Peace and Military Engagement in the Qur'an and in the Action of the Prophet Muhammad

This chapter argues that the Prophet Muhammad practiced a deliberate strategy of peace and diplomacy to deal with the conflicts of his time. The fact that the Qur’an includes verses that discuss warfare and that the Prophet Muhammad lead armies in a number of battles may seem counter-intuitive to a God-revealed religion. The historical evidence suggest that, this aspect of Islam is actually an advantage rather than being a liability. Since warfare has been around since time immemorial and that inevitably people will find themselves in some defensive warfare and international conflict, a religion like Islam would have to provide guidelines in this area as well. As a result of these guidelines, we do not see any holocausts, holy wars, inquisitions, systematic rape of women and mass murder of civilians in Muslim history. Without the guidelines of the Qur’an and the example set by the Prophet Muhammad in warfare, the Muslim history, in fact the world history, would have transpired quite differently for the worst indeed.