The article also answers some FAQs (Frequently asked questions). Hope it helps our members to get a better understanding of authentic Islam.
Shalom/Salaam/peace!!
Subject: [Dahuk]: Peace: What Would Muhammad Do?
To:
The Prophet (SalAllahu alaihi wasallam) said, "Among the best of your days is Friday; so supplicate Allah more often for me in it, for your supplications will be displayed to me." He (SalAllahu alaihi wasallam) was asked,"O Allah's Messenger! How will our blessings be displayed to you when your decayed body will have mixed with the earth?" He (SalAllahu alaihi wasallam) replied, "Allah has prohibited the earth from consuming the bodies of the Prophets."
Abu-Dawud
As taken from Riyad-us-Saliheen
Peace: What Would
Muhammad Do?
By Sariya Contractor
Peace may be understood as the underpinning of all human relations and as the foundations of love, forgiveness and mercy
He bent over backwards to uphold peace in extremely difficult circumstances.
AT-TAWWAB - The Acceptor of Repentance
Except for those who repent, put things right, and make things clear. I turn toward them. I am the Ever-Returning , the Most Merciful. ( Surat al-Baqara, 2:160)
Have Tawakkul on Allah when leaving Home
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Friday, April 5, 2013
[mukto-mona] Fwd: [Dahuk]: Peace: What Would Muhammad Do?
Recently I received this article by mail. I thought I share it with everyone in this group to give them an Islamic perspective to "PEACE" and relations with our prophet Muhammad (PBUH). It points out how sustaining peace was a high priority to him and several times he made major compromises to "WIN" peace for people around him (Muslims and non-Muslims).
Date: Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 7:29 AM
Aus bin Aus (Radi Allahu anhu) reported:
Peace. What is peace?
We often talk about peace in our reactions to conflict, violence and war.
When I started writing this article, I made the same mistake as the first draft I wrote started with the word 'conflict'.
But I stopped myself from falling into the same trap that so many of us so often make – and so this article begins with Peace / Salam (Arabic) /Shalom (Hebrew) / Shanti (Hindi).
Peace that is for all of us irrespective of race, religion, gender or class.
Peace that I believe is a constant that underpins all aspects of human life and peace that prevents non-violence.
Peace as the Default Position
On Peace & Social Justice
The Oxford dictionary offers two definitions of peace.
Firstly, peace is: "freedom from disturbance" or "tranquillity".
Secondly, it is "a state or period in which there is no war or a war has ended". (Oxford Dictionaries)
It is the first definition which I think should be the one that we should all subscribe to, however more than often we think only about the second. In our information empowered world, we constantly get sound bytes about conflict: crime, gang and turf wars in local communities, towns and cities and in the international contexts wars and violence unrest in Ireland, India, Palestine, Israel, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Iraq, Greece, and this list goes on….
And so inevitably when we see books being burnt, homes destroyed, and children being killed we think about peace, but peace is much more than this. According to Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), Peace is what we greet each other with when we meet in the street and say "Assalamu Alaikum" or "peace be with you", furthermore this is a greeting we must live by.
Prophet Muhammad taught us that peace is the glue that holds communities together and sustains the world. In Islamic scripture, God Almighty has many names and one of the names of our common Creator is As-Salam or the Source of Peace. The word 'Islam' is derived from 'Salam' or Peace. Thus According to Prophet Muhammad and what he taught us God is Peace and the Islamic way of life is also peace. Peace is therefore all-encompassing and is evident in all that value.
Peace may be understood as the underpinning of all human relations and as the foundations of love, forgiveness and mercy. It is the basic building block for society. God Almighty is compassionate and peace loving – this is something that is often repeated in foundational Islamic texts. Prophet Muhammad himself is referred to as a mercy and compassion to the worlds. As Muslims, we try to emulate the Prophet and we would all benefit if, like him, we were compassionate and merciful to each other. Indeed in Islam peaceful behavior is a necessary virtue and narrations from the Prophet's life record that he said:
"Allah will not be merciful to those who are not merciful to mankind." (Al-Bukhari)
I call such peace 'everyday peace', not because it is boring or mundane but rather because this 'everyday peace' is an inherent part of our daily routines and lives. There are many examples of such 'everyday peace' in the Prophet's lifetime, most of which are easy enough for us to emulate: This 'everyday peace' is negotiated in our buses and street corners; in shopping malls and bazars; in homes within families and between siblings; in schools and offices. Conversations are its vehicle, human beings its tools and everywhere is its context. Prophet Muhammad was immaculate in his behavior towards all and was the epitome of the best of human values – generosity, politeness, justice. In the interest of peace, we need to at least aspire to be the same.
Peace as a Response to Conflict
Any treatise on peace will be incomplete without discussing Prophet Muhammad's diplomatic prowess. And much as I like to take a holistic view of peace, I cannot ignore the heart-wrenching images of burnt books, destroyed homes and dead men, women and children that I alluded to previously and which we are bombarded with on the news. What would Prophet Muhammad do to establish peace in today's world?
As I mull over this, I realize there are two sides to this problem. One is the whole issue of ethics in war – how must one behave when he engages with an enemy in armed combat? This is something that I shall return to in a future article, Inshallah, as usual drawing upon the Prophet's example. For this article on peace, I shall focus on the other side of this problem which is the process of returning to peace after a conflict or peaceful interventions to avoid conflict. In a world of diverse standpoints, philosophies and moral values disagreement is inevitable. When such disagreement is tempered by unequal power relations, marginalization and unfairness occur. This then festers in a brewing pot of bad behavior, injustice, corruption and political gain that in the end leads to either revolution or war. Sometimes conflict is for a just cause and is aimed at reclaiming for a community rights or resources that it has lost, on other occasions it is unjust and further strengthens unfair regimes. It is often difficult to distinguish why a war is being fought but what is always true is that conflict will always lead to some loss:
So what did Prophet Muhammad do?
