TOWARDS GLOBAL PEACE

a customer-friendly culture is adopted. Similarly, the essence of the social teachings of every religion is human-friendly culture. History tells us that in every age, religion has been the means of uniting people—far from splitting them asunder. But in the age of democracy in modern times, a new culture has come to be promoted—that of the Vote Bank. This has divided people into different groups. Now human relationships have become that of rivalry rather than of brotherhood. This phenomenon has emerged in the wake of democratic politics. Democratic politics is undeniably important, but there is a great need for religion to not be politicized. The need of the hour is, thus, to awaken the spirit of religion. It is, therefore, the duty of religious scholars to engage in this most important task. The study of religion tells us that one thing is common to every religion and that is spirituality, or a non-materialistic outlook. A non-materialistic outlook is essential to peace. In this respect, peace is deeply related to religion. A materialistic outlook disturbs peace, while a non-materialistic outlook fosters the environment of peace. This is why, the most important way of establishing peace is to revive the spirit of religion. The ideology of Islam is a peaceful one in the full sense. Islam embraces the whole of humanity. It does not believe in the ‘We and They’ concept. The Prophet of Islam observed that all human beings are God’s family. All human beings are blood brothers and blood sisters. Therefore, they have to live in this world as a universal family. There are many religions in this world, and they have many things in common. While there are also many differences, Islam teaches us to manage the differences, rather than trying to eliminate them. The formula of Islam in this regard is to follow one and respect all. Peace is, without doubt, extremely important. It would be right to say that peace is the greatest good—the summum bonum. Without it no progress is possible, neither religious nor secular. It is also a fact that religion, in its authentic form, teaches well-wishing for one another. The essence of the social teachings of every religion is humanfriendly culture.