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Linguistically
speaking, the word peace (Arabic salam)
carries many shades of meaning that mostly revolve
around safety, security, and kind treatment. Peace
refers to the state of forsaking war. The word salam
is derived from the Arabic root origin at-taslim,
which refers to shaking hands, and this act
denotes a great sense of kindness and friendly
feelings when interacting with other humans
(Zaki). Even in the Bible, peace is referred to as
an external quality that showers the whole society
with security and helps remove the shackles of
political enslavement. “Peace” is also the
intra-Christian greeting, but its meaning in this
regard differs from its comprehensive meaning in
Islam, as in Christianity it limitedly refers to
spiritual and deep peace brought by Jesus.
If
we ponder a while over the meanings of the word peace,
we can see that the meaning and concept are
different even within the same society. For
instance, for military men, it is something that
is opposite to war; for sociologists, it refers to
the state of leading a calm life (Zaki).
In
Islam, peace is a comprehensive word that
refers to the state of complete harmony between
all the senses in an attempt to strike a balance
between internal and external engagements. Part of
achieving peace in any society is recognizing the
reason behind one’s presence in this world and
to what extent one is capable of leading a
peaceful coexistence with other members of the
global village. It is worth mentioning here that Islam
signifies peace. A Muslim, when greeting another
Muslim or entering an assembly, wishes everybody
present peace and is rewarded with the same
prayer. The land where Muslims live is the
“abode of peace.” War, therefore, is an
abnormal state of affairs that is foreign to the
very nature of Islam. The Prophet (peace and
blessings be upon him) ordained that once peace
has been established in a certain land, it should
not be disturbed through mischief (Ahmed).
To
appreciate how Islam approaches the
question of peace, we should consider that peace
and Islam are derived from the same root
and may be considered almost synonymous in the
sense that part of the meaning of the word peace,
which is shared with the basic meaning of Islam,
is “to submit oneself to the will of Allah and
to lead one's life as per His ordinances.” In
addition, one of Allah's names is Peace. The
adjective Muslim means, in a sense,
“peaceful.” Heaven in Islam is the
abode of peace.
This
is how fundamental and dominant the theme of peace
is in Islam. The individual who approaches Allah
through Islam cannot fail to be at peace with
Allah, with himself or herself, and with the rest
of humanity. Taking all these values together,
putting human beings in their proper place in the
cosmos and viewing life from the Islamic
perspective, men and women of good maintain human
dignity so as to achieve equality, to enjoy
universal brotherhood, and to build a lasting
peace (Abdulati).
Sources:
Abdulati,
Hammudah. Islam in Focus. Cairo: Al-Falah
for Translation, Publishing, and Distribution,
1997.
Ahmed,
Gulzar. The Prophet’s Concept of War. Pakistan:
Islamic Book Foundation. 1986.
Holy
Bible, International Version.
Zaki,
Awad Bakr. “Mabda` As-Salam fi Ar-Risalat
As-Samawiyyah wakayfa Yumkin Tatbiquhu fi
Al-Mujtama` Al-Mu`asir (The Concept of Peace in
Divine Messages and How It Can Be Applied in
Modern Society).” Diss., Faculty of Theology,
Al-Azhar U, 1984.
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