Islam Rediscovered
11. Non-Violence and Islam
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non-violence, it is friendship which flourishes. The
method of violence gives way to negative values
while the method of nonviolence is marked by
positive values. The method of violence embroils
people in problems, while the method of non-
violence leads people to the exploiting of
opportunities. In short, violence is death, non-
violence is life.
Both the Qur’an and the
Hadith
have attached great
importance to
jihad
. What is
jihad?
Jihad means
struggle, to struggle one’s utmost. It must be
appreciated at the outset that this word is used for
non-violent struggle as opposed to violent struggle.
One clear proof of this is the verse of the Qur’an
(25:52) which says: Perform
jihad
with this (i.e. the
words of the Qur’an) most strenuously.
The Qur’an is not a sword or a gun. It is a book of
ideology. In such a case performing
jihad
with the
Qur’an would mean an ideological struggle to
conquer peoples’ hearts and minds through Islam’s
superior philosophy.
In the light of this verse of the Qur’an,
jihad
in
actual fact is another name for peaceful activism or
