Throughout history mankind has gone through countless number of wars, conflicts, political disputes and genocides. The revelation of the Qur’an in 7^th century established an system that provided a framework for peace justice and progress unparalleled in history. Although, this particular system was lost after a few centuries, there remained a few empires throughout Muslim history that were able to retain some the principles of creating security and peace both inside and outside their empires. By the beginning of the 20^th century many countries particularly those in the western world began to establish modern nation states and saw the advantages of creating a global system that would foster peace and justice worldwide. Largely influential in this movement were philosophers, intellectual and leaders who came after of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment who studied periods of history like the early period of Islam as well as philosophical theories of global peace by previous scholars and philosophers. 

 

 

 

 

One of the most famous works proposed at this time was by the renowned philosopher Immanuel Kant titled Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch, in which he outlined the idea of a global league of nations that would control international conflicts and promote peace between nations. Subsequently works such as these would lead to the formation of to the League of Nations in 1919 followed by the United Nations in 1945 which continues to operate today to prevent wars and provide platforms for international dialogue. Although attempts from the 20^th century to the present times by organizations such the U.N have tried to establish peace and justice globally they have encountered difficulties in trying to establish an effective agenda for conflict resolution. Most notably, conflicts in Africa, the Middle East and Asia have made many nations realize that the path to establish sustainable peace will require a reform of current philosophies.  As a result, nations globally have recognized that current national ideologies, interests and perspectives are in conflict with the goal of creating an effective framework that not only establishes global peace, but also international justice, humanitarian aid, platforms for dialogue and global economic welfare. 

 

 

To gain a further perspective of the proposals of the Qur’an and its neglected potentials on this issue, one can do a historical analysis of the early Muslim history and  the philosophy which the Qur’an calls mankind to create a unified global framework for conflict resolution.

 

Rules of Engagement -Persecution, Oppression and Genocide

In the beginning of the Islamic civilization, the Prophet Muhammad and his companions established a system that operated to promote peace and security throughout the region. The state of Medina became the first pluralistic nation state in history. During this period, Islam acted more than merely a state religion or political system, but also acted as system that would foster peace and security to neighboring nations very similar to the way the United Nations Security Council of today takes responsibility in acting to end global conflicts.  The Islamic empire in the 7^th century was a principal organ that accepted responsibility of fostering peace and security not only within in its own empire but also to nations outside its empire if called upon do so by delegates from those nations . Both men and women accepted this responsibility, and people especially understood the dire need to maintain peace create by doing the smallest of acts such as seeking out slaves to free, providing charity to those in need, protection and adoption of orphans. Additionally, the rulers during the earliest periods of Islam would call rulers of other nations to the message of Islam (causing peace/security/submission to the laws of the creator) by sending out formal letters of invitations to them. 

 

 

 

As the Muslim Empire acted as a system of security and peace, nations who were called to the system were only called to at least bear political allegiance to the system. Many leaders saw the benefits of the system. Delegates from nations who experienced oppression, persecution, were able to address issues to the central authorities in the Islamic empire who dealt with the issues accordingly. This particular process of delegation of the Qur’anic political system to help persecuted groups was crucial as the Muslim rulers and the delegates were able to quickly discuss ways in which they could alleviate the problems in their nations. After the delegation meetings were completed, the delegates would quickly take back the issues that were discussed to their nations, urging leaders to change there ways.  If persecution continued after the delegates returned with the peace deal with their rulers, security troops from the Islamic Empire were sent to prevent further oppression from the rulers. This similar process in fact still occurs in modern times with organizations such as the U.N., however they have encountered many problems in preventing recurring problems of indigenous political and ethnic conflict in third world countries. 

 

 

 

In recent times the Rwandan Genocide has been an example which the U.N securities council recognized that more effective means could have been taken to alleviate the national catastrophe. Mainly, what has been recognized by the U.N. and other nations is that the current rules of engagement for conflict resolution have posed major problems in the resolution process. The United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) was a mission instituted by the United Nations to aid the implementation of ending the Hutu-Tutsi conflict of 1994. UNAMIR’s confusion over legal protocols led to escalating chaos during the civil conflict.  The mission's vague mandate, created under Chapter VI of the UN Charter was unclear about the right to use force, particularly in defense of civilians.  Although, the security troops did their best to save lives, nearly 100,000 people died by the end of the conflict. This event called many nations to an important question: Is it ever justified for security troops to  use force, especially the use of armed force is to save the lives of civilians? The Qur’an gives mankind rules for conflict engagement and a few are listed below.

