Page 75 - Non-violence and peace-building

Non-violence and Peace-building in Islam

Do you think you can draw lessons only from these
three days and nothing at all from those 30 years?”
I further added, “This isn’t something linked to
only a particular community. It actually relates to every
person and to every community. The fact is that within
each human being there is a devil, who is fast asleep.
This devil is anger. As long as you allow this devil of
anger inside others to remain asleep, you can live in
peace and security. But if you do something foolish
and cause this devil to wake up, it will do everything
that it can to harm you. It has nothing to do with any
particular community. It applies to Muslims in exactly
the same way as it does to others.”

“This, in brief, is the root of all communal riots,” I
explained to the man. “Riots always emerge from anger
and the desire for revenge. The fact is that God has
not made a single person who in ordinary conditions
is angry and vengeful. No one is perpetually angry, and
nor is anyone always vengeful. Anger and vengefulness
are results of temporary, not permanent, conditions. If
some people were always angry and vengeful, even in
normal or general conditions, there would be riots all
the time, at every single moment! We would not have
had a single day of peace and security, leave alone the
30 years of peace that your city enjoyed!”
Islam teaches us to avoid getting provoked by others.
In this way, conflict can be prevented. This principle of
avoidance is the most effective solution to every kind of
conflict. But you can act according to this principle only
if you surrender yourself to God’s Will. Otherwise, if
you disobey His Will, you will carry on waking up other

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