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The concept of peace in Islam
By Asghar Ali Engineer
Islam is being associated with violence and
jihad in the minds of not only non-Muslims but also of many
Muslims. The slogans of jihad are being raised by frustrated
youth unable to find any other way and also by those who are
fighting for national liberation and regional autonomy. Such
slogans create strong images of holy war being ordained by Islam
and Islam being religion of violence. And now the attacks in New
York and Washington on 11th September 2001 will greatly
strengthen this stereotype in the minds of people of the world
in general and in the minds of Americans, in particular. The
attack on WTC in New York and Pentagon in Washington is, to say
the least, horrific and must be condemned in strongest possible
and unambiguous terms.
It should be remembered that there is no relation between
religion and violence, neither in Islam, nor in any religion for
that matter. Violence is a social and political phenomenon. It
is true that there is mention of war in scriptures like
Ramayana, Mahabharata and the Qur'an. But this mention is not to
establish any integral link between religion and violence but to
portray
certain social and political situation that prevailed at that
time. It can be called integral only if these scriptures mandate
violence as a desirable solution.
It is important to distinguish between what is empirical and
ideological. The twain do not always meet. While violence is
empirical, peace is ideological. All scriptures, particularly
the Qur'an while permitting violence in some inevitable
situations, ordain peace as a norm. The great religions of the
world came to establish justice and peace, not to perpetrate
revenge and
violence. Revenge and violence can never become part of any
religion, much less that of Islam. Allah has created both in
human beings - the tendency for aggression and violence and the
exalted feeling for serenity of peace. Allah, according to the
Qur'an, created human person in the best of mould (ahsan-i-taqwim)
and then rendered him lowest of the low (95:4-5)
In fact it is this dynamics of human personality i.e. being
created in the best of the mould and then being reduced to the
lowest of the low that we have to understand the dynamics of
peace and violence also. Allah desires peace and created us, for
that purpose, in the best of the mould but our greed, greed for
both wealth and power reduced us to an instrument of aggression
and violence. For a human being there will always be an internal
jihad, an internal struggle to rise to the level of
ahsan-i-taqwim (best of the mould) and continuously resist the
temptations of wealth and power.
The Qur'an strengthens the social roots of peace by emphasizing
the role of need based economy and resolutely opposing greed
based one. The roots of violence, as pointed out above, lie in
human greed. Thus we find in the Qur'an, "They ask thee what
should we spend. Say what is surplus." (2:219) It is obvious
from this verse that you spend on yourself according to your
personal needs and give away the surplus with you to other needy
people.
Similarly the Qur'an prescribes in yet another context that the
wealth should not circulate among the rich only. (59:7). And it
also exhorts Muslims that those who hoard gold and silver and do
not give them away in the way of Allah announce to them the
painful chastisement.(9:34)
Thus the Qur'an wants to establish peace not superficially by
exhorting the believers to love peace but tries to tackle the
very socio-economic roots of conflict. If few people or
countries grab largest part of the resources of the world and
live in all comfort and deny other people even their basic needs
violence and conflict will result whatever the pleadings for
peace. Or,
if some people commit aggression unjustifiable against others to
keep their own dominance and deny others their very basic
rights, it will be impossible to maintain peace is such unjust
political order.
The Qur'an draws our attention to such a situation also as the
Prophet and his followers were persecuted by the powerful and
the rich chiefs of Mecca to maintain their own hegemony and were
forced to flee from that town which was rightfully theirs. It is
such persecution by the powerful, in order to maintain their
hegemony that violence results. The Qur'an is opposed to an
unjust order and domination by few powerful whom it calls
mustakbirun (i.e. arrogant and powerful). They persecute the
weak (mustad`ifun). If such an unjust order persists violence
will result, however undesirable it may be.
Allah thus says in the Qur'an, "And what reason have you not to
fight in the way of Allah, and of the weak (mustad`ifin) among
the men and the women and the children, who say: Our Lord, take
us out of the town, whose people are
oppressors, and grant us from Thee a friend and grant us from
Thee a helper." This verse in the Qur'an combines both what is
empirical and what is ideological. The weak when oppressed are
more likely to fight and resist an unjust order. This is
empirical. But the above verse also makes an ideological
statement when it says that the weak among men, women and
children pray that our Lord take us out of this town (Mecca)
whose people are oppressors and grant us from Thee a friend and
a helper. Thus the Qur'an makes it clear that one must not live
in an unjust order and seek helper from Allah to relive them of
injustice.
