QURANIC WISDOM

Muslims today are engaged in fighting, wielding guns and committing suicide bombing. They do not know that in every situation there are relevant aspects alongside irrelevant aspects. Success comes with sorting out the two. Avoiding Confrontation Makkans became angry with Muslims’ having found a peaceful centre for their mission, causing them to initiate wars out of revenge. The Prophet was carrying out his mission in Madinah in a non-provocative way, but the Muslims’ success did not go down well with the Makkans, who thus launched attacks. But it was due to Prophet’s wisdom that he reduced into skirmishes the wars waged by the Makkans. A full-fledged war lasts at least for six days. There is no such war in the life of the Prophet. On this basis we can say that there was no war during the lifetime of the Prophet. Other people tried to engage him in war, but using his wisdom he turned every such war into a mere skirmish. With God’s special succour Muslims emerged victorious at the Battle of Badr (624 CE) while the Makkans suffered losses. It is human nature to thirst for revenge after facing defeat at the hands of their opponents. This is why after their defeat, every time the Makkans tried to enmesh the Muslims in confrontation. Another event from the early history of the Prophet is known as the Battle of the Trench (627 CE). No battle, however, took place. Traditions have it that a 12,000 strong confederation advanced on Madinah for attack. The Prophet realized that there would be no use of fighting as many would die. Before this, two years ago, seventy of the Companions had died at the Battle of Uhud. The Prophet did not want this to be repeated. Thus he adopted a unique strategy—he had a trench dug between the Muslims and the attackers. This trench served as a buffer between the two sides. This wise strategy, which prevented confrontation, was unknown to the Arabs of the time. Due to this those who had come for attack were compelled to leave without fighting. The Peace Treaty of Hudaibiya The Prophet wanted peace to prevail in Arabia so that the work of dawah, or conveying the message of God to people, could be performed without any obstruction. Dawah cannot happen in the absence of a peaceful atmosphere. Peace brings normalcy. The task of dawah involves addressing the mind of those to whom the message of God is to be conveyed. This is possible only in a normal situation.