Peacemaking and Peacemakers in the Great Reading

david_rs_aitken

Peacemaking and Peacemakers in the Great Reading
(Islam wa al-Muslimun fi al-Quran al-Adhim)

Peacemaking is the natural obligation of humanity. Everyone knows what peace is; it's a universal concept. Children know that peace during playtime means not being too loud, not saying bad things, not hurting anyone, not damaging anything, and not disputing in activities. During playtime, if a child sees two other children disputing over an activity, he or she can choose to make peace by pointing out a greater selection of activities or suggesting a system for sharing the activity equitably. So, even children know how to be peacemakers. Some people make peace for the god, others make peace for other reasons. For example, I once had a chance to speak with an exiled American academic regarding his peacemaking activism in Palestine. In 2008 I asked him about faith and he wrote to me, "It happens that I am a non-believer, but it is not an important factor in my life".

According to the great reading, peacemaking comes before faith

4914 The nomads said, "We have believed." Say, "You have not believed; but say 'We have made peace' so that faith will enter your hearts'."

Only after becoming peacemakers did they have a chance of becoming believers. Even after making peace, many people have done it for human reasons, rather than for the god

4917 They (think) they are gracing you in that they made peace. Say, "You are not gracing me with your peacemaking. No, the god has graced you that he guides you to faith, if you are truthful."

The fact that they think they are gracing us with their peacemaking indicates ignorance, so peacemaking does not guarantee faith. Plenty of atheists work for world peace but are never intelligent enough to attain faith. Peacemaking is obviously not exclusive to faithful people - how many atheists strive to end wars? It's a fact anyone can verify millions of people make peace for human reasons, rather than for the god.

Now, we know better, thanks to the god

319 The obligation at the god is peacemaking.
392-3 Serve the god; the obligation exclusively for him. To him is the exclusive obligation.
2256 There is no forcing in the obligation.

So, even if people make peace for the wrong reasons, there is no forcing them to do it for the god. But peacemaking is the natural obligation of humanity.

The story of Solomon in 2715-44 proves that "islam" means peacemaking and "muslim" means peacemaker. There are 4 chronological events that take place

Solomon asks the leader of Sheba to make her people peacemakers.
She sends him a gift but does not commit to lasting peace, or even mention peace in correspondence.
Solomon threatens her.
In the end, she finally makes peace. Her peace happens to be for the god, which is good but not always the case (4917 above).

There are important details in between, but I wish to focus on the part about peacemakers ("muslimun&quot.

...

2729-33, 35-37 and 44
She said, "O you chiefs, I received an honorable letter. It is from Solomon and it is in the name of the god, the almighty, the merciful. It says 'Do not rise against me, and come to me as peacemakers'."

She said, "O you chiefs, advise concerning my command. I will not make a command until you testify."

They said, "We have strength and we have mighty power. The command is yours so see what you will command."...

(She said,) "I am sending them a gift; I will see what the messengers return with."

So, when it came to Solomon he said, "Do you reinforce me with wealth? What the god has given me is better than what he has given you. No, it is you who are happy with your gift. Return to them; we will come to them with soldiers/forces they cannot face. We will evict them humiliated, feeble."...

She said, "Lord, I have wronged myself, and I make peace with Solomon for the god, lord of the worlds."

If we apply the sectarian view of surrendering/submitting to the god, the sequence would be

Solomon asks the leader of Sheba to make her people surrender/submit to the god.
She sends him a gift but does not commit to surrendering/submitting to the god.
Solomon threatens her.

Why would Solomon threaten her with attack if she was peaceful? He wouldn't. He threatened her because she refused peace, and he was a peacemaker.

4816 Say to the nomads who stayed behind, "You will be called on to fight a people who have mighty power unless they make peace."

Sectarian view

"You will be called on to fight a people who have mighty power unless they surrender/submit to the god."

Why would we be fighting people to turn them to the god? We wouldn't. We fight only in self defense until peace is made, and we are peacemakers. Even captives of war must be freed and treaties must be established. The great reading is a book of peace.

