War,peace and Non-violence

Building Blocks of Peace Within the Movement

To have peace within the Islamic movement requires the presence of two things without which the movement will not end with a good result but will remain weak and ineffective as have many movements in the past who have come to the fore then disappeared because they did not have realistic building blocks for the movement.

This applies to both the Islamic and non-Islamic worlds. Hence the Islamic movement should observe these two matters from the initial stages of its formation so that it may reach the desired goal. These two matters are:

Firstly: Free and fair elections within the movement itself and a balance of power. Naturally splits will form in the movement. This is customary in life. However between these splits there must be equality, balance and competence so that a single group is not able to take control of the movement and derail the movement towards dictatorship.

Any movement can be taken from reality to dictatorship simply by one group gaining authority over the other groups. This spells death for the movement even if the movement remains alive superficially.

Before the western military coups in Iraq and although British colonialism was in authority at that time, it was not as powerful and sharp as the colonialism that those who called themselves repub licans brought. They were not in fact republicans, not al-Karim, nor al-Salaam, nor his brother, nor al-Bakr, nor those who came after him.

They were nothing but agents of Britain, Israel and America. In any case, at the time of the monarchy, many political parties whether they called themselves the National Party or the Progressive Party, or even the Islamic Party, all failed for the reason that at the very beginning a colonialist or despotic group gained control over them and there were no free elections, equalities o r distribution of power.

This should be a lesson to us. The Islamic movement must have power b ases within it, which are both equal and competitive, b ut the competition should be towards the good and not the bad, towards decisive action and attracting the people and raising standards. As Allah has said in three verses from the Holy Qur'an: { . . . and for this let the competitors compete for.} (3:133), and { . . . and race each other for forgiveness from your Lord.} (2:148), and { . . . and race for the good things.} (5:48).

Whatever the case may be, it is imperative that the Islamic movement should observe peace between the different groups of the movement and if dictatorship should gain power over the movement then there will be no peace, for peace is bred from equal power bases. If dictatorship were to gain po wer it would not change and the movement would not be able to change it. Then this group would act despotically with the finances,

the rep utation of the mo vement and with the will of the mo vement. We have seen how easy it was for colonialism to take the reins of power from the dictators because the public was taken out of the equation and the power was present in four, five or ten people only. However, if the movement had been a popular movement then colonialism would not have been able to take the reins of power from the people.

It is then imperative that the movement observe the following two points. First, the movement should comprise of different branches, equally balanced powers, and different groups each with their own currents and trends even though the framework is one, which is the popular Islamic movement.

It is only natural that people's tastes are different and each person should be allowed to propose his own opinion in a climate of complete freedom be that in speech, writing, in gatherings or on travels. Every person should work according to his own opinion as we see in action amongst religious jurists.

Their framework is the Qur'an and the Sunnah, consensus and intellect but they still differ in the particularities in all the areas of jurisprudence. This is the case for doctors, engineers, and astronomers in the gatherings of the free or semi- free nations.

Seco ndly, the movement should also hold free elections annually or biennially. The mark o f free elections is a complete change fro m top to bottom not fraudulent elections as in some nations, parties and organisations where the leaders do not change and only a few things change as a tactic.

Another mark of fair elections is that the number of votes ranges from small to large like 51% or 55% or 60%. As for forged elections like those of the Ba'thists or the Nationalists we see 99% of the votes going to the former president and 1% going to his opponent or even less. This is no thing but fraud, lies, and does nothing but compound the dictatorship. A p olitical scientist has laid do wn two criteria for assessing whether a country is free or not. The first is to see whether the leaders change once every four years.

The second is to see whether the people are able to speak freely in the streets or write what they wish or publish magazines and newspapers as they wish. These two criteria must be observed within the movement itself so that the movement can be fully free on the condition that this freedom be within an Islamic framework.

Through this, the movement may be able to continue to expand and progress and will be accompanied by peace. In this way the movement will end in the government of one billion Muslims by the leave of Allah.

Instilling Peace

The process of instilling and instructing the self has a great effect on the human psyche. Humans are by nature prone to anger and revolt, to seeing the faults o f others, to entering into wrangles and fights with others, and to hatred, disdain, enmity and cutting off relationships. It is imperative that the roots of these things are extirpated from the heart of the individual and following on from that the rest of his limbs.

This can be achieved through instilling into the self that the human being is a harmoniser, a peace-maker, decisive, intelligent, a thinking being, a purposeful b eing, and an administrator. If the individual instils this into his self day and night and throughout his life he will eventually develop a peaceful nature and he will be able to help to advance the Islamic movement even in an environment of wars, revo lts and revolutions.

In a hadith it is said: 'The most worthy of things to be imprisoned is the tongue.' Hence the individual must customise himself to guarding his tongue and his heart.

