IS ISLAM A RELIGION OF PEACE?

In the name of God (who is) beneficent (and) merciful

Peace be upon Muhammad and his progeny

کیا اسلام امن کا مذہب ہے؟

Is Islam a religion of peace? No, Islam is not a religion of peace. Is Islam a religion of violence? No, Islam is not a religion of violence either. Islam isn't a religion of peace or of violence. Islam is a religion of rationality. Let me give you a fine example. You are attacked by a criminal who wants to murder you. He assaults you with a Swiss blade and starts screaming at your face about how he's going to slice your ears off. What will Islam instruct you to do? To be peaceful and ignore his forthcoming actions? Of course not! Islam is based on human reason. Islam is a natural religion. Islam will allow you to be violent and defend yourself. You can even murder that person to save your own ass. So, you overpower that loonie and now he's harmless. What will Islam teach you to do with him now? Does Islam allow you to murder him or hurt him in away way? No! As he can't hurt you anymore, Islam won't let you harm him. This is the Islamic philosophy of war and peace, of violence and love.

Islam is a religion of peace in the sense that Islam doesn't allow Muslims to kill non-Muslims on religious grounds. You don't fight non-Muslims because they're infidels. Faith isn't a reason for execution. We fight people for their actions. If a person has deviant beliefs but doesn't hurt anyone, Islam won't let you kill him. But if a person is a Muslim and harms people, you have to fight him and stop him from being a nuisance to everyone.

I have no idea why some Muslims think it's okay to badmouth other faiths or rival sects just because their doctrines are weird. Islam allows you to be good to Jews and Christians. Islam permits you to want peace with polytheists. You are not the one who's supposed to initiate violence. You are supposed to be calm, peaceful and rational about politics. You are supposed to be good with all people. Polytheists were condemned by God in Quran due to the very reason that they persecuted Muslims for believing in Allah. As Ezekiel (mu'min e al e firaun) said to Pharaoh when he witnessed Jews and specially Moses suffering under his reign:

Would you kill a person because he says: My Lord is God?

(Quran)

It was the custom of heathens and infidels to hurt people because they adhered to different religious doctrines. Hating someone for his belief system is pure ignorance and this ignorance victimized Muslims in Mecca. Muhammad was persecuted and Muslims were tortured (some even killed) for saying: We believe in Allah as our Lord and Savior. Why do we consider it to be a tragedy? Because pagans were killing Muslims on religious grounds. It doesn't matter how hard we are on Shiites and Ahmadis. Deep down, we all know that hating people on religious grounds in a pagan characteristic and has nothing to do with Islam. Islam wanted Muslims to fight pagans because they had initiated violence. Nowhere in His book did God ask us to kill non-Muslims simply because they were non-Muslims. We weren't asked to spread Islam by force. We were asked by God to kill non-Muslims only because they had begun violence. So, when if had initiated violence, we were supposed to fight them. But if they ceased fighting, we were supposed to stop being violent too and lean towards peace. The reason why Islam wants Muslims to be violent is to perish violence and re-establish peace on God's green earth. This is what Allah meant when He said: Fight them until there is no (more) fitnah and worship is for God. We are supposed to make God's earth peaceful for Muslims (and also non-Muslims) to practice their faiths freely without any fear of persecution. Even the very first verse of jihad revealed by God makes it clear that we are supposed to fight to make mosques, synagogues, temples, churches and other places of worship safe.

Would you not fight a people who broke their oaths and determined to expel the Messenger, and they had begun (attacking) you the first time?

(Quran)

So, in that sense, Islam is indeed a religion of peace and not of violence. Islam only allows violence when Muslims are under attack. And only Islamic governments can call for arms. Jihad is when the imam or khalifah of Muslims organizes it. If the government is not funding it then you are not a mujahid. Therefore, when Afghans were fighting Russians in the Civil War, it was jihad. When they fought each other after the fall of Najib, it wasn't jihad. If Muslims can't perform their religious duties in a country, the Islamic states are allowed to intervene. There are verses in Quran that actually motivate Muslims to help their fellow believers in need. But Islam doesn't ask Muslims to just attack a peaceful country, start massacring its citizens and then forcing them all either to convert or to pay jizyah. This is the picture of Islamic invasions created by Christian missionaries and promoted by ISIS, Taliban, Al Qaeda & cetera today. Terrorism has no place in Islam. Islam has strict laws and principles for violence.

Islam is a religion of peace and violence. Islam instructs Muslims when and where to get violent. But Islam wants Muslims to keep peace with the peaceful ones. No innocent guy needs to die. Shari'ah is humane and rational. Anything that is irrational or inhumane isn't a part of shari'ah. Muslims need to understand how shari'ah was formed. I will explain in a different blog what I learnt from my tenure as a student of International Relations at the University of Karachi. It was at that department where I learnt how law is made. I developed some theories regarding the structure of shari'ah which I would like to implement in my general comprehension of fiqh.

I hope this humble presentation of mine will be helpful to you. I would like to conclude my article with a very beautiful message of Quran. To each of you, we have prescribed a law and a method. May God bless us all!