A. Rashied Omar

How do we account for the elusive nature of peace in many Muslim-majority societies? I argue that the complex justice struggles in which many Muslim social movements have been engaged in the past century have led to the erosion of the core Islamic value of compassion and, consequently, the loss of peace.

It might be expedient to begin by defining peace. A number of contending definitions exist in the literature. Those definitions of peace can be plotted on a horizontal graph, with one axis called negative peace and the other positive peace. Negative peace has also been described as a minimalist definition of peace and positive peace as a maximalist definition. Negative peace is simply the absence of war.

In contrast to this conventional definition, positive peace stresses recognition of an indirect and insidious form of violence, called structural violence. Less dramatic than overt violence, it often works slowly, eroding human values and eventually human lives. According to Norwegian peace scholar and activist Johan Galtung, violence can be built into the very structure of the socio-political, economic and cultural institutions of a society. It denies people important rights such as economic opportunity, social and political equality, and human dignity. When children die of starvation or malnutrition, a kind of violence is taking place. Similarly, when human beings suffer from preventable diseases, when they are denied a decent education, housing, and opportunity to raise a family, or to participate in their own governance, a kind of violence is taking place.

The Islamic concept of peace is closer to that of positive peace and traverses between two core values in Islam: compassion and justice. This is underscored by the strong emphasis the most primary source of Islamic guidance, the Qur’an, places on the principles of compassion and justice. Both of these ethical precepts are employed numerous times in the Qur’an. The word rahma (compassion, mercy and tenderness) and its various derivatives occur 326 times. According to Imam Raghib al-Isfahani in his famous lexicography, Mufradat al-Qur’an, the term rahma means “softening of the heart towards one who deserves our mercy and induces us to do good to him/her.” It is interesting to note that the womb of mother is also called rahm. A mother is always soft and gentle towards her children (raqiq); she showers love and affection on them.

The Qur’an uses two terms to refer to justice: qist and ’adl. These are used interchangeably and basically mean “to give someone his or her full portion.” In fact the Qur’an regards “actions for justice as being the closest thing to piety” (5:6). The Qur’anic verses pertaining to justice are often specific about those areas of social affairs wherein lapses are most likely to occur, such as the trusts and legacies of orphans and adopted children (4:3; 33:5), matrimonial relations (4:3; 49:9), contractual and business dealings (2:282), judicial matters (5:42; 4:56), inter-religious relations (60:8), economic relations (11:65) and dealing with one’s adversaries (5:8). This strong emphasis on justice has led some Muslim jurists, like the renowned Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah (d.1350 C.E.), to argue that justice is the raison d’etre of the establishment of religion: “God has sent His Messengers and revealed His Books so that people may establish qist (justice), upon which the heavens and the earth stand. And when the signs of justice appear in any manner, then that is a reflection of the shari’ah and the religion of God.” In short, the Islamic concept of peace is integrally related to the struggle for justice. It resonates with the following exhortation from Pope Paul VI, “If you want peace, work for justice.”

As important as justice may be in the comprehensive matrix of Islamic values, it is certainly not the pre- eminent one. This is underscored by the fact that al-Rahman, or the Compassionate One, is undoubtedly the most important attribute of God in Islam. It is the equivalent of the Christian preeminent understanding of God as Love. One of the most well-known Qur’anic verses with which Muslims commence any action is Bismillahir rahmanir rahim, which is translated as, “In the name of God, Most Compassionate, and Dispenser of Grace.” Compassion is so central to God’s existence that it embraces all that exists in the universe (40:7). The Qur’an describes Muhammad’s mission as rahmatan lil ‘alamin, a source of compassion and mercy to the world (21:107). It is this understanding of Islam that has allowed Muslim mystics, Sufis, to develop the doctrine of what is called sulh-i-kul — that is, peace with all, which means no violence and no aggressiveness.

I have thus far argued for an Islamic concept of peace that navigates between two core values in Islam, namely justice and compassion. I have also argued that whenever these two core values of Islam come into tension with each other, compassion trumps justice. In my view, therefore, a struggle for justice (jihad) that claims Islamic legitimacy has to locate itself within an ethos of compassion. Without compassion, struggles for justice invariably end up mimicking the oppressive orders against which they revolt. Ironically, it is precisely here that the crisis of contemporary Muslims is located and consequently where the challenge of a credible Islamic peace resides. How does one balance between the two critical concepts of justice and compassion in constructing a viable project of Muslim peace service?

The numerous struggles for social justice — the anti-colonial wars of the first half of the 20th century, the watershed Afghan war against the Soviet invasion in the mid-1980s, and the continuing struggles against secular elites in many parts of the world with Muslim majority populations — have inevitably led justice to be the key hermeneutical key through which Muslims view Islam. This obsession with justice has in turn led to an erosion of the central Islamic concept of compassion. The kind of wanton violence into which many Muslim struggles for justice have degenerated can in large measure be attributed to this phenomenon. How then can the central Islamic concept of compassion be recovered and reinvigorated such that it once again becomes part of the fabric of contemporary Muslim culture? This is indeed the critical challenge facing contemporary Muslims.

A. Rashied Omar is coordinator of the institute’s Program in Religion, Conflict and Peacebuilding. He is an imam from South Africa.

Top of Page

Home > Publications > Peace Colloquy > Issue 7, Spring 2005