The Concept of Peace in Islam and Its Relevance to International Relations

Abstract

<jats:p>Islam is often described as a religion that emphasizes the use of violence in its da'wah method. The stereotype is formed by a number of literature and media that depicted Islam as a religion of violence. This paper aims to analyze the causes of stereotype against Islam, and provides an overview of the concept of peace in Islamic perspective, and seek the relevance of the concept of peace in Islam to the study of conflict and peace in international relations. Through some literature research, the author finds that the stereotype is caused by the gap in the discourse on war and peace in Islam, thus the discourse related to the peace in Islam needs to be buzzed. Unlike the two mainstreams in International Relation Studies (Realism and Idealism), al-Quran, as the primary source of Islamic teaching, describes that a human is basically both keen to cooperate and prone to conflict, and favoring to managing the conflict through peaceful settlement. Three terms-as-silmu, as-shulhu, and al-amanu are used to conceptualize the three levels of peace in the Quranic perspective.</jats:p>

The Role of Women and the Contextualization of Peace in Modern Times: Analysis on Hadith Perspective

“…It also shows that being a Muslim is not only obliged to perform mandatory worship but also responsible to incorporate Islamic values in various aspects like social, political, economic, educational and any other aspects. The values are not limited to peace but could be in many ways such as mutual respect, unity, cooperation, tolerance, respect, righteousness, justice and compassionate (Nursita & Sahide, 2019).…”

Perpetual Peace: An Analysis of Kant’s Theory of Peace in Terms of The Islamic Worldview

“…Democratic countries tend to be relatively faster in economic recovery than authoritarian countries. Until Kant's ideas revived in the 1980s, these ideas significantly influenced international relations scientists in the west (Nursita and Sahide 2019). The effectiveness of the relationship between countries can lead to perpetual peace, which is a crucial factor supporting peace.…”

“…According to Abu Zahra, there are ten principles of mu'amalah or relationship among people, such as respect for man's dignity (al-Isra '17:70); unity (al-Baqarah 2:213) (Ali-Imran 3:103); cooperation in good deeds or humanity (al-Maidah 5:2), tolerance (al-Kahf 18:29) (al-Kafirun 109:6), freedom (to decide fate and religion) (al-Baqarah 2: 256) (Al-Rahman 55:60); justice (al-Hujurat 49: 9); equality in human relationships (al-Hujurat 49:13) (al-Balad 90: 11-13) ); integrity (al-Maidah 5:1) (an-Nisa 4:58); and compassion (Maryam 19:96). These principles are not just principles that bind to individuals or intergroup relationships, but also the state since the state is a humandriven Political entity (Nursita and Sahide 2019).…”

Measuring Peace of Heart: The Development and Validation of Taṭmainn al-Qulūb Scale (TQS)

“…This condition is contrary to the clear and specific teaching in Quran that spiritual practice (dhikr) leads to the peace of heart (taṭ mainn al-qulūb) (Quran: 13:28). Given the fact that there was no measurement of Islamic theo-spiritualistic peace of heart underdevelopment, it is necessary to create a scale to measure peace of heart for Muslim community, since this is an urgent variable that serves as an appropriate measurement to capture the uniqueness, specific aspect, and distinctive principals of peace for Muslim community (Nursita & Sahide, 2019;Nurbaeti et al, 2018;Anjum et al, 2017).…”