THE IDEOLOGY OF PEACE
Scholars have defined peace thus: “Peace is the absence of war.” This definition is absolutely correct. Peace in fact means the absence of a situation of war or violence.
However, some people hold this definition of peace to be inadequate. They say that justice should accompany peace; that peace devoid of justice is no peace. People the world over are, therefore, acting intolerantly and indulging in acts of violence in the name of justice, saying, “Give us justice and peace will ensue.” According to me, setting such a condition for the attainment of peace is impractical. This is because peace on its own does not bring justice. That is, justice is not necessarily an element of peace. When people indulge in acts of violence in the name of justice, peace can never prevail. This is because nothing productive can take place in an environment of violence. Peace is always desirable for its own sake. And everything else comes after, not along with peace.
When people become tolerant and accept peace for the sake of peace, what that actually does is open up opportunities – it creates favourable conditions, which enable people to strive towards and attain their objectives. When people avail of the opportunities thus created, they eventually obtain justice and bring to fruition many other constructive initiatives.
The case of Japan is a concrete example of the success of this formula. Japan’s industrial cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, were destroyed by the atom bombs in 1945. After the holocaust, Japan abandoned violence and adopted a peaceful course for its development, which it termed as the ‘reverse course’. And as a result, within a short span of forty years, Japan rose to become a great economic power of the world.
Therefore the success, which was not forthcoming, even after a long and violent struggle, was achieved by peaceful methods in a short period of time. Therefore, the only practicable formula for obtaining peace is, therefore:
‘Ignore the problems, avail of the opportunities.’
This is the ideology of peace given in Islam as practised by Prophet Muhammad (may be peace upon him) that is exemplified by the Hudaibiyya treaty (for details, read Muhammad: A Prophet for All Humanity).
