An Exegesis of Islamic Peace
By Syed Kamran Mirza
[email protected]
The English word “peace” means tranquility or
serenity, silence, freedom from war, freedom from anxiety, a state of
harmony between people etc. All the people love to enjoy peace in their
lives. Many a times Muslims call Islam as peace. Specially, after 9/11,
Islamists echo continuously—“Islam
means peace”. Therefore—Islam can not condone terrorism or
war. Now, does anybody know what
the Islamic concept of peace is? Do you know the Islamic peace do not
signify the same meaning we learned from the English Dictionary? Here is
the real meaning of Islamic concept of peace.
Islamic understanding of peace means submission or surrender. Peace comes (according to Islam) only after
one surrenders or submits one’s self.
Submission
or surrender to whom? Submission to only Allah (Islamic God) and his
messenger Muhammad. Therefore peace (Islamic) exists only
inside the Dar-ul-Islam—the house of submission, after the conversion to Islam. That is
the ultimate meaning of Islamic peace. The false meaning of Islam as peace
misguides the gullible western non-Muslims. Conniving Islamists misguided
President Bush and his White House staffs by their cheap shot of Islamic
peace.
Peace with non-Muslims (Hindus, idolaters), and also
those people of the Books (Christians and Jews) is impossible in Islam.
According to Quran and its teachings—they should be given a
chance/invitation to accept Islam, or be subjugated and killed if
necessary. People of the Books (Christians and Jews) are to be fought
against until they are subdued. Here is what Holy Quran says:
9:29:
Fight those who believe not in Allah nor
the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah
and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they
are) of the People of the Books (Jews
and Christians), until they pay
the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.
To claim that Islam is a religion of peace is utterly
untrue. Islam is committed to war, both by the example of Prophet
Muhammad, (who fought against pagans and also against other tribes and
religions until he subdued Mecca and Medina), and by the Quranic teachings
supported by numerous Sahi hadiths. The Quran does teach that Muslims are
never to initiate war, but Muslims are supposed to offer non-Muslims an
opportunity/invitation to embrace Islam. If the non-Muslims refuse to
accept Islam, this is viewed as aggression against Allah and Islam.
Therefore Muslims are legitimately allowed to fight those aggressors until
they are converted, or killed.
Most valid examples to my claim are the following
Quranic verses below:
3:85: If anyone desires a religion other than Islam (submission to Allah),
never will it be accepted of him; and in the Hereafter He will be in
the ranks of those who have lost (All spiritual good).
8:39: And fight them on until there is no more tumult or oppression, and
there prevail justice and faith in
Allah altogether and everywhere.
4:89:They
long that ye should disbelieve even as they disbelieve, that ye may be
upon a level (with them). So choose not friends from them till they
forsake their homes in the way of Allah; if
they turn renegades, sieze them and kill them wherever ye find them,
and choose no friend nor helper from among them,”
22:19-22: These two
antagonists dispute with each other about their Lord: But those who deny
(their Lord),- for them will be cut
out a garment of Fire: over their heads will be poured out boiling water.
With it will be scalded what is within their bodies, as well as (their)
skins. In addition there will be maces of iron (to punish) them. Every
time they wish to get away therefrom, from anguish, they will be forced
back therein, and (it will be said), “Taste
ye the Penalty of Burning!” (What
a sadist God?)
47:4:
If you meet those who are infidels or
non-believers, you cut their heads off and tie things around their necks,
start a war and God will give victory and those who will die in the war
fighting God will not forget their acts.
Now some sahi hadiths and quotes
from Islamic thinkers:
(1) Alsaylu Jarar (4:518-519) by
Al-Shawkani. Shawkani:
"Islam is unanimous about fighting
the unbelievers and forcing them to Islam or submitting and paying Jizya
tax (protection money for the Jews and the Christians only) or being
killed. The verse about forgiving them are abrogated unanimously by the
obligation of fighting in any case".
(2) The Baydawi quoted in
his book (The lights of Revelation,
page-252):
“Fight Jews and Christians because they violated the
origin of their faith and they do not believe in the religion of the truth
(Islam), which abrogated
all other religions. Fight them until they pay the poll-tax (Ziziya
tax) with submission and humiliation.”
(3) The well-known Egyptian
scholar, Sayyid Qutb, (Sayyid
Qutb, Milestones, Revised Edition,
chapter. 4, “Jihaad in the Cause of
God") notes four stages in the development of
jihad:
- While the
earliest Muslims remained in Mecca before fleeing to Medina, God did
not allow them to fight;
- Permission is given to
Muslims to fight against their oppressors;
- God commands
Muslims to fight those fighting them;
- God
commands the Muslims to fight against all polytheists.
Sayyid
Qutb views each stage to be replaced by the next stage in this order, the
fourth stage to remain permanent.
(4) Introduction section of the English translation of Sahih
Bukhari by Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan, Medina Islamic University. In the same section Dr M. Muhsin Khan writes:
, "Then Allah revealed in
Sura Bara’at (9) the order to discard (all) the obligations (covenants,
etc.) and commanded the Muslims to fight against all the pagans as well as
against the people of the scriptures (Jews and Christians) if they do not
embrace Islam, till they pay the Jizya (a tax levied on the Jews and
Christians who do not embrace Islam and are under the protection of an
Islamic government) with willing submission and feel themselves subdued
(9:29). So they (Muslims) were not permitted to abandon ‘the fighting’
against them (Pagans, Jews and Christians) and to reconcile with them and
to suspend hostilities against them for an unlimited period while they are
strong and have the possibility of fighting against them."
