Scholarly Contributions | Islam

ISLAM AND PEACEMAKING

Professor Abdul Aziz Said made important contributions to understanding the relationship between Islam and peacemaking, stemming from his broader work on religion and conflict resolution. Throughout his scholarship, Said identified several Islamic peace paradigms and key Islamic peace principles, including on coexistence and cultural diversity, nonviolence, forgiveness and reconciliation, and conflict transformation, thereby highlighting opportunities for more dynamic and inclusive peacemaking. By distinguishing how an Islamic framework is different from traditional Western secular approaches, he demonstrated Islam’s unique contributions to both peacemaking within Muslim societies and building a more just and equitable world.

Said’s scholarship in peace and conflict resolution continuously pushed back on the “assumption that a universally valid (and presumably secular) framework for peace and conflict resolution already exists.”¹ Such a perspective, Dr. Said argues, implies that non-Western and religious sources are dangerous or invalid, and ultimately breeds complacency and lacks vision. Further, it denies “an essential component of healing and social restoration that permits conflicts to be experienced as resolved.”² He asserts that there is a profound need for cross-cultural and multireligious studies for peace, for “peace is not for one nation or community to impose, it is an endeavor invoking the wisdom and dreams of others through the process of learning and intercultural engagement-dialogue”³ (see Religion and Conflict Resolution). In particular, “as Islamophobia rises within the West, intra- and interreligious conflicts persist in the East, and a supposed clash of civilizations between the Western and Islamic worlds continues to dominate the headlines, a serious study of Islam and peacemaking is imperative.”⁴ For Said, (re)discovering Islamic tenets and precepts on peace supports a culture “for problem-solving efforts in the Islamic world but also broadly, in partnerships for social change and respectful intercultural relations.”⁵

Professor Said was careful to distinguish between the dominant Western-based approaches to peace and conflict resolution and Islamic approaches. He explains that while Western conflict resolution reflects an outlook of pragmatic individualism and thinks about conflict in terms of abstract problems to be solved, Islamic approaches (resembling other non-Western approaches) “frame conflicts as matters of communal, and not just individual concern and underscore the importance of repairing and maintaining social relationships.”⁶ While traditional Western approaches reduce peace to an absence of war and see it as separate from justice, Islamic approaches link peace closely with justice and human flourishing.⁷ Further, while Western approaches are underpinned by largely secular constructs and celebrate human self-determination, “Islam underscores divine purpose and human exertion.”⁸ In a 2002 co-edited book with Dr. Nathan Funk and Dr. Ayse Kadayifci titled Peace and Conflict Resolution in Islam, Said explains that, “from an Islamic point of view, the achievements of the dominant Western approach to peace are impressive, but one-sided and perhaps unsustainable … [it] puts too much faith in institutional formulas, scientific progress, and the ’invisible hand’ of competition, and too little emphasis on the need for shared values that might protect the individual and the community from misguided or harmful ventures.”⁹

Said acknowledges that practices within Muslim societies have both reflected aspects of the Western approach and have fallen far short of Islamic ideals. He explains that “like the Hippocratic Oath, no matter what Islam requires of its followers, there is still much malpractice. As with all religions, we must draw a clear distinction between theological doctrine and practice – between the teachings of Islam and the actions of some Muslims.”¹⁰ Nevertheless, he believes that understanding Islam and peacemaking offers opportunities to draw upon “what resonates the most in many people’s lives, offering key resources for peacemaking between the Western and Islamic worlds, as well as among Islamic societies.”¹¹

During his time as the Mohamed Said Farsi Chair of Islamic Peace, Said collaborated with numerous scholars and students to identify and articulate key Islamic peace precepts, values, and practices. Notably, he taught a course titled Islamic Peace Paradigms and defined the five paradigms in his 2009 book with Dr. Nathan Funk titled Islam and Peacemaking in the Middle East. “While Islam is singular with respect to its origins and primary sources,” Said explains, “its historical manifestations are many.” When certain groups claim that their actions are in the name of Islam, observers “should ask themselves which Islam is being invoked, by whom, and for what purposes,”¹² or in other words, which Islamic peace paradigm is being referenced. Said and Funk define the following paradigms: “peace through coercion” as the use of force within Islamic politics, which deals less with pure Islamic principles and more with the systems used to legitimize political authority in the Islamic world; “peace through equity” as going beyond power politics and offering an Islamic perspective on a just and cooperative world order; “peace through conciliation” as Islamic conflict resolution principles and practices; “peace through nonviolence” as Islamic nonviolent values as well as strategies and actions; and “peace through universalism” as Islamic spirituality and its potential role in religious and cultural dialogue and transformation.¹³

Said’s study of Islam and peacemaking draws on key principles in the Qur’an and hadith and sunna, or sayings and deeds, of the Prophet Muhammad, as well as historical and contemporary examples of how Islamic concepts of peace and peacemaking are put into practice. Aligned with other scholars of Islamic peace, Said points to the word Islam itself in demonstrating the fundamental role of the concept to the faith tradition: “the word Islam derives not from the name of a particular prophet or people, but from the same root as salām-silm. Silm suggests a condition of peace, security, wholeness, and safety from harm which is attained through surrender (taslïm) to the Divine.”¹⁴ The word salaam derives from the same root, and the exchange of salutations, al-salam ‘alaykum, means “may safety and peace abide with you.” Thus, from an Islamic perspective, Said says, “peace signifies an ideal state – a state of inward as well as outward equilibrium and harmony.”¹⁵ Ultimately, “one could say that peace and peacemaking is a fatwa, a holy edict.”¹⁶ Thus, according to Said humans must play an active role in maintaining peace on earth – and they “are well equipped by God for the role”¹⁷ – as well as in the care of the earth itself. He argues that while traditional Islamic humanism was “profoundly ecological in spirit,” it has been reinterpreted to justify the exercise of human power over nature.¹⁸ Humans possess a special status in Islam, he explains, yet this privilege comes with increased responsibilities. Ultimately, “the earth and its resources are placed in the care of human beings as custodians for their preservation, development, and enhancement.”¹⁹

