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. PEACE-BUILDING THROUGH LEARNING T HE whole world wants peace. Or so any right-thinking person would imagine. Yet there are many areas of the world which are strife-torn, many areas which are slowly and partially recovering from the ravages of war, and yet there are areas where the imminence of war is diverting great minds to negative ends such as the development of more and more sophisticated weaponry and the building of nuclear arsenals. History shows that all great progress takes place and all great ideas come to fruition during periods of peace and stability, yet despite this being common knowledge, battles are still fought, and wars still break out. The principal reason for this is that human beings still place their trust in violent solutions to national and international problems, both external and internal. Violence is seen as a way of settling matters quickly and decisively, although there is much evidence to the contrary. Peace-building is therefore one of the greatest imperatives of our times. Peace-building is a term frequently uttered by speakers on national platforms and in international forums. But, lamentably, these speakers offer no viable methods for achieving this. To this situation, Islam has a major role to play. For Islam is a religion of peace. Islam lays emphasis on both peace and learning, the latter being a means of bringing individuals to embrace the culture of peace. Education is the key factor in fostering peace, because through it the root cause can be effectively addressed.