PEACE NOW / SALAM AL-AN /

Salam = Peace
Islam = Peacemaking

This is my understanding, may the god improve it.

Peace,

-David

areej_aitken

I agree with your understanding and I think peacemaking makes more sense.

unknownuser

Peace David

I think thats exactly it is. thanks for sharing with us.

, are attributes of God used in verse 5923

http//www.submission.org/efarsi/arabic/Surat59_files/59_23.gif

He is Allah, besides Whom there is no god; the King, the Holy, the Giver of peace, the Granter of security, Guardian over all, the Mighty, the Supreme, the Possessor of every greatness Glory be to Allah from what they set up (with Him).

Momin is translated as "believer" but if we translate it as in above verse, our behaviour/role in a society changes dramatically!

Wakas

peace David, all,

Whilst it is true in normal everyday conversation people often say "islam" means "submission/surrender to God", however I am not so sure if Traditional commentators say the word itself means this and this is its meaning everywhere in AQ. For example I checked Ibn Kathir and Al Jalalayn on 4816 and they did not state what you implied they might. They simply translate it as "surrender/submit".

Thus, at most, your article could be said to come to the conclusion of against the meaning of "submission/surrender to God" "peacemaking" fits better for "islam", which I think many would agree with. However, does it fit better than simply "submission/surrender"? That is a different story.

Also, I do not think your rendering of Solomon's story is entirely correct, e.g.

Solomon asks the leader of Sheba to make her people peacemakers.

No. The message she receives tells them "come to me/Me as muslimeen".

She sends him a gift but does not commit to lasting peace, or even mention peace in correspondence.

Maybe there is no mention of "peace" because this is not even relevant?

Solomon threatens her.

Are you sure? See M. Asad's understanding, www.quranix.net

Why would Solomon threaten her with attack if she was peaceful? He wouldn't. He threatened her because she refused peace, and he was a peacemaker.

Is this likely considering Solomon was unaware of who they were? 2722-28. He did not even know how they would react to his letter. Also, not only did Sheba not react in a hostile manner, her action throughout was not of a war-mongerer.

And last by no means least, any such study must make use of cross-reference, and deal with any potentially problematic occurrences for your understanding. I'm sure you already know this, but it was not mentioned, hence my mentioning.

FAR

I believe peace making would involve the concept of we do for the god, and the god also does for us.

It adds to the concept of submitting. That we first do for the god. And the god tells us what to do.

One is in the form of information and orders (I cannot think of which of the god's name would describe this perhaps as al malik) and the other in the form of resources (one of allah's names as Sustainer) given for services done.

We may have to consider the root of Seen-Lam-Meem as according to all the names of the god if possible.

Am I making any headway here?

http//www.parvez-video.com/99_name/Allah/page1/index.asp

david_rs_aitken

Peace Wakas,

Thank you for your feedback.

The message she receives tells them "come to me/Me as muslimeen". ... See M. Asad's understanding, www.quranix.net

Obviously I already checked with Asad and I categorically reject any idea that the honorable letter from Solomon was actually a letter from the god, or that it was a group effort between the god and Solomon. There is nothing to indicate that the letter contained the words of the god. The letter was in the god's name, but Noah even sailed his watercraft "bism allah" (in the god's name), according to 1141.

And last by no means least, any such study must make use of cross-reference, and deal with any potentially problematic occurrences for your understanding. I'm sure you already know this, but it was not mentioned, hence my mentioning.

It was not mentioned because it goes without saying. I believe your issue with "islam" being the action of "salam" (if3al) was addressed last year

http//free-minds.org/forum/index.php?topic=9598099.msg197347#msg197347
http//free-minds.org/forum/index.php?topic=9598099.msg197364#msg197364
http//free-minds.org/forum/index.php?topic=9598099.msg197499#msg197499
http//free-minds.org/forum/index.php?topic=9598099.msg197582#msg197582

Now, if we don't pretend that Solomon's letter was the god's letter, what do we have? A letter telling her to come as a peacemaker. Perhaps her gift was more like a bribe. All throughout human history there have been aggressive imperial powers who were far from peacemakers, hence Solomon's letter as a call to peace/salam.

