Non-Violence and Islam
Non-Violence and Islam
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time God commanded the believers to break this
coercive system in order to usher in freedom, so
that all doors of spiritual and material progress
might be opened to man.
This mission was undertaken and brought to a
successful conclusion at the internal level within
Arabia during the life of the Prophet. Later, during
the pious caliphate, the Sasanid and Byzantine
empires were dismantled with special divine
succour. Consequently, intellectual oppression at
the international level was replaced by intellectual
freedom.
In this connection those traditions are worth noting
which are enshrined in
Sahih al-Bukhari
. When, after
the fourth caliph Ali ibn Abi Talib, political conflict
ensued between Abdullah ibn Zubayr and the
Umayyads, Abdullah ibn Umar, the seniormost
companion of the Prophet held himself aloof from
the battle. People approached him and, quoting the
verse of
qital-al-fitna,
asked him why he was not
joining in the battle. Abdullah ibn Umar replied that
‘fitna
’ as mentioned in the Qur’an did not refer to
political infighting, but rather to the religious
