam. How strange it is that all books on Muslim history by Muslim authors suffered from this sort of selective reporting! They mention little or nothing of the peaceful activities that resulted in the great spread of Islam, but focus almost wholly on wars and political victories. Even the titles of their historic writings reflect this—Futuh al-Sham (Conquests of Syria), Kitab Futuh al-Buldan (The Book of the Conquests of the Lands), and many such books. ‘Islamic history’ was mostly about wars and conquests. To them, the later period of Muslim history was a chronicle of the military conquests of lands, although had the Prophet, his companions and other early Muslims not engaged in tremendous and peaceful work, there would not be more than a billion Muslims in the world today. More than one billion Muslims! How did that happen? Can anyone embrace and willingly follow a religion at the point of a sword? No! Today, there are almost 60 countries with a Muslim majority. It