TOWARDS GLOBAL PEACE

Peace in actual fact, opens up opportunities and creates favourable conditions to strive for justice and other constructive ends. According to Islam, peace is therefore not just an absence of war; peace opens doors to several different opportunities that are present in any given situation. Planned activities are possible only in a peaceful situation. It is for this reason that the Prophet Muhammad went to great extents to establish peace. The Treaty of Hudaybiya, between the Prophet and his opponents, provides one such clear example. Details of the peace treaty show that no clause regarding justice was included. Instead the conditions of this treaty were quite against justice. But the Prophet accepted this treaty not because it gave them justice, but because it paved the way to work for justice. It is for this reason that the Quran says ‘reconciliation is the best’ (4: 128). According to Islam, the only practicable formula for obtaining peace is: ‘Ignore the problems, avail the opportunities.’ Given the importance of peace, the Quran has clearly declared that there can be no aggressive war in Islam. Muslims can engage themselves only in a defensive, not in an offensive war, irrespective of the circumstances (2: 190). Similarly the Prophet Muhammad has observed: “God grants to gentleness (rifq) what He does not grant to violence (unf)”. (Sunan Abu Dawud) The Quran describes the Prophet’s mission thus: We have not sent you forth but as a mercy to mankind. (21: 107) No wonder, the Prophet Muhammad so earnestly used to entreat his Lord in his daily prayer: “O God, You are the original source of Peace; from You is all Peace, and to You returns all Peace. So, make us live with Peace; and let us enter Paradise: the House of Peace. Blessed be You, our Lord, to whom belongs all Majesty and Honour!” A Counter Ideology There is no doubt about the fact that the terror attacks worldwide are highly condemnable. However, the big question in the minds of everyone is, how to solve this problem? People the world over are trying to find a solution to this menace. Even as authorities are trying to crush terrorism through legal action, reformers are trying to curb it by engaging in condemnation. However both of these methods have apparently proved ineffective.