Our Message
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan has devoted his life to the study of the original Islamic sources – Quran and Sunnah, the life of Prophet Muhammad as well as all contemporary subjects. His research in both classical Islamic learning and modern science led him to conclude that the need of the hour was to present Islamic teachings in the style and language of the post-scientific era. His life since then has been devoted to interfaith efforts and making Islam understandable to the modern man. To address the mind of seekers of truth, he presents Peace in Islam, Spirituality in Islam, Monotheistic concept of God, concept of the Hereafter the Creation Plan of God. He also removes misconceptions in Islam to reveal the true teachings of Islam. However, the most important ideology being promoted by CPS is the ideology of peace.
The Ideology of Peace
In the 21st Century man has reached the pinnacle of technological advancement. Along with the positive achievements, he is also confronted with negative influences such as stress, materialism, inequality, work and social pressures. As a result, more and more people are succumbing to negative emotions such as retaliation, intolerance and hatred. The result of such negative emotions is aggression at an individual level and violence, disharmony and eventually terrorism – the IRA of Ireland, the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka and the Islamic Fundamentalist groups – at the collective level.
Establishing peace at a global level therefore has become the # 1 priority, as it is the only way to achieve everything positive and therefore a crucial factor for human survival. No excuse, therefore, justifies the use of violence, in individual or collective life. We must maintain peace unilaterally, for nothing that we desire can be achieved without it, though at opposite poles, peace and violence result from human thinking. If one were to think of the end result, one would never indulge in violence. One should bear in mind that peace is in consonance with humanity, whereas violence means a descent to the animal level. Peaceful minds make for a peaceful world.
At CPS we believe that Peace and Spirituality both are in fact two aspects of the one truth. Positive thinking at an individual level is called spirituality; when this positive thinking reaches a collective level in society, it results in what is known as peace.
Scholars have defined peace thus: “Peace is the absence of war.” This definition is absolutely correct. Peace in fact means the absence of a situation of war or violence. However, some people hold this definition of peace to be inadequate. They say that justice should accompany peace; that peace devoid of justice is no peace. But setting such a condition for the attainment of peace is impractical. This is because peace on its own does not bring justice. That is, justice is not necessarily an element of peace. What peace does, in actual fact, is to open up opportunities. It creates favourable conditions that would enable us to strive for justice and other constructive ends. Peace is always desirable for its own sake. Everything else comes after peace, not along with peace.
But when people, ostensibly seeking justice, stoop to violence, peace can never prevail. Peace is always desirable for its own sake, and every other desirable state comes after peace, not along with it. So, the maxim to follow, when peace is the desired state, is:
‘Ignore the problems, avail of the opportunities.’
Once people become tolerant and obtain peace for its own sake, what that actually does is open up opportunities—it creates favourable conditions, which enable people to strive for their ideals, eventually attaining justice and other constructive ends. By ignoring the problems and availing the opportunities, one can obtain all that he originally was asking for—just by being patient and tolerant. This ideology of peace.
The ideology of peace has its basis in Islamic Scriptures. According to Islam, peace is not simply an absence of war; peace opens doors to all kinds of opportunities that are present in any given situation. It is only in a peaceful situation that planned activities are possible.
But the question is that if Islam is a religion of peace and gives an ideology of peace, why are so many Muslims practicing violenc in the name of jihad? There is no doubt about the fact that the terror attacks all over the world are highly condemnable. At CPS we believe that they do not have a basis in Islam. this is not jihad but fasad. Jihad is actually a peaceful ideological struggle. Let us understand this.
Terrorism in the Name of Islam
If this is not jihad but fasad then why are so many people following this and what is its solution? Present day terrorismi in the name of Islam has an ideology behind it. The ideology behind it is that Islam is a political system and that it is the duty of all Muslims to establish the political rule of Islam in the world. This kind of thinking was not prevalent during the time of the Prophet Muhammad or his early companions. It is a later innovation. This was developed over the last few centuries by a handful of people and has become widespread in the Muslim world today. This has led to the present-day violence.
A large number of Muslims, and especially many easily influenced youth, have become obsessed with this ideology and are trying to establish the political rule of Islam, thinking it to be their ticket to paradise. Having failed to achieve this objective of establishing Islamic rule by the peaceful method, they have started resorting to suicide bombing, the idea being that if we cannot eliminate non-Islamic rule, then let us at least de-stabilize it and pave the way for Islamic rule.
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, having studied Islam from its original sources—the Quran and Hadith—says with certainty that the political interpretation of Islam is an innovation and the real Islam, as followed by Prophet Muhammad and his early followers, is based upon peace, compassion and tolerance.
The Ideology of Peace is the Solution to Terrorism
However, the big question in the minds of everyone is how to solve this problem? People the world over are trying to find a solution to this menace. On the one hand, the authorities are trying to crush the terror menace through legal action; and on the other hand, reformers are trying to curb it by engaging in condemnation. However both of these methods are, apparently, proving to be ineffective. Then what is the solution?
The solution offered by Maulana Wahiduddin Khan is the Ideology of Peace. This is being spread by CPS and its global partners throughout the world. According to his assessment, the present problem of terrorism is based on an ideology and an ideology cannot be countered or killed through legal action or by mere condemnation. We have to develop a counter-ideology to overcome it.
