Page 72 - Non-violence and peace-building

The Sensible Way to Respond to Provocation

had claimed that inflicting damage on others was the
solution to the Muslims’ social problems, when it was
faced with a serious internal problem, it advocated
something totally different! It called for winning over
people’s hearts, as opposed to confrontation.
Just adjacent to this grand Islamic institution is a big
university. Now, this physical closeness of the university
was a continuing problem for the institution. The
students who resided in the university hostel—who were
almost all non-Muslims—routinely troubled the students
of this Islamic institution. They would abuse and throw
stones at them and make fun of them. They wanted to
provoke these students into reacting, so that they could
get an excuse to damage the institution.

This carried on for several years. Complaints were
lodged with the governmental authorities, and the
police were also contacted, but the problem remained
unresolved. Thereafter, the authorities of this Islamic
institution decided to make a wise move, which finally
resolved the longstanding issue.
The authorities of the institution decided to contact
the leaders of the students living in the university hostel.
They invited them over for tea. When the student
leaders arrived, the authorities of the institution spoke
to them very gently. They even gave them gifts. And
then, they made a proposal. They offered to conduct a
hockey match between the students of the institution
and the university. The leaders of the students agreed.

The authorities of the Islamic institution started
making preparations for the hockey match. They got

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