PROMOTING PEACE IN MUSLIM SOCIETIES

Muslims who have wrongly taken to terrorism in the name of Islam will change their minds. The sources of Islam—the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet—tell us that Islam is a religion of peace. The Prophet of Islam started his mission in 610 CE in Makkah. What was his method of preaching? He used to visit gatherings of people and say to them: Ya ayyuhan-nas qulu la ilaha illallah tuflihu (“O people! Say, ‘There is no god but God’ and you will be successful”). This is the ideology of Islam. It is based on tawhid, the oneness of God. Aisha, wife of the Prophet says of him: “Whenever the Prophet had to choose between two options, he would always opt for the easier one [not the harder one].” (Bukhari) Now, what is the easier option, and what is the harder one? An easier option is the peaceful method, while a harder option is violence. The Prophet always opted for the peaceful method. This was his practice. These two—tawhid or the oneness of God, and peace—are the two basic principles of Islam. We need to make people aware of this. It is an undeniable fact that due to wrong interpretations of Islam, some sections of our society are today engaged in hate and violence. During a visit to America, I was invited to speak at a church. After the talk, a Christian scholar asked, “In the Bible, there is a beautiful teaching, to ‘love your enemies’. Can you cite any such teaching from the Quran as well?” I could read this gentleman’s mind, at the back of which was lurking the misunderstanding that Islam teaches hate for others. His mind had probably been shaped by media reports of Muslims engaging in violence in various parts of the world, and so he might have been led to believe that there must be some intellectual basis for this in the Quran. I replied to him, saying, “It is a fact that some Muslims are indeed engaged in violence. But this is not based on Islamic teachings. The Quran says: ‘Good and evil deeds are not equal. Repel evil with what Whenever the Prophet had to choose between two options, he would always opt for the easier one [not the harder one].