we must ask why so great a contradiction has arisen between the principles of Islam and the practices of Muslims. The Prophet’s biographies were called ‘maghazi’ , that is ‘The Battles fought by the Prophet,’ yet the Prophet of Islam in fact did battle only three times in his entire life, and the period of his involvement in these battles did not total more than one and half days. He fought, let it be said, in self-defence, when hemmed in by aggressors, and he simply had no option. But historians— flying in the face of fact—have converted his whole life into one of confrontation and war. But the Prophet Muhammad always opted for avoidance of conflict. For instance, in the campaign of Ahzab, the Prophet advised his Companions to dig a trench between them and the enemies, thus preventing a head-on clash.Another well-known instance of the Prophet’s dislike for hostilities is his cessation of the campaign of Hudaibiya with a treaty, which made more concessions to the enemies than to his own people. In the case of the conquest of Makkah, he avoided a battle altogether by making a rapid entry into the city with ten thousand Muslims—a number large enough to awe his enemies into submission. In this way, on all occasions, the Prophet endeavoured to achieve his objectives by peaceful rather than by war- like means. It is, therefore, unconceivable that in later biographical writing, all the events of his life have been arranged under the heading of ‘battles’ (ghazawat ). How he managed to avert the cataclysms of war has not been dealt with in any of the works, which purportedly depict his life. Hence people in the West find Islam outdated and irrelevant precisely because of its militant interpretation. Demands for a reform in Islam are on the increase, as the ‘old’ version of Islam cannot apparently keep pace with the modern world. But, in reality, it is not reformation, which is urgent, but revival. What is needed is to discard as superficial and erroneous the militant and political interpretation of Islam, and to adopt the original, ‘old’ version of Islam based on peace, mercy and the love of mankind. The so-called Muslim Mujahideen have been exhorting their co-religionists to do battle all over the world. But the Qur’an says: ‘...and God calls to the home of peace’ (10:25). It is up to right-thinking people everywhere to disregard the Mujahideen call, and to start seeing and accepting Islam as it is truly represented by the Qur’an.
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 22:07:47 +0000
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