Islam Rediscovered
11. Non-Violence and Islam
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principle of non-violence throughout his 23-year
prophetic career, except for one and a half days.
The Islamic method, being based totally on the
principle of non-violence, it is unlawful for
believers to initiate hostilities. Except in cases where
self-defence has become inevitable, the Qur’an in no
circumstance gives permission for violence.
THE MODERN AGE AND NON-VIOLENCE
The greatest problem facing Islam today is, as I see
it, that Muslims have almost totally forgotten the
sunnah (Prophet’s way) of non-violence. In later
times when the Ottoman and Mughal empires
disintegrated and problems like that of Palestine
have had to be confronted by the faithfulls,
Muslims all over the world have fallen a prey to
negative reaction on a colossal scale; they have
failed to remember that the policy of Islam is not
that of violence but of nonviolence. It is the result of
this deviation, that despite almost a 100-years of
bloody wars, Muslims have achieved no positive
gain. Rather whatever they already had has been
lost by them.
