Islam and Peace
Limits of Tolerance
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of patience. The Qur’an says: Surely the patient will
be paid their wages in full without measure (39:10).
The reason for the rewards for patience being so
great is that patience is the key factor in
maintaining the desired system of God. In the
words of the Qur’an the patient man is the helper of
God (61:14).
2. The other injunction, designed to maintain peace
in human society, forbids the waging of an
offensive war. No one in Islam enjoys the right to
wage war against another. There are no grounds on
which this could be considered justifiable.
There is only one kind of war permitted in Islam
and that is a defensive war. If a nation, by deviating
from the principles of nature, wages war against
another nation, defence in such circumstances,
subject to certain conditions, is temporarily allowed.
To sum up, Islam is a religion of peace. The Arabic
root of Islam, ‘silm’, means peace. The Qur’an says:
‘ ... and God calls to the home of peace’ (10:25).
