Abdul-Ganiyy Raji
We all owe this world peace and love. Hatred brings us nothing but destruction and tears. We can coexist peacefully notwithstanding our differences along religious, racial, ethnic, or linguistic lines.
The ongoing Iran-Israel War is a product of hatred and intolerance. It is not a war between Islam and Judaism or between Islam and Christianity. It is a war born out of our failure to coexist peacefully and a war inspired by a morbid and insatiable yearning for military, political, and economic dominance. No Muslim, Christian, or Jew should see the Iran-Israel War as a religious war. We all need to call for an immediate ceasefire. Our world needs peace, not war or hostility.
Are we thinking about the gains of peace and the losses of war? Many innocent souls have been lost daily in Gaza and Israel since the Israel-Gaza war began. Now, the world is witnessing another devastating war between Iran and Israel.
What do we aim to gain by fighting one another? Do we just want to show the world our military strength? Is this reasonable enough for us to start killing one another? We are fighting for dominance in a transient world. This world does not have permanent friends. This world is a traitor.
Does our political or economic dominance make us immortal? If a country becomes the strongest nation on the planet, does that make its leader immune to death? Where are the strong people who bestrode this world like colossuses during their heyday before us? Where is Adolf Hitler? Where is Nebuchadnezzar? Where is Bluto Mussolini? These were powerful people, but where are they today? They have all gone.
When you leave this world, no one remembers how powerful or rich you were, but everyone will remember how kind and peaceful you were. People will remember how much joy you brought them and how much contribution you made to promoting peace in the world.
Enough of hatred in the Middle East. Enough of hatred in the West. Enough of hatred in our world. We stand to gain so much by tolerating one another.
You can be a Jew or a Christian, and I am a Muslim. We can still love each other despite our differences. Why do I need to fight you because you are a Jew or a Christian? Why should you fight me because I am a Muslim? When did God appoint me as His agent for hating or destroying people who do not share my faith? Why should it be your responsibility to fight Muslims in the name of God just because they do not follow your religion?
Jews, Christians, Muslims, traditionalists, and others will all stand before God for judgment when the right time comes. God will punish no one for the choice of religion adopted by another person or for the tribe that someone else belongs to. Salvation is on an individual basis before God.
Why can’t Muslims, Christians, Jews, and people of other faiths live together peacefully? Why can’t we tolerate one another?
Don’t we see that innocent souls are lost when we fight or hate one another?
How many more children, women, and innocent souls need to be lost before we all learn to tolerate one another and work for peaceful coexistence?
Are there some human souls that are less important than others? No innocent soul deserves to be taken.
I call on people of the world—Muslims, Christians, Jews, Traditionalists, everybody—let us speak for peace with one voice.
Let us tell the world that peace brings us many benefits, while hatred and intolerance bring us nothing but destruction and sorrow.
Let us learn to live together with love and tolerance.
We call for peace in every corner of the world.
Abdul-Ganiyy Raji
NASFAT National Da’wah Officer