It is also important that the Qur'an more then once focuses our
attention on the on going conflict between mustakbirun and
mustad`ifun i.e. between the arrogant and powerful and the weak
and the oppressed. The arrogant and powerful is represented by
Nimrod and Pharoa and the weak and oppressed by Abraham and
Moses. Both Abraham and Moses were liberators. But they
liberated their oppressed people not through violence but
through struggle leading them out of the unjust order, unjust
situation.
There will always be struggle between the oppressors and the
oppressed, the powerful and the weak but this struggle need not
be violent. It much depends on situation. The Prophet (PBUH)
himself prefers peace at Hudaybia (sulh-i-Hudaybia) than war
even at the cost of pride of Muslims. The peace conditions (I
need not go into details of those conditions here, which are
quite well known) were far from favourable to Muslims but the
Prophet of Islam accepted those conditions in order to avoid
bloodshed. However, the Prophet could do so as the other side
also, due to certain constraints, accepted peace on their own
terms.
If the other side was bent upon war there would have been no
choice for the Prophet but to accept the situation and fight the
war. It much depends what situation you are facing. One cannot
talk of war and peace quite in an abstract manner. Thus
socio-political and socio-economic context plays great role in
deciding whether peace will prevail or not.
One thing is sure: Islam does not even indirectly hint at
coercion, let alone violence, when it comes to any religious or
spiritual question. Thus it becomes quite clear that Islam being
religion does not approve of violence at all in any religious
matter. However, if Muslims are put in a particular situation
which is unjust (not only for them but for humanity as such)
they may have to struggle peacefully (and if violence is thrust
on them, reluctantly through violence) to remove the cause of
injustice.
It is quite important to note that liberative struggle should
never be confined to Muslims alone. It is quite significant for
theology of peace in Islam that throughout the text of the
Qur'an we find the words mustakbirun and mustad`ifun i.e.
arrogant and the weak or oppressors and the oppressed without an
qualification of being Muslim or not. Thus even if arrogant and
oppressor is a Muslim, one will have to struggle against him and
even if an oppressed and persecuted is non-Muslim Muslims will
have to wage struggle against him.
Thus the struggle nowhere involves Islam as a religion but
Muslims as upholders of peace and justice. Yes, it is true
justice and peace (and for that matter compassion) are also
Islamic values but they are also universal values applicable not
only to Muslims but to all whether they be Muslims or not. Thus,
as far as justice and peace is concerned the clash is not
between
Islam and any other religion but it is primarily between
oppressors and the oppressed. It is wrong to implicate Islam if
some Muslims choose to adopt violent means to achieve their
goal. Islam does not automatically approve of violent means if
any injustice or exploitation is to be fought.
The Qur'an does not permit use of violence as a norm at all. All
the verses involving permission to use violence is preceded by
the words "if they commit violence against youŠ.". Thus we find
in verse 2:190 "And fight in the way of Allah against those who
fight against you but be not aggressive. Surely Allah does not
love aggressors." (emphasis added)
Thus it is very clear from this verse that Qur'an does not
permit unconditional war and aggression and Allah does not love
aggressors. But permits fighting in the way of Allah only if war
is imposed by others. The words in the way of Allah are also
very important here. Fighting in the way of Allah would restrain
Muslims from committing aggression and excesses.
Fighting in the way of Allah would mean fighting only for a just
cause, not for power and wealth, fighting only if war is imposed
on them and not involving personal or collective feeling of
revenge.
When Ali the son-in-law of the Prophet (PBUH) defeated a
powerful foe in the battle and was about to kill him that he
spat on his face. Ali immediately got off his chaste and let him
go. The defeated foe was greatly surprised as he expected
greater violence from Ali after he spat on him. Ali told hi if I
had killed you after you spat on me it would have been an act of
revenge.
Thus Islam does not permit killing for revenge. Revenge killing
is not a religious act; its main reason is human tendency to
retaliate. Arabs used to call it qisas and Qur'an permits it in
keeping with the prevailing tradition as it tolerated slavery as
a concession to the prevailing system. But as it makes clear
that human dignity and equality is the norm, not slavery.
Similarly while it permits qisas it makes it clear that one
should not be revengeful and should suppress anger. One who
suppresses anger (kazim al-ghayz) is a person of great merit.
The Qur'an says, "Those who spend in ease as well as in
adversity and those who restrain (their) anger and pardon men."
And Allah loves the doers of good (to others)." (3:133). Thus it
becomes clear from above verse that to restrain ones anger and
to pardon is an act of merit, a religious act. Thus one should
not use violence even as an act of revenge. To restrain anger
and
to pardon are great acts of merit. Violence in any form, except
in defense, is most deplorable. Humanity cannot flower in an
atmosphere of violence.
