Life and Teachings of the Prophet Muhammad
6. War and Peace in Islam
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matter we find a very important principle in Islam in a hadith
narrated by Aishah, the Prophet’s wife. While describing the
general policy of the Prophet of Islam she said that whenever the
Prophet of Islam had to opt for one of two ways he would always
opt for the easier option and discard the harder one. In all
controversial situations between two parties, attempts to solve the
problem should be made only in the peaceful sphere. Taking the
second option means attempting to solve the problem of ‘guns’
with ‘bombs’. It is this second option, which turns conflicts into war.
The life of the Prophet of Islam tells us that he adopted this
method, called the easier option by Aishah, throughout his entire
life. At least a hundred times he had to face the confrontation
produced by his opponents, but he always opted for the way of the
easier option. He could almost always avoid any head-on clash by
peaceful strategy. That is why we find that between the Prophet
and his opponents collisions took place only three times: at the
battles of Badr, Uhud and Hunayn.
Although many incidents have been termed “battles” in the
books of seerah, on examining them closely we find that these are
only different forms of avoidance and not of indulgence in war. For
instance, we find in the books of Seerah the names of battles like
Ghazwa-e-Tabuk, Ghazwa-e-Khandaq, Ghazwa-e-Makka, Ghazwa
Hamraul Asad, whereas in all these battles and a number of other
such battles the Prophet always succeeded in managing to avoid
war by employing some strategy or the other. So we can safely
conclude that peace is the rule in Islam and war is only a rare
exception.
