We often talk of peace in the context of war. But this is a very narrow and restricted notion of peace. Peace is deeply linked with the entirety of human life. Peace is a complete ideology in itself. Peace is the only religion for both—man and the universe. It is the master-key that opens the doors to every success. Peace creates a favourable atmosphere for success in every endeavour. Without peace, no positive action—small or big—is possible.

IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATION

Maulana Wahiduddin Khan wrote extensively about peace, spirituality, self- help and personal improvement. Through his literature, he aimed to re- engineer minds towards peace and to network for global peace and unity.

THE above words describe the CPS mission. Through literature means through education. If we need to usher in an era of peace, what we need to promote is to educate the humankind.

The field of education, covering ethics, religion, skills and general knowledge, is a very broad and very vital one. The importance of learning in enabling the individual to put his potentials to optimal use is self-evident. Without education, the training of the human minds is incomplete. No individual is a human being in the proper sense until he has been educated.

Education makes man a right thinker and a correct decision-maker. It achieves this by bringing him knowledge from the external world, teaching him to reason, and acquainting him with past history, so that he may be a better judge of the present. Without education, man, as it were, is shut up in a windowless room. With education, he finds himself in a room with all its windows open to the outside world.

This is why Islam attaches such great importance to knowledge and education. The Quran, it should be noted repeatedly, asks us to observe the earth and heavens. This instils in man the desire to learn natural science. When the Quran began to be revealed, the first word of its first verse was “Iqra” that is ‘Read’. Education is thus the starting point of every successful human activity.

 All the books of Hadith have a chapter on knowledge. In Sahih al-Bukhari, there is a chapter entitled. “The virtue of one who acquires learning and imparts it to others”. In one Hadith, the scholar is accorded great respect. According to one teaching, the ink of a scholar’s pen is considered very precious, as he builds individuals and nations along positive lines. In this way, he bestows upon the world a real-life treasure.

The very great importance attached to learning in Islam is illustrated by an event in the life of the Prophet. At the battle of Badr, in which the Prophet was victorious, seventy prisoners of war who were all literate people were given the task of teaching the children from Madinah to read and write. This would serve as ransom, and they would be set free. Thus, this was the first school in the history of Islam, established by the Prophet himself. It was of no matter to him that all its teachers were followers of other faith, all were prisoners of war, and all were likely to create problems for Islam and Muslims once they were released. This practice of the Prophet showed that whatever the risk involved, education was paramount.

The connection between education and peace is that whenever there are conflicts of any kind in society which are bound to happen, then educated people will resort to conflict resolution and peace building by an intellectual discussion across the table. They will use their best arguments in an atmosphere of mutual respect and sound knowledge of the issue. Once sound reasoning has been presented, the opposite party will accept it in the light of facts.

On the contrary those who lack education will resort to violence to get what they think is their right. They might be influenced by their emotions, ego and pride in their assumption that it is their right. Violence results in disruption of the social system, causing huge losses in terms of lives and property.