Maulana Wahiduddin Khan | Speaking Tree Website | June 18, 2016

According to the divine scheme of things, it is essential that there should be complete peace in the world so that people may have total freedom to think and work undisturbed. That is the only way in which they can convert the potential of the world into actuality. When a terrorist kills a person, he, in actual fact, kills a mind. If he kills a group of people, he kills a large number of minds. Given this situation, if certain people engage in militancy in the name of a self-styled goal,they are undoubtedly indulging in an act which is entirely undesirable, because in doing so, they are jeopardising the Creator's scheme of things. The human mind has great potential, but it can only work in a peaceful atmosphere. In the absence of a peaceful environment for work, the mind's capabilities will remain unutilised- the process that unfolds the potential of the mind will be left uninitiated. In such a situation,those who perpetrate violence are indulging in an act that goes against nature. Experience also confirms the above fact.

Since the time Muslims have taken to violence in the present age, no scientific development has taken place in the Muslim world.

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The entire Muslim community has been reduced to being a taker community- unlike what it was in the past. According to a principle of nature set forth in the Quran, only those who are givers prove to be successful in the world. (13:17) Those who are engaged in violence in the Muslim community have become a permanent obstacle to the progress of Muslims. Such people should forthwith cease all their violent activities and bury their weapons, so that an atmosphere of peace may prevail in the Muslim world, thus allowing it to emerge once again as a creative community. No constructive target can be achieved by fighting. You cannot grow a tree by fighting. You cannot build a planned city by fighting. You cannot bring a developed civilisation into existence by fighting. An educated society cannot be produced by fighting. Those who are engaged in fighting clearly demonstrate that they are totally unaware of the realities of life. Trying to achieve a positive target by fighting is a grave misjudgement of both man and the Creator. The whole universe is one of peace, but this peace is compulsory in the sense that it has been externally imposed. Then God Almighty wanted to create man who could adopt self-imposed peace or have peace by choice.

For this purpose, He settled man on planet Earth and promised the greatest reward for those who could stand up to this test. Those who adopt the culture of violence go against the creation plan of God, the taking the risk of forfeiting the great reward destined for them by God. The greatest disadvantage of the culture of violence is that those who engage in it begin to live on the defensive- to the extent that they believe that they are living under siege. A mindset of this kind hampers creative thinking and leads to stagnation. This loss is so huge that there is no justification for continuing to perpetrate violence, even for a single moment.