According to UNESCO, “Violence begins from the mind”. It must, therefore, be uprooted from the mind itself. This goes directly to the root cause of terrorism. Therefore, in order to eliminate this root cause we need to initiate our efforts by beginning from the right starting point. And this starting point is the re-engineering of minds of individuals by taking them away from the culture of violence and bringing them closer to the culture of peace.
In order to explain the importance of the above, let us state two parallel examples from history. One pertains to the American campaign against Communist Russia and the other refers to the American campaign against Saddam-led Iraq. Both Communist Russia and Iraq were declared enemies of the United States of America, but while the US was successful in curbing the menace of Communist Russia, the same America failed to cope with the menace of Saddam-led Iraq. The reason behind this difference was that America met the Russian challenge at an ideological level, while it opted for military action against Saddam’s Iraq.
In fact, terrorism will persist in one form or another until the ideology of violence is countered with another ideology based on peace. Maulana Wahiduddin Khan has found this counter ideology in the Islamic sources.
We will reiterate that people consider peace as the greatest good in the world. However, peace does not prevail in the world today. This is because people the world over are acting intolerantly and indulging in acts of violence, saying,
“Give us justice and peace will ensue”.
But when people, ostensibly seeking justice, stoop to violence, peace can never prevail. Peace is always desirable for its own sake, and every other desirable state comes after peace, not along with it. You have to obtain peace for the sake of peace by becoming tolerant. As a result opportunities are created and favourable conditions to avail of these are prevailent. When people strive to avail of these in a peaceful atmosphere, they eventually attain justice and other constructive ends.
This happens due to the law of nature. When the individual refrains from making a controversial matter into one of prestige, this gives rise to serious thinking. This non-emotional thinking helps him to understand that if he were to walk out of the point of controversy he would find all other paths open to him.
According to Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, this ideology of peace based on the original sources of Islam can counter the ideology of violence. The Prophet Muhammad provides a very clear historical example of this in his method of negotiating the Hudaybiyya peace treaty. On this occasion he brought matters to a successful conclusion by unilaterally accepting all the conditions of his opponents. In this peace treaty, the Prophet had not apparently received justice or his rights. But what was in effect a 10-year no-war pact, gave the Prophet an opportunity to work uninterruptedly on a constructive programme which would otherwise have been impossible. By means of this peaceful non-political programme, the Prophet and his companions were able to consolidate themselves so thoroughly that they had no need to wage war: they were able to take control of Makkah peacefully.
From this example of Prophet, we can understand that there is no room for violence in Islam. The ideology of Islam banishes the notion that there can be anything acceptable about terrorism. Islam is a completely peaceful religion and the Islamic method is a completely peaceful method. It is for this reason that the Qur’an says ‘reconciliation is the best’ (4:128).
Because of the importance of peace, the Qur’an has clearly declared that no aggressive war is permitted in Islam. Muslims can engage themselves only in a defensive, not in an offensive war, irrespective of the circumstances (2:190). Similarly the Prophet Muhammad has observed:
“God grants to gentleness (rifq) what He does not grant to violence (unf). (Sunah Abu Dawud 4/255)
The Qur’an has this to say of the mission of the Prophet Muhammad:
"We have not sent you forth but as a mercy to mankind." (21:107)
No wonder, then, that the Prophet Muhammad so earnestly used to entreat his Lord in his daily prayer:
"O God, You are the original source of Peace; from You is all Peace, and to You returns all Peace. So, make us live with Peace; and let us enter paradise: the House of Peace. Blessed be You, our Lord, to whom belongs all Majesty and Honour!”
This is the Ideology of Peace as presented in Islam. We can say that a peace policy always serves to conquer the enemy without any bloodshed. History shows that the peace policy has always proved to be mightier than the violent method. Peace actually means life, while violence means death. Peace leads to construction, while violence leads to destruction. Likewise, peace brings progress, while violence brings annihilation. Peace enhances creativity, whereas violence does the very opposite. The power of a peace is based on love, while that of violence is based on hatred. By following the ideology of peace, each individual’s mind can be re-engineered away from the culture of violence and closer to the culture of peace.
Japan is an excellent example of using the peaceful method. Japan’s industrial cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, were destroyed by the atom bombs in 1945. After the holocaust, Japan abandoned violence and adopted a peaceful course, which it termed as a reverse course for its national development. And as a result, within forty years, Japan rapidly became a great economic power of the world.
We find another interesting example of a peaceful method in India. India’s freedom struggle was started in 1857. But, even after more than 60 years of sacrifice, the desired political goal remained a distant dream. Then, in 1920, Gandhi emerged as the leader of the freedom struggle. Taking a U-turn, he abandoned the violent method and opted for a peaceful course of action for the freedom movement.
Things took a miraculous turn after that, with the British Empire becoming paralyzed: a non-violent Gandhi had taken away from the British any justification for the use of violence. The following anecdote is an apt illustration.
When Gandhi launched his freedom movement in India by following a peaceful method instead of resorting to violent means, a British officer sent a telegram to his secretariat in these words:
“Kindly wire instructions how to kill a tiger non-violently.”
Therefore the success, which was not forthcoming, even after a long and violent struggle, was achieved by peaceful methods in a short period of time.
Go through the following links to understand our message:
Removing Misconceptions in Islam
CPS International and its global partners are striving to spread the message presented by Maulana Wahiduddin Khan throughout the world and training individuals in its principles – so that it reaches each and every home – big or small.
We invite you to become an Ambassador of Peace and help to disseminate this message worldwide.
