Wrong Comparison
I received a question from a reader who said that when the Muslims were told that a large number of people had been killed during their warfare, they answered that in the World Wars innumerable people had been killed. Hitler killed tens of thousands of people. This is how they seek justification of their killing. The reader wanted to know the fallacy behind this.
The answer to this question is that it makes a wrong comparison. In this matter, what needs to be seen is what those nations, who were involved in the First World War and the Second World War, engaged themselves in after the experience of war. In this matter, their latter example is to be trusted rather than the earlier example. The events tell us that when those nations found that in the wars, they only incurred losses, that the way of war proved to be counter-productive, their leaders started rethinking. They analyzed the whole situation anew and subsequently adopted the practice of re-planning. They abandoned the way of war and adopted the way of peace in the full sense. Britain dismantled its great empire and limited its power to rule only Britain. France abandoned its African colonies on its own. Germany left East Germany and engaged itself in the construction and progress of West Germany. Japan entirely abandoned the way of war and violence and devoted itself to peaceful progress.
In present times, the Muslims have seen that despite all kinds of sacrifices on a large scale, they have only suffered losses, they have not gained anything. Now the demand of realism is that all the Muslims must take a U-turn and completely abandon the path of war and violence, and by adopting peaceful methods must engage themselves in the progress and construction of their respective countries. This is the demand of history and it is likewise the demand of Islam.
One principle of advice (nasihat) is that we should learn from others’ experiences. If people have found anything destructive in their own experience, then that must be shunned and only the positive lessons should be learned from their experiences. Neither the First World War nor the Second World War should be referred to or if it has to be referred to, then only the positive aspects should be taken up and that is, taking lessons from the negative experiences of war and then adopting the method of peaceful building by abandoning the ways of war.
Seeking justification from the errors committed by others is the worst kind of unwise approach. If you kill your supposed enemies and then say that others have also killed people, it would be adding insult to injury. The experiences of others are for learning lessons, rather than for justifying one’s wrong acts in this connection. There is a wise saying of Abdullah ibn Masud, a senior Companion of the Prophet of Islam, ‘Blessed is the person who can learn lessons from others. Imitating others is unwise action and learning good lessons from others is wisdom.’ (Sahih Muslim, Hadith No. 2645)