The pre-Islamic Arab society was highly violent
society. Various tribes fought against each other for decades on
end. Thus before the Holy Prophet migrated to Medina the two
principal pagan tribes of Medina Khazraj and Aus had been
fighting against each other for more than four decades. The
Prophet was invited there by the members of these two tribes as
peace maker and the Prophet did bring peace between these two
tribes and old enmity was happily resolved. But to stamp out
violence from the Arab psychology and Arab society was not an
easy project. Many Arab tribes had economically survived through
raids on other tribes (it was called ghazw).
The pre-Islamic Arabs, as pointed out, not only indulged in
qisas but were used to settle all questions through use of
violence and thus violence continued in the society. There was
no concept of spirituality and higher morality. It is Islam,
which brought, for the first time, the concept of higher
morality to the Arab society. Peace (salam) was part of this
higher morality. It was in view of the violence in the Arab
society that even greeting between two Muslims was made as Al-salam-u-'alaykum
(i.e. peace be upon you) and it is the principal form of
greeting among the Muslims.
However, the post-Islamic Arab society did not easily imbibe the
higher Islamic morality. It required inner struggle to control
oneself and it was for this reason that many Muslim thinkers,
particularly the Sufi thinkers called this inner struggle to
control ones desires and raw passions as jihad-e-akbar (i.e. the
great jihad and real jihad) and described war with sword as
jihad-e-asghar (i.e. small jihad). The Sufis were the pacifists
of Islam and those who kept themselves away from the violent
struggle for power and also practised great restraint. They thus
could imbibe the higher morality of Islam.
One can understand the nature of Arab society and the deep stamp
of violence on it from the fact that after the depth of the Holy
Prophet his successors - Caliphs hardly got time to promote
higher Islamic morality akhlaq-i-karim. The holy Prophet himself
was described as uswa-i-hasanah (best examplar) by the Qur'an.
Thus Qur'an says, "Certainly you have in the Messenger of Allah
an excellent examplar for him who hopes in Allah and the Latter
day, and remembers Allah much." (33:21)
But the Arabs with few honorable exceptions hardly followed this
best examplar in the true spirit. Civil war broke out soon after
his death (war of riddah) as many tribes wanted to return to
their ancestral religion and refused to pay zakah the Islamic
tax. Four of the three Khulufa-i-Rashidun (the rightly guided
caliphs) were murdered. The third and fourth caliphs
(Uthman and Ali) had to face tumultuous times and rebellions
resulting in more than one hundred thousand deaths.
Thus one can understand the great gap between what was
ideological - peace - and what was empirical - violence. The
great tragedy of Karbala on 10th of Muharram when the grand son
of the Prophet was martyred by the forces of evil as he tried to
revive the higher Islamic morality. The Umayyads usurped power
and indulged in violence and terror to retain it. Yusuf al-Hajjaj,
governor of Iraq, during the Umayyad period, was a great terror
and was quite ruthless in eliminating his enemies. The Umayyad
and Abbasid caliphs with some exceptions had no compunctions in
resorting to violence. The founder of the
Abbasid dynasty was known as al-Saffah, which means one who
sheds blood.
Before Islam there was inter-tribal violence. After Islam the
social and political scenario changed. All tribes embraced Islam
and the very nature of their economic sustenance through
inter-tribal raids changed but inter-tribal rivalries persisted.
One more factor was added to this. Now centralized state came
into existence, which did not exist before Islam and
inter-tribal
struggle for power to capture the state began often resulting in
great blood bath. Thus when the Abbasids captured power from
Umayyads the Abbasids hunted down all Umayyads including their
children and killed them. This violence was
direct result of struggle for power.
All inter-tribal violence in the post-Islamic period was result
of struggle for power and had nothing to do with Islam. In other
words it was empirical rather than ideological. There is hardly
any evidence in history of violence for spreading of Islam. As
far as spreading of Islam was concerned the Qur'anic directive
was very clear that "call people to the way of your Lord
with wisdom and goodly exhortation and argue with them in the
best manner." (16:125) One can argue that this again is an
ideological statement and that empirical reality was different
in the sense that Islam spread through sword.
This is simply not true. Firstly, no religion can spread through
bloodshed and terror and secondly there is hardly any evidence
of this in history.
Islam either spread through Sufi saints who were good exemplars
of Islamic morality rather than the rulers who were any way seen
as tyrants. It was sufi saints who were carriers of real message
of Islam and peace by keeping their distance from the power
centers. Also, many people adopted Islam simply because it was
religion of the rulers and had many advantages. Also, once a
prominent member of the community or a tribal chef adopted Islam
other members of the community or tribe followed. Thus it is not
borne out even empirically that Islam spread through violence.
