Islam and Peace
Non-Violence and Islam
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is stated in the Qur’an to be
izhar-e-deen. (Izhar
in
Arabic means dominance/ ascendancy / supremacy.
Here
izhar-e-deen
signifies intellectual and
ideological dominance, not political dominance.
This means that in intellectual and ideological
respects, God’s, religion assumes ascendancy over
all other ideologies and religions.)
Izhar-e-deen
was not an incident of short duration,
but an ongoing assertion of the eternal dominance
of Islam. Its implication was that in the world of
ideology, such a revolution would be brought about
as would establish the supremacy of Islam forever.
Its purpose was to unravel all the veils of
superstition which clouded human judgement, and
to lay bare the scientific proofs hidden in nature, so
that the truth of monotheism could be brought to
light for all humanity. As the Qur’an puts it, ‘They
desire to extinguish the light of God with their
mouths: but God seeks only to perfect His light,
however much the infidels may abhor it.’ (9:32, 33)
Granting ideological ascendancy to God’s religion
was a matter of considerable complexity,
amounting to the writing of history afresh. For
