Peace is not prevalent in the world as people the world over are acting intolerantly and indulging in acts of violence, saying, “Give us justice and peace will ensue.” But when people, ostensibly seeking justice, stoop to violence, peace can never prevail. Peace is always desirable for its own sake, and every other desirable state comes after peace, not along with it. When peace is the desired state, the maxim to be followed is: Ignore the problems, and avail the opportunities.
Once people become tolerant and obtain peace for its own sake, it opens up opportunities to strive for their ideals. Eventually this leads to justice and other constructive ends.
This ideology of peace can counter the ideology of violence and is based on the original sources of Islam. The Prophet of Islam provides a great historical example in his negotiation of the Hudaybiya peace treaty by unilaterally accepting all the opponents’ conditions. While not receiving justice or rights, he gained a 10-year no-war pact. This gave him and his Companions an opportunity to work uninterruptedly on a constructive program. Using this peaceful non-political program, they were able to consolidate themselves so thoroughly that without waging war they acquired Makkah peacefully.
This example shows that Islam is a truly peaceful religion and the Islamic method is a completely peaceful method.
4,000 years ago, Prophet Ismail built a mosque in Makkah, called the Sacred Mosque. It was meant for the worship of one God. Later people settled down in Makkah and many came from outside. Interaction led to growth of polytheism. Arab leaders used polytheism to their advantage. In Arabia, every tribe had a god. Every tribe worshipped a different god.
The Makkan leaders placed all these idols in the Kabah, so that people from all over Arabia could come to pay their respects, hold markets and do religious tourism. This situation helped the Makkan leaders. The Prophet realized there were idols in Prophet Ibrahim's Kabah, but he did not get provoked. There is no example of the Prophet becoming provoked and breaking the idols. Had the Prophet broken the idols, it would have gone against wisdom.
The Prophet saw that due to these idols, there were gatherings at the Kabah. People came to worship the idols and pay obeisance. The Prophet realized that he had access to people from all over Arabia. The Prophet did not travel throughout Arabia. He did not journey to different regions in Arabia. Because people from all over Arabia would come to Makkah, participate in fairs and hold markets here. The Prophet used these people as audience. He ignored the idols and utilized the gathering as audience. This was wisdom. The Prophet ignored the presence of idols in the sacred Kabah. Instead he utilized the gathering at the Kabah as audience. This was Prophet's wisdom and model. The Quran says that the Prophet teaches wisdom. (3:164)
The teachings of the Quran are available to us in the form of the copy of the Quran. The Prophet's teachings of the Quran are available to us in the form of the Quran copy. But where is the Prophet's example of wisdom? We will have to understand this in an applied way. The situations of every age undergo change. We will have to discover wisdom in an applied way. Then we will be able to know it. Wisdom is to ignore certain things and utilize opportunities. People are unaware of this.
