Page 49 - Non-violence and peace-building

Non-violence and Peace-building in Islam

firm conviction that the only thing of importance for
them is truth and that all other matters are secondary,
they will become engrossed in other issues if they acquire
dominance in society. In this way, they will give birth
to new social problems. If they have not risen above
the psyche of revenge, after acquiring political power
they will start killing off their former enemies, causing
their societies and countries to become so weak that it
will become impossible to manage them. If they have
not developed the power of tolerance, they will unleash
war against every person or group who might hurt their
egos. If, stirred by their emotions, they lose control of
themselves, in the name of ending one evil they will
only succeed in producing many more.
Whenever you face an unpleasant situation at the
hands of someone, you generally think just one thing:
“This man is my enemy! I must suppress or fight him!”
But this is a very wrong way to estimate a person. God
has placed great flexibility in the human psyche. It is a
proven fact that human beings do not remain in one
state all the time. Rather, they keep on changing. To
exercise tolerance means to wait for the manifestations
of human possibilities that emerge from this ever-
changing nature of human beings. Islam stresses the
importance of patience precisely because one should
wait for a future period to come to pass when the
latent potentials hidden inside people can manifest
themselves.

Some people go to extremes in their opposition to
others by turning aggressive. But in this world that God
has made to test human beings, your opponents too,

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