Edip_Yuksel

I have not yet read the article, but I have decided long time ago to translate Islam as Peacemaking and Muslim as Peacemaker.

I am in the process of revising my one of my old articles discussing this issue in detail.

Peace,
Edip

warner

Salam David

There is an interesting thread by Ayman on this subject "introduction to peacefulness" here http//free-minds.org/forum/index.php?topic=13069.0.

The Queen of Sheba was running her kingdom peacefully. She was so peaceful Sulaiman never even heard of her. She did not plan to attack or capture Sulaiman?s Kingdom and she was not a threat. When Sulaiman sent the letter to the Queen she sent a messenger with gifts, which I found to be quite a peaceful thing to do. Sulaiman returned the gift and threatened to attack her if she does not march to him.

I personally did not find Sulaiman to be very peaceful.

Every derivative of the root SLM will not include the meaning peace, surrender or surrender to God.

Interestingly one of the Hebrew meanings for the corresponding word is allegiance.

Wakas

peace David,

Rejecting an alternative view is fine (e.g. Asad's) however it should be noted that you did not refute by way of evidence.

Secondly, this point was not addressed previously, however it was discussed previously. There is a significant difference. Bro Ayman's explanation was a theoretical, and not the only theoretical.

FAR

Salam David

There is an interesting thread by Ayman on this subject "introduction to peacefulness" here http//free-minds.org/forum/index.php?topic=13069.0.

The Queen of Sheba was running her kingdom peacefully. She was so peaceful Sulaiman never even heard of her. She did not plan to attack or capture Sulaiman?s Kingdom and she was not a threat. When Sulaiman sent the letter to the Queen she sent a messenger with gifts, which I found to be quite a peaceful thing to do. Sulaiman returned the gift and threatened to attack her if she does not march to him.

I personally did not find Sulaiman to be very peaceful.

Every derivative of the root SLM will not include the meaning peace, surrender or surrender to God.

Interestingly one of the Hebrew meanings for the corresponding word is allegiance.

You didn't see how the prophet Solomon actually aimed to close the chance of no war, but make an open door to peace. Anti-peace makers open the door to war and close the door to peace.

Thereformer1

...

Just one observation about the verses in Arabic, if you don't know Arabic very well please don't write it . as I see this whole verses are full of mistakes and you took your verses from this website

http//www.makaremshirazi.org/persian/library/book.php?bcc=27038&itg=43&bi=285&s=ct >> which is not an Arabic website and the verses there are full of grammatical mistakes let alone spelling mistakes .

the verses are like that

(27) (2 (29) (30) (31) (32) (33) (34) (35

(36) (37) .

(41) (42) (43) (44)

About your translations of the word of "Islam" , sorry to say that the word it is not about peace or peacemaking .

the word "" is a wide peace . And it is also a way of salutation.

the word "" is peace with "fatha" in the "Sin" and "Shada", and typically the use of this world sometimes according to a tention between two nations or a war between two nations who they look for peace. So we say ""

the word "" with "Kasra'ah" in the "Sin" and "Shada " means an armistice .

the word "" means the one who submit to God , because of the act of "" which means(to surrender+to submit+to give up+to back+ to return+ to give your attention+to resign+to succumb...etc ) to the creator.

the word "" means the one who (does, brings, loves, likes, makes) peace .

the word "" means Surrender to God's commands and prohibitions . It is not peacemaking as you claimed.

Someone

Peace all,

6835

From this verse, we can see how "al-muslimeen" are contrasted with "al-moujrimeen"; as "moujrim" is referring to a criminal, opposed to ?muslim? meaning a peacemaker.

Background

What is deen according to your understanding? Can we implement deen? in http//free-minds.org/forum/index.php?topic=9597108.0
What is "islam" in english? in http//free-minds.org/forum/index.php?topic=9391.0

Thereformer1

When Sulaiman sent the letter to the Queen she sent a messenger with gifts,

You don't know the reason of sending Gifts, so you must not assume .

which I found to be quite a peaceful thing to do. Sulaiman returned the gift and threatened to attack her if she does not march to him.