Well, Prophet Muhammad taught us to do whatever it takes to preserve peace. He bent over backwards to uphold peace in extremely difficult circumstances. He preferred emigration to confrontation and when they faced tyranny in Makkah, he advised his companions to immigrate to Abyssinia and to Madinah. He too later immigrated to Madinah.
In Madinah, he signed treaties with different communities and forged peaceful relations with Jews and Christians. When the Muslim community grew strong and established the political power and military strength to forcibly take over Makkah, he instead signed a peace treaty with his enemies. This treaty – known as the treaty of Hudaibiyah - was so full of compromise that he was accused of 'giving it all away' and 'forfeiting Muslim interests'! A few years later, when the treaty was broken by the other side, he did lead a Muslim army to conquer Makkah. However this was a peaceful and non-violent conquest that included universal amnesty for all his enemies – both leaders and pawns.
Critics will say: "But didn't he fight wars?"
The rational reply is "Yes" he did, but these were in exceptional circumstances during which conflict was unavoidable and were mostly in self defence and governed by strict rules of ethical combat which protected the vulnerable and reduced loss of life. So even when he led an army, the Prophetic example was to encourage and preserve peace. Muslim Initiatives to Sustaining Peace
There is so much more that I could say here on this topic which is so pertinent to the current world situation but perhaps in the interests of brevity I shall end this article here with an assurance that we shall revisit this subject in the future.
However for now, let us be inspired by Muhammad, our beloved Prophet, and let us think about peace not just as something that quells war but as a concept that stands on its own and which is the default position. Peace is the status-quo of human relations that is occasionally disrupted but which is a perpetual truth, which we must constantly strive to renew and which, as humanity, we must collectively always return to.
We must reflect on our actions – what can we do to uphold peace? These can be little things – smiling at the person next door or answering your co-passenger's questions about Islam on the bus to university. Or these can be big things, news of conflict monopolises our media, can we not instead pool our resources to organize a celebration of peace – a conference where the East and West meet and where we discuss our common shared problems and also our common values – love, trust, generosity, fairness and of course a yearning for peace!
In due course, I shall write about peace again but in the meantime I shall conclude by saying, like Martin Luther King, "I have a dream". My dream is a dream of peace that is strengthened by my trust in God, my Islamic faith, my Prophet's example and my belief in the humanity of human kind.
Like Yusuf Islam, the British singer, who like me is also a convert to Islam, I too am waiting for peace and I am sure the "Peace Train" will come:
Oh I've been smiling lately, dreaming about the world as one
And I believe it could be, some day it's going to come
Cause out on the edge of darkness, there rides a peace train
Oh peace train take this country, come take me home again.
As stated earlier, humanity was created ignorant and ungrateful, and therefore is vulnerable to sins, mistakes, and weaknesses. This aside, Satan constantly tempts people and strives to plant vain desires and deviance in them. Yet, no matter how great one's mistakes and sins are, there is always a way out: sincere repentance and His ensuing forgiveness. For this reason, we should never lose hope, regardless of what we have done. In the Qur'an, Allah states:
Say: "My servants, you who have transgressed against yourselves, do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Truly Allah forgives all wrong actions. He is the Ever-Forgiving, the Most Merciful." ( Surat az-Zumar, 39:53)
Meanwhile, there is a very important point we need to keep in mind:
Allah only accepts the repentance of those who do evil in ignorance and then quickly repent after doing it. Allah turns toward such people. Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise. There is no repentance for people who persist in doing evil until death comes to them and who then say: "Now I repent," nor for people who die as unbelievers. We have prepared for them a painful punishment. ( Surat an-Nisa', 4:17-18)
Clearly, Allah accepts the repentance of His sincere servants, for their regret and commitment to abandon their sinful behavior is real. Even clearer is the fact that the death-bed repentance of an unbeliever is meaningless. The Qur'an gives the example of the Pharaoh's insincere repentance:
We brought the tribe of Israel across the sea, and Pharaoh and his troops pursued them out of tyranny and enmity. Then, when he was on the point of drowning, he said: "I believe that there is no deity but Him in whom the tribe of Israel believe. I am one of the Muslims." What, now! When previously you rebelled and were one of the corrupters? (Surah Yunus, 10:90-91)
And also toward the three who were left behind, so that when the land became narrow for them, for all its great breadth, and their own selves became constricted for them and they realized that there was no refuge from Allah except in Him, He turned to them so that they might turn to Him. Allah is the Ever-Returning, the Most Merciful. ( Surat at-Tawba, 9:118)
Were it not for Allah's favor to you and His mercy … and that Allah is Ever-Returning, All-Wise. ( Surat an-Nur, 24:10)
http://www.harunyahya.com/en/works/16806/AT-TAWWAB---The-Acceptor-of-Repentance
Dua Upon Going Out of the Home
The Messenger of Allah
Bismillah, tawakkaltu `ala 'allah, la hawla wa la quwwata 'illa bil-lahi ta`ala,
[I put my trust in Allah, there is neither might nor strength, except by Allah, the Most High]
it is said to him:
"You have been sufficed, protected, and guided, and the shaytan would move aside from him, then say to another shaytan: What access do you have to a man that has been guided, sufficed, and protected?"
Reporters
Reported by Abu dawood, An-Nisa'ee , and At-Tirmithi and he said it was comely-sound. Al-Albani said it is as At-Tirmithi said; rather, he said, it is sound, and he said that Ibn Hibban also reported it in his Saheeh. Al-Albani included this hadeeth in The Authentic of Good Sayings as #44.
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