Year Nineteen
Issue No. 951 - 15/Ramadan/1432 AH
Corresponding to August 16, 2011 AD

Contents:
* Mihrab Platform:
Making Peace between us

Mihrab Platform
Making Peace between us

Main axes of the subject:

1- Leading obligations
2- Peacemaking is a divine issue.
3- Peacemaking is the purpose of the wise.
4- Peacemaking is the best alms.
5- Peacemaking holds no false.
6- Peacemaking was the last commandment of the Commander of the Faithful.

Purpose:

We will explain how making peace between the believers is an act that was commanded by Allah (The Exalted). It is also part of the commandments of the inerrant Imams (a.s.), because it is a way to achieving and stabilizing the essence of the dogmatic brotherhood.

Exporting the Subject:

Commander of the Faithful (a.s.)¹ said in his last commandment to his two sons after he was stricken by Ibn Muljam (Allah curses him), "I command you and all my children, my wife and anyone who receives my words to be pious. Organize your matters, and make peace between yourselves. I heard your grandfather (s.a.a.w)² saying: Peacemaking is better than all prayers and fasting."³

- Leading obligations

The relations between the brothers in faith gained extreme importance. Is-lam called upon strengthening the bonds of those who are bonded by the close ties of the Islamic and dogmatic brotherhood. However, it is obvious that the convictions and necessities that bring people together might continually face contradicting and mixed natures, exchanged tendencies and ambitions, and competing interests and aspirations. Therefore, disputes and differences may arise because of these issues, and the situation might sometimes result in fights and quarrels.

At this point, we can understand that our forgiving Islamic Sharia gave ex-treme significance to making peace between the people, especially the be-lievers. It also ranked it to lead the priorities and obligations.

- Peacemaking is a divine issue

The Exalted said in his Holy Book: " So fear Allah, and make peace among yourselves: Obey Allah and His Apostle, if ye do believe."⁴
 
Making peace between us, understanding each other, extracting turbidity and hatred out of our hearts, and exchanging them with love was regarded as the most important issue of Islam.

Moreover, the word "ourselves" means the physical being and the origin of the thing. The word "ourselves" means a condition of commitment and rela-tionship between several people. Accordingly, peacemaking means reforming the commitments, strengthening the relations and eliminating the elements of discrimination and hypocrisy.⁵

The Exalted said: " The Believers are but a single Brotherhood: So make peace and reconciliation between your two (contending) brothers; and fear Allah, that ye may receive Mercy."⁶ The verse explains the nature of the rela-tionship that ties the believers together. It is a kind of the relations that were ruled by Allah the exalted as a union of belief and Islam.

Moreover, we must realize that working for the sake of peacemaking within the community of the faithful is a necessity for being pious, as explained by the aforementioned verses.

- Peacemaking is the purpose of the wise

In order to achieve true brotherhood between the believers, each individual must wish good for the others as well as deny negative feelings towards them. Negative feelings are envy, rancor, hatred, and odium. They must be replaced by feelings of love, kindness, clemency and compassion. True brotherhood necessitates that the individual holds good intentions towards the others and incite them to think positively towards each other. On several occasions, bonds might overwrite the rules. This is why part of a verse reads: "… and fear Allah…"⁷

The bonds that might overwrite the rules are the bonds of family relation-ship, neighborhood, faction, sect, dominion, tribe, etc… These bonds are ir-relevant regarding justice among people. Instead, it encourages support to the relative (although unjust), against the non-relative (even if wronged).

Rules on the other hand were compelled by Islam that enacted them and explained their laws. Therefore, in order to keep straight the relations among the believers, Islamic and sound rules must replace the tribal and family bonds.

This is why we find that rules and laws are being enacted at all times while apparatuses and different powers are being established for the sake of setting things right between individuals of the society. This is the way of the wise.

- Peacemaking is the best alms.

Alms, which God favors, and which helps support the needy, are not only that which is placed in the hand of the poor and needy. There are other kinds of intangible alms that can value much more. One of these alms is the act of peacemaking.

For instance, the accounts mention that Mohammad Bin Sinan quoting Hammad Bin Abi Talha quoting Habib al Ahwal who said I heard Abu Abdul-lah (a.s.) saying: "An alms that Allah loves is peacemaking between the peo-ple when they fight and tying their bonds when they alienate each other."⁸

The accounts also stated that Mohammad Bin Sinan quoted Abi Hanifa Sabiq al Hajj saying: Al Mofadal passed by me as I was arguing with Khotni about an inheritance. He stood for one hour watching us to say afterwards: follow me to my house. So we followed him and he settled our argument by paying 400 dirhams of money and he made us sign the settlement papers. He said: Know that this money does not belong to me. However, Abu Abdullah (a.s.) gave me this money and with his instructions that if two men of our fol-lowers quarrel about something, settle their differences by using this money."⁹

- Peacemaking holds no false

Lying is the key to sins as the accounts stated. It is also a disliked grave sin. A believer does not lie even if he commits other sins. However, if you were on the verge of making peace between the believers, and if you lie for achieving this issue, then you are not a liar. For example, Abu Abdullah (a.s.) was quoted as saying: "A peacemaker is not a liar."¹⁰

In other words, if someone utters that which does not fit the reality knowing it will result in peacemaking; this issue is not deemed a lie. In fact, peacemaking disengages man from his oath and has a permit to violate such oath. Abu Ab-dullah (a.s.) was quoted - explaining these words of Allah (The Exalted): "And make not Allah's (name) an excuse in your oaths against doing good, or act-ing rightly, or making peace between persons…" - saying: If you were invited to make peace between two persons, don't say I have an oath that prevents me."¹¹ Such oath does not weigh in this case.

- Peacemaking was the last commandment of the Commander of the Martyrs (a.s.)

In his last commandment to his two sons Hassan and Hussein (PBUT), after he was stricken by Ibn Moljam (Allah curses him), he said: "… I command you and all my children, my wife, and anyone who receives my words, to be pious, organize your matters, and make peace among yourselves. I heard your grandfather (s.a.a.w) saying: "Peacemaking is better than all prayers and fasting."¹²

1- (a.s.): Abbreviation for alaihis-salam, which means peace be upon him.
2- (s.a.a.w): Abbreviation for salla allahu alaihi wa alihi, which means God sends blessing on him and his household.
3- Nahj al Balagha, Sermon 285, P. 565.
4- The Holy Quran, Spoils of War, Verse 1.
5- Alamthal, interpreting the revealed holy book of God, by Aythollah Sheikh Makarim al Sherazi, Vol. 5, P. 358.
6- The Holy Quran, the Private Apartments, Verse 10.
7- Al Amthal, Vo. 16, P. 538, summarized.
8- Al Kafi, by Al Kolaini, Vol. 2, P. 209. See also "Al Eiman wal Kofr", chapter setting right the relations between the people.
9- Al Kafi, Vol. 2, P. 209.
10- Al Kafi, Vol. 2, P. 210.
11- Al Kafi, Vol. 2, P. 210.
12- Nahj al Balagha, Sermon 285, P. 565, explained by Sheikh Mohammad Abdo.