Concept of Peace in Islam
The Quran has this to say about the Prophet of Islam:
We have only sent you as a mercy to all humanity. (21:106)
The Prophet enjoined believers to greet one another by saying Assalamm-o-Alaikum. This shows that mutual relationships should be based on peace and security.
According to a hadith, the Prophet of Islam defined a believer thus:
A believer is one from whom people are safe as regards their lives and property. (Musnad Ahmad).
According to this Hadith, the way of the faithful is to live as peaceful citizens in society. No one should harm others’ lives, property or honour. In no circumstances should one take the way of violence. The love of peace is a noble human virtue, whereas the love of violence brings the human being down from a high ethical plane to the level of brutishness.
The Prophet of Islam once observed: “The believer is like a gentle plant. Whenever the wind blows, it inclines accordingly, and when the wind stops blowing, it returns to its upright position.” (Sahih Al-Bukhari, Hadith no. 5644) In this way, it saves itself from the impact of the wind.
The Quran is undoubtedly a book of peace. Its opening invocation is: “In the name of God, the Most beneficent, the Most Merciful”, and this verse has been repeated in the Quran no less than 114 times. This indicates that the greatest attribute of the Supreme Being who sent this book to humanity is Mercy. Of the 6666 verses of the Quran, there are hardly forty verses, which deal with the injunction to wage war, and then only in self-defence; that is, even less than one per cent. To put it more precisely, only 0.6%.
The Quran records God’s many names or attributes, one being As-Salam, that is, Peace. This is because God loves peace and security so much that He chose Peace as one of His names. That is to say, God, Himself is the embodiment of peace.
Alkhattabi has explained this verse in these words:
“God is the Being from Whom all people feel safe and secure. From Whom people have the experience only of peace, not of violence.” (Al-Qurtubi, Part 18, p. 46)
God has set the highest conceivable standards. That is, when God’s dealings with human beings are based on peace and security, man should also deal with other human beings in a peaceable manner, not harshness or violence.
