Q&A: If Prophet of Islam preached peace and tolerance how come there are so many war mongers amongst Muslims who take cues from the same life?

If Prophet of Islam preached peace and tolerance how come there are so many war mongers amongst Muslims who take cues from the same life?

A short answer:

It is a questions that bothers many a people and we do need to consider why such is the case. Like any other social phenomenon there are many perspectives to be investigated. Let us begin with the Arab Custom of narrating tales. The pre-Islamic Arab society was a war torn community wherein a murder was remembered for generations and vengeance was sought for decades generation after generation. The Arabs would compose poems and ballads on this theme, narrating the tales of a tribe’s valor and success and the defeat of some other tribe(s).

The Prophet’s (saw) life was no different in these terms. It had its share of wars. In fact since he was to revolutionize the society, there were more wars fought. After the Prophet (saw) the narratives about the Muslim valor in wars became the mainstream narrative. Religion and its principles were there in Quran and the Muslim practice and many scholars and jurists tried to put them in books, but the discussions on the life of the Prophet (saw) revolved around the battles. That is probably why the earliest books on the life of the Prophet (saw) were titled “Maghazi”  i.e. stories of military expeditions.

Unfortunately stories about wars were not narrated as they revolved around the life of the Prophet (saw), the Prophet’s (saw) life was narrated as revolving around the wars, this is the case even today. This has a very profound effect! You see such an effect on the thinking of ISIS sympathizers, for them the life of Prophet (saw) is Maghazi, while the entire Meccan period is brushed under the carpet and so is the Charter of Madina or The Treaty of Hudaibiyya, or Conquest of Mecca and many other examples which make an overwhelming majority of the Prophet’s (saw) life.

In the previous paragraphs the word “war” has been used. War in the modern context conjures pictures derived from contemporary experience of war. Lack of a better word and the fact that such words have been continuously used for centuries, adds to the confusion. Take for example the “Battle” of Trench, the two warring factions would hardly meet, only isolated incidents of the crossing of swords is mentioned in the Maghazi literature. The world “battle” creates a mental picture of hundreds (if not thousands) of deaths, in case of the Face-off of the Trench the deaths range from 1-15 depending upon how liberal you wish to be with your sources and many of these deaths are not directly related to “war” but with harsh climatic conditions. Battle against Qaynuqa has no casualty whatsoever, similar is the case with Battle against Nadir. History books talk about approximately 80 such battles. Such a large number of battles creates an image of a death and destruction. Truth be told, of these 80 only about 20 involved any actual fighting! Obviously, most battles involved no casualty at all. However, since the words used in literature include words like “wars” and “battles” the mental picture forces the modern conceptions of war on the Prophetic “wars”.

Another thing that is to be noted is the conditions in which Islam existed during its days of glory. It seems to me that when Islam entered the lands far away from Arabia as a state religion, Islam was made to appear as an expansionist force. And many a times the narrative surrounding Quran and Islam was put forward in such a way so as to boost the morale of the invading armies. An example is that of the translation of the Surah 2 Aayah 208. While Muslim have known that Islam comes from root words “s-l-m” which means “peace” yet while translating the word “slm” in the aayah, the translators chose to use the word “Islam” rather than “Peace”. Thus the translation would read, “Enter into Islam completely” while the translation could have been “Enter into Peace completely”.

Yet another point to be noted is that certain Quranic discourses are placed outside their Quranic context, Arabian atmosphere and Prophetic custom. Quran was revealed in pieces and bits as per the needs of the occasion, and at times before and after wars and sometimes as a declaration of war. Quran is to be read in the relevant context, if the context is removed, any book can be dangerous. For brainwashed Muslims usually do not open the book themselves nor do they make an active effort to understand it, it becomes easy for them to get misled by certain Quranic discourses read outside their proper context.

By far the most important of all the causes is the Political turmoil forced upon the Muslim world. The political atmosphere surrounding Muslims adds to the chaos in proportions unthinkable. Where do the oppressed Muslim look towards for inspiration? In fact the question should be “where should the Muslims look towards for inspiration?” Muslim preachers, militants, revolutionaries try to search for inspiration from Prophet’s (saw) life for their militant activities. It is not that the Prophet’s (saw) life that makes them militant or violent, but their political aspirations and atmosphere  drives them to militancy and violence and they tend to find inspirations and justifications for their actions in the Prophet’s (saw) life. As the old saying goes, “you see what you want to see”.

There is a whole lot that can be added, but this much should suffice for now! You may think and ponder upon arguments presented in each paragraph.

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