Non-Violence and Islam
Non-Violence and Islam
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avoidance of war and not instances of
involvement in battle.
For instance, in the books of
Seerah
, the incident of
Al-Ahzab is called a
ghazwa
(battle), whereas the
truth is that on this occasion the armed tribes of
Arabia, twelve thousand in number, reached the
borders of Madinah with all intentions of waging
war, but the Prophet and his companions dug a
deep trench between them, thus successfully
preventing a battle from taking place. The same is
the case with all the other incidents called
ghazwa.
The opponents of the Prophet repeatedly tried to
get him embroiled in war, but on all such
occasions, he managed to resort to some such
strategy as averted the war, thus defusing the
situation.
There were only three instances of Muslims really
entering the field of battle—Badr, Uhud and
Hunayn. But the events tell us that on all these
occasions, war had become inevitable, so that the
Prophet was compelled to encounter the
aggressors in self-defence. Furthermore, these
battles lasted only for half a day, each beginning
