Page 97 - Age of Peace Goodword.indd

The Age of Peace

Man is a rational animal. He always accepts things when
his mind is properly addressed, and Muslim militants should
certainly be no exception to this rule.
Here, I would like to narrate a very relevant story. Once on
a visit to Palestine, I found some Arab boys singing a song in
unison. One line of this was:
Halumma nuqatil halumma nuqatil fa inna al-qitala sabil
ar-rashadi
(Let us make war, let us make war, for war is the way to
success!)
I told them that it would be better if they sang like this:
Halumma nusalim halumma nusalim fa inna as-salama
sabil ar-rashadi
(Let us make peace, let us make peace, for peace is the way
to success!)
The Arab boys appreciated my suggestion and showed their
readiness to fall in line with it. But then they said that they
were surrounded by enemies. So, if they adopted peace, what
would happen?
I explained to them: ‘You have wrongly considered others
as your enemies. They are not your enemies, but your mad‘u,
people to whom God’s message has to be conveyed. According
to the Quran (85:3), Muslims are shahid (witness) and all human
beings are mashhud (the witnessed). Our duty is to convey the
message of God to all mankind.’ Then I pointed out to them
that their violent method had not yielded any result, but that
if they engaged in peaceful dawah, then God Almighty had
promised all kinds of help for this work. As the Quran says:
‘God will surely help him who helps His cause—God is
indeed powerful and mighty.’ (22:40)
The Arab boys were very pleased with what I had said and
then one of them presented me with an olive branch from a
nearby tree, as a token of peace. By taking into consideration
human nature, it can be said that this experience is applicable
to all the Muslims of the world.

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