The Prophet Muhammad A simple Guide to his Life
The Power of Peace
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times what the believers have to do so is to
peacefully exploit the existing opportunities in non-
political fields by avoiding any confrontation in the
political field. These injunctions of the Prophet were
so clear that the religious scholars formed a
consensus that, staging an insurrection against the
rulers was unlawful, and therefore to be totally
avoided in all circumstances.
In the commentary of Sahih Muslim, Imam an
Nawawi, commenting on the traditions in the
chapter
‘Al-Imarah:
writes: “Do not adopt the way of
confrontation with the rulers in the matter of their
power. If you find them going against Islam, you
should try to make the truth clear to them by
sincere counselling. So far as launching campaigns
and taking up arms against them to oust them from
positions of power is concerned, that is unlawful by
the consensus of Muslims, even if the ruler is evil
and a tyrant
(Sahih Muslim bi Sharh an Nawawi,
12/229).
This injunction of the Prophet of Islam, as made
clear above, was based on extremely important
considerations. The truth is that in the first phase