In a 2011 chapter titled “Islam and Peacemaking” with Dr. Sheherazade Jafari, Said examines Islamic justifications for, and traditions of key concepts found within the broader peacemaking field, including coexistence and cultural diversity, nonviolence, forgiveness and reconciliation, and conflict transformation – which can also be understood as building blocks of an Islamic peacemaking framework. For instance, by drawing focus to Qur’anic verses (such as 49:13) which demonstrate that the diversity among humans is divinely orchestrated, as well as the Islamic concept of tawhid, or the oneness of God from which all beings stem, Said emphasizes the importance of coexistence and diversity within Islamic understandings of peacemaking and human rights. He explains that “although differences among cultures exist, humanity is ultimately united under the oneness of God. It is therefore necessary to know and accommodate cultural diversity, while recognizing humanity’s common origin.”²⁰ Said acknowledges that many contemporary Muslim societies struggle to live up to this principle, and there is a simultaneous “lack of respect toward diversity in the West with the growth of Islamophobia.”²¹ Yet he points to important historical examples of coexistence and cultural diversity, such as the region of Spain once known as Al-Andalus in which Muslims, Jews, and Christians not only coexisted under Muslim rule for centuries but flourished in an environment of relative tolerance – especially when compared to other parts of Europe at that time.²²

Professor Said also wrote extensively on the Islamic principle of nonviolence. While the term jihad has been greatly misunderstood within the West, he clarifies that its general meaning is “a struggle or striving against injustice and oppression.”²³ There is a distinction “between jihad al as ghar, or the lesser jihad of an armed, defensive, and jihad al akbar, or the greater jihad, an inner struggle of purification, personal sacrifice, and discipline.”²⁴ Historically, Said asserts, Islamic teachings have shown a clear preference for the inner, nonviolent struggle over any forms of violence. The Islamic world’s history is filled with stories of violent war and suffering, as is the history in many other parts of the world, yet in their chapter Said and Jafari point to both historic and contemporary examples of nonviolence, including the Prophet Muhammad’s own actions, Abdul Ghaffar Khan, who led a nonviolent struggle against the British Empire in the first half of the 20th century, and Ali Abu Awwad, who promotes nonviolence in the resistance for Palestinian rights (see Conflict Resolution ).²⁵ In a 2006 article on “Nonviolence as a Methodology of Social Change in Islam” with Dr. Benjamin Jensen, Said argues that “the rich history of nonviolence in Islam adds to the practicality of supporting nonviolent political action in the Muslim world in a distinctly Islamic culture.”²⁶ Thus, “the basis of inquiry must shift from the theoretical to the practical. That is, instead of asking if Islam supports nonviolence, the operative question is how Islamic social movements can create a culture of nonviolence by calling upon key principles and tenants of the faith.”²⁷

Forgiveness and reconciliation are critical peacemaking concepts found within many religious traditions, which provide important mechanisms and guidance to aid these deeply personal and transformative processes.²⁸ Within Islam, Said points to the fact that several of the 99 names of Allah (God) in the Qur’an evoke forgiveness, and as “humanity and human souls are understood to come from God, indeed to be of God, Islamic teachings call upon Muslims to exemplify these qualities of God.”²⁹ In his work on Islamic conflict resolution, Said draws on examples from the Prophet Muhammad’s life as well as specific Islamic teachings and practices of reconciliation that help to restore harmony between individuals and communities, including sulha, a form of mediation or arbitration with roots in pre-Islamic tribal security systems; wujaha or jaha, a delegation of community leaders who mediate between feuding people and work to maintain communal peace and restore trust; and tahkim, which also has roots in pre-Islamic culture and today serves as an unofficial alternative to official court systems in some Muslim societies.³⁰

Finally, especially toward the latter part of his career, Said wrote extensively on the concept of transformation, including from an Islamic spiritual perspective. Within the field of peace and conflict resolution, conflict transformation refers to a process that gets to the roots of conflict in order to move toward more constructive patterns of human relationships. Similar to this secular definition, Said writes that “the Islamic framework provides a conceptualization of transformation that works from the inside out, addressing what is deeply rooted at the personal level in order to come closer to God’s love and, ultimately, peace.”³¹ He focuses in particular on Tasawwuf, the Sufi branch of knowledge and mysticism in Islam that “understands the purification of one’s inner self as a way to peace, which is defined as harmony or equilibrium”³² (see Conflict Resolution and Spirituality). Said understands the Islamic affirmation of oneness with God as “not an act of isolation and withdrawal from society or materialism per se, but firmly places the individual within the community and with earthly duties … By remembering God’s love, one’s actions become loving.”³³ As one of the five Islamic peace paradigms that Said defines in his work, “peace through universalism” speaks to this connection between internal transformation, spiritual harmony, and conflict transformation and coexistence.³⁴

Although Islamic societies have not always lived up to Islamic peace principles, Said’s critical contributions in defining specific Islamic precepts and practices provide important inspiration and practical guidance for contemporary Islamic peacemaking. His efforts succeeded in further expanding knowledge within the field for the possibilities of peace, especially within the Islamic world but also beyond it.

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