There is even the instance of the Umayyad caliphs stopping
conversion to Islam as their treasury was getting depleted as
the converts stopped giving jizyah.
ISLAM AND PEACE
The Qur'an, as pointed out above, tried to spread higher
morality of which peace was the most important component. In
fact the word Islam itself is derived from the root slm which is
the root letters for peace. Islam means establishing peace as
well as surrendering to the Will of Allah. One of the Allah's
name is Salam i.e. peace. Many Muslims are named as Abdus Salam
i.e.
servant of peace which also means servant of Allah as Allah is
peace.
In Qur'an there are repeated references to the concept of peace.
Significantly the Qur'an calls upon Muslims, "O you who believe,
enter into complete peace and follow not the footsteps of the
devil. Surely he is your open enemy." (2:208) Entering into
complete peace here means entering into peace whole-heartedly.
It would also imply surrendering to Allah whole-heartedly.
Acceptance of violence as the other part of the verse says is
like following in the footsteps of devil. Violence is devil and
devil is violence.
In the verse 2:131 Allah says submit and reply is given I submit
myself to my Rabb of the worlds. Now rabb in Arabic means one
who is sustainer or one who takes us step by step from one stage
of perfection to another stage of perfection. Thus submitting to
Allah, or accepting His authority means dedicating oneself to
the cause of peace so that this universe reaches
perfection. Perfection is possible only if there is peace, not
otherwise. In fact violence destroys all the achievements of
culture and civilization. Since Allah is Rabb i.e. the Sustainer
and Perfected, he ordains peace and those who surrender to His
Will have to work for peace so that perfection could be reached.
We find in the Qur'an (14:23) "And those who believe and do good
are made to enter Gardens, wherein flow rivers, abiding by their
Lord's permission. Their greeting therein is Peace!". Thus it
will be observed that jannah (Garden) is so as there is peace
therein. Thus the main quality of jannah for which all Muslims
aspire is peace. This world can become like jannah only if there
is peace in the world. For entering the jannah Allah says, "
Enter it (i.e. jannah) in peace and security." (15:46) Thus
peace and security are the main attributes of paradise.
Muslims invoke peace for all Allah's messengers because they
brought the message of peace for entire humanity. Thus Muslims
always write peace be upon him after the name of the Prophet, in
fact all prophets of Allah. All Messengers of Allah are
messengers of peace as Allah Himself, as pointed out above, is
Peace. Again in the verse 56:25-26 we read "They hear therein
(i.e. Paradise) no vain or sinful talk but only the saying,
Peace! Peace."
Thus peace is so vital for converting this world into paradise.
Its opposite i.e. violence is sin. Sin is nothing if not selfish
behavior. We have converted this earth into a violent place
because of our interest-oriented behavior. The harmony of
interests is possible only in need based economy.
Clash of interests result from greed-based economy. Our world
today is full of violence as we clash with each other for our
greed. Islam wanted to establish peace on this earth and hence
it emphasized need-based economy and condemned accumulation of
wealth, circulation of wealth among the rich. The chapter 104
clearly says that obsession with wealth results in fire kindled
by Allah.
Same thing happens if we are obsessed with power. Thus this
earth can enjoy peace only if some people are not obsessed with
wealth and power. Islam laid equal emphasis on justice (Allah's
name is also Just 'Adil along with Peace, Salam). Thus justice
and peace go together. There cannot be peace without justice.
Today there is no peace on earth as there is no justice. We are
living in a violent world because we live in an unjust world.
The Muslim world is also full of injustices and hence of
violence. Islam did its best to emphasize justice and peace but
a section of Muslims, particularly Muslim rulers remained
obsessed with wealth and power and perpetrated injustices and
violence. Thus the blame for violence lay on the doors of some
Muslims not on Islam. As far as Islam is concerned justice and
peace are integral parts of its teachings.
Moreover for millions of Muslims Islam is a deep spiritual
experience. They pray, fast, perform Hajj and all other
spiritual practices and feel deeply satisfied. They pray for
peace. Such Muslims are in overwhelming majority. They have
nothing to do with politics, violence or use of Islam for ones
interests. It is these Muslims who seek deep spiritual
fulfillment who matter
and not the few who use or misuse it for political purposes. For
millions of Muslims Islam, like any other religion, is a great
source of inner peace.
Some countries like America bomb countries in the name of
democracy and human rights some Muslims commit acts of violence
and terror in the name of Islam. Is there any difference between
the two? How does it matter if the people are
killed in the name of democracy and freedom or in the name of
Islam? We must try to learn between ideals and their misuse by
some vested interests or frustrated people.
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