TOWARDS GLOBAL PEACE

TOWARDS GLOBAL PEACE We often talk of peace in the context of war. But this is a very narrow and restricted notion of peace. Peace is deeply linked with the entirety of human life. Peace is a complete ideology in itself. Peace is the only religion for both—man and the universe. It is the master-key that opens the doors to every success. Peace creates a favourable atmosphere for success in every endeavour. Without peace, no positive action—small or big—is possible. END MISUNDERSTANDINGS THROUGH SOUND ARGUMENTS How should Muslims respond to Blasphemy against the Prophet of Islam? In Islam, blasphemy is a subject of intellectual discussion rather than condemnation, protest and retaliation. Several verses in the Quran show that ‘abuse of the Prophet’ is not a subject of punishment. Instead, sound arguments should be presented to address the mind of people. God sent more than one lakh prophets to different regions. Their contemporaries almost always responded negatively by using abusive language. (36: 30, 16: 101, 7: 66) However, the Quran does not prescribe physical punishment for them. Rather the Quran commands the Prophet to refrain from using abusive language in retaliation: “But do not revile those they invoke instead of God, lest they, in their hostility, revile God out of ignorance.” (6: 108) There are many such verses in the Quran guiding us that we have to abstain from negative reactions until the last moment in such situations. Incidents that are termed today as abusing the Prophet were prevalent during the life of the Prophet. When the Prophet presented his message before the Arabs, they misbehaved with him. Here are some of the epithets given to prophets as mentioned in the Quran: “a liar” (40: 24), “possessed” (15: 6), “a fabricator” (16: 101), and “a foolish man” (7: 66). However, nowhere does the Quran prescribe any physical punishment for these offences.