(5) Opinion
by an Islamist General: Hamid
Gul - the Islamist and former Pakistani general was interviewed by the BBC
News, Monday, 5 August, 2002. This
Jihadi General of Pakistan said, “Armed
resistance, of the oppressed people, of the persecuted people, of the
enslaved people - that jihad has the UN sanction. Who is Pervez Musharraf
to say we should stop that, when the Koran says it and when the United
Nations Charter backs it up? Musharraf says: “Stop the jihad, do this,
that and the other.” No, no, no. He cannot. There is a clear-cut Koranic
injunction”.
(6) Sahi Buchari #1246, page-1180:
Hazrat Ali (ra) narrated, “Certainly I heard Prophet Muhammad
saying, in the days of last era, there will be some people evolved who
will talk very nice and gentle, but they will never have faith upon Allah,
and their faith will be expelled from their heats like the way an arrow is
expelled from a bow. Therefore, you would kill them where ever you find
them, because whoever will kill them they will be rewarded by Allah at the
Judgement day with heaven.
The above verses, opinions from various Islamic
thinkers and Sahi hadith made Islam a religion of fear and terror and not
a religion of peace by any means. There will be continuous war in the
world as long as some fanatics will believe in Muhammad, his example and
his teachings. The Islamic concept of peace meaning making the whole world
Muslim is undoubtedly a mandate for war. After that peace will prevail in
the earth of Allah. That is the ultimate exegesis of the Arabic word
“Islam”.
Finding
Excuse by the name of Wahabism (?):
Conniving Islamists and also some westerners find
some lame excuse by saying that it is not the “real Islam”, actually
it is the influence of “Wahabism” making the peaceful Islam a religion
of terrorism throughout the world. Let us examine below the so called
Wahabism.
What is
Wahabism: many conniving
Islamists want to blame Wahabism for the inherent intolerance of real
Islam. That is, they want to portray Wahabism as the separate entity of
Islam which is being misunderstood (by westerners) as the real peaceful
Islam. Most western non-Muslims are also misguided by the so called
Wahabite type of Islam, which according to some is not real/true peaceful
Islam. Now what is actually Wahabism?
Wahabism is not a separate religion, nor it is a
separate brand of Islam. Trully, this Wahabism is the new force to unite
Islam into it’s true color existed in the early Islamic period of 7th
century. That is the time of Prophet Muhammad and his four favorite
disciples—Khula-faye-Rashedin. In
the early 18th century Mohammad Ibn Abdul Wahab a famous Saudi
religious extremist leader called for a renewal of Islamic spirit, moral
cleansing and the stripping away of all innovations to Islam since the 7th
century. His followers are called Wahabis or wahbite Islamists. Wahabism
is not a new brand of Islam or
any offshoot of Islam; Wahabism does not have any separate scriptural
book, rather it is the real Islam. Followers of Wahabism prefer
to identify themselves as Muwahiddun—which
means “the unifiers”. Wahabism is simply the political Islam that has
been adopted for power sharing purposes. It has no special practices, nor
special rites, and no special interpretation of the religion Islam that
differs from the main body of Sunni Islam. Wahabite followers consider
every Muslims should follow the practice of Islam like Wahabite Muslims
and regard all those who do not follow them as the heathens and enemies of
Islam. Osama bin Laden is the true follower of Wahabism.
The followers of Wahabism including the Saudi
Arabia’s ruling house of Saud insist they are simply practicing the
“true” Islam of Prophet Muhammad. Wahabism got popularity to the west
and the Muslim world during the aftermath of Iranian Revolution in 1979.
Billions of Dollars were spent by saudi to influence Wahabism ideology as
the counter force to Iranian Shiite ideology throughout the whole Muslim
world by building thousands of Mosques, Madrassahs, Islamic centers etc.
Pakistan was flooded with Wahabi madrassas (Islamic school or factory of
terrorism) which was the main focus to the American media after the 9/11
episode as the breeding ground of Taliban and al-Qaeda Jhadi force.
Sheik Shishu a Kurdish Imam who is the follower of
wahabism ( when asked by a Kurdish reporter about wahabism) said: “What
is Wahabism?” there is no Wahabism, only true Islam”. Saudi students
and Saudi citizen also have the similar opinions about Wahabism.
Conclusion:
Islam is not a religion of peace; rather Islam means
surrender to the religion of Islam. If anybody surrenders to Islam only
then Islam means peace! On another
situation, Islam means peace only when Muslims are small minority
(example: Muslims in the western world);
but when Muslims get majority or even a considerable size, Islam means
violence and intolerance to others. In that situation, Islam gets the
divine mandate (Dictums of Quran
and hadiths) to invite, force, subjugate, and even to fight to convert
other people to bring them under the fold of Islam. Only
after that—Islam means peace!
“It would be naïve to ignore in Islam a deep
thread of intolerance toward unbelievers.”—Andrew Sullivan
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