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23 The Metaphysical Roots of War and Peace Many look to religion with the idea that its help can be enlisted to establish world peace. But religion—if one can speak in generalities—does not acknowledge any principles higher than its own, not even the survival of the human race. Asked to help establish peace, it will do so in its own way or not at all. In the general Western view, Islam is one of the most warlike of all religions. Stereotyped opinions, coupled with the fact that few people have the patience to delve into the principles and “myths” underlying surface appearances, make the task of presenting Islam’s actual views on war and peace especially difficult. Only by probing deeply into Islamic ways of thinking, however, can we hope to understand Muslim views of the current situation. Once we have taken a step toward understanding Islam, perhaps we will find the appropriate language with which to “enlist” its help in establishing true peace in the world. I would like to clarify the basic Islamic view of peace and war, on the assumption that real and effective cooperation with Muslims can only be undertaken after we have reached a genuine understanding of how they perceive the human situation. We cannot ask followers of Islam to propose “practical” and “concrete” cures for present crises unless we first listen with a sympathetic ear to their diagnosis of the disease. It is important for the reader to realize at the outset that what is being discussed here is the religion of Islam as set down in its fundamental texts, not necessarily the opinions of contemporary Muslims. No Muslim today would claim that the community as a whole lives up to the ideals established by the Koran and the Prophet’s Sunnah. All agree that a distinction must be made between what Islam teaches and what Muslims think and do. At the same time, differences of opinion among present-day Muslims as to what in fact Islam does teach—especially when it is a question of applying these teachings to the contemporary situation—run deep. Any attempt to sort out these different opinions, even in the limited domain of peace and war, would require a lengthy study. At present, we will only deal with the underlying Islamic principles that are more 277 278 / In Search of the Lost Heart or less agreed upon by all Muslims, whether or not everyone would express them in the terms employed here. The question of how to deal with the present situation on a practical level will have to be answered by those Muslims who wish to live in accordance with their own tradition. To discuss the political reality of peace and war within the Islamic context, we need to understand how Islam views these two concepts in a general sense. English dictionaries tell us that peace can be defined as “freedom from war,” while war can be called “a state of hostility, conflict, opposition, or antagonism between various kinds of forces.” These definitions prove a starting point from which to approach the specifically Islamic way of looking at peace and war as set down in the fundamental source for all Islamic thought and activity, that is, the Koran. Once the general Islamic sense of the two terms is clear, we can turn to the specific issue of how traditional and normative Islam would strive to establish peace in today’s world. Since all Islamic thinking begins with God, or, more specifically, with the first Shahadah (which is considered to be a unique certainty upon which all other truths depend), our initial task is to answer the following question: In the Islamic view, how do peace and war relate to God and to the Shahadah? “Peace” (al-salåm) is a name of God. The Koran uses the name once: He is God; there is no god but He. He is King, Holy, Peace, Faithful, Preserver, Mighty, Compeller, Sublime. Glory be to God above everything they associate with Him. He is God, the Creator, the Maker, the Form-Giver. To Him belong the names most beautiful. All that is in the heavens and the earth glorifies Him. He is Mighty, Wise (59:23–24). These few sentences epitomize Islamic theology. More specifically, they express two ideas about God found throughout the Book—incomparability and similarity, or transcendence and His immanence. “Peace” fits into the category of the “negative” divine names, which assert God’s incomparability. It...

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