Peace of Mind is Most Important
The mind is the greatest faculty of man and peace is the most favourable environment in which the mind can function to its full capacity.
The mind is the greatest blessing of the Creator. All the great achievements of the world have been as a result of the functioning of the mind. But it requires peace to function smoothly, as without peace one cannot proceed normally.
The Roman Empire ruled the greater portion of Europe and Africa for about 2,000 years. However, there was no scientific development during this long period. Historians generally attribute this phenomenon to the lack of freedom of thought under the Roman rule. Anyone who expressed dissent from the view of the king was put to death. The watchword of this period was that ‘the king could do no wrong’. Thus only one person was allowed to think freely and the thinking process of all others was severely constrained. This atmosphere naturally led to intellectual stagnation.
The French Revolution of 1789, in putting an end to the hereditary monarchical system of governance, marked the dawn of a new democratic era in the world. The democratic culture gave every person the freedom to think. If earlier only the king could think, now every individual person was free to think. In this way the thinking process was increased by a billion times over. This intellectual revolution meant that scientists were now intellectually unfettered and had every opportunity to think freely and make new discoveries.
For example, it was due to scientific research that the means of communication, which had been hidden in nature in the form of potential, became a concrete reality. Indeed, according to God’s creation plan, everything in this world has always been in its potential form—including all the amenities of the modern age.
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 unutilized—the process that unfolds the potential of the mind will be left uninitiated.
But those who are engaged in militancy are running counter to this creation plan of God and in doing so, they are destroying peace. 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 jeopardizing 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 unutilized—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. 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 this 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.
In those countries where terrorism exists, the work of education and scientific development comes to a halt. On the contrary, in countries where there is no terrorism, progress goes unabated in every field. This bears out the old adage that peace promotes all kinds of progress, while violence endangers all kinds of constructive activities.
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 civilization 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 misjudgment 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 the 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, thus 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.