 

 

 

22:39-“Permission to fight is granted to only those against whom war is wrongfully waged. And Allah is indeed Most Powerful for their aid.”

2:192- “But if they stop (aggression), then behold! Allah is Forgiving/Proctecting, Merciful”

 

5:32- “…whoever kills a human being, unless it be for murder or bloody crimes on the earth, it would be as if he killed all mankind. And whoever saves one life it would be as if he saved the life of all mankind.”

 

 

 

 

As one can clearly observe from these verses the Qur’an strongly admonishes aggressors and states that they should be stopped. The reason for this is that if the global systems and nations are committed to peace, security and sanctity of every human being, anyone who initiates conflict unprovoked thereby disrupting these values must be stopped in order to uphold the protection of every human life. But the Qur’an goes even further to state that the defenders of peace must make sure not to transgress their limits of resolving the conflict and end up causing fitna. Moreover it should be noted that in addition to these principles it is vital for security forces to have adequate information about the situation they are going into. Often in conflicts the lack of knowledge about who is responsible for the violations of rights of the oppressed population creates a great amount of disorder in the resolution process. Security troops rather than targeting the guilty end up targeting  innocent civilians, an action which alienates the oppressed population from helping in the cause to establish peace. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In order to distinguish those who are responsible from the victims, troops accepting responsibility to end conflicts must communicate effectively with delegates of the nation that the conflict is occurring in before engaging in any type of actions by security forces. This step will enable counterinsurgency processes to greatly decrease the amount of casualties, the amount of interrogation of innocent civilians and will allow the process to run more swiftly.   Furthermore, the defenders of peace must make sure that they are the ones upholding a moral platform by prohibiting actions such as killing innocent civilians, torture of suspects or taking unnecessary actions to stop aggressors.  The Qur’an repeatedly stresses this notion to constantly remind the followers of its system to not forget that the main goal of their actions is to establish peace, security and uphold the sanctity of human life. 

 

 

 

Throughout the history of civilization as technological warfare has become more advanced, these principles have at times been neglected by nations, which have undoubtedly hindered the process of global unification.  A goal that international peace organizations and national militaries must work to attain in the future is the use of security force only in defense of civilian lives once attacks occur and never for vested elite interests,offensive tactics or reasons of suspicion.  If nations and international security organizations are committed to establishing peace then they must reform their principles of establishing security to be in accordance with their commitments. This is a major part of the process of international conflict resolution that needs to be established; however one might ask if this factor alone is enough to prevent dissent from recurring between nations and if so what other aspects that might be added to the rules of engagement of ending global conflicts.

 

Indeed there are other factors in addition to establish effective rules of engagement to create a more effective platform for international conflict resolution. A factor that global security organizations like the U.N have encountered is creating an effective tribunal and reparations system during times of national crisis.  Genocide related conflicts often leave many suspects that need to be prosecuted by international systems like the U.N and many families that have experienced losses that need  cared and provision. Additionally, environmental, social and political reconstruction becomes a critical issue that a country must solve. The philosophy that the Qur’an proposes for such issues which was practiced during the early periods of Islam relied on a system of recompense which serves as a key factor in many of the Qur'an's guidelines for both domestic and international laws.

 

 

The Qur'anic term of Taubah or repentance  is not the same as merely apologizing or asking for remission of sins which is how it became translated in Muslim societies overtime due to influence by previous religious traditions. The Qur'an does not state any such concept as a "sin" but rather uses the term Ithm which has a much wider implication as it indicates anything that enervates the individual and societal growth or potential. Thus, this word implies things that can lower the potential or state of individual growth, societal development and even environmental development, which can only be raised or removed by performing a counter action of equal caliber that benefits other people and not by any rituals or words.

 

Therefore, the word Taubah indicates perfoming certain  good actions in terms of reform to remove the ill effect of one's bad actions that one has done to one self or to others and hence has a much wider implication than what is has been previously translated. The misinterpretation of this word  in terms of criminal laws has led to the negligence of the humane and practical system of the Qur'an even for small crimes such as stealing. During the earliest periods of Muslim society in terms of war aggression or conflict each detained war aggressors would have to pay recompense in some manner for their actions, resulting in each victim being repaid in some way for their loss. The recompense did not have to be capital punishment or a life term prison sentence, which is often the case in many nations today but if all factors where taken into consideration and found that the crime could be recompensed in some way then it was often solved by means of jizya (labor or through a means of a fine (money paid for slaughter)) for the victim’s family members if they were willing to accept their repentance.   

