Maulana Wahiduddin Khan | Sunday Guardian | Aug 16, 2020
Some people bracket justice with peace, but Islam does not subscribe to this notion. Islam believes in peace for the sake of peace. According to Islam, justice is not the direct result of peace. Peace only provides a framework within which we may work towards justice. There are so many examples in the life of the Prophet, which prove that the Prophet never bracketed justice with peace.
He always took peaceful circumstances as an opportunity to work for justice and did not attempt to derive justice directly from peace. The treaty of Hudaybiyya, between the Prophet and his opponents, provides one such clear example. From the details of the peace treaty, it is clear that no clause regarding justice was included. Obviously, the conditions of this treaty were quite against justice. But the Prophet accepted this treaty, not because it was giving them justice, but because it was paving the way to work for justice.
It is no exaggeration to say that Islam and violence are contradictory to each other. The concept of Islamic violence is so obviously unfounded that, prima facie it stands rejected. The fact that violence is not sustainable in the present world is enough to convince one that violence as a principle is quite alien to the scheme of things in Islam. Islam claims to be an eternal religion and such a religion cannot afford a principle in its scheme which will not be sustainable in later periods of human history
No wonder, then, that Prophet Muhammad so earnestly used to entreat his Lord in his daily prayer: “O God, You are the original source of Peace; from You is all Peace, and to You returns all Peace. So, make us live with Peace; and let us enter paradise: The House of Peace. Blessed be You, our Lord, to whom belongs all Majesty and Honour!”