GoingAgainst the Sunnah (Way) of the Prophet
After 1947Kashmirwas the sceneof a turbulent struggle. Initially, this
took the form of peaceful gatherings and peaceful demonstration,
but when these efforts yielded no result, the Kashmiris turned to
violence. In October 1989, they gave up peaceful methods in favour
of violent methods. Now the gun and bomb culture became the
order of the day.
Just a few months before the Kashmir movement took this new
turn, I had gone to Srinagar, where Imade a speech in theTagoreHall
on June 29, 1989. (The audio cassette of this speech is still available.)
In the course of this speech, I mentioned an incident relating
to the Prophet of Islam in which an Arab Bedouin once came to the
Prophet’s mosque and defiled it by urinating inside it. The Prophet’s
Companions wanted to punish him but the Prophet forbade them
to do so and told them just to clean the spot with water (
Sahih
Al-
Bukhari, Hadith No. 5679).
This behaviour of the Prophet of Islamso impressed the Bedouin
that he went to his tribesmen and narrated the whole story. The
people were so impressed with this that shortly thereafter the whole
tribe entered the fold of Islam. After narrating this incident to them,
I pointed out that this was themethod of the Prophet and that where
the Prophet had achieved his objective by simply pouring water,
they, on the contrary, wanted to achieve their objective by shedding
blood. I told them that in that way they could never succeed in this
world made by God.
Subsequent events have shown that the words that I spoke in
Kashmir on June 29, 1989, by the grace of God, became a reality in
Kashmir.The armed struggle of theKashmiris only added to their loss:
no positive gain was achieved. Now the crucial moment has come for
KashmiriMuslims to take aU-turn and, to achieve their target, engage
in a peaceful
dawah
struggle instead of violent communal strife.
History is waiting
In Chapter 10 of the Quran, God calls mankind to the “home of
peace”. (10:25) Similarly, chapter three of the Quran has this to say:
Do they seek a religion other than the religion of God, when
