Promoting peace as Rabbi Marmur exhorts us to do makes perfect sense. What mother or father wants to send a child off to war? We have learned from history, though, that talking peace doesn’t always bring peace. Today, we also need to define peace before we can have peace.
Hazarding peace prior to WWII, when Britain was still recovering from WWI and the depression, Chamberlain offered Czechoslovakia for peace-land for peace. There was a desire for peace at all costs because the memory of war was still fresh. But to the Nazi’s this peace deal was acquiescence to Hitler’s march through Europe.
Yet, Rabbi Marmur’s correct to state that we mustn’t fall back on that failure each time peace is within our midst. We must “hazard peace.”
But what does peace mean?
Words change meaning over time, diachronically, and in time, synchronically. “Gay” doesn’t have the same meaning today as it did in the 1920’s. Fag has one meaning in England-cigarette, but another here in Canada. Defining ones’ terms is necessary before negotiating.
Before we sit down to negotiate peace between Iran and the rest of the world, and get our hopes up in Israel and Palestine we need to be sure we’re talking about the same thing.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines peace as “a state or period of mutual concord between governments; a pact or agreement to end hostilities between those who have been at war or in a state of enmity.”
Peace means something else in Islam.
Islamic understanding of peace means submission or surrender. Peace comes (according to Islam) only after one surrenders or submits one’s self to Allah and his messenger Muhammad. Therefore peace (Islamic) exists only inside the Dar-ul-Islam—the house of submission, after the conversion to Islam. That is the ultimate meaning of Islamic peace.
Modern-day Islamic scholar, Ibrahim Sulaiman, says, "Jihad is not inhumane, despite its necessary violence and bloodshed, its ultimate desire is peace which is protected and enhanced by the rule of law." Submission and peace can be very different concepts, even if a form of peace is often brought about through forcing others into submission.
Shaykh Muhammad Sa`id Ramadan al-Buti’s, was the leading Islamic scholar in Syria, professor and retired Dean at the College of Islamic Law at Damascus University, and author of Jurisprudence of the Prophetic Biography , regarded as one of the best Prophetic biographies written in the 20th century.
He wrote: “The Holy war as it is known in Islamic jurisprudence is basically an offensive war, and it is the duty of all Muslims of every age…because our prophet Muhammad said that he is ordered by Allah to fight all people until they say ‘No God but Allah,’ and he is his messenger. It is meaningless to talk about the holy war as only defensive, otherwise, what did the prophet mean when he said, "from now on even if they don’t invade you, you must invade them.”
According to these scholars peace means accepting Islam.
What did Iranian leader, Rouhani really mean when he said in New York in September Iran “poses absolutely no threat to the world or the region… Let me say loud and clear that peace is within reach,” and “We are not seeking … and looking for war with any nations. We are seeking peace and stability among all the nations in the region”?
In November Palestinian leader Abbas declared that all of Israel is occupied Palestine. When he sits downat the peace table, waht does peace mean to him?
If we are going to hazard peace as Rabbi Marmur suggests, first we need to know that all sides agree on the meaning.
