War and peace in Islam by Dr SLM RIFAI

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is to explore the concept of war and peace in Islam. How does Qur’an perceive the concept of war? How does Qur’an perceive the concept of peace? How does the Qur’an prescribe fighting? What are the historical and social contexts of prescribing fighting in Islam ? Is fighting a general or an exceptional practice in Islam? Why do people misunderstand the concept of jihad in Islam? This paper examines all these questions briefly. No book has been misinterpreted and misread as the Holy Qur’an has been. Muslims and Non-Muslims have been quoting the Holy Qur’an out of context for many centuries. Sometime, the Qur’anic verses are cherry-picked and interpreted wrongly without their historical and linguistic contexts. Very often, the holy Qur’an is described by many non-Muslims as a book of violence and terror without understanding its ethical and moral principles. How do non-Muslims describe the Holy Qur’an? A lot of misconceptions have been created about the Holy Qur’an in the minds of non-Muslims. A lot of non-Muslims academics, writers, journalists, and religious leaders have created all kinds of misconceptions about the Holy Qur’an without reading it contextually. One must have some contextual, historical, and linguistic knowledge of the Holy Qur’an to understand its inner dimensions and meanings. Some Non-Muslim academics read the Holy Qur’an without any mastery in Arabic linguistic conventions. As a result of this cherry picky reading, they have come into some erroneous conclusions.