Peace and Violence in Islam: An overview of Some Muslim Perspectives

Abstract

The issue of violence has always been existent in world religions including Islam. The image of Islam as a violent religion has been described in various media especially in the case of terrorism. This phenomenon leads to questions on how issues of violence are conveyed in Islamic teachings and how they have been understood differently by Muslims. This article aims to answer such questions by discussing the duty of Muslims, jihad, spirit of the Qur'an, and interpretation issues. The writing found that overgeneralization of a particular case in Qur'anic stories occurred; differences in interpretation are caused by the limitation of human beings in viewing their present reality and the reality of the past; issues of violence in the Qur'an are inevitable since the Qur'an was revealed at a time of extensive violence throughout human life, while the spirit of Islam is in creating peace among fellow human being; and a number of Muslims regard the prophet Muhammad's life time as the pinnacle of Islamic civilization. These findings lead to the conclusion that issues of violence in Islamic teachings are always interpreted differently in a variety of manners.Keywords: duty, interpretation, jihad, spirit of the Qur'an, issue of violence ABSTRAK Isu kekerasan selalu ada dalam agama-agama dunia termasuk Islam. Kesan Islam sebagai agama kekerasan telah digambarkan dalam beragam media khususnya dalam kasus terorisme. Fenomena ini menimbulkan pertanyaan terkait bagaimana isu kekerasan disampaikan dalam ajaran-ajaran Islam dan bagaimana ajaran-ajaran ini dipahami secara berbeda oleh Muslim. Tulisan ini bertujuan untuk menjawab pertanyaan-pertanyaan tersebutdengan mendiskusikan kewajiban muslim, jihad, spirit Qur'an, dan persoalan-persoalan interpretasi. Temuan yang diperoleh dari diskusi tema di atas adalah adanya overgeneralisasi terhadap kasus tertentu dalam cerita-cerita al Qur'an; perbedaan-perbedaan dalam interpretasi disebabkan oleh keterbatasan manusia dalam memandang realitas mereka saat ini dan realitas di masa lalu; isu kekerasan dalam al Qur'an tidak dapat dihindari karena al Qur'an