Unilateral Action for Peace
Irrespective of what people might think are the causes of communal riots in India, the fact is that this violence can be ended only when Muslims end their role in it. If they do so, they can make others amenable to ending their role in such violence, too. It is only through such unilateral action that communal violence in the country can be finally stopped. And it is for the Muslims to take this step.
As shown in the previous chapter, at Hudaybiyah the Prophet of Islam agreed to unilateral action and thereby put an end to the violence of the Quraysh. In the same way, Muslims must resort to this sort of unilateral action by completely refusing to engage in any form of violence. But if, on the other hand, they wait for other communities to first stop their violence, they can keep waiting forever.
What should Muslims do to stop communal violence? There is only one answer—and that is, they must not get provoked in the face of provocation. The common cause of all cases of communal violence is that Muslims are unaware of a very important principle—that in life there are certain problems that simply have to be ignored. However, instead of ignoring these problems, Muslims become greatly agitated when they are confronted with them, and the logical result of this is communal violence.
In every society, there are issues that are best left ignored. To get entangled in them will only magnify them even further. This is a basic fact of life. One simply cannot avoid it. That is why the Quran gives great stress to patience and the avoidance of conflict.
Not ignoring matters that are best left ignored is a terrible blunder that Muslims make. The only solution to communal violence is for Muslims to completely avoid confrontation with others. If they do this, communal violence can soon come to an end. But if they do not, and, instead, they continue with their present policies, this violence will continue unchecked.
Whenever Muslims talk about communal violence, they try to do just one thing: engaging in legalistic and logical analysis to try to find out which community is responsible for the violence. This is a completely wrong approach, because there are certain things in life whose rightness or wrongness is not something to be debated about. All that needs to be considered in such matters is how to find a realistic solution to the problem.
When the Hudaybiyah Treaty between Muslims and the Quraysh was being written up, the Prophet told the person who was penning the document, “Write that this is what Muhammad, the Prophet of God, has decided”. But the representative of the Quraysh, Suhayl ibn Amr, protested against this, insisting that the document should mention the Prophet simply as ‘Muhammad ibn Abdullah’ (‘Muhammad, son of Abdullah’), because the Quraysh did not accept him as a prophet. And so, in response, the Prophet told the man who was writing the document to mention him simply as ‘Muhammad ibn Abdullah’.
Had the Prophet made the matter into a question of right versus wrong, he would never have accepted this demand. But he did not make this an issue of right and wrong. Rather, he saw only its practical aspect. Since at that time there was, in practical terms, no other solution, he agreed to leave out the words ‘Prophet of God’ and to have himself referred to in the Treaty document simply as ‘Muhammad, son of Abdullah’.
The issue of communal violence and its solution is similar to this in an important sense. In accordance with the above-mentioned sunnah or practice of the Prophet, it is incumbent on Muslims not to make the issue of communal violence a dispute over of ‘right’ versus ‘wrong’. Instead, the only thing they should consider is what the practical solution of the issue is and then adopt it. If Muslims do not stop seeing the issue in terms of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, their attitude will only indicate their particular mindset, rather than their devotion to the Truth. Devotion to the Truth lies in adopting the sunnah or practice of the Prophet of God, and not in any other approach or method.
Today, Muslims everywhere are engaged in fighting, even on petty matters, and in this way are destroying themselves. They imagine that in doing this they are engaging in jihad. But it is actually nothing of the sort. Through this behaviour of theirs, they are only proving that they completely lack an exalted purpose or goal in life. A person who is inspired by an exalted purpose in life will always ignore petty issues. Because Muslims have lost consciousness of an exalted purpose to live for, they have also lost their tolerance. And because they have become a people without a goal, they have lost the strength to overlook minor inconveniences for the sake of being able to carry on with efforts for achieving a higher purpose in life.
Communal violence is the price that the Muslims of India are paying for their religious degeneration. Although the religion sent by God is one, as far as Muslims’ real life is concerned, there are two types of ‘Islam’: one, the ‘Islam of pride’, and the other, the ‘Islam of humility’. Religious corruption and degeneration is another name for the ‘Islam of pride’.
When Muslims are on the path of true Islam, they follow the Islam of modesty or humility. The fear of God takes away from them any sense of superiority. Because of this, all their unnecessary conflicts automatically come to an end. In the face of the prejudice of others, their God-consciousness makes them humble and modest. This acts like water in the face of the fire of other people’s prejudices. And it brings violence to an end.
In contrast, when Muslims become bereft of God-consciousness, they become driven by the ‘Islam of pride’, which leads them to imagine that they are superior to others. This psychology creates all the differences and disputes that Muslims are today beset with. When every person starts thinking that he is superior to everyone else, harmony and unity are simply impossible. The only way to cement unity is for some people to agree to become less than others. Where everyone thinks he is superior to everyone else, unity is out of the question. When the psyche of pride and superiority leads Muslims into confrontation with other communities, it can easily escalate into communal violence.
If Muslims are to put an end to both their internecine differences and their violent conflicts with other communities, they have to completely abandon the ‘Islam of pride’ and, instead, adopt the ‘Islam of humility’. If they do not agree to do this, they must stop accusing others of being wrong, because whatever others may be doing to Muslims is the price Muslims are paying for their own corrupt understanding of Islam, which, in this age of their degeneration, they continue to cling to.
