Islam never tolerates the idea of communalism; it condemns tyranny, disheartening, depriving rights and killing each other and declares them as severe crimes. One may ask here: if Islam is a religion of love and regard, what about the wars that were fought in the history of Islam? They were fought during the period of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) and then during the Caliphate of four Caliphs? Also these wars were not fought all of a sudden, rather after a long planning and not fought by people themselves but rather on the instruction of the holy Qur’ān.
This question usually raises a lot of confusion because people are not properly aware of the reality of the matter.
The first thing to be kept in mind regarding these wars is that these wars were not fought to establish Islam among people by force as being propagated around the world because religion is not something to be spread by force. Religion belongs to inner consciousness and if the heart doesn’t accept it happily, there is no value of belief in the eyes of God.
The reality is that all these wars were fought against the tyranny of tyrants. These were not fought inside inhabited areas rather in open fields. These were not fought against common people rather only and only against the tyrants. In these wars, kids, the aged, women, the sick or anyone who was not willing to fight were not even touched. In these wars, inhabitants were not looted, women were not raped, animals were not butchered, trees were not cut; they were not harmed in any way outside the battlefield. Can such an example of war be cited from the whole history of wars?
There is no doubt that wars took place in the Islamic history but carried the colour of love and affection. Wars did happen but had ethical limits; and moral values were taken full care of. Wars did happen but all provisions of justice were taken full care of. All inhumane wars in human history are before our eyes; the bloody wars of ancient times and the horrible wars of modern civilized age. Is there any comparison between those horrible wars and the wars that were fought with the passion of pure love for humanity and in the welfare of humanity?
When Islam came, the world was confined in the hands of tyrants; there were only few families that had full sovereignty. Remaining masses were slaves, who were living upon the mercy of those tyrant monarchs, with no freedom and dignity at all. Islam helped humanity get rid of these merciless and selfish tyrant monarchs through Jihad and brought back dignity to people. The sense of freedom that is found today among every citizen and in every country of the world is only because of those Islamic wars.
There is one more thing to be considered here; whosoever wins a war either in history or today, loots the region and takes all wealth back to home country and leaves nothing for the defeated nation. Where has gone the wealth of Iraq and Afghanistan today?
But the methodology of the greatest leader of Islam (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) and his companions was completely different; they risked their lives for the dignity and freedom of humanity and offered all kinds of sacrifices, faced all kinds of challenges and tolerated all sorts of pain and when they emerged successful in freeing people of the country from the grip of tyrant and oppressor kings and earned them dignity, they came back empty-handed. If they stayed back, they stayed just to enlighten the country with education and civilization.
History is witness that when Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be to him), after winning the whole Arab passed away, there was no oil in his home to light the lamp.
History is also witness to the fact that when the first caliph, Abu Bakr Siddique passed away, he was buried in two old blankets. It was the time when most part of the Roman Empire was already won by them and if he had wished, he would have collected all sorts of wealth in Medina.
History is also witness to the event that when the second caliph, Umar bin Khattab travelled to Jerusalem, he was wearing clothes that had a lot of patches. It was the time when both Rome and Iran were ruled by him and the flag of Islam was waving on them and Caesar & Chosroes shivered in his fear.
These characteristics were not specific to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) and the four Caliphs, all companions of Prophet Muhammad were the same. All of their bravery and sacrifices were only in the way of God; they never took any return of their sacrifices in the world.
This is something not just to be understood by Non-Muslims but the Muslims too; Muslims should become good followers of their ancestors and become true representatives of the merciful religion on earth by their nature, behaviour, manners and lifestyle; they should spread the message of love and affection everywhere; they should never take any step in the sway of emotions.
We should never develop any rivalry with our Hindu brothers in the country nor should we fight with them the battle of rights. Rather we should become their well-wishers and try to invite them to the right path with love and warmth because our task is to give, not to take.
If they put thorns in our path, we should shower them with flowers. We should never forget the Qur’ānic principle:
“The good deed and the evil deed cannot be equal. Repel (the evil) with one which is better (i.e. Allah ordered the faithful believers to be patient at the time of anger, and to excuse those who treat them badly), then verily! he, between whom and you is enmity, (will become) as though he were a close friend. But to none is it (the above quality) granted except those who are patient, and to none is it granted except the owner of the great portion (of the happiness in the Hereafter i.e. Paradise and in this world of a high moral character).”(Surah Fussilat: 34-35)
We have the role model of our leader and guide, Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) before us.
Our Non-Muslim brothers should also understand that if a Muslim commits any crime, it’s not because the religion of Islam has taught him to do so, rather because he made a mistake in understanding the religion and following the teachings of the religion. Willingly or unwillingly by disobeying the Islamic teachings they harmed themselves, the religion of Islam and the whole humanity by misrepresenting the religion of Islam.
The burden of the mistakes of Muslims should never be put on the shoulders of Islam because it is against the reality and somebody who does that actually harms himself; he deprives himself from the greatest blessing of Allah. If you do not feel deprived today, you would certainly feel it after death; it would be the time when you would have not to come back; human beings would have nothing but to regret their actions.
This is also something to be mentioned here that there was a time when Islam ruled the world for hundreds of years but there was nothing like communalism in that government because there is no space in Islam for communalism, tyranny and oppression.
All communities of the world were involved in that government and they were engaged in the development of the nation in an environment of love and affection. The whole wealth of the nation was not spent on weaponry at that time rather on the schemes that were beneficial for the masses; as a result such a beautiful and great civilization came into existence that the whole human history is not able to cite any such example.
There was no terrorism that time; neither was there any anti-terrorism squad to curb terrorism. There was justice everywhere and everyone was equal in the eyes of constitution, both the ruler and the common man. As a result everyone was fulfilling his needs and people were living a beautiful and prosperous life in the shadow of peace and love.
Can that age of love, affection and peace come again? If yes, how is it possible? This is an important question that we all should think over.
[concluded. Translated into English by Dr. Salahuddin Ayyub]