TOWARDS GLOBAL PEACE

another) without fearing anyone save God. And he will fear no wolf for his sheep. Yet you are in a hurry.” (Sahih al-Bukhari) This Hadith shows that one of the revolutionary changes to be brought about in the wake of the Prophet’s mission was the end of this ancient age of religious persecution and the replacing of it with an age of religious freedom in order to smoothen the path for God’s servants to follow His religion. This most significant transformation was to take place as part of a divine plan. That is why the Quran enjoined the Prophet’s Companions to pray in advance to God: “Lord, do not lay on us the burden you laid on those before us. Lord, do not charge us with more than we can bear.” (2: 286) This prayer was revealed by God Himself for the benefit of the believers. It was like a divine ordinance announced in the form of a prayer to be recited by the Companions. This means God, who is the controller of history, had decreed a change in this coercive political system of ancient times. Then the age of religious freedom would be ushered where people would be free to believe in whatever they had conviction in, which till that point had been seriously hindered by the prevalent religious oppression. Religious coercion through persecution was totally against the creation plan of God. God created this world for the purpose of putting mankind to the test. For this purpose to be fulfilled, everyone in this world had to enjoy full freedom of speech and action. If people were divested of their freedom, the very purpose of the test would be defeated. Therefore, God granted special help to the believers, so that they might put an end to a system which had suppressed the freedom essential to the divine test in this world. This means fitna, or the ancient political coercive system, had been dealt a severe blow during the period of the 'Pious Caliphate' itself but, like many other major historical revolutions, this new phase only very gradually reached its culmination. In the wake of the revolution in the first phase of Islam, religious freedom took a decisive course in history, spurred on in the initial stages by Muslim action, and in the later stages by the active participation of non-Muslim nations. In the first half of the twentieth century, firstly through the League of Nations and later through the United Nations, all the nations of the world unanimously Islam is the religion of nature, and in treading its path, it is non-discriminatory, finding room within its scheme of things for every segment of society.