Page 44 - Non-violence and peace-building

The Quranic Way of Conflict-Resolution

the ignorant and prejudicial ways of others, Muslims
react in exactly the same way. This escalates the conflict,
and then it escalates into rioting.
For instance, in 1980, the town of Moradabad in
Uttar Pradesh, in northern India, was rocked by a
deadly riot. It all started when a non-Muslim’s marriage
procession wound its way through the streets, with
music and dancing. The procession happened to pass by
a mosque. Muslims rushed out of the mosque and tried
to stop it, claiming that it was an affront to the mosque.
They tried to get the non-Muslims to take a different
route, but the latter did not agree. This confrontation
then rapidly turned into a deadly riot.

In this case, Muslims reacted to the fanaticism of
others by expressing the same sort of prejudice and
fanaticism themselves. But if, instead, they had adopted
the method that the Quran recommends, their response
would have been totally different. And then, Moradabad
would have been saved from going up in flames.
According to a hadith contained in the Musnad
of Imam Ahmad, Abdullah ibn Masud says that the
1
Prophet related that evil cannot be wiped out through
evil. Rather, evil can be wiped out through goodness.

This hadith expresses a divine principle. The entire
world is governed by this principle. And that is that in
this world, every evil can be put an end to only through
goodness. Had this not been the case, evil would have
completely overwhelmed the world.

1 A Companion of the Prophet, Abdullah ibn Masud (d. 650 C.E.)
was one of the first to accept Islam.

43