In another hadith it is said: 'If you see the believer silent then draw near to him for he is receiving wisdom.'

The individual must also guard his hand and his pen, his movements and his pauses in fact everything so that he may move the Islamic nation forward. Those who say: 'We are nervous characters and we cannot bear pressure', or they say: 'So-and-So has belittled our opinion', or they say: 'We think he is in the wrong so how can we remain silent?' These types of people are not able to advance the movement.

Hence we see in the history of the Messenger of Allah (S) and the history of successful movements many of this type of person. The hadith report that an ill-mannered man of the infidels came to the Messenger of Allah (S) and cursed him while the Messenger was in the sacred mosque reciting the Qur'an. The Messenger of Allah did not say a word to him but the man obviously wanted to provoke a fight with the Messenger of Allah (S).

The Messenger remained calm and quiet but the man cursed him and cursed him. Then he spat in the face of the Messenger of Allah (S). The man himself continues the account saying that: 'Muhammad (S) did no more than wipe the spit off his face and did not say a thing.' What was it that made the Messenger of Allah do this when he was justified in at least returning what he had received with like as in the Qur'anic verse:

{ . . . and whoever attacks you then attack them in the same way that they attack you.} (2:194). It was because the Messenger of Allah (S) saw that entering into a squabble with this infidel was not important and it would not serve his goal.

Hence he returned to peace and carried on in the way that Allah had marked out for him. In this way the Islamic movement succeeded because of the clemency, patience and peacefulness of the Messenger of Allah (S). The poet says: 'You will never be able to be clement until you adopt clemency.' Meaning that if there is revolution in your heart then do not let it surface but rather adopt clemency and patience and control yourself so that you are able to be a peace-maker even in the worst times of excitement and breakdown.

There is another account about the Messenger of Allah (S) that he passed by the family of Yasir; Yasir and Sumayyah and 'Ammar, when the Polytheists were torturing them. He looked at them with kindness and said: 'Patience O family of Yasir for you have been promised paradise.'

He did no more than this. This was because the Messenger of Allah (S) knew that if he entered into a marginal dispute with the torturers he would lose his main impetus and he would not reach his main goal, which was to establish the pillars of Islam. In this way, the Messenger, his righteous companions and his impeccable family were characterised with the most amount of peacefulness and peace, self control and control of the tongue, hand and reaction. They were then ab le to make advances because of this peace.

We can also see that some reformers who were able to rescue their countries from the grip of colonialism were able to control themselves. One who was not able to do this and would get irritated at the slightest thing began to instil in himself every day the qualities of a peace-maker who loves the good for all people. He used to say: 'Every day when I awoke in the morning I would instil these things in myself and also when I wanted to sleep until I was able to carry pressure and insults.'

The Muslim instils in himself peace every morning, noon, afternoon, at sunset, and evening in the obligatory prayers when he repeats in every prayer: 'Peace be upon you O Prophet and the Blessings and Mercy of Allah, Peace be upon you O righteous servants of Allah, Peace be upon you and the blessings and mercy of Allah.

' Peace to the leader namely the Messenger of Allah (S), p eace to himself and peace for everyone else. This symbolises the peacefulness of the leader, the peacefulness of the person, and the peacefulness of the Islamic community or greater than the Islamic community because saying 'Peace be upon you' encompasses everyone to enter into peace.

In this way the Muslim instils peace into himself every day at least fifteen times. If the individual instils peacefulness into himself he will have the peace which will enable him to lead, to progress, to bear difficulties, not to become irritated with others through insulting words or slander and backbiting and cu rsing. There is a hadith in which the Messenger of Allah saw two people cursing each other so he said: 'They are two Satans reviling each other.'

Whatever the case may be, the Islamic movement which seeks to bring about an international Islamic government must adopt peace as its mantra, and strive for peace. Not the peace of the communists for this is the peace of infidelity and killing. What we seek is an Islam in the shade of Peace meaning in the shade of Allah for one of His names is al-Salam (Peace):

{He is Allah, there is no god but He, The King, The Holy, The Peace, The Faithful, The Protector, The Almighty, The Omnipotent, The Imperious.} (59:23)

What we seek is a peace in the shade of peace, which is in the shade of Allah and in the shade of Islam. Hence we should always try to instil in ourselves peace and compassion, even for the enemy, so that we may draw them to the straight path. It has been related that the Messenger of Allah (S) if the harm he suffered from his people became great would say: 'O Allah, guide my people, for they have no knowledge.

' He did not seek to invoke Allah against them but rather called upon Allah to guide them. In the end the Messenger of Allah achieved that success which has no parallel in the entire world. We ask Allah to grant us such success in this. Surely He is the granter of success and the best helper.