 

11:114-"Strive to establish and consolidate the Divine System, day and night. Actions that create balance in the society remove the ill effects of inequities. Good deeds remove bad deeds. This is a reminder for those who pay attention."

 

This philosophy of recompense can be very effective in today’s international security system. Regardless of the power that an individual holds in a nation their knowledge that they would be held accountable by a system and have to provide compensation for their wrongful actions would act as deterrence for acts of aggression,terrorism and persecution. Organizations such as the U.N. have attempted to establish tribunal systems that work as an outlet for reparation such as the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission in Africa. Although this system has produced some benefits, the system contains some flaws which have caused nations to call for reforms in the legal process of the system.  The advantages of this trial system is that it has allowed for suspected aggressors to come out in the open and confess their actions to families of victims who suffered losses during time of civil conflict. In return for their confession the guilty receive amnesty from punishment. 

 

 

 

However, the problem of this system is that it has left the duty to confer reparations up to local governments. Global security organizations rather than taking active steps to repair economic and environmental damage have often left this aspect for the local dismantled government to resolve these issues by themselves with very little humanitarian aid. This factor is often overlooked by international security systems as a cause for recurring internal conflicts in nations. Since many people are left without viable ways to achieve work, jobs, schooling or adequate living conditions; marginalization, oppression and persecution of particular groups often continues. This phenomenon creates gaps between groups, social classes, or different nations that can cause past conflicts to recur due to frustration from the marginalized or undeveloped population. In order to prevent this situation from occurring there must be a central organization or organizations that would be willing to help reconstruct the infrastructure of all nations in times of national crises. 

 

 

 

During the earliest Muslim civilizations after a due process of delegation occurred between the central Islamic authority and representatives of other nations, homes and religious buildings were repaired as compensation for those who experienced persecution under their rulers. Additionally to alleviate further hardship on marginalized groups the nations received economic aid through the Qur’anic economic system. This particular process led to the establishment of a system that not only benefited those who believed in it but for those who saw the benefits of it and bore allegiance to the central authority.  But most importantly for today the revival of the Qur’anic philosophy of recompense during times of global conflict whether it is enacted by international tribunal systems or local governance should be able to provide the cure for the recurring conflicts that are experienced by war torn nations. 

 

 

 

 

 

As nations began to redefine their interest in accordance with the values of creating international peace, more can be done to further secure the process of global unification. As a global body is created to act as an organ for the facillitation of international peace and social welfare, more platforms for dialogue and prevention of war can be created. Currently, organizations such as the U.N. do in fact provide global conferences that  work towards the goal of sustainable international peace. Additionally, one can look at the two functions the Qur’an proposes which a global society can use to implement peace worldwide: establishment of months of peace in which wars and conflicts of any type are prohibited, and the Hajj annual conference for all mankind to resolve global problems through debate, dialogue,exhibition,lecture and discussion. 

 

 

The Qur’an tells mankind to establish four consecutive months of peace which must be agreed upon worldwide by leaders through treaties. This would allow temporary cessation of global conflicts and provide further outlets for forceful diplomatic dialogue and attempts to create peaceful non violent resolutions. Of course one must consider the fact that there may be individuals who might try to take advantage of the vulnerable position of societies at this time by creating disorder and war. The Qur'an states that conflicts that arise during these months of peace are a great transgression to security of societies and they must be stopped collectively by security organizations of those who sign the treaty.

 

 

 

 

2:194 - "You may fight during the Months of Peace and Security if you are attacked, for, a violation of sanctity will activate the Law of Just retribution. So, the one who attacks you should expect retaliation in like manner. Be mindful of God, and know that God is with those who live upright."

 

 

 

Additionally during these months the Hajj global conference would be established and administered by the central leaders of the global society who agree towards ethical and progressive principals and all people regardless of nationality, race, view of reality or class would be invited to participate.

 

 

 

2:197-"The Convention shall take place in the months appointed for it and made well known to all. Whoever participates in the Convention shall refrain from sexual intimacy, slipping out of discipline and argumentation throughout Hajj. And whatever you accomplish for the good of mankind, God will acknowledge it. So make ample provision, yet the best provision is your good conduct. Be mindful of Me(God), O You of understanding."