The sending of gifts was not about peace, try to read the verses and to be specific the dialogue in Quran between the woman and her nation .

Solaiman peace be upon him Threatened to attck because they don't pay attention to his letter which was Islam . They don't want to enter to Islam instead of that she tried to send gifts to see his tendencies (is he looking for their kingdom and settling it and making them slaves or is he looking for peace as he said in his letter ) . after giving a flying opinion try to understand firstly and don't jump.

I personally did not find Sulaiman to be very peaceful.

Really!!!!! and why God chose him to be a prophet ? do you know that prophets are infallible ? .

Sending a letter in the first a place means that he was looking for peace, and the letter was peaceful instead of reading it very careful and trying to know the position of this king on earth(the prophet+king), She sent gifts to this king who was giving everything and he is not in need for these gifts and her aims were to say that we're also in a peace so please try to be away from our kingdom and try to leave us alone, and we all know that he was a prophet, so he must call for "The is no god but God".

Every derivative of the root SLM will not include the meaning peace, surrender or surrender to God.

haha, that's was funny . The real word is ""(Salman) which means the person who is always safe or the one woh is always secure . and the word "" is a (-) zoom of the word (Salman)/ in Arabic language when we want to zoom a word we add a "" in the middle of the word for two reasons one for Irony or mockery , the second reason is for reducing the power of word (look at salman, I said the one who is always safe and there is no one on earth is always safe so we reduce the power of the word to solaiman to say that he is safe only not always ).

Interestingly one of the Hebrew meanings for the corresponding word is allegiance.

is that interesting ???? I don't think so .

P.S You don't know the language of Arabs, so please stop assuming and speaking about the word and their meanings(you'll mislead people).

Ayisha

You don't know the reason of sending Gifts, so you must not assume .
he did not give a reason, not even an assumed one.

The sending of gifts was not about peace, try to read the verses and to be specific the dialogue in Quran between the woman and her nation .
he didnt say it was about peace, he said he thought it was a peaceful thing to do. Try to read and understand before jumping in with what you assume was said.

Thereformer1

he did not give a reason, not even an assumed one.
he didnt say it was about peace, he said he thought it was a peaceful thing to do. Try to read and understand before jumping in with what you assume was said.

Read the link that he posted .

Ayisha

Read the link that he posted .

then you should have quoted the link and not the words he said as you were answering them.

Thereformer1

then you should have quoted the link and not the words he said as you were answering them.

ok my " " yay

warner

Salam David

The omission is mine. The derivative of SLM with the misunderstanding is in the verse you quoted (4816) which is yuslimu_n. This word is not translated as ?submit to god? by sectarian or otherwise. Here the Nomads are being informed that they will have to fight together with the Messenger and the believers another group of people who are powerful but if this group of people surrender then it will not be necessary to fight them.

The Quran puts forward a complete system of adherence to one God with all associated beliefs, advises, rules, activities, prohibitions and punishments, good deeds and rewards. The Quran says this system/deen is complete and names this system as Islam. What Quran teaches is this system of submission/surrender to one god as it is clear from 4130.

Pickthall When his Lord said unto him Surrender! he said I have surrendered to the Lord of the Worlds.

Making peace with others, living a peaceful life or making peace with one?s self are important aspects of adhering to this system but they form only part of this system taught to us by Gods message and not the whole.

warner

Hi There, former1

The discussion on the meaning of Islam and Muslim is too complex for a believer/follower of false tales which are anti God, anti Islam and anti Muhammad. I havent been on the thread for sometimes so I checked up few of your previous posts and I didnt have to scroll more than 3 posts, surprise, I found you to be a hadithists. Confirming my assumption... where all that anger and stupidity of yours is pouring forth from....and surely you are no reformer.

