Page 60 - Non-violence and peace-building

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Responding to Provocation

through Patience

uppose a situation arises that threatens to turn
Sinto violence between two communities. There are
two ways to respond to this. One way is by exercising
patience. The other way is to get agitated. If you get
agitated, it is bound to only further escalate the conflict
and degenerate into violence. On the other hand, if you
control yourself and exercise patience, the problem will
be nipped in the bud and soon finished off.

Here, I would like to cite some instances to illustrate
how by exercising patience, one can douse the flames of
communal conflict.
Once—this was way back in the 1960s—it so happened
that a Muslim man beat a cow that belonged to a non-
Muslim. This was in Lucknow, in the vicinity of the Dar
ul-Uloom Nadwat ul-Ulema, which is one of India’s
largest madrasas or Islamic seminaries. The cow was
badly injured, and it soon died.
When the non-Muslims of the area heard that a
Muslim had killed a cow, they were enraged. A large

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