#TadabburTuesday – Sajid Umar Telegram Channel –

Allah Almighty says in Surah alAnfaal:

إِن جَنَحُوا لِلسَّلْمِ فَاجْنَحْ لَهَا وَتَوَكَّلْ عَلَى اللَّهِ ۚ إِنَّهُ هُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْعَلِيمُ()

Translation:

“And if they incline to peace, then incline to it [also] and rely upon Allah . Indeed, it is He who is the Hearing, the Knowing.”

Lesson:

My dear brothers and sisters, today we hear many a comment by non-Muslims regarding Islam being a religion of warfare and conflict. This message has become even more prominant today given the media attention afforded to extereme groups well known to us all, which act in the name of Islam those acts which are not from Islam . May Allah grant us all steadfastness.

The aayah I have shared for today’s #TadabburTuesday post is clear and manifest in proving that Islam is a religion of peace and only resorts to warfare if warfare is the only way to acsertain peace and stop oppression. It also establishes that the choice of ‘raising arms’ should only be used as a last resort.

There are many aayaat in the Qur’an that prove this and with regards to our discussion today; the following points prove this beyond any doubt. These points are as follows:

1- This aayah is not abrogated, according to the preferred opinion of many scholars, such as ibn Katheer and others, and thus cannot be left out of consideration in this discussion.

2- The aayah is a command towards peace and placed after the aayah commanding the believers towards becoming organised before the enemy. This placement teaches us that God Almighty has only permitted warfare as a last resort and if any opportunity for peace and a ceasefire arrives; it should be considered seriously until completion, irrespective of the harms already caused by the oppostion.

3- In aayah number 62 of Surah alAnfaal, straight after the above quoted aayah, God Almighty encourages the believers towards choosing peace and a ceasefire even if the Muslims doubt the sincerity of the opposition with regards to this break from conflict. The Muslims are commanded to judge the opposition based on the apparent and respect the ceasefire as long as the rules of the agreement between the parties are upheld.

Furthermore if we delve into the biography of the Messenger (Peace and Blessings be upon Him), we find him supporting the completion of the treaty of Hudaybiyyah even though the conditions set in the treaty favoured the polytheists and were unfavourable towards the believers. Some of the very own companions of the Messenger (SAW)) were suprised at how forthcoming the Messenger (SAW) was in allowing the polytheists to get their way.

In fact, before this treaty we have evidence of many other treaties related to peace and co-operation between the Muslims and other parties such as the Jews of Yathrib.

Further proof of this being an established part of religion is found in the many treaties struck by many of the companions of the Messenger (SAW) during the reign of Umar (Peace be upon him) several years after the death of the Messenger (SAW).

If Islam was about war and not peace; these treaties would not have gone ahead nor found in the corpus of established Islamic literature that has reached us today across the many centuries of Islam.

Indeed the Messenger (SAW) is all about peace and time and time again the Qur’an and life of the Messenger (SAW) and his rightly guided companions prove this with magmanimous certainty.

I advise my brothers and sisters to sit down with your reputable scholars and learn about Islam. Learn well and become the best explainers of Islam’s realities in the face of those who criticise it oppressively without knowledge.

In the spirit of being short and sweet, I end here and pray I have left you with enough to consider and develop many of your own views from.

I love you for the sake of Allah

Your brother,
Sajid Umar
sajidumar.com

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