Since the discussion at hand and the story related to Sulaiman in the Quran is too complex for you or your kind to handle I will give you below 4 Sahih Hadith from infallible Bukhari and all 4 narrated by infallible Abuhuraira for you to ponder over activities of Sulaiman of Hadith literature. While you are at it please find out from your ulema answers for the burning quetions you guys normally fret so much over such as how long the night was, how many minutes spent with each lady, were there any showers, changing sheets or foreplay involved in between etc. Also few posts below your challenge on authentic and false hadith, so go figure which one of the sahihs below "are" the real thing.

I seek protection from my lord from the devils who attribute such false stories to His honorable Messengers and I seek His forgiveness.

Bukhari Vol.4, Book 055, Hadith # 635.

Narated By Abu Huraira The Prophet said, "Solomon (the son of) David said, 'Tonight I will sleep with SEVENTY ladies each of whom will conceive a child who will be a knight fighting for "Allah's Cause.' His companion said, 'If Allah will.' But Solomon did not say so; therefore none of those women got pregnant except one who gave birth to a half child." The Prophet further said, "If the Prophet Solomon had said it (i.e. 'If Allah will&#039 he would have begotten children who would have fought in Allah's Cause." Shuaib and Ibn Abi Az-Zinad said, "Ninety (women) is more correct (than seventy)."

Bukhari Vol. 8, Book 78, Hadith # 634.

Narated By Abu Huraira Allah's Apostle said, "(The Prophet) Solomon once said, 'Tonight I will sleep with NINETY women, each of whom will bring forth a (would-be) cavalier who will fight in Allah's Cause." On this, his companion said to him, "Say Allah willing!" But he did not say Allah willing. Solomon then slept with all the women, but none of them became pregnant but one woman who later delivered a half-man. By Him in Whose Hand Muhammad's soul is, if he (Solomon) had said, 'Allah willing' (all his wives would have brought forth boys) and they would have fought in Allah's Cause as cavaliers."

Volume 4, Book 52, Number 74i Narrated Abu Huraira

Allah's Apostle said, "Once Solomon, son of David said, '(By Allah) Tonight I will have sexual intercourse with one hundred (or ninety-nine) women each of whom will give birth to a knight who will fight in Allah's Cause.' On that a (i.e. if Allah wills) but he did not say, 'Allah willing.' Therefore only one of those women conceived and gave birth to a half-man. By Him in Whose Hands Muhammad's life is, if he had said, "Allah willing', (he would have begotten sons) all of whom would have been knights striving in Allah's Cause."

Volume 9, Book 93, Number 561 Narrated Abu Huraira

Allah's Prophet Solomon who had sixty wives, once said, "Tonight I will have sexual relation (sleep) with all my wives so that each of them will become pregnant and bring forth (a boy who will grow into) a cavalier and will fight in Allah's Cause." So he slept with his wives and none of them (conceived and) delivered (a child) except one who brought a half (body) boy (deformed). Allah's Prophet said, "If Solomon had said; 'If Allah Will,' then each of those women would have delivered a (would-be) cavalier to fight in Allah's Cause." (See Hadith No. 74 A, Vol. 4).

Link <http//www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/bukhari/>

david_rs_aitken

Peace everyone,

Any translation I offer will surely be unrefined, but we're looking at very basic words here.

"Salam" means peace, not surrender. Look at how the great reading uses these words

salam (peace) --> aslama (to make peace) --> muslim (peacemaker)
husna (goodness) --> ahsana (to do good) --> muhsin (good doer)
salih (correct) --> aslaha (to make correct) --> muslih (one who corrects)
garam (crime) --> agrama (to commit crime) --> mugrim (criminal)

There's nothing theoretical about the composition of these words.

"Those who surrender" makes less sense than "peacemakers", because people who surrender will never fight, not even in defense. But peacemakers do fight in defense.

320 Say to the people of the book and the commoners, "Would you make peace?" If they make peace then they are guided.

Then, faith can begin

4914 The nomads said, "We have believed." Say, "You have not believed; but say 'We have made peace' so that faith will enter your hearts."